Track listing
- 1 Satellite 1:42
- 2 Dayton, Ohio - 19 Something and 5 1:45
- 3 Is She Ever? 1:03
- 4 My Thoughts Are a Gas (Fucked Up Version) 1:18
- 5 Knock 'Em Flying 1:04
- 6 Top Chick Silver Chord 1:22
- 7 Key Losers 2:27
- 8 Ha Ha Man 0:39
- 9 Wingtip Repair 0:58
- 10 At the Farms 2:30
- 11 Unbaited Vicar of Scorched Earth 2:10
- 12 Optional Bases Opposed 1:38
- 13 Look, It's Baseball 1:21
- 14 Maxwell Jump 0:46
- 15 The Stir Crazy Pornographer 2:16
- 16 158 Years of Beautiful Sex 1:21
- 17 Universal Nurse Finger 1:04
- 18 Sadness to the End 0:56
- 19 Reptilian Beauty Secrets 1:40
- 20 Long as the Block Is Black [bonus track] 1:16
- 21 Jellyfish Reflector [bonus track] 1:33
- 22 The Kite Surfer [bonus track] 1:47
- 23 Girl From the Sun [bonus track] 1:37
- 24 The Candyland Riots [bonus track] 2:07
- Total length: 36:20
Rate/Catalog
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2 Issues
- Release view [combined information for all issues]
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Tonics & Twisted Chasers [p] Fan Club Release
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Tonics & Twisted Chasers 33 rpm, Colored Vinyl, Fan Club Release, Limited Edition
15 Reviews
Anyone who's ever played Alien Lanes on repeat all night and had a different song emerge as their favorite each time (I know some of y'all are out there) needs to dig into this album, too. It's the slightly weirder brother of Alien Lanes. It grows on you in the same way. It's also similarly lo-fi, strange, and packed full of short songs. It originally had nineteen tracks (the later CD reissue adds on five extras). The longest is 2:30, the shortest is 0:40. Most hover around 1:30. The backing music is all written and played by Tobin Sprout and then Robert Pollard came up with songs to put on top of them. His melodies are solid and his lyrics are out to lunch.
Not a lot of people know about this one. The band sneaked it out on their own label as a vinyl-only, mail order-only release in 1996 around the holidays with hardly any advance announcement. It sold out faster than I change the channel when I see The View is on TV and a CD reissue came out about a year after. Some of the material here was reused later. "Knock 'Em Flyin'" was re-recorded for Mag Earwhig!. A more hi-fi take on "Ha Ha Man" came out on the Suitcase box set. "Dayton, Ohio - 19 Something and 5" spent a lot of time in the Guided by Voices stage setlist and a live version came out as a 7" single about three years later. "Reptilian Beauty Secrets" was remade and renamed "Idiot Princess" for the Hold on Hope EP.
Not a lot of people know about this one. The band sneaked it out on their own label as a vinyl-only, mail order-only release in 1996 around the holidays with hardly any advance announcement. It sold out faster than I change the channel when I see The View is on TV and a CD reissue came out about a year after. Some of the material here was reused later. "Knock 'Em Flyin'" was re-recorded for Mag Earwhig!. A more hi-fi take on "Ha Ha Man" came out on the Suitcase box set. "Dayton, Ohio - 19 Something and 5" spent a lot of time in the Guided by Voices stage setlist and a live version came out as a 7" single about three years later. "Reptilian Beauty Secrets" was remade and renamed "Idiot Princess" for the Hold on Hope EP.
Published
Though often overlooked, this "fanclub" album is basically as good as any of GBV's classic albums. Songs like "Key Losers," "Dayton, Ohio 19-something-and-5," and "Optional Bases Opposed" deserve a spot on the band's next greatest hits compilation (a 12 disc set, if they want to do it rght). The only real criticism I have is that Tonics does not cohere as an album as well as other proper GBV albums. Rather, it seems more like a collection of demos (which is basically what it is, I believe). Almost the whole thing follows the "Hot Freaks" formula; that is, Pollard adding vocals to a Sprout instrumental, many of which feature his trademark drum machine instead of a live drummer. Pollard spins melodic gold out of Sprout's simple arpeggios and chugging chord progressions. From the classic "Dayton, Ohio, 19 Something and 5" to the relatively unsung gem "At the Farms," Tonics is full of enough great tunes to make it much more than just a "fanclub album" of forgotten demos.
Published
Yes
What was initially supposed to be a release just for the Fan Club, GBV would eventually put this out to the public.
Some ok cuts from Polland, as at his point he's just releasing snippits of tracks, rarely fleshing them out to beyond the 2nd verse. A psychedelic presence is felt, but only slightly.
Published
If you are like me and mostly just listening to these GbV albums to find songs for your own personal mix, I don't think you are going to find much here. Abstract song fragments for the most part and keeping in mind this was originally released as a "fanclub" release it kind of sounds as such. That being said the people this was intended for I'm sure really loved it.
Kind of lame they released this for the "fans", then turned around a year later and re-released it with five extra songs so the fans had to buy it again.
Kind of lame they released this for the "fans", then turned around a year later and re-released it with five extra songs so the fans had to buy it again.
Published
Catalog Crawl (#16)
A fan-club only release that has since become part of the group’s official canon, Tonics & Twisted Chasers is a much welcome set of previously-unreleased recordings from GBV’s peak era. While it’s not as fully-realized as Bee Thousand, Alien Lanes, or the other collection of outtakes from a similar time frame, Tonics is yet another must-hear for fans of the band. Since it’s no longer being sold through the band’s website, it’s one of the few CDs that I own that is of any decent value. With that said, I’d happily trade my near-mint disc, straight across, to anyone looking to get rid of their dusty old vinyl copy.Published
GBV must love their fans to just off up a fan only album like this in their peak. That's amazing. It feels much looser and more lo-fi than Under the Bushes but not tossed at all. It's up there with Bob's best.
The first 12 songs is a brilliant run of classic GBV with several great songs mixed with some of their best weird lo-fi songs. Great flow. The last half doesn't live up to the classic level but it is filled with many good ones too.
158 years and Reptilian Beauty Secrets, Long as the Block is Black Girl from the Sun and a Tobin song, Sadness to the End.
The first 12 songs is a brilliant run of classic GBV with several great songs mixed with some of their best weird lo-fi songs. Great flow. The last half doesn't live up to the classic level but it is filled with many good ones too.
158 years and Reptilian Beauty Secrets, Long as the Block is Black Girl from the Sun and a Tobin song, Sadness to the End.
Published
VR930
I usually detest the hot weather, which is why walking out of my apartment on January 9th, 2012 was such an infuriating moment: sweltering, humidity reaching that clammy height where every and any movement makes you feel moister than a mussel whose family lineage has never been harvested for consumption, and a feeling of embitterment towards your parents for making the decision to move to a subtropical climate in the 1980s. "This is unacceptable," I've said before in mixed company, provoking a few laughs at the fact that 'zany old Vito' is judging the weather as if it can be influenced by my disappointment, but really... I could be in Duluth, toes numbed and cigarette smoke freezing before it's even escaped my throat. People are killing themselves in record numbers in Anchorage, because of how glacial and desolate of an environment it is that their parents decided for them. I know that we can't all live in Toledo or Colorado Springs, but fuck... there's no appeal in moving to a place like this. I know, I know, I bitch about Florida and the Sun as much as I can in these reviews, but it has its purpose.That purpose is the influence that a warm, sweaty summer day can have on what I'm hearing, and despite the tilt of the Earth at this time of year, I'm going to refer to this January as a summer afternoon. Standing in line to buy overpriced books, cursing that I'll be out $300 when my disbursement check comes in a couple weeks, Guided by Voices buzzing triumphantly into both ears. I knew that it would end before I'd gotten out of this line (I never anticipated it to end right as I was being called to the next cashier; I chose the right time to leave, and the right album to accompany me), and I reminded myself of what I had: air-conditioning swirling around me, if not distilled by the hundreds of college bodies adjacent to my own; new supplies that are going to make my straight A's even easier to attain in the ongoing semester; Tonics and Twisted Chasers working its sweet magic throughout this snail's pace of a wait. The last album I had to accompany me in this situation... I believe it was California by American Music Club. Was it really that long ago?
I don't know what I'd have done today if it wasn't for this album. One of the independent, often-overlooked Guided by Voices CDs, which isn't saying much since they thrive on lo-fi and wonderfully-shoddy production, I'm surprised that this isn't up there in the list of the greats. Sunny, making a cheerful time out of a gloomy situation, Pollard spinning his warped Beatlesque melodies and making everything sound like the most confident party there ever was... it's all there. There's nothing in this album where a person who gets it will have to go without. "Dayton, Ohio - 19 Something and 5" is a song they could have been revered for if it was on Bee Thousand, "Maxwell Jump" will have you livid at how such a perfect slab can exist in only forty seconds, the frantic pacing of some ("My Thoughts Are a Gas (Fucked Up version)") were exemplary to making what would have been a sullied, smoggy day like today, into one that I'll always think of when any of these tunes go by. When music can kill off longstanding preferences of comfort, you know that you've found something incredible.
This is like whirring down some highway or interstate, as a passenger looking directly out the window. You'll see something amazing for some moments, and it will be gone before you can even make out what it was. This CD is distant and withholding, and that's how I like my lo-fi indie pop. It would not be an exaggeration to call this a masterpiece at some point.
Published
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1
Satellite
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2
Dayton, Ohio - 19 Something and 5
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3
Is She Ever?
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4
My Thoughts Are a Gas (Fucked Up version)
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5
Knock 'em Flyin'
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6
Top Chick Silver Chord
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7
Key Losers
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8
Ha Ha Man
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9
Wingtip Repair
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10
At the Farms
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11
Unbaited Vicar of Scorched Earth
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12
Optional Bases Opposed
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13
Look, It's Baseball
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14
Maxwell Jump
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15
The Stir-crazy Ponographer
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16
158 Years of Beautiful Sex
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17
Universal Nurse Finger
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18
Saddness Is to End
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19
Reptilian Beauty Secrets
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20
Long as the Block Is Black
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21
Jellyfish Reflector
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22
The Kite Surfer
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23
Girl From the Sun
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24
The Candyland Riots
In that regard it's musically more of a retro album than anything they've made, with the usual odd 60s psych production effects on the vocals and guitars, but GBV are an experienced band by this album and stay more on course for melody and hooks than a lot of the more directionless majorly psychedelic bands of the 60s that could frequently get lost in their drug haze. If your only experience with 60s psych pop are the more friendly bands such as The Beatles and The Byrds, Tonics & Twisted Chasers will likely sound very strange to you.
This is Guided by Voice's most insane album, and that's saying a lot.
Published
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Catalog
15 May 2024
7 May 2024
2 May 2024
2 May 2024
26 Apr 2024
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1
Satellite
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2
Dayton, Ohio - 19 Something and 5
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3
Is She Ever?
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4
My Thoughts Are a Gas (Fucked Up Version)
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5
Knock 'Em Flying
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6
Top Chick Silver Chord
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7
Key Losers
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8
Ha Ha Man
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9
Wingtip Repair
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10
At the Farms
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11
Unbaited Vicar of Scorched Earth
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12
Optional Bases Opposed
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13
Look, It's Baseball
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14
Maxwell Jump
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15
The Stir Crazy Pornographer
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16
158 Years of Beautiful Sex
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17
Universal Nurse Finger
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18
Sadness to the End
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19
Reptilian Beauty Secrets
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20
Long as the Block Is Black [bonus track]
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21 Jellyfish Reflector [bonus track]
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22 The Kite Surfer [bonus track]
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23 Girl From the Sun [bonus track]
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24 The Candyland Riots [bonus track]
19 Apr 2024
13 Apr 2024
6 Apr 2024
5 Apr 2024
3 Apr 2024
1 Apr 2024
30 Mar 2024
24 Mar 2024
20 Mar 2024
18 Mar 2024
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