Airport 5: Tower in the Fountain of Sparks

Airport 5: Tower in the Fountain of Sparks

2001

Fading Captain Series

Format I Own it on: Vinyl

Track Listing: 1. Burns Carpenter, Man of Science  2. Total Exposure  3. Subatomic Rain  4. One More  5. Mission Experiences  6.The Cost of Shipping Cattle  7. Circle of Trim  8. War & Wedding  9. Stifled Man Casino  10. Up the Nails  11. Tomorrow You May Rise  12. Feathering Clueless (The Exotic Freebird)  13. Mansfield on the Sky  14. White Car Creek  15. Remain Lodging (at Airport 5)



Fading Captain Series #13. We left off on FCS # 6 (which was the "Suitcase" box-set). I don't own #'s 7-12, which are: #7 "Briefcase" (an abridged version of "Suitcase"),  #8 "Big Trouble" by the Hazzard Hotrods (Pollard doing live, generic bar-rock which I'm not especially interested in), #9 "Speedtraps for the Bee Kingdom" mini-album by  Howling Wolf Orchestra (which I've never seen nor heard),  #10 GBV"s "Daredevil Stamp Collector EP (which is basically the "Hold One Hope" Ep with a couple of tracks swapped out (CURSE YOU FOR NOT PUTTING "PERFECT THIS TIME" ON "HOLD ON HOPE"!!), #11 Airport 5's "Total Exposure" single (which we'll cover when we get to the "Selective Service" album) #12 

I've actually covered this one before, back in the early days of this blog, when I used to do one (utterly useless) post a day rather than one post every 6 months. Since this is the next album in the Robert Pollard chronology, I figured I'd take the coward's way out and just touch up the old entry a bit and repost it. There. I can hibernate until next winter:

Airport 5 was a "record-by-mail" project (there's going to be a few of these coming up) between Pollard and former band-mate Tobin Sprout, which was a pretty big deal for us GBV fanatics at the time. I remember running to the record store and buying this the day it came out, practically salivating at the thought of the Beatles-y, Who-sy, Big Star-ish power-pop that must lie within...

Except in a few select cases that isn't exactly what I got. Most of the record is odd, abstract and brooding. Robert Pollard is at his most oblique, and Tobin Sprout is at his moodiest.  I can't quite say I was disappointed with it, because by this point, I fully realized that Robert Pollard albums do usually take a bit of time to fully reveal their charms. I did eventually get used to it and I ended up enjoying this quite a bit.

Really, only two songs jumped out at me on those first couple of listens. In particular, "Stifled Man Casino," which sports a Pollard chorus so potent, that I had no choice but to buy the 100 albums that followed. It's just a pure, uncut shot of that old classic-lineup GBV that I didn't realize I was missing until I heard it again. Shaky, unsteady, triumphant. The acoustic "Total Exposure" comes pretty close to recapturing the greatness too, with a memorably slippery bassline and a sticky campfire chorus. 

And that's about it for the big pop songs. The rest of the record is emotionally diffuse, dark post-rock...Kind of an update of Wire's "154."  I mean, listen to those nervy vocals on "Subatomic Rain." Bizarre. And check out those lyrics on "The Cost of Shipping Cattle:"

"The thorn removed itself, and grew into a stake, impaled itself into a tree,which became flesh and lurched toward the moon... Did he or did he not, use shocking equipment to make you happy?? "

Fucking bizarre! The record actually has a strong second half with "War & Wedding" and "Circle of Trim" which would come this close to being fine pop if they weren't so goddamn askew. "Mansfield in the Sky" is a slow-motion beauty, with its wide swaths of echoed guitar and Pollard sounding especially stunned and awed.It really is evocative of a snowy day in a  desolate midwestern locale. I'm sorry I moved to Arizona before I heard this, because I would have loved to listen to this driving around in a Michigan snowstorm. 

Ultimately, "Tower in the Fountain of Sparks" isn't my favorite Pollard or Sprout release by a long shot but I have to admit it's 100% successful in what it's aiming for. The duo aren't trying to recapture the kaleidoscopic hook-scape of "Bee Thousand" or "Alien Lanes." They're just trying to creep us out and make our blood freeze. It just so happens I value hooks over surreal eeriness. So sue me...

Here are the updated rankings. I'm actually going to rank "Tower in the Fountain of Sparks" pretty low. I actually really enjoy its dreary atmospherics, but to be brutally honest I'd probably bop along to the sunny, perfect pop of "Sandbox" than this. But when the right mood hits and it's a cold, drizzy night and I'm walking the empty streets with my headphones on, it probably ranks somewhere around  #16 (Mag Earwhig!). So I put it at number 22 but it does sometimes appear as a phantom #16. Sheesh. These rankings are getting weird...

1. Guided by Voices: Alien Lanes

2. Guided by Voices: Isolation Drills

3. Robert Pollard With Doug Gillard:Speak Kindly of Your Volunteer Fire Department

4. Guided by Voices: Bee Thousand

5.Guided by Voices: Under the Bushes, Under the Stars

6. Guided by Voices: Propeller

7. Tobin Sprout: Moonflower Plastic (Welcome to My Wigwam)

8. Robert Pollard: Waved Out

9. Tobin Sprout: Carnival Boy

10. Guided by Voices: Do the Collapse

11. Guided by Voices: Same Place the Fly Got Smashed

12. Robert Pollard: Kid Marine

13. Guided by Voices: Tonics and Twisted Chasers

14 Guided by Voices: Sunfish Holy Breakfast

15. Robert Pollard: Not In My Airforce

16. Guided by Voices: Mag Earwhig!

17. Tobin Sprout: Let's Welcome the Circus People

18. Guided by Voices: King Shit and the Golden Boys

19. Guided by Voices: Self-Inflicted Aerial Nostalgia

20. Guided by Voices: Vampire on Titus

21. Guided by Voices: Sandbox

22. Airport 5: Tower in the Fountain of Sparks

23. Guided by Voices: Forever Since Breakfast

24. Guided by Voices: Devil Between My Toes 
25. Nightwalker: In Shop We Build Electric Chairs: Professional Music by Nightwalker

Guided by Voices: Isolation Drills

Guided by Voices: Isolation Drills

2001

TVT Records

Format I Own it on: Compact Disc

Track Listing: 1. Fair Touching  2. Skills Like This  3. Chasing Heather Crazy  4. Frostman  5. Twilight Campfighter  6. Sister, I Need Wine  7. Want One  8. The Enemy  9. Unspirited  10. Glad Girls  11. Run Wild  12. Pivotal Film  13. How's My Drinking  14. The Brides Have Hit Glass  15. Fine to See You  16. Privately



Eek! I've been slow of late, haven't I? Time flying like crazy. I crack my knuckles in preparation for a morning of hardcore, anal blogging and suddenly the entire day is gone, I have two sentences typed and I've racked up 16 hours of cat videos...

But you didn't come here to listen to me make sorry excuses. You're here cos you love blabbing and theorizing about GBV records, which also happens to be my hobby! So let's get rolling...

If "Do the Collapse" (the first big budget GBV album) was, according to most folks, a big miss then this was Bob and Co. hitting the major label GBV-thing out of the goddamn park. Listen, I loved "Do the Collapse" but even I have to admit this is a huge improvement. More serious, more focused, with a coherent "blue" mood, a gleaming stadium-rock sound, loads of swinging microphones, hard rock riffs and hooks, hooks hooks. A lot of GBV fans (myself included) viewed this as Bob's "Blood on the Tracks" (universal divorce-rock triumph) but Pollard denies that his personal turmoil from this era influenced "Isolation Drills." He claimed the songs referencing that sad ordeal appeared on the B-Side of the "Dayton, Ohio-19 Something and 5" EP, which is true: Side two of "Dayton" is undeniably an unflinching look at a guy who fucked up, but I can't shake the feeling that Bob's misdirecting us here. There's no way that "The Brides Have Hit Glass," which captures every heart-breaking nuance of a break-up in such clear-headed detail, isn't a divorce song. 

Oh yea. And Pollard has always had a knack for great melodies, but "Isolation Drills' has some real doozies. "Chasing Heather Crazy" has a chorus that immediately grabbed a deep hold on my brain the split second I heard it. And although it somewhat loses its context outside of the album, when you're deep into the twinkling, starry sadness of the album and "Glad Girls" suddenly erupts out of the delicious malaise, it's an unforgettable moment. Pumped fists, shout-a-long chorus, a woozy Beach Boys-esque bridge; the song is a flat-ass classic. And I'll be damned if "Twilight Campfighter" isn't one of  the most beautiful rock songs I've ever heard. I always have to hoist my beer to good times long gone whenever this song plays...

As I listen to this, I really love just about every song. The sad and sorry"Brides Have Hit Glass" being a particular favorite. I can't recall another song where Pollard is so lyrically straight-forward. And he's real good at this confessional style too.You'd be forgiven thinking this was a cover song if the melody wasn't so Pollard-esque. The one track that I unjustly overlooked for the longest time was "The Enemy." Baiting the diehards by kicking off with a snippet of "Broadcaster House"  the song transitions into a stark, simple-yet-undeniably ass-kicking Doug Gilliard riff which slowly cycles into something bigger and bigger. Around the 3 minute mark  the thing finally starts humming and it's glorious for sure. The only song on here I really don't care for is "Want One" which has a fairly awkward melody. But even that song has its moments (that " Ticket to sugar pie" section is totally legit). 

GBV put out plenty of excellent albums afterwards but I feel like this was their big moment. This is the point where they totally match history's other power pop greats. "Radio City, " "In Color" and into that pantheon stumbles "Isolation Drills." I still have no idea how radio ignored this album. I guess Crazy Town or some shit was more important...Fuck the world.

Let's listen to some music. Here's "The Brides Have Hit Glass" by Guided by Voices. Enjoy:

Time for the rankings, based on nothing else but my raw, personal preference. I'm ranking "Isolation Drills"way high. It's my second favorite Pollard album. The critical fave "Bee Thousand" is getting knocked down to 4th place. I'm sorry, GBV fans. "Isolation Drills" hits me harder. It's exactly what I'm looking for in a rock record.

1. Guided by Voices: Alien Lanes

2. Guided by Voices: Isolation Drills

3. Robert Pollard With Doug Gillard:Speak Kindly of Your Volunteer Fire Department

4. Guided by Voices: Bee Thousand

5.Guided by Voices: Under the Bushes, Under the Stars

6. Guided by Voices: Propeller

7. Tobin Sprout: Moonflower Plastic (Welcome to My Wigwam)

8. Robert Pollard: Waved Out

9. Tobin Sprout: Carnival Boy

10. Guided by Voices: Do the Collapse

11. Guided by Voices: Same Place the Fly Got Smashed

12. Robert Pollard: Kid Marine

13. Guided by Voices: Tonics and Twisted Chasers

14 Guided by Voices: Sunfish Holy Breakfast

15. Robert Pollard: Not In My Airforce

16. Guided by Voices: Mag Earwhig!

17. Tobin Sprout: Let's Welcome the Circus People

18. Guided by Voices: King Shit and the Golden Boys

19. Guided by Voices: Self-Inflicted Aerial Nostalgia

20. Guided by Voices: Vampire on Titus

21. Guided by Voices: Sandbox

22. Guided by Voices: Forever Since Breakfast

23. Guided by Voices: Devil Between My Toes 
24. Nightwalker: In Shop We Build Electric Chairs: Professional Music by Nightwalker

Guided by Voices: Suitcase: Failed Experiments and Trashed Aircraft

Guided by Voices: Suitcase: Failed Experiments and Trashed Aircraft

2000

Fading Captain Series

Format I Own it on: Compact Disc

Track Listing: Are you kidding?!?! This thing has 100 songs on it! I'm not typing all that shit out! Here...Look at this instead:

Fading Captain Series #6. Number Five was the "Dayton Ohio- Nineteen Something and Five (Live) 7-inch, which we'll get to later when it was rereleased as part of the "Selective Service" CD (FCS #16).  "Suitcase" is an unprecedented look into Robert Pollard's famous suitcase of demo cassettes. 100 songs stretched across 4 CD's, each song attributed to a different fictional band (examples: Bozo's Octopuss, Ceramic Cock Einstein, Urinary Track Stars, Too Proud to Practice, Homosexual Flypaper, etc), some of which eventually became real bands (Ricked Wicky, Hazzard Hotrods, Go Back Snowball).

I bought this at Zia Records right after I had moved to Tucson, AZ in 2001. I had heard there was a boxset of GBV outtakes and the thought of a hundred new GBV songs drove me fucking crazy. I had no choice but to track down suitcase.  I can remember bringing it home and settling down in front of my crappy boombox (maybe the best way to listen to Guided by Voices) and cracking open the big fat booklet. The glossy booklet is pretty neat. Lots of photos, lots of ruffly shirts, lots of back-patting review snippets, a cool GBV Family Tree diagram, a pretty extensive breakdown on who played what on each song and the year it was recorded. Well done.

Now for the music. There's a lot of it. Spanning an unexpectedly vast period of time (there's even a kiddie bubblegum song on here called "Little Jimmy the Giant" that dates back to the freakin' 1970's). A handful of knockout greats. A large amount of very good material.  A modest amount of junk. Pretty much a standard GBV album writ large.

Knockout Greats: A lot of my favorite stuff on here is the Box-era material. Apparently Pollard did a large amount of recording in the late 80's that turned out to be a wonderful wellspring of unreleased treasures. "I'm Cold" is maybe my favorite thing on here. Very evocative of the lonesome, snow-swept, one-man-and-a-guitar isolation anthems from "Box." Listening to it, I can tell the bar he's going to is very dimly lit and has only one or two cars in the parking lot. He summons something very vivid here.  "Where I Come From" is another favorite of mine. One of those "Forever Since Breakfast"-type REM knockoffs that Pollard used to excel at. 

"Try to Find You" is a must-listen. Probably one of the funniest things Pollard ever released. It's a live recording of a poppy little song (the chorus of which would later pop up in "Storm Vibrations," in a moment that made my head spin when I first heard it) that's cool and all but is utterly upstaged by two women standing too close to the mic, their chatter growing and growing in volume until they eventually swallow the song completely. Prattling smalltalk forever immortalized on tape.  If nothing else, buy the box set for this. Totally worth it.

The other tracks I effing love are "Pantherz" and "Pink Drink" which are just electric guitar and fantastic vocals. That vocal melody for "Panterz" hits me so right. Arm-hair raisingly good. There are a couple really cool, luminous piano songs, "Supermarket the Moon" and a version of "Wondering Boy Poet" that will drive you insane that it wasn't on "Vampire on Titus." Speaking of re-recordings, there's a version of "Spring Tigers" on here in a rock arrangement as opposed to the quiet version from the "Get Out of My Stations" ep. I can't tell if it's superior or not. Kind of a lateral move. Works both ways. I feel the same way about "Rocking Now" which is a crunchy alternate take on "Wrecking Now." 

Very Good Material: Most of the set falls in this category. Solid rockers like "James Riot," "Shrine To The Dynamic Years,"  "Taco, Buffalo, Birddog And Jesus"...Stuff I don't necessarily worship but like to jam  out to now and then. Although, the wobbly, new-wave "Perch Warble" is this close to godhood...I'm also sort of obsessed by the doomy sadness of "In Walked the Moon." What an odd song. You can't shake the feeling that something unspeakably awful has happened to the girl in the song but the lyrics don't reveal anything too terrible. A break-up maybe? I don't know...

Oh yea, it's worth mentioning that a ton of the middling stuff  later gets reinvented on the Boston Spaceship albums. That might be Suitcase's greatest legacy, actually. I must have listened to "Dorothy's a Planet" or "On Short Wave" at least 50 times in my life and never realized how good the songs were until I heard them on a Boston Spaceship album...It's because as presented here, they're not that impressive. Just acoustic sketches with (apparently) infinite potential...

Junk: There's a number of songs on here that aren't good by any objective measure, but at least most of it has something interesting going for it (which differentiates it from something like the Nightwalker album).  In this category we get stuff like "Hold On To Yesterday" or "Gayle" which are both pretty terrible songs but you get to hear what a Mitch Mitchell-led GBV would sound like..."Little Jimmy the Giant" isn't great but it's the earliest glimpse into Pollard's songwriting available, so again, some historical merit. Really, the only songs I flat out skip are the boring, overlong Hazzard Hotrods live jams which were recorded live in a video store and find the band engaging in dull, cliche, jammy, bar-rock. They do the genre just fine, it just so happens it's a genre I couldn't be less interested in. There's a CD of the show available elsewhere (as one of the entries in the Fading Captain Series) but I'm questioning whether I have the patience to sit thru that one...


Newcomers might be overwhelmed and wonder what all the hubbub is about but for a die-hard GBV fan, this is a super-fun, immersive experience. Fair Weather fans will bust out the wheat-and-chaff bit but to me, this finally feels like enough GBV. Bring on the Suitcases! I want a whole 9-piece luggage set!

Let's listen to some GBV. Here's "I'm Cold." Enjoy enjoy enjoy...

Oh yea. The rankings...I'm gonna start a whole new category for this one. Here's the ranking so far for my favorite GBV box sets...

1. Box
2. Suitcase 1: Failed Experiments and Trashed Aircraft

"Box" has the advantage of having four albums and only one disc of rarities (which ended up being the possible highpoint of the set). So the box of outtakes and leftovers can't quite compare (despite a lot of it originating from a period that is more highly regarded by most respectable folks (I'm not respectable, remember))...I will concede that "Suitcase" is more representative of GBV as a whole though...

Guided by Voices: Hold On Hope EP

Guided by Voices: Hold On Hope EP

2000

TVT Records

Format I Own it on: Compact Disc

Track Listing: 1. Underground Initiations  2. Interest Position  3. Fly Into Ashes  4. Tropical Robots  5. A Crick Uphill  6. Idiot Princess  7. Avalanche Aminos  8. Do the Collapse  9. Hold on Hope



An EP of "Do the Collapse" outtakes that often gets recognition for being better than the album the outtakes are from. It's also notable that all eight of  "Hold On Hope"'s B-Sides mop the floor with "Hold On Hope" (which, keep in mind, I like).  Loses a point for not including the killer "Do the Collapse" era B-Side "Perfect This Time" though. 

A super fun game is putting together an alternate "Do the Collapse" track listing using this EP for fodder. For example, swapping out "Zoo Pie" and "In Stitches" for "Fly Into Ashes" and "A Crick Uphill" could have made "Do the Collapse" a start-to-finish knockout. Or replacing "Teenage FBI" with "Underground Initiations" as the big opener and so on and so forth...There are endless combinations. 


Almost the whole thing is a highlight. You have "Fly Into Ashes," which is a shimmering/oldies/power-pop slice of perfection that somewhat brings to mind a humbler, more relaxed version of "Things I Will Keep." "A Crick Uphill" is unlike anything else the band ever recorded. A gospel/punk/gospel/indie rock oddity that's oddly uplifting and tends to get stuck in my head whenever I hear it. "Tropical Robots" is the sort of acoustic song-snippet, under-a-minute ditty. The type of thing that you'll find scattered throughout any of the lo-fi-era GBV albums, except this one sound especially sweet for some reason. "Underground Initiations," "Interest Position," and "Avalanche Aminos" are all top-shelf big rock, with "Interest Position" having some exceptionally great harmony vocals from Bob.

 "Idiot Princess" and "Do the Collapse" are old  re-titled "Tonic and Twisted Chasers" rehashes, freshly re-recorded with big budget sonics but I like both. "Idiot Princess" (formerly "Reptilian Beauty Secrets") is maybe the EP's weak point along with "Hold on Hope" (which I usually even forget is on this). 

If you're a GBV fan, don't overlook this one. I remember picking this up when it first came out and expecting so much less. Imagine my surprise when a B-Sides and outtake EP turned out to be 20-minutes of prime GBV. If you're a GBV fan who doesn't have an issue with the TVT-era stuff you'll especially flip for it. Be careful when you're looking for it though and makes sure you're buying the correct version. There are a lot of variations of this, some with less songs (like that black cover version, pictured above)...

Let's listen to some music. Here's "Fly Into Ashes." Enjoy...

Ranking Time: This is where I wish I would have separated the 20-minute EP's from the full-lengths. Cos "Hold on Hope" is, track-by-track stronger than its parent album, but "Do the Collapse" fits in twice as many highlights only due to its running time being twice as long...Let's separate them...Here's the 20-minute-ish EP ranking:


1. Guided by Voices: Sunfish Holy Breakfast
2. Guided by Voices:Hold On Hope EP
3. Guided by Voices:Forever Since Breakfast

This was hard. Again, taken on a track by track basis, "Hold on Hope" EP is better than "Sunfish Holy Breakfast" but as much as I like the songs on this EP, there's nothing quite as monumental as "Jabberstroker" or "If We Wait" which exist on a much higher level. So I'm sticking with this. 

Tobin Sprout: Let's Welcome the Circus People

Tobin Sprout: Let's Welcome the Circus People

1999

Recordhead Records

Format I Own it on: Compact Disc

Tuck Everlasting:  1. Smokey Joe's Perfect Hair  2. Digging Up Wooden Teeth  3. Mayhem Stone  4. And So On  5. Making A Garden  6. Vertical Insect (The Lights Are On)  7. Maid To Order  8. Liquor Bag  9. Who's Adolescence  10. Lucifer's Flaming Hour  11. 100% Delay  12. And Then The Crowd Showed Up


Oh yea. I like this one. It's not as initially welcoming as his first two solo outings but it's got an interesting, hermetic quality that draws me in. It's very dry, cold and brittle which lays bare every stumble but it's also oddly compelling to hear Tobin sing about room layouts and furniture in such a stark setting. The warm, fuzziness is mostly gone.  Imagine an eccentric hermit recording a homebrew version of "154" and you're not way off...

There are a couple of so-so tracks (the alright-ish "Smokey Joe"  and the incredibly bizarre "Making a Garden," where Tobin appears to be singing over the waltz setting on a casio keyboard)) but for the most part it's all moody, slightly off-kilter, hummable indie pop. 

Favorites: "Digging Up Wooden Teeth" is incredibly effective. I can't really determine what's the verse and what's the chorus but when he moves back into the verse from the bridge section (y'know the, "How do you expect me to dig wooden teeth?" part?) it just gets me and the ol' arm hairs start standing up... I also love the rickety piano popper "Who's Adolescence," "Maid to Order" also strikes me as super-solid Sprout with subtle hooks landing one after the other, and the closing "And Then the Crowd Showed Up" ends the album on a perfect note. The album suddenly lifts its melancholy  mood and feels celebratory in a warm, relaxed way.  Oh yea, I should probably mention that "Lucifer's Flaming Hour" rules too. Mainly because of those closing "doot doot doot" backing vocals. 

Y'know, I've been listening to this album for 18 years now and I still don't know what to think about "Liquor Bag." The song is ludicrous, with its forced rhymes and Tobin wheezing like some weird hybrid of Tom Petty and ancient Bob Dylan (there's definitely some Wilbury-ness to his vocal performance). I'm simultaneously fascinated by it and repelled by it. I can at least say I've never skipped it, which is more than I can say for "Making A Garden."

Overall, this is a good album and although I don't think it tops the first two Sprout albums, I've probably listened to it more than any other one. It's an interesting listen for sure and the songs get stuck in your head like crazy...

Let's listen to some music. Here's "And Then the Crowd Showed Up" by Tobin Sprout. Enjoy...

This was a hard one to rank. I listen to it way more than "Mag Earwhig!" but it doesn't have any moments as transcendent as "Now to War" or "Jane of the Waking Universe" so I'm putting it right below it. Looking at this list kinda bothers me at this point, cos it makes me out as one of those people who immediately dismiss the "Box" era albums, which (for the most part) I flat out love. I think you'll see the overall standing of those "Box" albums go up as Pollard's output gets a little more diluted during this Fading Captain era...I don't know though. Sometimes as I go through these GBV-universe albums, certain ones will rise in stature and other ones aren't as shiny as I remembered...If I had done these rankings without re-listening to each one as I do them, I think I would have ended up w/ a much different list...

1. Guided by Voices: Alien Lanes

2. Robert Pollard With Doug Gillard:Speak Kindly of Your Volunteer Fire Department

3. Guided by Voices: Bee Thousand

4.Guided by Voices: Under the Bushes, Under the Stars

5. Guided by Voices: Propeller

6. Tobin Sprout: Moonflower Plastic (Welcome to My Wigwam)

7. Robert Pollard: Waved Out

8. Tobin Sprout: Carnival Boy

9. Guided by Voices: Do the Collapse

10. Guided by Voices: Same Place the Fly Got Smashed

11. Robert Pollard: Kid Marine

12. Guided by Voices: Tonics and Twisted Chasers

13. Guided by Voices: Sunfish Holy Breakfast

14. Robert Pollard: Not In My Airforce

15. Guided by Voices: Mag Earwhig!

16. Tobin Sprout: Let's Welcome the Circus People

17. Guided by Voices: King Shit and the Golden Boys

18. Guided by Voices: Self-Inflicted Aerial Nostalgia

19. Guided by Voices: Vampire on Titus

20. Guided by Voices: Sandbox

21. Guided by Voices: Forever Since Breakfast

22. Guided by Voices: Devil Between My Toes 
23. Nightwalker: In Shop We Build Electric Chairs: Professional Music by Nightwalker

Tobin Sprout: Moonflower Plastic (Welcome to My Wigwam)

 

Tobin Sprout: Moonflower Plastic (Welcome to My Wigwam)

1997

Matador Records

Format I Own it on : Compact Disc

Track Listing: 1. Get Out Of My Throat  2. Moonflower Plastic (You're Here)  3. Paper Cut   4. Beast Of Souls   5. A Little Odd   6. Angels Hang Their Socks On The Moon   7. All Used Up   8. Since I...  9. Back Chorus  10. Curious Things  11. Exit Planes  12. Little Bit Of Dread   13. Hit Junky Dives  14. Water On The Boater's Back



Oh, shit. I was so focused on keeping the Pollard output straight, I missed a Tobin Sprout solo album., so let's check out 1997's "Moonflower Plastic (Welcome to My Wigwam)"...

 This is where the template for solo Tobin Sprout albums gets solidified. "Carnival Boy" felt more like a GBV album where there were curiously no Pollard songs. It maintained the same rickety, snippet-y, defiantly lo-fi spirit. "Moonflower Plastic" is cleaner and more fleshed out, sporting a warm, mid-fi sound. There are two snippet/songs but they are absolutely the exception since everything else clocks in at around the 3-4 minute range.  

Most of the music is either gently rocking indie pop or dreamy piano pop. It sounds like a big block of pleasurable sound on first listen but the fantastic melodies quickly pop out of the mix at around the second go-round. And there are some doozies here. "Angels Hang Their Socks on the Moon" is a real beauty. It's the aural equivalent of the world's biggest, softest, comfiest blanket ever. Starts out in a woozy rush of lo-fi that establishes the verse melody and when the song finally hits it isn't the cathartic rock that you're expecting but a huge, cathartic easiness if that makes sense. It makes you feel like everything is going to be alright forever. 

The other big one is "All Used Up" which is a power-popper with maybe the most excellent melody I've ever heard. That big, never-ending hook just about takes you head off. Again, a song that I don't think I've ever listened to just once. This always gets at least two consecutive  plays.  If  the ridiculously gorgeous "Hit Junky Dives" were one minute shorter, it would also probably reach "two play" status but the 4-minute running time makes it perfectly satisfying. Damn there's some great stuff on here. When I'm searching for music, songs like "All Used Up" are exactly what I'm looking for. So whenever I do find something of this caliber I tend to play the shit out of it...

Revisiting this, I think I'm going to have to say this is my personal favorite Tobin Sprout solo release. It's so unassuming on first listen, but boy is this some beautifully catchy stuff. Slow moving music has to be really good to maintain my attention, since I'm constantly on the verge of falling asleep, but the melodies on this album are so compelling that it easily carries me through. A quiet masterpiece of simple, understated indie rock that I wish could go on forever. I have no idea why there isn't some deluxe, 5-disc 20th anniversary edition box set coming out this year...C'mon! The Verve's "Urban Hymns" got one! Somebody get on this...

Alright, let's listen to some music. Here's "All Used Up" by Tobin Sprout. Enjoy...

That's right. The rankings. "Moonflower Plastic" is pretty high on my list. I effing love ""Waved Out" but "Moonflower Plastic" gives me such a good feeling whenever I listen to it. The ultimate comfort album. And it gets extra points for not having "Showbiz Opera Walrus" on it. I can't put it above "Propeller" though cos there's no song as great as "Over the Neptune" on it. "All Used Up" comes dangerously close though...

1. Guided by Voices: Alien Lanes

2. Robert Pollard With Doug Gillard:Speak Kindly of Your Volunteer Fire Department

3. Guided by Voices: Bee Thousand

4.Guided by Voices: Under the Bushes, Under the Stars

5. Guided by Voices: Propeller

6. Tobin Sprout: Moonflower Plastic (Welcome to My Wigwam)

6. Robert Pollard: Waved Out

7. Tobin Sprout: Carnival Boy

8. Guided by Voices: Do the Collapse

9. Guided by Voices: Same Place the Fly Got Smashed

10. Robert Pollard: Kid Marine

11. Guided by Voices: Tonics and Twisted Chasers

12. Guided by Voices: Sunfish Holy Breakfast

13. Robert Pollard: Not In My Airforce

14. Guided by Voices: Mag Earwhig!

15. Guided by Voices: King Shit and the Golden Boys

16. Guided by Voices: Self-Inflicted Aerial Nostalgia

17. Guided by Voices: Vampire on Titus

18. Guided by Voices: Sandbox

19. Guided by Voices: Forever Since Breakfast

20. Guided by Voices: Devil Between My Toes 
21. Nightwalker: In Shop We Build Electric Chairs: Professional Music by Nightwalker

Robert Pollard With Doug Gillard: Speak Kindly of Your Volunteer Fire Department

Robert Pollard With Doug Gillard: Speak Kindly of Your Volunteer Fire Department
1999

Fading Captain Series/Luna Records

Format I Own it on: Compact Disc

Track Listing: 1. Frequent Weaver Who Burns  2. Soul Train College Policeman  3. Pop Zeus  4. Slick as Snails  5. Do Something Real  6. Port Authority  7. Soft Smoke  8. Same Things  9. And I Don't (So Now I Do)  10. Tight Globes  11. I  Get Rid of You  12. Life Is Beautiful  13. Messiahs  14. Larger Massachusetts  15. And My Unit Moves



Fading Captain #4. I know you're all going to think I'm completely fucking insane but this is one of my very tip-top favorite Pollard albums. I don't mean just solo albums either. I'm saying I probably like this more and listen to it more often than "Bee Thousand" even...I'm calling it his most consistent album. I can only think of two (very brief songs) that aren't absolute knock-outs (the back-to-back hazy oddities "Soft Smoke" and "Same Things.". Outside of those two questionable minutes the rest of the album is comprised of top shelf stuff. It's kind of a shame they didn't slap the "GBV" name on this thing and get it a larger audience but these types of moves are expected when you're exploring the Pollard-verse. 

This album is Bob singing over Doug Gillard's stellar instrumentals and houses the largest collection of chimy, Big Star power-poppers Pollard's has ever released. So if you're interested in that side of the band, you need this. I'm still not feeling very well and I have to go to Home Depot to pick up some bags of exciting dirt, so I'm making this brief (although I could probably ramble about how fucking amazing this album is all day). Here's a pithy list of my favorite things about "Speak Kindly of Your Volunteer Fire Department." 

 1. "And I Don't (So Now I Do)" is possibly Bob's finest Alex Chilton tribute. It's probably tied with "Slick as Snails" for the album's best track. "Slick as Snails" is a melodic wonder,  by the way. It's got the easiest, slow-rolling melody I've ever heard. Something about it makes you hang onto every (admittedly bizarre) lyric.  When the line "Gorilla of your dreams..." hits you right in the gut, you know magic is happening....

2. All of Doug Gillard's best riffs are piled here. The lithe, sprightly riffs on "Pop Zeus" and "Messiahs" are hall-of-famers for real...

3. Man. Have you ever shouted along to Bob's "ELECTRIC NEWSPAPER BOYYYY!!!" climax in "Pop Zeus" while delivering actual newspapers? At that point, I didn't know if I'd ever felt more ready to take on the world...

4. On "Port Authority" Gillard actually gets a song out of that one unusable guitar pedal setting. You know the one....When you're going through the settings on a Zoom pedal and suddenly you run across the sound of a sad, addled 1970's robot jabbering away while melting down? It's the wingdings of guitar  settings. No one uses it. Except they use it here and it works...A cool, moody, proggy entry in an album full of shiny pop. 

5. "Life is Beautiful" actually makes good on its promise. Life becomes a little more beautiful when you're listening to it. I was listening to  this on headphones the other day, riding the lightrail to work and looking out the window. And right around the time that angelic  "Death of a Clown"-esque backing vocal occurs the trash-strewn alleys started to glow. 

6. Whether they love, hate or are indifferent to GBV (usually the latter) anytime I show anyone "Do Something Real" they instantly get it. There's something about that oddly-gaited riff that catches the ear. The whole thing rocks so much that the message cleanly punches right through Pollard's usual obfuscated lyrics. 

7. "I Get Rid of You." Bob's vocal harmony when he sings, "The sight of you is starting up a war inside of me..." Beautiful stuff. This song always reminds me of The Doors for some reason...

Alright. I gotta head out. Here are the updated rankings, try not to hate me too much for this one. Like I said, it's my personal ranking and has no regard for historical importance or other people's taste. And I highly recommend making your own list. It's super fun! Yea, I'm putting it at the number two slot. I love everything about this album and next to "Alien Lanes" it's the one I pull off the shelf most often. Infinite replay value. Instantly catchy songs that somehow never lose an iota of their magic even on the 500th playthrough...

1. Guided by Voices: Alien Lanes

2. Robert Pollard With Doug Gillard:Speak Kindly of Your Volunteer Fire Department

3. Guided by Voices: Bee Thousand

4.Guided by Voices: Under the Bushes, Under the Stars

5. Guided by Voices: Propeller

6. Robert Pollard: Waved Out

7. Tobin Sprout: Carnival Boy

8. Guided by Voices: Do the Collapse

9. Guided by Voices: Same Place the Fly Got Smashed

10. Robert Pollard: Kid Marine

11. Guided by Voices: Tonics and Twisted Chasers

12. Guided by Voices: Sunfish Holy Breakfast

13. Robert Pollard: Not In My Airforce

14. Guided by Voices: Mag Earwhig!

15. Guided by Voices: King Shit and the Golden Boys

16. Guided by Voices: Self-Inflicted Aerial Nostalgia

17. Guided by Voices: Vampire on Titus

18. Guided by Voices: Sandbox

19. Guided by Voices: Forever Since Breakfast

20. Guided by Voices: Devil Between My Toes 
21. Nightwalker: In Shop We Build Electric Chairs: Professional Music by Nightwalker

Alright. Enough rankings. Let's listen to some music. Here's "Pop Zeus" by Robert Pollard With Doug Gillard. Enjoy....