The Basement Tapes is Chevelle's original demo written and recorded in 1998. It features four tracks, one of which is the well known “Commuter” co-written by the former bassist Dean Bernardini before joining in 2006 after Joe's departure, and this is also the first track Pete ever wrote. I'm actually surprised it didn't make the final cut of “Point#1”, but this is also my favorite song from the bunch.
There's a Reddit thread with links to cleaned remasters of these very old tracks if you're interested in listening to them and they're also available on YouTube. It helps to use a good pair of ear buds instead of the disposable kind from Dollar Tree because I can't hear anything over the lingering fuzz from all the distortion. Although the production isn't the best it's still a good peek into early Chevelle.
The Blue Album is the follow up to their previous demo featuring four familiar tracks Chevelle used on “Point #1” and two others many Chevelle fans, especially newbies, may not know about: “Tom” and “Tetelestai” close out this effort. My favorite songs are “Peer” and acoustic number “Tom”.
Aside from these tapes there's another three-track demo uploaded to YouTube in 2018 featuring “Found”, another one of my favorite songs, a reworking of “Tetelestai” and another unknown track. Everything leading up to “Point #1” is a great listen if you have the time.
Go on Google and/or YouTube and research these demos for yourself. Always a fun time listening to anything Chevelle makes.
