Guided by Voices
“Chasing Heather Crazy” b/w “On With the Show”
2001, TVT Records
The story goes that TVT Records didn’t “hear a single” on Isolation Drills, the second and final album that Guided by Voices would submit to those music industry gurus (note: TVT went bankrupt in 2008). Me, I hear at least five singles on it so I don’t know what to make of that. I’m no Do the Collapse hater, but Isolation Drills is a ferocious step up in confidence. It’s got anthems. It’s got pretty flowers. It’s got a melancholy heart, but it’s determined to rise up. It’s GBV’s one last hard push toward big-time success (produced by Rob Schnapf, known at the time for his work with Beck and Elliot Smith) and I think it’s as great as anything they could have made toward that goal.
More on that in the next entry.
Before it, we got this 7″ preview. To my memory, it came out a month or two ahead of the album.
SO, like I said, TVT heard the album and said “Where’s the single?”. “Glad Girls” somehow wasn’t enough. “Unspirited” wasn’t enough. “Fair Touching” wasn’t enough. According to Robert Pollard, they wanted a song about “girls and cars” (what year was this? 1965?). From there, Pollard went off and banged out a single. And it was lovely.
“Chasing Heather Crazy” is no embarrassment. It’s a triumph. It chews bubblegum and skips rope better than a 43-year-old songwriting genius trying to appease a silly record label should. It’s pop perfection made to order, lean and explosive with a breezy drive and lyrics that don’t mean much of anything. Everything about it sounds like spring.
And then all that TVT did with it was put it out on a little piece of blue vinyl.
Is it any wonder why Pollard eventually went totally independent later in the decade?
Still, I guess we should be grateful to TVT for encouraging this song. I’m happy that it exists.
Thanks, TVT.
Also, Pollard doesn’t seem to hold a grudge. Guided by Voices brought the song back into their live set in 2019 and stuck with it for their 2020 streaming pandemic quarantine concert. “Chasing Heather Crazy” is built to last.
On the flipside is “On With the Show”, another B-side warmly captured by John Shough (I like the back cover that says “A: Produced by Rob Schnapf” and “B: Recorded by John Shough”). It brings in a touch of GBV’s art-rock leanings, as well as a certain cynicism, that the bright and snappy A-side doesn’t.
It’s a “the show must go on” song, but from a freshly divorced guy whose life is a wreck. Let’s take this pain and turn it into rock ‘n’ roll! Or “And the deal is closed/ The celebration served/ Bank accounts will grow/ On with the show!”, as Pollard sings in a sinister Peter Gabriel sorta way during the twinkly bridge.
That’s my interpretation, at least. I’m probably wrong. It’s probably about football or something.
I love the sleeve art. In 2001, vinyl was dead and TVT’s GBV LPs were very plain and obligatory, a step down from Matador’s gatefolds. Meanwhile, their two GBV 7″ records were on the fancy-schmancy side for some reason. There was the spinny wheel thing on the “Surgical Focus” single. Then “Chasing Heather Crazy” came with a cool, custom-printed plastic outer sleeve with lyrics and credits. Behind it is a nice photo of the band browsing used vinyl bins. I can smell musty old cardboard just looking at it.