Alien Lanes
Guided By Voices (1995)
The first Guided By Voices album to be released on Matador Records, and the band's eighth full length album overall, turns thirty years old today.
I first became aware of Guided By Voices when I was 15 years old. There was a music store in my town called Gallery Of Sound that kept a box of magazines from previous months that went unsold, and customers were allowed to take anything from that box for free. You didn't even have to buy anything, but you'd definitely get a dirty look from the old man behind the counter if you just showed up, grabbed an armload of magazines, and then left. Ask me how I know.
Anyway, some of these magazines came with CDs that had a mix of tracks from different artists that were featured in that month's issue. One of the songs on one of those CDs that I fell in love with instantly was The Official Ironmen Rally Song by Guided By Voices. After hearing it for the first time, I wanted to discover more music by the band, and Alien Lanes was my first step into this rabbit hole. Something about it hits me in just the right way. Listening to this album feels like the audio equivalent of laying in a pile of blankets with a big cup of coffee on a snowy day where you're not obligated to do anything.
