Guided By Voices - Alien Lanes - Vinyl Record

In the mid-90s, Guided by Voices was an enigmatic band from Dayton, Ohio that puzzled the music press. Their Matador debut, Alien Lanes, marked a turning point for the band. Despite being recorded with a budget of only $10 (excluding beer), the album earned GBV an advance of $100,000 from Matador. The mastermind behind the band, Robert Pollard, had a long history of recording albums in the 80s and early 90s that went largely unheard, but Alien Lanes was different. The album was mastered by Bob Ludwig, the famous mastering engineer behind albums such as Bruce Springsteen's Nebraska, and received a glowing four-star review from Rolling Stone, which compared GBV to alt-rock giants R.E.M. and Nirvana. Pollard's confident opening line in "A Salty Salute," "The new drunk drivers/Have hoisted the flag," was a testament to the success of the album.