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

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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)

...not different than what many folks are siting against GBV...

christoff (christoff), Tuesday, 4 November 2003 18:11 (twenty-two years ago)

i've come to the conclusion indie kids don't like anything. at all.

jsamson, Tuesday, 4 November 2003 18:51 (twenty-two years ago)

Matthew, that's hilarious, because I REALLY wanted to like it. And in fact when I sold CDs last night I deliberately kept the GBV best-of out of the pile so I can give it another chance, because I was tired and cranky when I wrote what I wrote. But I still stand by it.

M Matos (M Matos), Tuesday, 4 November 2003 19:12 (twenty-two years ago)

i like songs:ohia but the guy has a case of cotton mouth sometimes

amateur!st (amateurist), Tuesday, 4 November 2003 19:17 (twenty-two years ago)

what was this thread about?

amateur!st (amateurist), Tuesday, 4 November 2003 19:17 (twenty-two years ago)

Alright, fair enough. I was only going on the language you were using in this thread, Michaelangelo.

But seriously, just play it here and there without thinking about it much, and see what happens. You may be surprised a few months from now.

Also bear in mind that that Best Of has a weird tracklisting - try to stick to the songs at the back end of the running order, because Pollard put a lot of his best pop tunes way in the back for some weird, self-defeating reason.

Matthew Perpetua (Matthew Perpetua), Tuesday, 4 November 2003 19:20 (twenty-two years ago)

gather round and let me tell you the story of the lucky promo CD that escaped getting sold back due to second thoughts by alt-weekly music writer.

gygax! (gygax!), Tuesday, 4 November 2003 19:21 (twenty-two years ago)

Who are Guided By Voices?

Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Tuesday, 4 November 2003 19:22 (twenty-two years ago)

i thought matthew's last phrase read "self-defecating"

4mateur!st (amateurist), Tuesday, 4 November 2003 19:22 (twenty-two years ago)

does ben goldberg still read ILM?

gygax! (gygax!), Tuesday, 4 November 2003 19:25 (twenty-two years ago)

did he ever?

mark p (Mark P), Tuesday, 4 November 2003 19:39 (twenty-two years ago)

Nice to see this thread come up again. I'm all for debating the relative merits of Pollard's catalog. But Matos, the fact that it's taken someone who considers himself a serious music journalist/rock critic/fucking god ten years to finally get around to listening to GBV says a lot more about you than the band.

Rich Miller, Tuesday, 4 November 2003 20:17 (twenty-two 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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