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

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.

Ha ha! That was too snarky.

No, Rob, it was not snarky enough. There seem to be an influx of people like Rich these days...

double xp

I think the thing that bugs me the most is when people who openly admit that they haven't heard much of Pollard's catalog feel that they can make these sweeping judgements of the man's body of work without really knowing what they are talking about. It's one thing to not like it - that's fair enough - but to throw around these uninformed opinions about a rather large body of work is ridiculous and unfair.

If you want to get the most out of Pollard's work, you really ought to immerse yourself in it. I seriously don't think you're going to get the GBV otherwise, except for invidual songs/albums here and there. GBV just isn't built for casual listening, so it's no shock that they turn off dilettantes in droves. Pollard rewards devotion and obsession, and I think that's because he seems to find that part of music fandom to be the most enjoyable.

Most of ILM to thread over the past few years! (It seems.)

GBV just isn't built for casual listening

Then WHY BOTHER LISTENING?

Sorry, I just think this is a bit silly. It has to grab your attention on some level immediately -- everything does -- otherwise why would you want to pursue it further?

What I mean by 'casual listening' is that they just aren't the kind of band that you can just buy one of their records and slap it on and 'get' the band. If you want to 'get' them, you need to put some time and effort in. But most of the best GBV records can work simply as good rock/pop albums - Isolation Drills, Universal Truths & Cycles, Bee Thousand, Alien Lanes, Mag Earwhig, Under The Bushes, Speak Kindly..., Waved Out all can work on that level, pretty much. It's not as though it's Merzbow or something.

Eurgh. I thought you were supposed to like music and then pursue your interests, not get a validation for having heard most everything.

"Just sacked my band! I love the WHO." *NOW A HIGH KICK*

"GEE BEE VEE" X Way too many goddamn times

Insert "How many hipsters does it take to screw in a light bulb joke" here.

I don't think anyone really needs to hear ALL of Pollard's work to 'get' him, I just think they need to get an impression of a) his best pop songs and b) the differences between his many records. Actually, I think that if Michaelangelo isn't going to be impressed by that Best Of (which isn't perfect but does give a good sampling of great songs from several eras of GBV), he probably never will be.

p.s. please quietly disregard all of the above comments if you are a fan of yes, queen, king crimson, emerson-lake-palmer, and/or rush. it is obvious why you don't understand.

"long live rock",

the OX

http://www.johnentwistle.com/

I've heard enough from all over his career to get a sense of his progress and breadth of what he's done, but I still feel uncomfortable talking about his career in a broad sense because I feel like I'm missing too much to have a fully informed opinion. When I read what some people have to say about Pollard's work, it really grates on me when it is clear that he's being dismissed or misunderstood because the writer hasn't had a lot of exposure to the work. It's maybe unrealistic for me to expect every writer to be an expert in what they are writing about, but I surely prefer it if the person at least knows what they are talking about.

This is just one of my hang-ups, I suppose.

next day...

C: "Hey, A, what's up"
A: "alright, talked to your friend B. I thought he was a real asshole, which made me sad because you told me such great things about him"
C: "Oh, you just have to get used to him, but seriously, trust me.. he really is a GREAT GUY! You just have to give him a chance"

And Ned, are you trying to say that you've never come around to liking a record that didn't move you right away?

The irony here being that Pollard is a HUGE and VOCAL prog fan. (Though maybe not fan of all of those particular bands...)

Yes, they are. *sigh*