Re: Guided by Voices/Robert Pollard
Posted: Mon Jun 29, 2020 3:51 pm
Pinball Mars (2003)
Like the two previous Circus Devils LPs, Pinball Mars was released on Halloween. The first Circus Devils album highlights a band exploring the discordant sounds of good versus evil. The second one is guided by Pollard’s broad concept of a deceased Vegas biker. For the third Circus Devils project, Bob wanted something a bit looser and grittier than the first two. According to Todd Tobias, Pollard sought to craft a “garage rock opera” with Pinball Mars. The majority of the lyrics are split up as dialogue, between the different characters and a narrator. Todd goes on to explain the basic premise of the concept, “Pinball, the story’s hero, is joined by sidekicks Flush, Z and Eel on a blazing romp through the city, all of them high on pot and speed. Thanks to the drugs, the city has been transformed into a psychedelic labyrinth.” The first side of the album, or Act I, is made up of more traditional rock songs. It’s on side 2, or Act II, where shit gets really strange. That’s the side where the drugs really kick in as the Tobias brothers delve heavily into their psych, space rock tool kit. Speaking of the Tobias brothers, in a bit of a change-up, the majority of the music for the album was written by Tim Tobias. As is the case with all Circus Devils records, Bob wrote and sang all the lyrics, once again teaming up again with John Shough at Cro-Magnon studio in Dayton.
1. Are You Out with Me? - Things kick off with a menacing rocker which has Bob screaming most of the lyrics. The guitars roar loudly and the cymbals had to have been dented pretty good on this one. “Hear your radios. Rats are running wild, eating pot and speed. Trucks are buckling. Time to turn off.” (7)
2. Gargoyle City – Crazy psych-blues, stomping vamp with all sorts of Circus Devils fuckery slathered on. Most notable are those sinister demon clown giggles thrown in. Bob’s vocals go through a variety of distortions. Song just falls apart in the end. “Gargoyle city blows my head, makes me out. I'm too far fed.” (7)
3. Pinball Mars – Starts out with a cacophony of discordant sounds before settling into somewhat of a song. The nightmare meter registers high on this track. “Seated in the clubhouse, Madison rocks. Police busted his head, thought he was dead.” (6)
4. Sick Color – Fantastic acoustic opening eventually gives way to a dizzying guitar riff and hard-charging rhythm section. The “hit” of the album. The rock magic worked up in this track would get recycled on several future Pollard solo albums with Todd at the helm, particularly on Robert Pollard Is Off to Business. “Indeed the years went by…” (9)
5. Don’t Be Late – Tim Tobias unleashes his inner Ronnie Wood on this Faces-inspired rocker. Serves as the second part of a great one-two punch. One of the most straightforward rock songs to appear on a Circus Devils record. “I feel real when I slip.” (8)
6. Inkster and King – Song title taken from an actual intersection in Dayton on this 60s-styled, acoustic psych-folk track to close Act I. Several vocal stylings employed here with “Constipated Bob” making a brief appearance. “Broke off in the belly. Weak bones from no bread here on shit.” (6)
7. A Puritan for Storage – The Tobias brothers dial up the psych on the Act II opener. Feels like a scene setter more than an actual song. “The what you got; he what it is; the soul you built; blow up the hill.” (4)
8. Alien – The return of “monsters giving birth” on the intro to this super hazy, trippy psych excursion. In describing the first few tracks of Act II, Todd Tobias states, “Here is where the drugs really kick in. I’m glad of the fact that no actual illicit substances were used in the making of an album that sounds as if it’s doused in drugs.” Did I mention that this song is super trippy? (3)
9. Plasma – The Circus Devils continue their avant-garde excursion into the unknown spaces of spooky space-psych lunacy on this instrumental. (2)
10. Dragging the Medicine – A sparse, acoustic track that maintains that trippy, spacey, psych trip. Those giggling, sinister clowns can be heard again in the background. Perfect soundtrack for a horror nursery rhyme. Quintessential quiet Circus Devils track. “I'm a slave, blowing glass.” (6)
11. Bow Before Your Champion – Forty-five second acoustic track with all sorts of spacey sound effects worked in. Bob, adopting the Pinball character persona, repeating over and over, “When they let you out at the end of the day, at the end of your rope, at the end of your dope.” (5)
12. Glass Boots – Dirgey space rock stomper. Bob repeatedly chanting “Gout and replenishment. Suckerfish for women. Pregnant mermaid. Flask of cod. Liver of God. Lover of good. Life of badmen on landslides.” Needless to say, this track is fucking bizarre. (4)
13. (No) Hell for Humor – Brief, molasses-slow piano ballad with an exhausted-sounding Pollard adopting the Pinball personality again. Abruptly cuts out after “You don't have to stop sucking on my account. Beating the bankbook. You don't go to hell for humor.” (5)
14. Raw Reaction: A. Nutrition Is Vital/B. Strange Journey/C. Inside/D. Come Out Swinging – Experimental four-part track to end this album. Part A sounds like all those gremlins getting sucked into some giant tube, headed for another dimension. Part B is just studio fuckey with “strange journey, see you inside” annoyingly repeated over and over again. It also sounds like someone is doing to a piano what Pete Townshend famously did to his guitars. Part C sounds like a recording of someone standing on the moon as a piano note is played once every several seconds. Part D finds the band rising from the empty nothingness and mustering one last attempt, with Pollard growling out “raw reaction” repeatedly before it abruptly cuts out. I actually like Part D a lot. The other three sections I can do without, but I suppose they make the final part that much better. (4)