Tonics And Twisted Chasers

Description

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 Pollards 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. Its arguably Pollards strangest, gnarliest, most enlightened record and also the fans first chance to see the stitches that bind his galaxy of songs. Its 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 Pollards 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 Pollards 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 summers twilight (Look Its Baseball) segue into monochromatic post-rock (Maxwell Jump). The euphoric joy and obtuse melancholy in Pollards voice is so palpable on the albums standout, Dayton, Ohio 19 Something & 5 (which has since become a live staple), that its impossible to find a more autobiographical yarn in his catalog.

The albums closest analog is 1993s Vampire On Titus, as it contains that albums 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.

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