A Guided Tour of Chicago by The Lawrence Arms

A Guided Tour of Chicago is a punk rock album by the Chicago, Illinois, band The Lawrence Arms, released in 1999 by Asian Man Records. It was the band's first album. At this early point in their career, several of the band's songs resembled those of their previous band The Broadways, being political in nature (such as "Kevin Costner's Casino"), something which they later almost completely phased out in favor of personal/introspective lyrics. Singer/bassist Brendan Kelly sings almost all of the lead vocals on this album, whereas on later works he and singer/guitarist Chris McCaughan moved towards singing lead on roughly equal numbers of songs; and on Oh! Calcutta! tended to share vocal duties within songs, by singing together and/or alternating lines. The album was recorded in one day at Scientific Recordings by Mike Giampa and Andy. The album was never properly mixed due to the band running out of money while recording it. Although loved by hardcore fans, Brendan Kelly has stated that this is his least favorite Lawrence Arms album, calling it "a terrible representation of our band." The album was released on vinyl for the first time in 2009 on Asian Man Records, with all new artwork.