Airport 5
Tower in the Fountain of Sparks
2001, The Fading Captain Series
Robert Pollard and Tobin Sprout made three albums together as a duo and each one is its own odd creature that just barely gets along with the others.
Tonics & Twisted Chasers is the first one. Sprout created the instrumental tracks and then Pollard came up with songs to go on top and they called it Guided by Voices because why not? It was 1996 and Tonics sounded like the mutant brother of Alien Lanes. Lo-fi. Fucked up. Weird all over, but in a familiar way. Pollard’s voice and Sprout’s guitar were sounds we’d heard work together many times before.
Five years later, after Sprout had long left the band to raise his new baby and make beautiful solo records that expanded his range into perfect piano pop and organ-heavy psychedelic bubblegum (I’ve raved here about his first one, Carnival Boy, and it’s not even the best one) he and Pollard got together again for another album, made the same way as before.
Sprout’s music, Pollard’s songs and words. That’s it, except this time they called it Airport 5.
Also, they didn’t sound much like Guided by Voices anymore–at least not in the way that many expected.
Continue reading “Robert Pollard-Mania! #63: TOWER IN THE FOUNTAIN OF SPARKS”
