Vampire on Titus explained

Vampire on Titus
Type:	Album
Artist:	Guided by Voices
Cover:	Vampire on Titus.JPG
Alt:	An illustration of a plant with tiny lambs emerging from its flowers. The band name and title appear above and below the illustration, respectively.
Caption:	The image on the cover is a Vegetable Lamb of Tartary from The Travels of Sir John Mandeville by John Mandeville, 1499.
Released:	1993
Recorded:	1993
Length:	30:42
Label:	Scat
Prev Title:	Propeller
Prev Year:	1992
Next Title:	Bee Thousand
Next Year:	1994

Vampire on Titus is the sixth studio album by American indie rock band Guided by Voices.

Background

Vampire on Titus was recorded after a short-lived dissolution of the band (after 1992's "farewell" album Propeller) but prior to the full-time regrouping that occurred with the assemblage of the Bee Thousand album and the band's return to live performance. The album was recorded with a skeletal line-up consisting of Robert Pollard, Jim Pollard and Tobin Sprout. Jim Shepard of V-3 remarked to Pollard once that he “was like a vampire on Titus, sucking songs out of the earth.”^[1] Pollard lived on Titus Ave. in Dayton, Ohio. The album is often acknowledged as being the most abrasively lo-fi in the entire Guided by Voices catalog.

Track listing

All songs written by Robert Pollard unless otherwise noted.

Side A

1. ""Wished I Was a Giant"" – 2:43
2. "#2 in the Model Home Series" (R. Pollard, Tobin Sprout) – 1:45
3. "Expecting Brainchild" (Jim Pollard, R. Pollard) – 2:30
4. "Superior Sector Janitor X" (J. Pollard, R. Pollard, Sprout) – 0:37
5. "Donkey School" (Sprout) – 1:03
6. "Dusted" – 2:08
7. "Marchers in Orange" (J. Pollard, R. Pollard) – 1:24
8. "Sot" (Sprout, R. Pollard) – 2:35
9. "World of Fun" – 0:55

Side B

10. "Jar of Cardinals" – 1:22
11. "Unstable Journey" – 2:15
12. "E-5" (J. Pollard, R. Pollard, Sprout) – 1:29
13. "Cool Off Kid Kilowatt" (J. Pollard, R. Pollard, Sprout) – 0:56
14. "Gleemer (The Deeds of Fertile Jim)" (Sprout) – 2:24
15. "Wondering Boy Poet" (R. Pollard, Sprout) – 0:59
16. "What About It?" – 1:37
17. "Perhaps Now the Vultures" – 2:23
18. "Non-Absorbing" – 1:37

Personnel

Guided by Voices

• Robert Pollard – vocals, guitar, drums
• Jim Pollard – guitar
• Tobin Sprout – vocals, guitar, bass

Technical

• Bruce Greenwald – photography
• John Mandeville – cover artwork

Notes and References

1. Web site: Re-Post of Jim Shepard and Ohio: I'll be reading from these at Brothers Drake Meadery as Part of Word Church Tuesday @ 8:00. 24 February 2014.