POLLSTAL BLOWFISH - ILM Artist Poll #8 - Guided By Voices - ReSuLtS!!!

Sorry I didn't vote in this, would have place Johnny Appleseed pretty high alongside Motor Away, Smothered in Hugs, Chicken Blows, Always Crush Me

I looooove Pop Zeus. Have long wondered if it's "electric noose, paper boy" or "electric newspaper boy" and I like it equally both ways.

Thanks, Johnny! And hats off to the fellow "Second Spurt Of Growth" voter--my favorite discovery from the past few weeks of GBV exploration.

comments and whinges: very happy to see brides have hit glass in there. my favourite song from my #3 GbV album, gets me every time

echos myron seems WAYYY too low imo. smothered too but i would say that as it was my #1 (hi captain)

where the heck is pendulum?!?

game of pricks and hunting knife the two most overrated tracks in their catalogue but maybe i just felt that way after years of overexposure to these tracks

where the heck is pendulum?!?
At the bottom of my ballot, but it was on there!

it was my #5, i've loved it since i first heard it on box abridged

my ballot fwiw

1 smothered in hugs
2 the brides have hit glass
3 echos myron
4 shocker in gloomtown
5 pendulum
6 my impression now
7 unleashed! the large hearted boy
8 gold star for robot boy
9 break even
10 tractor rape chain
11 exit flagger
12 gleemer (the deeds of fertile jim)
13 hardcore ufos
14 expecting brainchild
15 captain's dead
16 run wild
17 kicker of elves
18 the best of jill hives
19 dodging invisible rays
20 matter eater lad

oh! you're the one who voted for break even. good choice! i also love matter eater lad. they played that on the reunion tour i saw last year and i had never seen it live before. the crowd went nuts.

grand hour was the first GbV i heard, so shocker & break even hold a v special place for me

ubuts/melodic/melancholic heavy ballot:

1 Redmen and Their Wives
2 My Valuable Hunting Knife
3 Motor Away
4 Game of Pricks
5 Don't Stop Now
6 Chicken Blows
7 Cut-Out Witch
8 Always Crush Me
9 Now to War
10 Smothered In Hugs
11 Burning Flag Birthday Suit
12 The Key Losers
13 Acorns & Orioles
14 Mute Superstar
15 The Colossus Crawls West
16 Kiss Only the Important Ones
17 Office of Hearts
18 A Salty Salute
19 Sad If I Lost It
20 Look at Them

(YES I PUT CHICKEN BLOWS AT #6 AND ACORNS AND ORIOLES AT #13, IF I HAD MY TIME OVER ... )

game of pricks and hunting knife the two most overrated tracks in their catalogue

pricks yeah, hunting knife nah? idk, pricks *feels* overplayed but it's not like i hear either of them on the radio ever. i guess pricks was played over the end credits of that one episode of (uk sitcom) the it crowd. they're both great examples of how bob could write a totally solid pop song, hunting knife is a little more structurally complex, lyrically i think they're both some of his most concise & evocative efforts.

Abbreviated ballot from a major fan of a few songs, casual fan of the band itself:

1. "Motor Away" (40)
2. "Subspace Biographies," Robert Pollard (36)
3. "Gold Star for Robot Boy" (33)
4. "Little Whirl" (30)
5. "Tractor Rape Chain" (28)
6. "My Son Cool" (26)
7. "Hardcore UFOs" (25)

.. also the hi-fier versions of pricks & hunting knife (on the tigerbomb ep & doubtless other places inc. the hunting knife video upthread) >>>>>>>> the origiinal album versions.

that is true

"and then i will run and then i will, and then i will hide and then i will..." damn. it doesn't get any better than that. for real.

For all of the alien lanes love on here, I was the only one to pick striped white jets? It didn't even crack the top200?

no one has mentioned 'the who vs porky the pig'

1. Game of Pricks
2. A Salty Salute
3. Dusted
4. Redmen and Their Wives
5. Exit Flagger
6. Huffman Prairie Flying Field
7. Dayton, Ohio (19 Something and 5)
8. I Am a Scientist
9. Don't Stop Now
10. Chicken Blows
11. Long Distance Man
12. At the Farms
13. Motor Away
14. The Goldheart Mountaintop Queen Directory
15. Weedking
16. Hot Freaks
17. Closer You Are
18. The Best of Jill Hives
19. The Hard Way
20. As We Go Up, We Go Down

sprout's songs on B1000 got absolutely hosed, wow, wtf

they're kind of slight to warrant a vote when the vote is only 20 songs! at least that was my mentality. i love him as a person, at least.

I'm proud to be the only voter for "Cocksoldiers and Their Postwar Stubble". I am perplexed that "Peep-Hole" placed and "Awful Bliss" did not.

1. Motor Away
2. Over The Neptune/Mesh Gear Fox
3. My Son Cool
4. The Official Ironman Rally Song
5. Tractor Rape Chain
6. My Impression Now
7. Blimps Go 90
8. Smothered In Hugs
9. Don't Stop Now
10. Indian Fables
11. It's Like Soul Man
12. Non-Absorbing
13. Cocksoldiers and Their Postwar Stubble
14. The Closets Of Henry
15. To Remake The Young Flyer
16. How's My Drinking
17. Donkey School
18. A Salty Salute
19. Exit Flagger
20. If We Wait

Even though I didn't vote for "Awful Bliss"

btw

it's totally "settlers"!

you people are nuts! srsly. undeniably an 'x' sound in there.

i always heard 'sexless' and 'neutron' as well

Dear ILX.

I never 'got' GBV before, in fact the only album I have and have hung onto was Do The Collapse, bought as a kid when 'Teenage FBI' was all over the radio. However I have been following this thread, and I think now, I 'get' it.

Thanks.

Huge GBV fan, so much so that putting in a ballot would have been way too difficult. Would struggle to narrow down if someone asked for a 100 songs, but just to chip in...

It's "Electric Newspaper Boy". The Settlers/Sexless debate still crops up in the GBV online communities from time to time (but not as much as the "filed"/"fired" from "Subspace Biographies").

Uhhhhh, all of those albums have lyric sheets though

... errrrrrrrrrr, does "Alien Lanes" have a lyric sheet? I can't remember.

my copy does

I'm proud to be the only voter for "Cocksoldiers and Their Postwar Stubble".

This was hovering at the bottom of my list for a long, long time.

It's totally "filed"! ...Right?
Not coincidentally, /l/ and /r/ (as speakers of American English know it -- that's not the official IPA symbol) are both approximants although they are articulated differently. We would only know the real truth if we lived inside Pollard's mouth.

I would have pushed "Things I Will Keep" into the top 50 but I think that may be it. Love the guitar chords in that song.

didn't have a chance to chime in yesterday but "Don't Stop Now" is so great because of its dignity: the characters are low, drunks, deadbeats, there's a million of us, we're king shit, nobodies: but the big chiming chords are stately, they say: we are holding their heads up; they should strut like cocks of the block, they are the top of the line big daddies, they are worthy: don't stop now. I love that song so much.

my 20, songs that did not appear in the ilx 60 highlighted:
Quality Of Armor
I Am A Scientist
Exit Flagger
Game Of Pricks
Echos Myron
Little Whirl
My Thoughts Are A Gas
Queen Of Cans And Jars
Gleemer (The Deeds Of Fertile Jim)
Dodging Invisible Rays
Peep-Hole
My Impression Now
Big Boring Wedding
Tractor Rape Chain
Underwater Explosions
Atom Eyes
Now To War
Motor Away
Man Called Aerodynamics
Smothered In Hugs

Mine ...

1 Motor Away
2 Game of Pricks
3 Hot Freaks
4 I Am a Tree
5 Hardcore UFOs
6 Pop Zeus - Robert Pollard and Doug Gillard
7 My Valuable Hunting Knife
8 Echos Myron
9 Buzzards and Dreadful Crows
10 I Am a Scientist
11 Long Distance Man
12 Tractor Rape Chain
13 Everywhere With Helicopter
14 Cutout Witch
15 Exit Flagger
16 Demons Are Real
17 Gold Star for Robot Boy
18 Underwater Explosions
19 Glad Girls
20 Dayton, Ohio—19 Something and 5

Five best albums
1 Bee Thousand
2 Alien Lanes
3 Mag Earhig
4 Under the Bushes, Under the Stars
5 Live at the Wheelchair Races

i totally lurked this thread b/c the thought of compiling a ballot made my brain go crazy... but thanking u, johnny

Here's my ballot:

Dusted (Fast Japanese Spin Cycle version)
Quality Of Armor
My Valuable Hunting Knife
Dayton, Ohio in 19 Something and Five
Glad Girls
Over The Neptune/Mesh Gear Fox
The Official Ironmen Rally Song
Indian Was An Angel
Tractor Rape Chain
My Impression Now
Pendulum
Blimps Go 90
Buzzards and Dreadful Crows
Echoes Myron
Old Battery
Teenage FBI
I Am A Scientist
Gleemer (The Deeds of Fertile Jim)
Game Of Pricks
Trap Soul Door

Indian Was an Angel was my only one that didn't make the top 60. Should have voted for Tight Globes but I decided to cut out solo stuff.

Old Battery! Interesting choice. Why did you choose it? I like to hear why people like songs as much as I like knowing which songs they voted for.

Amazingly, I haven't exhausted my willingness to talk about this yet.

Thanks for doing all the work on it, Johnny.

great poll!

I seem to have lost my ballot, which I would've posted otherwise, but I know I was the only vote for "girl named captain," "little lies" and -- shockingly to me -- "johnny appleseed." that one's a top 10 for me and I always thought it was a fan favorite. hmmm.

"little lines." oops. but "little lies" will be on my fleetwood mac ballot.

"little lines." oops. but "little lies" will be on my fleetwood mac ballot.

yeah -- johnny appleseed! buzz buzz buzz buzz buzz buzz buzz buzz buzz
i did not vote for that but it is a great little tiny song

Old Battery! Interesting choice. Why did you choose it?

They really nail the early REM sound on that one. And like all great GBV songs, it's catchy as hell.

i totally lurked this thread b/c the thought of compiling a ballot made my brain go crazy... but thanking u, johnny

My Thoughts Are A Gas

I voted for this too!

If I'm not mistaken the What's Up Matador? version of "Gas" isn't even listed in the discography of Jim Greer's GBV book. It's crazy!

And thanks, Johnny!

It's probably been posted already on one of the two threads, but here's "Gas" again. The poster put up art for Tonic & Twisted Chasers, but this is the far superior version found on the "rarities" disc of the What's Up Matador comp

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKsPHJNjnBU