Given that I will never, ever be able to a.) find or b.) afford an original pressing of this record (run in a batch of 500 with hand-made band-made cover art), I was perfectly fine for settling with this reissue. Despite awesome cover art, this is the first GREAT GBV record. Everything before this pretty much sucks in comparison, and it’s the record that shows a very clear path that Pollard & co. are about to walk down. Opener “Over the Neptune/Mesh Gear Fox” is easily one of the greatest statements made in rock and roll by anyone ever, and the track that establishes GBV as something more than a bunch of dudes in their 30s fucking around in a garage. It hints at the greatness to come two albums later with Bee Thousand, featuring massive jams, filler tunes (that are still really good), and slower sensitive sounding songs (“Red Gas Circle”). However, this record is mostly jams (at least compared to Vampire on Titus and really, I don’t know why this album doesn’t have more acclaim than it already was. Hits like “Exit Flagger,” “14 Cheerleader Coldfront,” “Some Drilling Implied,” “On the Tundra,” “Unleashed! The Large-Hearted Boy” and even the fucking weird “Weedking” make this an early masterpiece, the first of four in the GBV canon. I also have a habit of singing lines from “Some Drilling Implied” at random, often inappropriate moments. “So take me to the pilot light/ And sing me to SLEEP/ YOU FANTASY CREEP!”
Oh to own one of the original 500. That would be amazing.
ReplyDeleteLove "Exit Flagger." One of my all time favorites. (Of course I say that about dozens and dozens of GBV songs.)