Firehouse Mountain

Nightwalker may be the strangest of all Robert Pollard's side projects, a mysterious "group" that makes some of the noisiest music in the artist's catalog. The strangest, rarest Nightwalker release is the "Firehouse Mountain" 7" single. It's a one-sided piece of vinyl (the back side has no grooves or etching or anything) with a blank black label and no credit information anywhere on the sleeve. Other than the common knowledge that Pollard is involved and the fact that it's clearly him singing here, the only indication that he is involved is that the cover image of three doofuses has been recycled in one of Pollard's art projects.

The song itself is one of the most psychedelic Pollard has recorded. It starts out with a tribal drum beat on floor tom and bass drum that clears a path for a slowly emerging guitar squall siren that itself gives way to guitar chords that sound not unlike bagpipes. Pollard comes in shortly thereafter with an ominous, slightly buried vocal. The song builds into a swirl of sound, Pollard singing "It used to be such fun to kick the gun away." All of that fades as maniacal laughter rises and falls as the track closes.

An interview found on the Guided by Voices web site offers a bit more information about Nightwalker and the single. Pollard says Nightwalker is "like a collage of a bunch of our songs. We edit the songs together and try to make one piece out of it. That was the Nightwalker concept." As for the cover stars, he says the photo comes from his high school year book, dubbing them "psychedelic nerds."