NIghtwalker/Freedom Cruise
“Lucifer’s Aching Revolver” b/w “Cruise”
1994, Simple Solution Records
Newcomers to Robert Pollard’s work–or fans who lead a more eventful life than I do and haven’t religiously kept up with it all–are inevitably confused by the side projects. It’s understandable. As of this writing, Pollard has recorded and released music under almost two dozen different names and with a variety of collaborators.
As I make my way through his body of work and write way too many words about each record, I intend to explain every side project and tell you why each one is a little different. I will use my nerdiness to illuminate. I will use my geekiness to elucidate. Summoning the power of my autism, I will demystify and hopefully clarify.
Because I know everything. I am an armchair expert in all things Pollard. There’s not much that you can get by me.
Except for what the deal is with THIS record.
None of the books or interviews, as far as I know, tell the story of this fake split-single for two bands (Nightwalker and Freedom Cruise) who both are clearly Guided by Voices in disguise.
Best I can tell, the main difference between this and the other 7″s of 1994 is that this is the “Evil Guided by Voices”, darker and noisier, the Beatles and The Who bled out of their system and splattered on the steps leading down to the basement.
A-side “Lucifer’s Aching Revolver” is a near ringer for early Chrome, which means it sounds like punk rock submerged in the cosmic hum and buzz of lo-fi recording. It begins with about a minute of the sounds of cables and guitar strings being fucked with before the song barges in and then later changes fidelity midway through. Everything about it is pure caveman, from its pummeling primitive drive to its Elmer’s Glue tape edits.
Oddly, “Cruise” on the B-side is more tuneful (it even made GBV’s live setlist for awhile in the early 90s), but it’s still dark. It’s a Nuggets garage band in their scary Halloween costumes.
The reason for this record’s experimental approach might be because it’s the only 7″ from this period put out by a Dayton, Ohio label: Simple Solution Records, run by Vic Blankenship (aka Trader Vic) who also owned Trader Vic’s Music Emporium, one of the local record stores. This wasn’t a label from Germany or New York. The band knew Trader Vic personally. They didn’t have to impress him. They didn’t have to give him a “hit”.
So, they gave him something weird.
They gave us something weird, too. It’s a record that opens up another hidden room in the strange world of Guided by Voices.
The band would use the name Freedom Cruise one more time for a track (“Sensational Gravity Boy”) on Red Hot + Bothered, a 1995 AIDS research benefit compilation also festooned in other big indie rock names.
Nightwalker would return three more times for a couple of oddball stray tracks and eventually a full album of excavated basement sludge, as well as a goofy fictional mythology built around the project that we’ll get into in a later post.