Friday Night Record Party : December 2017

Saturday, December 30, 2017

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

Saturday, December 16, 2017

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.