Hello, Conner

Last May, Conner unveiled numerous never-before-performed songs at a Jackpot Saloon release party for its second full-length CD, Hello Graphic Missile. On Sunday at the Record Bar, the Lawrence quartet celebrates the same album’s issuance with a set’s worth of unrelated unheard material. Even odder, the remastered record opens not with a fresh creation but instead a song (“Silent Film Score”) that originally appeared on Conner’s 2002 demo.

Sonic Boom, a Seattle label, released Hello Graphic Missile nationwide on June 6. The label’s roster of past and present artists includes Death Cab for Cutie; Nada Surf; and chamber-pop songwriter Andrew Morgan, a KU graduate who has occasionally used Conner as his live backing band. Last December, Morgan played Conner’s CD in the recording studio. Label owner Jason Hughes overheard the music, called the group and flew to Kansas City to finalize the signing in January.

Hello Graphic Missile V 2.0 features a revamped track listing, but the changes don’t compromise the album’s coherence. The lone previously unreleased cut, “Floating on Error,” maintains the choppy, dance-rock vibe of the songs surrounding it, and the three extracts from 2003’s The White Cube (“Window Shopping,” “Eyed Eyes Eye,” “She Tells No Lies”) serve as links in the group’s evolution from chilly, late-’70s New York post-punk to grittier, ’60s British Invasion-style garage-rock rhythms.

“We’re working on a new record, and ‘Floating on Error’ felt like it belonged with our older sound,” James says. “We’ll be playing a lot of brand-new stuff at the Record Bar. At The Granada [on June 17], we’ll play pretty much everything we’ve played as a band. On the road this summer, we’ll just play the record.”

Gone from the earlier incarnation of Hello Graphic Missile are the sparkling soul ballad “Anyway,” the instrumental jam “__-__” and the midpaced jangler “Smaller.” “Anyway” and “__-__” appear as untitled tracks on European and Australian Hello Graphic Missile pressings.

“The songs we didn’t use aren’t gone,” Duft says. “We’ve talked about rerecording them for the next album.”

Those revived cuts should ensure another time-warping CD-release party. In the meantime, Duft is trying to relax enough to enjoy the perks of his first real record deal.

“It’s nerve-racking, and I’m kind of freaked out, but I can’t say anything bad about it,” he says. “We’ve taken care of everything for ourselves for so long that it’s weird when stuff’s just happening without me having to do anything.”