GUIDED BY VOICES - 'TONICS AND TWISTED CHASERS'

Formats

• SV204 - LP

  857661008452

Details

Originally released in 1996 as a limited fan-club pressing for Rockathon, Guided By Voices’ Tonics And Twisted Chasers has always existed as an anomaly in Robert Pollard’s vast discography. In many ways, the album serves as the tail of a creative comet that in just two years included the “classic line-up” trilogy of Bee Thousand, Alien Lanes, Under the Bushes, Under the Stars and countless singles that crammed endless hooks in their grooves. In the intervening space, Tonics And Twisted Chasers has taken on a mythic status. It’s arguably Pollard’s strangest, gnarliest, most enlightened record and also the fans first chance to see the stitches that bind his galaxy of songs. It’s like peering at the caliber inside a watch, responsible for making the whole enterprise tick. This nineteen-song collaboration with guitarist Tobin Sprout could be interpreted as spontaneous sketches, late-night improvisations, ideas that blossomed later in the timeline (“Knock ’Em Flyin’” and “Key Losers”), but as with anything in Pollard’s orbit, its intention is clear when heard as a cohesive whole. The Pollard tenet that “less is more” is on full display here. The songs rarely creep past ninety seconds and coalesce much like Pollard’s collage-styled visual art. Arena anthems in miniature (“158 Years Of Beautiful Sex”) bash up against eerie piano laments (“Universal Nurse Finger”) without any time to breathe, acoustic lullabies that sound like a Midwestern summer’s twilight (“Look It’s Baseball”) segue into monochromatic post-rock (“Maxwell Jump”). The euphoric joy and obtuse melancholy in Pollard’s voice is so palpable on the album’s standout, “Dayton, Ohio 19 Something & 5” (which has since become a live staple), that it’s impossible to find a more autobiographical yarn in his catalog. The album’s closest analog is 1993’s Vampire On Titus, as it contains that album’s prickly, dark and shimmering obfuscation that only reveals its beauty after repeated listens. Tonics And Twisted Chasers maintains the lore because the melodies are so strong. Using a primitive drum machine, Radio Shack effects, minimal instrumentation and the DIY spirit that guided them in the first place, Pollard and Sprout constructed a masterpiece of pop that could only come from a basement in north Dayton, Ohio. Anyone in that hallowed era who happened upon it, kept it as a secret.

Tracks

Tracklist:

1. Satellite 2. Dayton, Ohio-19 Something And 5 3. Is She Ever? 4. My Thoughts Are A Gas (Fucked Up Version) 5. Knock ?Em Flyin? 6. The Top Chick?s Silver Chord 7. Key Losers 8. Ha Ha Man 9. Wingtip Repair 10. At The Farms 11. Unbaited Vicar Of Scorched Earth 12. Optional Bases Opposed 13. Look, It?s Baseball! 14. Maxwell Jump 15. The Stir-Crazy Pornographer 16. 158 Years Of Beautiful Sex 17. Universal Nurse Finger 18. Sadness Is To End 19. Reptilian Beauty Secrets

Press

Originally released in 1996 in limited edition on Rockathon

First-time vinyl reissue of GBV holy grail

Original copies go for high collector prices

Comes with insert

Audio & Video

GALAXIE 500 - 'UNCOLLECTED NOISE NEW YORK 88-90'

Formats

• SC57X - 2xLP (COLOURED)

  657628447733

• SC57CD - 2xCDs

  657628447726

• SC57MC - MC

  657628447740

• SC57 - LP

  657628447719

Details

BLACK VINYL RESTOCK The complete uncollected Noise New York studio recordings of Galaxie 500. A twenty-four track chronological journey through rarities and outtakes including never-before-heard songs, from the start of their incendiary career to their final studio session. Uncollected Noise New York ’88-’90 marks Galaxie 500’s first release of new archival material in nearly thirty years and their most comprehensive collection of unreleased and rare material ever. Produced and engineered by Kramer at Noise New York 1988-1990. • Complete uncollected Noise New York studio recordings of iconic indie band • Features rarities and outtakes, plus first release of new archival material in nearly thirty years • Historical photos and liner notes by the band

Tracks

1 Shout You Down
2 See Through Glasses
3 On the Floor (Noise NY version)
4 Can't Believe It's Me
5 Oblivious 6 King of Spain
7 Jerome
8 Song in 3
9 Crazy
10 I Wanna Live
11 I Will Walk
12 Cold Night
13 Ceremony
14 Never Get to Heaven
15 Maracas Song
16 Victory Garden
17 Blue Thunder (w/sax)
18 Cheese and Onions
19 Fourth of July (video mix)
20 Cactus
21 Moonshot
22 Them
23 Final Day
24 Here She Comes Now

Press

#16 MOJO BEST REISSUES 2024 |
#85 THE QUIETUS AOTY 2024

Audio & Video