Why in the name of all that is holy do people like Guided by Voices?

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Back when I decided the mainstream wasn't nerdy enough for me, I really got off on the idea that he made these great pop tunes in his garage and whatnot. However, as I gained an appreciation for the editing process, lyrics, and craft, I found myself less endeared to his carelessly carefree ways. That said, I still enjoy "Bee Thousand" (still my fave), "Alien Lanes," "Under The Bushes..." and "Isolation Drills". Lyrics are 90% complete hogwash so if you're not impressed by catchy tunelets performed enthusiastically if messily there really aint much else there for you.

Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Tuesday, 10 December 2002 16:46 (twenty-three years ago)

ten months pass...
So now there's this best-of and I'm all like "Oh great, I can finally hear what's so great about this band without wading through 88 hours of pond-scum" and I put the thing on and it is COMPLETE FUCKING TORTURE! This is their BEST stuff? What the FUCK are people talking about?! "Catchy" "songs"?! Haha "hooks"?!?! And even for an indie-rock guy Pollard can NOT fucking SING!! ARE YOU PEOPLE ALL ON THE FUCKING CRACK???? STOP SMOKING THE FUCKING CRACK! IT IS BAD FOR YOU!

M Matos (M Matos), Tuesday, 4 November 2003 04:27 (twenty-two years ago)

200 posts by morning.

Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 4 November 2003 04:30 (twenty-two years ago)

Jesus, no wonder Magnet worships these guys! It's like every dullard impulse in rock history has found its home in one place!

M Matos (M Matos), Tuesday, 4 November 2003 04:30 (twenty-two years ago)

I had spent all this time thinking, "Well, maybe I'm just being unfair because I hate the titles and the fanboy aura and the Pollard's ultra-prolificness, I bet if there was a best-of I'd at least file it with the collection and use it for mix CDs every now and again," well HAW HAW HAW HAW HAW TO THAT!

(xpost haha Ned and a good 30 of them will be "That's because they picked the wrong songs, maaaaan...")

M Matos (M Matos), Tuesday, 4 November 2003 04:33 (twenty-two years ago)

nu-ilm haha

My goodness, the meme is at least that old! Ack!

Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 4 November 2003 04:38 (twenty-two years ago)

Heard "Teenage FBI" on college radio. Liked it (thank you Ric). Downloaded it. Put it on a couple mixtapes. Failed to actually pursue GBV's music any further.

nate detritus (natedetritus), Tuesday, 4 November 2003 04:50 (twenty-two years ago)

when i heard alien lanes, that was when i discovered that i really didn't like a lot of indie rock. i still have it (and haven't played it in years) though -- anyone wanna buy it offa me?

Eisbär (llamasfur), Tuesday, 4 November 2003 05:00 (twenty-two years ago)

Matos -- you really hear nothing in "Motor Away"? If not, then toss that best-of (in the mail, to me, for a CD to be named later), there really is no hope. "Motor Away" was my in & that's a great rock tune -- catchy, hooky chords, the whole nine.

Mark (MarkR), Tuesday, 4 November 2003 05:41 (twenty-two years ago)

Esp w/'Auditorium' as an intro like on the video

Andrew Thames (Andrew Thames), Tuesday, 4 November 2003 05:42 (twenty-two years ago)

Matos is god

Eisbär (llamasfur), Tuesday, 4 November 2003 05:45 (twenty-two years ago)

Ah fuck I guess he's right then

Andrew Thames (Andrew Thames), Tuesday, 4 November 2003 05:46 (twenty-two years ago)

Not to mention "Game of Pricks." Alien Lanes rules.

x-post, do you any other similar indie rock Matos? Maybe it's just not your thing.

nickn (nickn), Tuesday, 4 November 2003 05:48 (twenty-two years ago)

If memory serves, Matos likes Luna and Build to Spill so there has to be room for GBV in there somewhere.

Mark (MarkR), Tuesday, 4 November 2003 05:49 (twenty-two years ago)

Told you I was right, kinda!

Hey, this stuff was selected by the man himself so you KNOW it's dubious!

Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Tuesday, 4 November 2003 09:04 (twenty-two years ago)

Say, can someone list some of Pollard's side projects?

Squirrel_Police (Squirrel_Police), Tuesday, 4 November 2003 09:23 (twenty-two years ago)

What can I say about GBV? Well, maybe...

...flaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!

JP Almeida (JP Almeida), Tuesday, 4 November 2003 09:42 (twenty-two years ago)

Say, can someone list some of Pollard's side projects?

The GbV website has a list of his Fading Captain releases here. There are also two pre-Fading Captain Pollard solo albums (Not In My Airforce and Waved Out) and a Phantom Tollbooth collab.

Jeremy (Jeremy), Tuesday, 4 November 2003 10:05 (twenty-two years ago)

"Motor Away" was my in & that's a great rock tune -- catchy, hooky chords, the whole nine.

unfortunately, the version on the 'best of' is the inferior single version. it's higher-fi, but the performance is lacking. the album version is not only more excited-sounding but it's one of "lo-fi" gbv's better production jobs (all in my opinion, of course).

a similarly regrettable decision was made in the case of "game of pricks".

brittany harpoons, Tuesday, 4 November 2003 11:46 (twenty-two years ago)

pollard side projects

* Freedom Cruise (only two songs, i think. one w/ the Deal sisters)

* Nightwalker (two or three singles and one album. Nightwalker seems to be nothing more than Bob dredging up his sludgier basement tapes and slapping the Nightwalker name on them. One Nightwalker track is a 12 minute drone.)

* Lexo and the Leapers (one EP over four years ago. it's a different band, but the record is almost indistinguishable from some gbv records)

* Airport 5 (Tobin Sprout records complete instrumental tracks and Pollard writes songs over them. two albums)

* Circus Devils (the weirdest - and probably best - side project. GbV's producer Todd Tobias and former bassist Tim Tobias record (bizarre) instrumental tracks and Pollard writes songs over them. most gbv fans (online, at least) don't seem to like this one. three albums, with a new one out just last week.)

* Go Back Snowball (Mac McCaughan records complete instrumentals. Pollard write songs over them. one album.)

* The Lifeguards (Doug Gillard records complete instrumentals and Pollard grafts new songs onto them. one album).

* Phantom Tollbooth (Pollard joins the long-defunct arty punk band by getting them to erase the vocals on their recordings so he can write new songs on top of the instrumental tracks. One album).

Pollard's next project is a collaboration with Tommy Keene, which, it seems, will work just like the collaborations above.

And then there are the solo albums...

brittany harpoons, Tuesday, 4 November 2003 12:11 (twenty-two years ago)

For some reason this thread makes me angry, and I've never cared a whit about GBV one way or the other

J0hn Darn1elle (J0hn Darn1elle), Tuesday, 4 November 2003 13:03 (twenty-two years ago)

turning into jess then?

Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Tuesday, 4 November 2003 13:04 (twenty-two years ago)

come close Julio, I've a kiss for ye

J0hn Darn1elle (J0hn Darn1elle), Tuesday, 4 November 2003 13:18 (twenty-two years ago)

watch out julio it is the kiss of death!!

geeta (geeta), Tuesday, 4 November 2003 13:22 (twenty-two years ago)

Jeez, Daddino, there's an awful lot of overlap between Pollard's selection for the Best Of and the mix tape you sent me 8 years ago. Hmm...

Colin Meeder (Mert), Tuesday, 4 November 2003 14:43 (twenty-two years ago)

I have to agree that GBV are mind-bendingly overrated in certain circles, yet they have a few decent tunes: "I Am A Scientist" comes to mind. Was that one not on the best of?

o. nate (onate), Tuesday, 4 November 2003 14:48 (twenty-two years ago)

GBV ROCKS, SPRING BREAK 2001!!!!!!

Jeff-PTTL (Jeff), Tuesday, 4 November 2003 14:55 (twenty-two years ago)

the biggest suprise is if someone can stomach both Luna and Built To Spill and come into GBV about 8-9 years late and be completely repulsed... I think it says way more about the critic than the band.

file under: indie guilt, ILM case #504285-02485-234

gygax! (gygax!), Tuesday, 4 November 2003 15:03 (twenty-two years ago)

PETER PAUL AND MARY, WHAT WERE MY PARENTS THINKING?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

gygax! (gygax!), Tuesday, 4 November 2003 15:03 (twenty-two years ago)

Amen, gygax, amen and preach on...

largehearted boy (largeheartedboy), Tuesday, 4 November 2003 15:08 (twenty-two years ago)

this isn't indie guilt at all! it's perfectly acceptable among indie kids to dig some indie bands and not dig other ones; why should it be any different with anyone else?! i know plenty of indie kids who love luna and hate gbv!!

geeta (geeta), Tuesday, 4 November 2003 15:11 (twenty-two years ago)

I don't understand liking luna and bts and disliking GBV because Pollard has a "bad voice".

anthony kyle monday (akmonday), Tuesday, 4 November 2003 15:21 (twenty-two years ago)

geeta, you have to admit a cursory once-over and an automatic emotionally charged dismissal is the makings of a favorite band.

gygax! (gygax!), Tuesday, 4 November 2003 15:22 (twenty-two years ago)

I've certainly never given a damn about GBV.

Alex in NYC (vassifer), Tuesday, 4 November 2003 15:23 (twenty-two years ago)

like the boy at school who hits the girl he likes.

gygax! (gygax!), Tuesday, 4 November 2003 15:29 (twenty-two years ago)

I could see Matos hitting Pollard. Many times.

Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 4 November 2003 15:29 (twenty-two years ago)

I'd condone that.

Alex in NYC (vassifer), Tuesday, 4 November 2003 15:32 (twenty-two years ago)

i thought gygax was getting beter. sigh.

strongo hulkington's ghost (dubplatestyle), Tuesday, 4 November 2003 15:45 (twenty-two years ago)

"People who like Guided by Voices think like this."

BrianB, Tuesday, 4 November 2003 15:49 (twenty-two years ago)

To play drunkard's advocate, i think GBV sounded a lot more fun in retrospect when the fever first caught.. but NOW based on what i hear on KEXP and virtually every indie rock group these days, and specifically living in a town where almost everyone can't get enough of that aesthetic (sigh), there's very little room for any era of GBV to stand out in my ears, because sooooooooo many bands are trying for their style (which isn't hard), and just added to the over-buffet of amateur Who/Beatles-empassioned indie rawk. (don't ask me to name any names.. just listen to KEXP in the mornings or walk into any seattle record store)

donut bitch (donut), Tuesday, 4 November 2003 15:50 (twenty-two years ago)

Jeez, Daddino, there's an awful lot of overlap between Pollard's selection for the Best Of and the mix tape you sent me 8 years ago. Hmm...

Some overlap, but not enough. Primary differences between my mix-tape and Pollard's best-of: P disasterously foreshortens the pre-Bee Thousand era, avoids a lot of the stuff on the EPs, completely ignores King Shit and the Golden Boys, and picks dubious versions of some of their anthems. Plus, mine's 8 years old so I didn't have to bother with the shit recent stuff. (Is it really eight years old, though? Crap.)

I've been dying to remember exactly what the track-listing on that cassette was, Colin. Please embarrass me by posting it. (And you didn't tell me anything about the class reunion!)

Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Tuesday, 4 November 2003 16:11 (twenty-two years ago)

i thought gygax was getting beter. sigh.

"getting better" = "posting less"

gygax! (gygax!), Tuesday, 4 November 2003 16:27 (twenty-two years ago)

Just buy the new GBV box set, and you'll get ALL the reasons why you should have love this band over the past 10 years.

Dfactor Pop, Tuesday, 4 November 2003 16:46 (twenty-two years ago)

gygax you know i love you

(wouldn't we all like to be "getting better")

strongo hulkington's ghost (dubplatestyle), Tuesday, 4 November 2003 16:49 (twenty-two years ago)

Daddino's GBV mix tape (which he gave me in 1995 or 1996 -- I had only ever seen GbV live and hated them, this tape changed my mind):

Old Battery
Shocker in Gloomtown
My Impression Now
Motor Away
Indian Fables
Bee Thousand
Smothered in Hugs/Yours to Keep/Echoes Myron
An Earful o' Wax
Marchers in Orange
Sot
Expecting Brainchild
Tractor Rape Chain
The Goldheart Mountaintop Queen Directory
The Great Blake Street Canoe Race
Game of Pricks
Exit Flagger
Jar of Cardinals
A Good Flying Bird/Cigarette Tricks/Pimple Zoo
I am a Scientist
Scissors
Non-Absorbing
On the Tundra
You're Not an Airplane
Captain's Dead

Colin Meeder (Mert), Tuesday, 4 November 2003 16:58 (twenty-two years ago)

Matos, yr being lazy. You've got to hear the songs a bunch of times, they need to seep into your system. The weirdest thing about GBV is in how a lot of the best songs don't seem like much at first, but they sneak up on you when you least expect it.

You don't have to like it, but if you want to give it a proper chance, you really need to be more passive with it. You're being obnoxious about it, you clearly don't want to like it and so you won't. And it's your loss.

Matthew Perpetua (Matthew Perpetua), Tuesday, 4 November 2003 17:03 (twenty-two years ago)

Er?

Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 4 November 2003 17:05 (twenty-two years ago)

I like most of their pre-Alien Lanes material -- but Pollard axing all the other members kinda ticked me off.

Jason Molina writes a ton, too, and nobody gives him shit. Is it because Songs: Ohia doesn't write quite as much material, or is it that he hasn't been around as long, or is it that he doesn't instill the same level of passion that Pollard does?

christoff (christoff), Tuesday, 4 November 2003 17:36 (twenty-two years ago)

Songs:Ohia is hard to be passionately against because they're just so boring.

hstencil, Tuesday, 4 November 2003 17:46 (twenty-two years ago)

plus obv. they don't have as high a "profile" in the indie-schmindie world.

hstencil, Tuesday, 4 November 2003 17:50 (twenty-two years ago)

"a laugh to begin with" is a gorgeous acoustic ditty with bob and toby singing together about god knows what the fuck.

i play too fast (which is the sign of an amateur) (fact checking cuz), Friday, 25 October 2013 17:03 (twelve years ago)

"you have made a fool" is, for better or worse, their new "hold on hope."

i play too fast (which is the sign of an amateur) (fact checking cuz), Friday, 25 October 2013 17:06 (twelve years ago)

Got to LOL at Bob Pollard berating someone else for being amateurish

Thomas K Amphong (Tom D.), Friday, 25 October 2013 17:08 (twelve years ago)

"being on call at the drop of a hat" is a surprisingly good electronic album opener that fools you into thinking this album is going to be their kid a, which of course it isn't.

i play too fast (which is the sign of an amateur) (fact checking cuz), Friday, 25 October 2013 17:10 (twelve years ago)

"I was available for the band but we only played 2 shows this year,"

to be fair, each show was 400 hours long.

scott seward, Friday, 25 October 2013 17:21 (twelve years ago)

"So-called fucking classic" is even shorter and more ironic than "Hit" off of Alien Lanes

Evan, Friday, 25 October 2013 18:17 (twelve years ago)

glad this got explained because the links I'd seen were to the fb page which was gone by the time I clicked on it. Bob sounds like a dick to to be perfectly honest, that is a ridiculous auction price and no-one gives a shit who drums for GBV.

akm, Friday, 25 October 2013 20:27 (twelve years ago)

I think they should let a fan be their drummer.

sweat pea (La Lechera), Friday, 25 October 2013 20:39 (twelve years ago)

fennell was the first drummer i ever saw gbv play with and he was most definitely a part of the reason i fell in love with them. he's still my fave gbv drummer. neither he nor pollard seems like they'd be all that fun to be in a band with though.

gotta love that pollard has a 7-inch called "return of the drums" due out in november. seriously.

i play too fast (which is the sign of an amateur) (fact checking cuz), Friday, 25 October 2013 20:52 (twelve years ago)

If I'm not mistaken, he's got a fairly large Guided By Voices tattoo taking up the length of his arm. Wondering if he's regretting that now.

Ex Slacker, Friday, 25 October 2013 20:56 (twelve years ago)

lol Lech

Tip from Tae Kwon Do: (crüt), Friday, 25 October 2013 21:02 (twelve years ago)

I wonder when he got the tattoo. This isn't the first melodramatic falling out these two dudes have had.

Evan, Friday, 25 October 2013 22:07 (twelve years ago)

Guys, this is just another classic rock tribute from them, a tribute to The Byrds dust up in which David Crosby the drummer "Michael, play drums right!"

Sodade Stereo (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 26 October 2013 11:50 (twelve years ago)

four years pass...

Listening to Lamb lies down on broadway a few times & it seems like a strong influence on GBV?

badg, Friday, 29 June 2018 14:56 (seven years ago)

i think pollard has copped to being a 70s peter gabriel / genesis fan

tylerw, Friday, 29 June 2018 14:59 (seven years ago)


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