Special Feature: When You Lose Your Favorite Band
Day 5 - Gonna Never Have To Die: Guided by Voices
Posted by: steve
First off, apologies for the delay in getting this all done. Writing these has been really awesome and it has felt right, but it has also been draining going through the thousands of songs and so much material to write about. I feel like I haven't talked enough about my experiences with the band as I have had so much actual material and music to get through. I maybe also haven't wanted to finish, because then I'm done, and I don't want to be finished with writing about/thinking about my favorite band. It is appropos to end it right now, though, as GBV itself prepares for their final two shows(on 30th and 31st). And now....THE ELECTRIFYING CONCLUSION!
We left off at the end of 2001 with GBV being dropped by their major label, TVT records, after dissapointing results. Their major label period had been very productive nonetheless with tons of great material seeing the light of day. The material was divided between the trying to be commercial material which was not very successful in that goal and the deeper, more artistic material which was awesome.
2002 opened with a pretty dreadful second album from Airport 5, the teaming of Robert Pollard and former GBV member, Tobin Sprout, called Life Starts Here. Another collaboration called Go Back Snowball, s later which was Robert Pollard along with Mac McCaughan of Superchunk and Portastatic, put out an album called Calling Zero only a few week. The album was quite different than anything else Pollard had ever done. Mac McCaughan's music was not out of the ordinary for him, but the bordering on electronic beats and heavy organs and synths make it really an interesting listen. It doesn't complelety work, but there are some great songs. These collaborations were pretty painless for Pollard as the collaborator (Sprout or McCaughan or Gillard or whomever else) would create all the music and they would send it to Pollard and he would just go into the studio and record his own melodies over top. These collaborations are cool, but almost too easy for Pollard.
Guided by Voices bounced back strongly after being dropped by TVT, and signed to their old home Matador records who were more than ready to welcome GBV back into the fold. Leaving TVT was best for everyone, as pollard realized that was not that best place for his band. He didn't really like recordings albums in the way that being on a major label required, and he didn't like not doing the artwork and having to push singles that he didn't he like and all that other garbage. So, GBV went into their old favorite studio in Dayton, Cro-Magnon Studios, and produced the albums themselves along with Pollard's Circus Devils partner Todd Tobias. They emereged with Universal Truths and Cycles, which is a really solid album that is just packed with great songs. This album is really underrated, i believe. They seemed to have taken some positive things from their times in the big studios with bigtime producers and also brought back some of the short burst style songs from their earlier days. This album was single after single from the power pop love ballad "Cheyenne," to the Zeppelin style bombast of "Christian Animation Torch Carriers," the rocking "Everywhere With Helicopter," the beautiful "Pretty Bombs," and the perfect jangle of "Universal Truths and Cycles." I really like this album.
A second Circus Devils album followed later in the year, entitled The Harold Pig Memorial. The edition was much less noise and more of a rock vibe, it's pretty good, and might be a little more listenable, but I missed the noise of the first album.
Pollard's first release of 2003 was weird. He took an album from the 80s progish rock band Phantom Tollbooth entitled Power Toy and re-recorded the vocals for it with new melodies and lyrics. The album was re-released with the name Beard of Lightning. The album is novel, but not that relevant to Pollard's career.
A Robert Pollard mini-LP, Motel of Fools, followed that. Only 7 songs long, but lasting over 30 minutes this was a dense affair. It really has it's moments, but I found it a little unpenetrable for some reason. The album is dissedent and there isn't as much to latch onto maybe as most of the other albums, but certainly not a failure.
Lifeguards, another band made up of Pollard and Doug Gillard, released their Mist King Urth shortly thereafter, and I really get a kick out of this album. This is another affair where Pollard just does the melodies and lyrics and the collaborator writes and records all the music. This album sounds straight out of the 70s. Gillard did an excellent job with the music, there are even a good 3 or 4 excellent instrumental jams, really making Pollard's contribution to this album the less significant of the two, but it's an excellent album any way about it.
GBV released Earthquake Glue in August 2003, another album that they recorded with Todd Tobias. Earthquake Glueis possibly the least remarkable of any Guided by Voices album. Nothing really makes it stand out. There are some good songs, but it's not overflowing with great songs, it doesn't make a huge statement in lyrics or sound/production. It isn't a huge departure or that interesting on any front. Kind of a bummer album. The original demos for most of the songs from this album were released later, and are actually much more intriguing.
A new Box Set and a Best Of album were released in the fall. The Box Set, Hardcore UFOs, featured the Best Of albums (Human Amusements at Hourly Rates which was also available on its own), a disc of reissued 7"s and B-sides and stuff, a disc of unreleased stuff, a live album, and the first appearance of their 1st EP Forever Since Breakfast on CD. Somehow not as fulfilling as the Suitcase box set.
In early 2004 Fiction Man was released. It was a new Robert Pollard album recorded with Todd Tobias. It was made up of songs that Pollard had written for Earthquake Glue but they decided to not record them for that album. This album is much more remarkable than Earthquake Glue and is probably a better album overall. Tobias uses some of his Circus Devils technics and noisiness and it works so well with the more pop centric songwriting of a Robert Pollard album instead of the weird dirge rock non songs of Circus Devils.
Guided by Voices hit the studio again in 2004 with Todd Tobias co-producing. When the finished the album Robert Pollard knew the time was right and proclaimed that it would be the final Guided by Voices album ever. Half Smiles of the Decomposed was released in August, and it was a huge improvement over their last album. A beautiful, somber album with really thoughtful lyrics with really strong production. This album has a number of songs that feel overtly political, a first for Pollard, which was really inspiring that even at this point Pollard is exploring new avenues for expressing himself. Many reviewers for years with every new GBV album would use the phrase "a return to form," which was never really true. That happened a lot with this album as well, but it was untrue again, this doesn't sound like Bee Thousand or Alien Lanes or anything. It is a band that has gone through so much, so many albums and song, and learned and changed. It does have great songs, like the album closer "Huffman Prairie Flying Field," which is just an absolutely perfect way to go out, even down to it's aviation title (by far the most common lyrical theme for Pollard throughout the years) and it's confident and triumphant melody.
Pollard absolutely made the best call in bringing an end to Guided by Voices. The band had run its course and Pollard was at times resting on his laurels. He said that it had become to easy, he wasn't really playing guitar on the records at all and he was relying to much on the band. He also knew that he couldn't continue to tour with the band and party the way that they do any longer, and to try to tone it down and still be GBV would just be sacrilege. He chose a perfect moment to go out, and now they are on their final tour, The Electrifying Conclusion Tour, and only have two shows. Robert Pollard will continue to record and release music, as he already has a new double solo album recorded that should be coming out pretty soon and another album planned after that. There is no stopping the man, but things need to be renewed and refreshed.
The thing about Guided by Voices that was so amazing was the contradiction. The band never really attained to be this perfect indie rock quirky thing. Pollard says that he always wanted his music to sound huge like The Who and play to big audiences, but when it came down to it, he wasn't fully comfortable with the full on rockstar thing. He made huge songs, but found the most pleasure in retaining a dense artistry to his work whether it be strange collages, weird wordplay, or odd noise that always kept some people away from his music but gave them greater depth. Their stage shows were these incredible endurance fests of loud rock and endurance with high kicks and beer swilling but Pollard always maintained his midwestern aww shucks mentality. He never was a rock star. He just this guy from Dayton who had kids and hung out with his buddies and wrote AMAZING songs but when he went out on tour he sorta played a rock star on stage. Man, I just love that combination. It just speaks of how incredibly self aware and smart Pollard has always been about his art.
Don't get me wrong, Guided by Voices hasn't always been a bed of roses to love. My big struglle with the band came around 2001 or maybe it was 02. I had been pretty obsessive about GBV since 96 collecting every release and going to dozens of shows. Some good friends of mine had been in a wicked GBV cover band, called Giant Bug Village. It was deep. My buddy Jake and I would travel hundreds of miles to go see GBV play. Well, one time we were in Seattle and hanging out before the show the audience was completely full of the GBV obsessive fans, and we knew a lot of them, and it felt so much like a SciFi convention or something. The conversations were so nerdy and unfulfilling and it was just weird. I turned to Jake and said, "Jake, we are too deep," and he replied "We just might be too deep." It was a great show that night, but at the next show I saw them play the vibe continued. The obsessive GBV fan is usually male in their 30s and balding and geeky and drunk. Sometimes the vibe can be weirdly misogynist and ugly even though there aren't really any overt misogyny in Pollard's lyrics or anything. At this same time, GBV wasn't putting out their best stuff and the excessive drinking was sorta feeling overwhelming and sad to me, and I had to back off for awhile. I never stopped loving the music, and I had a great time at these last two GBV shows I went to. This is another reason I think bringing GBV to an end is a good idea, as I hope it diffuses this Shrinking Penis disease that forced the overly masculine beer hoisting and mild fratish vibes at some GBV shows.
So all in all, Pollard has done so many right things, and the fact remains is that he is the greatest rock'n'roll songwriter of all time. Guided by Voices were truly legends, the best kind really, nas they were always legends in their own minds. They really came with this amazing "we don't have to prove anything to anyone vibe" that was so empowering. It was like they were doing us a favor just by coming out of the basements of Dayton to play shows. They did it for so long without anyone noticing, and then suddenly everyone noticed. Guided by Voices created more great songs than any band ever will. They created more than a handful of masterpeice records. Guided by Voices was my favorite band and will always be, and if Guided by Voices isn't the Greatest Band of All Time you can poke both of my eyes out.
Special Feature: When You Lose Your Favorite Band
Day 4 - Picture Me Bigtime: Guided by Voices
Posted by: steve
1999, what a year, it was filled with tension, that amazing mix of anticipation and fear. It seemed as though everyone was making moves, making sure they were happy, re-evaluating things, and securing things. Robert Pollard was antsy. He wasn't quite sure what he needed in his Y2K survival kit. He needed something more than the comfortable indie world he was existing in. He wanted more, he wanted to hear his songs on the radio, he wanted to write songs that were in movies, or something! He didnt just want to coast along in this safe world anymore. Guided by Voices signed to TVT records and started to record their major label debut album with uber producer Ric Ocasek. The thing that set Robert Pollard apart from almost every other band who signs to a major label is that he knew he wouldn't be happy just making a small amount of very commercial music, and had a relationship with TVT where he could release solo albums and other projects stuff without a problem. It was an unsure time, but it was this clause in the contract that let us all know that everything would be OK anyway about it.
Pollard's first release while signed to the major label was actually not on the major label, but one of the contract clause albums. It was a solo album by the name of Kid Marine and it was the first release on Pollard's own Fading Captain Series label. This album is truly a Pollard great. It really did let us know everything would be alright. No matter what GBV released as he reached for the stars there would always be material like this album for those of us who cared enough to search it out. This album brought Greg Demos, classic lineup bassist, back into the mix, as well as Jim Macpherson, former Breeders drummer who had also worked on the Waved Out album and was soon to become a full fledged member of GBV. One of the great things about Kid Marine is the inclusion of Jim Pollard as producer. It seems as though when Jim Pollard's name is involved with releases it always means there are some interesting noises and weird tones and textures. He is always credited for things such as "dropping an amp" or "detuned guitar" or things like this. I view this album as a more sucessful and more cohesive attempt at marrying a big rock sound to a bit of a strange narrative like GBV tried to do on Mag Earwhig. This album flows really wonderfully and seems to be telling a story of some type. Like on Mag Earwhig, Pollard give some songs more length, but on here it is done with more purpose than just adding another verse and chorus as here it allows different ideas to come into songs or songs to develop better or just even to drone on and I mean drone on in a positive way. I remember listening to this album near Lake Shasta on I-5 heading north on the way home from my first rock-n-roll tour and there is an road with an exit named Pollard Flat, and all things just seemed perfect.
Two more releases soon followed on the Fading Captain Series: a mostly forgetable weird noise CD by the Bloomington, IN band Nightwalker (which was actually Pollard), and Ask Them by Lexo and the Leapers, which was Pollard recording with a Dayton band called The Tastees as his backing band. Ask Them is a really great EP that features a few great songs that became live staples for years ("Time Machines" and "Alone Stinking and Unafraid) and one song ("Fair Touching") that was actually rerecorded for a GBV album down the line.
The major label debut, Do The Collapse, dropped in August of 1999. Everything about the album is foreign to GBV. All GBV albums upto this point had that creat collage artwork of Pollard, but this album featured some slick goofy art. It was a bit of a disaster. It, of course, has some amazing songs, but as an album it sounds pretty dry and flat (dry and flat???)and a bit dead. Apparently, Ocasek clamped down hard on the band's partying in the studio and was a bit of a taskmaster. Ocasek pushed hard for the pop tunes and as a result the big single pushed from the album was the schmaltzy ballad "Hold on Hope," which got some awkward plays on TV medical dramas and was performed equally as awkwardly on Conan O'Brien with shiny shirts and a string quartet. Pollard has denounced "Hold on Hope" completely since then and does not talk positively about recording with Ocasek. Even the weird Pollard stuff, like "In Stitches" sounds just so crisp and digital and yucky and neutered. And the cutesy, cloying "Wrecking Now," features strings used in the absolutely worst way. It's just too clean. The album doesn't work....BUT...it is still chock full of some great songs like the amazing anthem, "Teenage FBI," the beautifully wandering "Surgical Focus," and the mega melodic "Much Better Mr. Buckles." Overall, pretty much a train wreck, so let's move on quickly.
Continuing his recent trend Pollard followe up a big GBV release with a solo album that topped the GBV release. In November Speak Kindly of Your Volunteer Fire Department, which is a release credited to Robert Pollard with Doug Gillard, was released and it totally took our minds off of Do The Collapse. It has maybe more great pop songs than Do The Collapse has with "Frequent Weaver Who Burns," "Pop Zues," "And I Don't So Now I Do," and "Tight Globes." In between all the great pop jams are a handful of much more touching jams than any of the crud ballads on Do The Collapse. I was stop harshing DTC but listening to this great album makes you realize the failure that the previous was. All the instruments on this record were recorded by Doug Gillard, and he co-wrote a few tracks on this album. I think that Pollard works best and produces his best output when he is working with someone he is very comfortable with and the majority of the album is made by a small tight crew.
The major release for the year 2000 was the epic box set Suitcase. It was 4 CDs each with 25 songs each, for a grand total of 100 songs all of which were all unreleased. We all knew that they had this material in them, but it was still incredibly exciting and overwhelming to get this huge lump of it all at once. The CDs are very inconsistent, but overall very rewarding. To sit down and listen to these tracks which range in years from 1976-2000 is really amazing. It's like watching an incredible documentary about a band you love. So many great songs you had never heard, so many. Word is, there may be a Suitcase 2 on the way. It's such a weird band to love so much. There is so much material to go through, and so you never have to get bored, but it can get expensive and tedious from time to time, but I think they are one of the best bands to have these sorts of love feelings about.
GBV returned to the studio as a band, and emerged with a 2nd album for TVT Records. This record was called "Isolation Drills" and was released in April 2001. The album is a vast improvement over "Do The Collapse," and I really hold a special place for this album. This is the major label album that Guided by Voices was supposed to make. It is a more palatable version (at least in vibe and tone) of earlier records like Bee Thousand or Under the Bushes Under the Stars. It still has the big and clean major label vibe, but it feels so much more honest and true to the band, and more a product of them and less a product of the producer. I'm also just a sucker for that classic Robert Pollard melancholy, which felt like it was completely missing from Do The Collapse but is very well represented here. Isolation Drills features Pollard's most literal and open lyrics of all time, I believe, as he documents his marriage falling apart on some beautiful sad songs like "How's My Drinking," "Fine To See You," and "Privately." The album was produced by Rob Schnapf, best known for working with Beck and Elliot Smith, and I think he did a really tremendous job. He does a great job of making GBV, which for the second album comprises of Pollard, Gillard, Macpherson, Nate Farley, and Tim Tobias; sound like a real band. The pop singles are also excellent, "Glad Girls," "Chasing Heather Crazy," and "Twilight Campfighter" are all really rad. The album is not all good as there are a couple of stinkers, and is not as classic as Bee Thousand or anything, but it is definitely one of my favorites.
The next release was Robert Pollard and the Soft Rock Renegade's Choreographed Man of War for the Fading Captain Series. A hard rocking affair, it is somewhat unspectaular. The same team of Pollard, Demos, and Macpherson that worked on Waved Out and Kid Marine worked on this album. It sounds like an album that was made while having fun and in a relaxed setting, which is good, but I just don't think that the album is as realized as it could be and more time could have been taken on it.
Airport 5 was a relief to many people because it was something people had been waiting five years for. Airport 5 was the return of Robert Pollard and Tobin Sprout working together. Airport 5's first album Tower In the Founatin of Sparks was released in August of 2001. The project sounds like a sequel to the Tonics & Twisted Chasers. The album is filled with junky drum machines and trebly guitars, in short, the production on the album is bad. The album is exciting though, to hear these two old favorites working together on some quality songs, even if Tobin does make them sound weird, at this point we are ready for some janky Pollard vibes after the major label jams.
One more new project was to follow in 2001, and that is the heavy weirdo noise rock of Circus Devils. Ringworm Interiors came out on Halloween, and was the work of Pollard, Tim Tobias, and his brother Todd Tobias. Pollard's most experimental music in a long while, was a shock to the system and felt great. It's loud, fast, broken, and weird.
The big news was about to hit in very late 01/early 02: lukewarm sales of their albums had caused TVT to drop GBV. The major label dream was over like that, Robert Pollard had failed at taking over the airwaves, but what had really come out of the TVT period was the realization that Pollard made his best music away from those restriction that were coming from labels, producers, and even himself to produce hits or succeed in tradtional ways. Pollard had found his own road to success with his rabid fanbase and his own label. GBV immediately announced that they had a new album ready and it would be released on their old stomping grounds, Matador. Guided by Voices had failed, but found a more satisfying success that, like all of the other Greatest Bands of All Times, was on their own terms.
Special Feature: When You Lose Your Favorite Band
Day 3 - To Remake The Young Flyer: Guided by Voices
Posted by: steve
DUDES, day 3. We are deep. Some might say we are too deep, but I look at those people and laugh, and say "Sometimes, buddy, you just have to dig THAT deep." I feel like this is good for me and like part of my destiny to write this in depth thing about this band. I know that sounds cliched and stupid, but that's how this awesome life is sometimes, cliched and stupid...STUPID AWESOME.
We left after Guided by Voices had released two of the greatest albums of the 1990s and had become one of the biggest and most talked about bands in the indie rock world. The expectations were raised for these middle aged midwesterns and to step up their game GBV decided that they would record their heavily anticipated follow up to Alien Lanes in a big studio, the first time in three plus albums that they had recorded outside of their basements. They headed to a Tennessee studio with Pixie and Breeder, Kim Deal, who had been a big proponent of the band. The Breeders had appeared in GBV's "Shocker in Gloomtown" video, Deal and Pollard had done a duet of the classic tune "Love Hurts" for a soundtrack, and Pollard had written a song for The Amps (Deal's weird sorta post Breeders band) surprisingly awesome Pacer disc, that somehow went uncredited (even though the song, "I Am Decided," is obviously a Pollard penned gem). So, they hit the studio with first time producer (except for her own records) and record an albums worth of material. There is some speculation that it wasn't the best of times, because fairly soon after that both sides stopped having nice things to say to one another. They had a record from these sessions, but Pollard who always goes through tons of versions of records wasn't quite pleased and so the dudes went up to Chicago and recorded with that Albini dude, you know...In Utero and junk. They did a bunch of recording with that guys, and the record had to be ready at point right. Well, as has happened quite often with GBV records, Pollard hits a last minute batch of inspiration and a ton of new songs come out right before the record is supposed to come out. To record this new batch of songs GBV hit Cro Magnon Studios in Dayton and produced the material themselves. Cro Magnon would become a second home for Pollard throughout the following years, a place where he became very comfortable and so much of his best stuff came from that place. Under the Bushes Under the Stars was finally completed and released. The album was received with mixed reviews. It is a very different album that Bee Thousand and Alien Lanes, and because of this some people rejected it. It is now looked back on by most as a wonderful album. It is a progression in songwriting as all the songs are a bit more crafted. Even the shorter songs which were previously just lost fragments are now short complete songs. The album doesn't have the energy and hyperactivity of the previous two albums, that is to its detriment but also its benefit. One odd thing about the album is that on the back cover there are only 18 tracks listed, but on the cd 24 songs play. The last 6 songs are not listed for some reason, 5 of which are either Deal or Albini produced tracks. It's weird. Out of the rest of the there are only 3 or 4 more Deal or Albini tracks. The Deal tracks are some of the best. She is responsible for "The Official Ironman Rally Song," which was the first single, and other great gems like "Sheetkickers," which just oozes Kim Deal's production. Under the Bushes Under the Stars was not the success at the time as the previous two albums, but deserves as much attention.
The next project for the GBV dudes was solo albums from Robert Pollard and Tobin Sprout to be released on the same day by Matador. I'm not really sure how these albums came about and I would be really interested in finding out because the idea of the albums started a fair amount of speculation, as two seperate albums will (ie Outkast), about the band's future. Robert Pollard's Not In My Airforce and Tobin Sprout's Carnival Boy made things clear about what GBV really was, as Pollard's album sounded like the interesting ever changing and incredibly dinstinct beast that is GBV, and Sprout's album sounded like...well...it sounded like indie rock of the everyday variety. Actually, Carnival Boy is a pretty solid album, and definitely worth listening to, but it just doesn't have near as interesting as on Not In My Airforce which is actually one of my favorite Pollard works ever. Top 5 Pollard releases (including GBV releases) and that is saying something with this dude. It is full of hits, and then when you think the album is over after 15 great songs then Pollard threw on 8 really weird off key acoustic songs. So weird, but somehow it works.
A great Guided by Voices EP followed the two solo albums. Sunfish Holy Breakfast is a great album for anyother band, as it is 10 great songs all putting forth a specific mood. The EP opens with a scant few dudes clapping and cheering for "ONE MORE!! ONE MORE!" That's what the dudes got, as this one more EP was the last GBV release for the "Classic Lineup" of Sprout, Mitchell, Fennell. Sunfish Holy Breakfast has the perfect vibe for a last release, some sad songs, one truly triumphant songs ("If We Wait"), and it goes out with a beautiful whimper.
The speculation was correct, or maybe the speculation helped prove itself correct, you know, like fed the fire. Some people think Pollard broke up the band because he was feeling insecure about the band and wanted everyone to know it was his band. Others think that Sprout/Mitchell/Fennell weren't really in for the long haul and didn't have the committment that Pollard did about making it a career and doing the band all the time. Either way about it, the breakup was truly a shock to the system. It seemed so weird as a fan. Those dudes were all we knew since we had really only known the band for 3 or 4 years, but Pollard had been doing the band for a solid 14 years at that point, and only with those guys for like 5, so it was a big deal, but the band existed before, and it could exist afterwards. And now, knowing what has happened since it surely doesn't seem like nearly as big of a deal as it was at the time, but it really seemed weird. The word was that he had replaced the dudes with the members of a band from Cleveland called Cobra Verde.
Mag Earwhig hit in May of '97. It was clear that this was a different GBV. The band sounded different. The band looked different. These guys looked like rock'n'rollers as to where those old dudes just looked like dudes. It was a little alienating at first. Was Pollard abandoning what made him so interesting, his everydudeness?? The album was a rocker, seriously, hard rock. The songs were longer, the riffs were riffier, it was more driving rock. It was still Pollard, though, the melodies were there, the words were weird, and there was feeling. In fact, the press release for this album proclaims that Mag Earwhig is a rock opera, I didn't see that promoted too much beyong that press release, because it would be incredibly hard to actually interpret the narrative of the opera for reviewers, but it follows the Magnificent Earwhig on some great rock quest. Pollard showing that he was not a ruthless band dictator like some had been claiming had "I am a Tree" as one of the album's singles which was a song written by new band member Doug Gillard. The album, has some great tracks and I would still recommend it, but it is not one of GBV's standouts.
Later in the year, GBV released an album just to their fanclub called Tonics and Twisted Chasers which was something that Pollard and Sprout recorded just the two of them and a drum machine in '95 I believe. It's an interesting artifact from those two and has some great songs on it, like "Key Losers," "Ha Ha Man," and the "Unbaited Vicar of Scorched Earth." The album has a real dead sound of just direct distorted guitar and weird noise and a crummy drum machine. Man, it's good.
The next year was fairly quiet for GBV as '98. Waved Out, a new Pollard solo album, was the only release of note. Waved Out was the most independent Pollard had ever been making a record. He recorded the vast majority of it on his own. It's a really sorta druggy damaged album, moreso than any other Pollard release. The retarded strut and swagger of "Whiskey Ships" is really awesome, and the passage that follows with "Wrinkled Ghost," "Artificial Light," and "People Are Leaving," is probably the most vulnerable lyrics Pollard had written to date. "People Are Leaving" is a bit of foreshadowing of Pollard's collaborations like his albums with Doug Gillard, Go Back Snowball, and more where he takes people's songs and writes and records melodies on top. "People Are Leaving" was a song written by Stephanie Sayers (whoever that is) and Pollard wrote and recorded 2 different very distinct melodies on top of the songs. It's really stunning. Waved Out is a really idiosyncratic record.
A few very productive but change filled years for Guided by Voices ending with the relatively quiet 1998. Why was it so quiet, probably because GBV was negotiating deals, because by the end of the year they would be signed to TVT Records, a major label(well, technically not one of the huge conglomerates but a mega indie that acts like a major label). Blaspheme, you say. Blaspheme. Well, we will see won't we, but how can a band be The Greatest Band of All Time and not be on a major label. Every great dictator needs an empire.
Special Feature: When You Lose Your Favorite Band
Day 2- Wished I Was A Giant: Guided by Voices
Posted by: steve
It happened, dudes, I saw Guided by Voices for the last time ever. It was really incredible. It felt good. It felt right. They played the classics, the unknown classics, and some songs I had never seen them play before. Something I feel like I should mention was that during one of the songs, I can't remember what it was but there was a lyric saying something like "and nobody is feeling it anymore" and then Pollard added in "not even REM." Now, mind you, Pollard is known for his ridiculous band bashing on stage, and no one should really take it seriously. Most of the time I think he is just trying to give the fans something to laugh about and an interesting show. This statement felt much more signifigant to me though. He is usually so flippant and not respectful at all, but that statement represents a feeling of respect and sadness that his old heroes have hit the skids. Probably a reason for ending GBV, even though Pollard won't admit to it, is that he is sick of hearing critics reporting in negatively on new albums and comparing then to their so-called golden period. So, he made a album that he felt really strongly about (this years' Half Smiles of the Decomposed) and got out -- a decision I respect immensely.
What is this golden period that these critics are always going on about, you may ask? Well, we left off right as the golden period was beginning. Guided by Voices had just made their best record to date, Propeller, in which Pollard had planned to end the band after due to lack of interest and pressure from family about the band taking away from his responsibilities. Something weird happened, though, they finally started to get some attention. Some of the 500 copies of Propeller got to some influential people and suddenly a few people had heard of this weird band from Dayton, OH. Matt Sweeney of the band Chavez became a big supporter of the band and tried to find the band a label, because up to this point every record they had made was self released. A small record label, Scat Records, decided to take a show on these already aging rockers (by this time Pollard was already 35 or 36 years old), and then the deluge began. In the next few years Guided by Voices would record hundreds of songs, armed with a new confidence and someone else to pay the bills for the records.
The first Guided by Voices release not on their own dime was The Grand Hour EP. The EP came in early 93 and was the first thing I heard from Guided by Voices, after I found it on 7" in my favorite local music store, Soundsationswhich has the nicest owners, Pete and Lee) and bought it without ever hearing the band. It was alienating and weird. It still sounds really weird. All the short weird blasts, weird noises, songs with other songs ontop, sorta freaked me out. The Grand Hour includes what is possibly the greatest rock'n'roll song of all time "Shocker in Gloomtown," another great one entitled "Break Even," and the first Tobin Sprout only penned song "Off the Floor." GBV started messing around with using 4 tracks and 8 tracks instead of the same old studio process on Propeller and they took this deeper on The Grand Hour. This is the sound of a band really coming into it's own. Another interesting thing about The Grand Hour is how you start to see Robert Pollard's tactic of using parts of songs and lyrics more than once. "Break Even" opens with the first 10 seconds or so of another track, which we later would find out to be "Hot Freaks" that appeared in full on Bee Thousand. Two of the tracknames on The Grand Hour later on become album titles, "Bee Thousand," and "Alien Lanes." This tactic, re-use of titles and sounds, might not work in other context, but with this band and this incredibly prolific songwriter it adds this cohesion to his body of work as a whole. It also lends a little bit of insight into Pollard's creative process, as it makes the albums and songs feel like grand collages made up of cute up words and sounds and ideas, which is a really interesting way of going about making music.
Vampire on Titus quickly followed on the heels of The Grand Hour and was the 1st full length GBV released on Scat Records. The band went all the way with the 4 track vibes and a lot of the album is a little toned down as far as instrumentation. Many songs are guitar and vocals alone, but that is not a bad thing as this album really allowed the band to become comfortable producing their own stuff. This was also around the time that the band's core of Robert Pollard, Jim Pollard, Tobin Sprout, Mitch Mitchell, Greg Demos, and Kevin Fennell became more solid as they band started to play live shows towards the end of the year for the first time in about 6 years. A somber album, Vampire on Titus, is really good, but ultimately a stepping stone to what was to come. The entire Propeller album was added on after Vampire on the first pressing of the CD, making it Propeller's debut on CD format.
Another EP, Static Airplane Jive, quickly followed and is a bit forgettable, but even GBV's forgettable releases contain at least one or two amazing songs. Then, the bomb dropped.
Bee Thousand was released on June 20, 1994. Man, I can't believe I didn't have a tenth anniversary party this year. There should be parties thrown every year to celebrate this album. It's just simply genius. It IS my favorite album of all time. With near 100 songs considered for this album, it must have been magic or some diving force that led Pollard to pare it down to the 20 songs that are just flat out perfect for this album. It wouldn't be the same if any of the 20 songs weren't on this album. The album is sadly triumphant, thrashy yet warm, and full of amazing songs. I bought this album in late 94, and I liked it, but it really didn't click with me until 96, strangely enough. Even though there are a few songs on the album that I may not like on their own, they work so well on this album. All of the ideas and songs on this album seem to be developed to their exact potential, whether that be creating the absolute greatest pop song of all time in "Echos Myron," the intensely insane "Her Psychology Today," or the wonderfully quirky "Kicker of Elves." Pollard's lyrics are a strange combination of sincere interpersonal analysis and observation mixed with somewhat surreal wordplay.
Tractor Rape Chain - "why is it every time i think about you/something that you have said or implied makes me doubt you/then i look into your cynical eyes and i know it/as if it never meant anything to me/parallel lines on a slow decline - tractor rape chain/better yet, let's all get wet on the tractor rape chain/speed up, slow down, go all around in the end"
Tobin Sprout also steps up to the plate on this album with four really good songs as well. Tobin's songwriting was played up a little to much in the mid 90s as a lot of Lennon/McCartney relationship between Pollard and Sprout, but it was always much for like Pollard was both Lennon and McCartney and Sprout was Harrison. Sprout wrote some good songs, but the Pollard great song to Sprout great song was always like eight to one. Please don't get me wrong, I really enjoy Tobin and he has even released some killer solo material.
The album, released on Scat, was met with gobs of praise, and it was doing really well. So well that Guided by Voices was offered a deal with big time indie label Matador records. Matador re-issued Bee Thousand and signed onto release their next few albums. This was a huge step for the band. They weren't unknown school teachers, auto workers, painters from Dayton, Ohio anymore. Guided by Voices was now one of the most talked about bands in indie rock. Back to Bee Thousand, though, let me just say 20 songs, 36 minutes, 1 perfect album.
Three more EPs: Get Out of My Stations, Clown Prince of the Menthol Trailer, and Fast Japanese Spin Cycle all were also released in 1994. Each of them have some gems on them. Fast Japanese Spin Cycle is the best of the three, and it really stands up with the best of their releases.
How could they follow up Bee Thousand, an album that was being universally accepted? How could they come back with something with something that would keep the public interested?? "Easy," replied Bob Pollard, he of course had a truck load of songs, and had a new album ready for released in less than a year. It was Alien Lanes that followed up Bee Thousand, and somehow they came back with an album that was as well received as their breakthrough album. Some people even think Alien Lanes is better than Bee Thousand, and I would definitely put it in the same class. It is a more spastic, hyperactive, short attention span album as it is chock full of 30 second songs of odd blasts. There are also an equal amount of fully developed pop gems on the album. It is an exciting listen to say the least. The 28 songs go by so quickly and each song leaves you wondering what is going to come next. Having so many great songs like "Motor Away," "My Valuable Hunting Knife," "A Salty Salute," and "Game of Pricks" and so many more it makes for a classic.
By this team Guided by Voices had started touring heavily again, including a stint on the 2nd stage at Lollapalooza. The band was becoming known for their excellent live shows and a cult following was starting to develop. They had created two of the best records of the 90s in everyone's opinion. Guided by Voices was one of the biggest names in indie rock. Would they come back with another classic? What could they do from here? Guided by Voices was about to enter a hard period full of changes, but for now they were without a doubt The Greatest Band of All Time.
Stay tuned up next: Under The Bushes Under The Stars, Mag Earwhig, and the solo career begins.
*note: even more mp3s today. all the mp3s are in chronological order. i tried to give you full passages from Bee Thousand and Alien Lanes to give you a feel for those albums. enjoy. Also, don't be scared many of the songs are very short.
Special Feature: When You Lose Your Favorite Band
14 Cheerleader Coldfront: Guided by Voices
Posted by: steve
Tonight I will see my favorite band play live for the last time. They will have 6 shows left after tonight, but this is it for me. It's been something like 15 or so live shows, 50 plus CDs, probably around 1000 songs. It's weird when you are forced to stop being obsessive about something. It's not like I don't understand why it's ending, and I'm not as obsessive as I once was, and Robert Pollard will continue to make music, but it's still a big deal. It's the end of an era in my life. So, for the next five days on GBOAT we will go through this bands career in painstainking detail and look at why they are the only one, the only and actual true Greatest Band of All Time. I'm going to go chronoligacally through the band(and Robert Pollard)'s musical history, and give you the extended primer. Today will be from conception (84 through Propeller in '92).
I know what you are saying/thinking...five days on these old washed up drunk, non sensical, rehash hack job artists that put out 2 good records in the mid 90s. My response to that is: what good has professing a cliched negative every boring music critic opinion ever done for anybody. This band/man has soo many more brilliant songs than anyone else in the world. This band is the epitome of rock n roll. They play for 3 hours every night, people chant their name, they have insanely rabid fans, they whip people into a frenzy, they play loud, sometimes sloppy, everyone sings along, and they party hard.
In so many ways Robert Pollard is like the dreams of every rock n roll fan. He's just some dude from a midwestern town (just outside of Dayton, OH) who was obsessed with music and record collecting. He thirsted for knowledge about bands in his town where he felt like nothing was going on. In school he made up fictional bands and drew album covers and made logos and t shirts for his bands that would never exist. He kinda knew how to play guitar and he sorta wrote songs. All of the rock fantasies just seemed like pipe dreams. He did start to play in some bands (a metal band called Anacrusis) and eventually started writing and recording his own music. He made his fake band, it was called Guided by Voices. He went to college, got a job teaching school, got married, and had some kids. He made some albums but they never got out of Dayton, Ohio. They played some shows early in the early 80s, but pretty much stopped playing live. They were still basically a fantasy band. So, how did it happen that a man in his late 30s became an icon in indie rock and has for the last 10 years consistently toured, been on a major label, and generally lived the life of an indie rock star. It seems like the stuff that Disney movies about aging pitchers who finally make it to the big leagues are made out of.
Guided by Voices started in 83 or 84, who really knows, I mean that was like 20 years ago. They started playing house shows in the living rooms and playing local bars to scant crowds. They stopped playing live around 87, I believe, and didn't play live again till 92 or 93. So, for the bands first ep and 5 albums this band was like this hidden secret. Seriously, no one knew. This is the period I am looking at today. The band's first release was the ep Forever Since Breakfast in 1986. I did not hear this ep until a couple years ago, because it wasn't reissued in Box, the box set that reissued the first 4 full lengths. A solid debut, but no amazing songs. It sounds like mid 80s indie rock music. It shows the first hints of Pollard's REM obsession that is pretty prevelant over the first few albums. There is some great melodies, and the stand out track has to be "Like I Do," which is the prettiest melody on the album but is covered in a layer or two of sounds of people talking and some other indinstinguishable noises. It is foreshadowing of Pollard not being afraid to use noise and non traditional recording styles to add texture and warmth to his recordings.
The Box was released in 1995 by scat records and was 5 cds comprised of GBV's first four albums along with a 5th disc of unreleased material. In my early GBV obsessed days I would eye Box lovingly in the record store, and I got it as a birthday present from a friend in 1997. It was so daunting but I waded through this old weird material. The experience was incredibly rewarding though, as some amazing songs exist on those albums and it felt like my favorite kind of history lesson.
Two albums were released in 1987, first was Devil Between My Toes, Guided by Voices' debut full length. It is a fairly dark and rugged affair. More a weird dark rock record than a pop record, Devil Between the Toes is sorta reminiscent of some of the weirder more recent Pollard stuff like Chereographed Man of War or the Circus Devils albums. Sandbox followed later in the year, and is a much different record than Devil Between My Toes. Sandbox is the most studio feeling of the early records. All of the early records were recorded in a studio and have a not so attractivity naivity when it comes to the production of them. The record is much lighter and poppier than the previous, and it probably the most REM influenced GBV record. Pollard hadn't even found his true voice that is so recognizable and at times sounds like a different man. Sandbox also has a little flavor of Husker Du. It's a weird record, but sometimes can sound so awesome.
Self Inflicted Aerial Nostalgia is the best of the bunch of the first four albums. It was released in 1989 and it definitely contains more great songs and feels more solid, the production is still a little goofy, but as an album is works pretty dern well. It has some classic numbers like "Chief Barrel Belly," which even though marred by some raunchy tones plays out something like a Little Wings' "Faith Children" with it's repeatable/chantable uplifting chorus of positivity. It seems like the best tracks on these early albums, like the beautiful "Liar's Tale" on this album, are the ballad type jams, because they are the least adorned and the beautiful songwriting can be the focus without getting gunked up by some regrettable production. "An Earful of Wax" is an epic jam that ends in a guitar solo that is Dino Jr. in nature, which is an amazing compliment.
The 4th LP released by Guided by Voices, and the final one included in Box is Same Place the Fly Got Smashed. This 1990 album was Pollard's attempt at a concept record. The album is engaging, but not a revolution, and the concept is sorta hard to grasp. It has something to do with someone being killed, and the trial and someone being electrocuted, but maybe every song doesn't have a role in the narrative, who knows. Accordingly, the number of killer songs continue to rise.
At this point, the band has been Pollard and a rotating cast including names like Eric Payton, Don Thrasher, Eric Comstock, and more GBV associated names like Jim Pollard, Mitch Mitchell, and Tobin Sprout, but it certainly has not been the "classic line-up" that people refer to of Pollard, Sprout, Mitchell, Demos, and Fennell. The band had gone through 4 albums and 1 ep wth literally no success, as defined by financial success or critical praise. It must have all seemed pretty pointless. They were getting no feedback other than a few friends and family. Therefore, Robert Pollard decided that their next album would be the last. He was feeling pressure from family members that this hobby was too expensive and not healthy for his family life. He wanted to make one more album, his last great one, so he collected all his great songs and went to make a record.
Propeller was originally only released in an edition of 500 LPs all with unique hand done covers, a truly special was to go out as a band. Something weird happened, though, because some of those 500 copies starting to get into the hands of influential people like Matt Sweeney of Chavez and Thurston Moore. GBV started to get just the teeniest, cutest amount of buzz. Why did this happen now? Was it just persistence or was it an accident or a fluke?? No way, Propeller was a huge leap for leap for the band. the first album where Pollard truly found his vocal vibe, and the productions are much better, and the songs are really all classics. The album opens with what sounds like a pretty large crowd chanting "GBV! GBV! GBV! GBV!" It seems like a cheap ploy, but it really works and gets you pumped. The album features the band's most driving and powerful rock anthems so far, with the epic opener "Over the Neptune/Mesh Gear Fox," and the punk "Exit Flagger," and equally as powerful but in a haunting way songs like "14 Cheerleader Coldfront," which is the first collaboration between Pollard and Tobin Sprout. It is the 1st album that really feels like a classic GBV album that could be identified as GBV as a casual fan. The band started to get a little attention from a few labels (up until this point the band had been releasing the albums themselves) and a few more reviews for the album. Soon thereafter to band agreed to work with Scat records. I believe GBV played their first live show in forever not too long after this at CMJ. They drove to New York just for the show, and Pollard was so nervous for the show he had to get real drunk to do it, and that started that tradition in the band. Propeller is a true turning point for the band, and maybe their biggest stepping stone to their soon to come fame.
5 albums. 1 ep. Over one hundred songs. GBV had been plugging away for years and they were on the brink of something huge. They were soon to become The Greatest Band of All Time.
note: sorry for the overwhelming amount of mp3s, but it's my favoirte band and it's been so hard just to whittle it down to this many. they have soo many songs, so trust me, these are good ones.
Stay tuned...tomorrow: Vampire on Titus, Bee Thousand, Alien Lanes, and a bunch of eps.
