#Guided by Voices

[introspect-la]

OCTOBER 1994 TROCADERO SCHEDULE

[prettyanb]

Hiiii listen to my voice note below on threads. 🤗🤗🥰

[otakukitten69]

who up guiding their voices? who up sparkling their horse? who up building their spill? who up nicking their drake?

[doomandgloomfromthetomb]

Guided By Voices - Canal Street Tavern, Dayton, Ohio, Sept. 2, 1994

Sometime about 30 years ago, I started reading things about Guided By Voices — primarily in Spin Magazine, I think. That's where a 15-year-old had to go for these things back then, kids! Nothing too huge, just a staff mention here, a single review there. Charles Aaron reported: "GBV singer-songwriter Robert Pollard writes jittery, surging, sideways tributes to John/Paul, Syd Barrett, Lou Reed, Ray Davies, et al, like a teenager in full flush." Sounded enticing!

Then there was Jim Greer, in his A Year In The Life of Rock 'n' Roll column, closing out a long musing on the recently departed Kurt Cobain with this: "I listen a lot these days to 'Exit Flagger' by Guided By Voices, an amazing song written by 37-year-old schoolteacher Robert Pollard in the middle of nowhere, where I live too, like most people, without a whole lot to go on. I quoted part of the lyrics at the beginning of this piece because however Pollard intended the song, it's come to mean a lot more to me since Cobain's death. The song's lyrics end on a tag line after the chorus, which I have never been able to decipher properly. Just before the guitars begin their quick, cathartic crescendo to the fadeout, Pollard can be heard singing either 'Promise to lead you,' or 'Promise to leave you.' Or maybe both. So far it's the closest thing I've come across to a clue in all this mess."

Oddly, Greer would've been able to ask Pollard what those lyrics were very soon; the writer joined GBV as bassist sometime in the summer of '94. He was also engaged to Kim Deal! Jim was leading some kind of indie rock charmed life, it seemed (of course, him and Kim never got married and he didn't last all that long with Pollard and co., but hey).

And what about me?! Well, after reading all of this and more, I finally came across a copy of Bee Thousand that fall at Go-Boy Records in Redondo Beach and took a chance — I don't think I'd heard a note of Guided By Voices yet. And though I was confused at first when I dropped the needle on that bright-red vinyl, by the end I was more or less head over heels. It's hard to re-create in my mind the weird, mysterious beauty of hearing that LP for the first few times, trying to figure out what was going on, but I know it unlocked something. Parallel lines on a slow decline, the story of our lives.

Anyway, here we are 30 years later, and I'm listening to GBV play a typically rowdy hometown show that's packed with Bee Thousand tunes, plus plenty of Alien Lanes tunes (then called Scalping The Guru, as Bob notes), alongside a host of classic numbers that still sound like they've been beamed in from some other, better universe. "Guided By Voices are fucking pussies!" Pollard exclaims bewilderingly in between songs. Hell yeah they are.

[rocknrollflames]

'Someday' Music Video

The Strokes

Featuring Slash, Duff McKagan, and Matt Sorum

Thank you @jakelinestradlin for reminding me of this. ☺️

@jakelinestradlin @greeneyezblackheart @beebemarie @valupuyhol @elscaptive @prettypersuasion @snakepitgunner @nenynra@slashlover420 @shout-at-the-nightrain @duffsmckagan @duffslut @guns-n-jovi@guns-n-roses-gal @gnr-slvt @hungercityhellhound @he-goes-down @deathyriver @takemetothetopp @dessypanayotova @izzystradlindoesitforme @izzystradliniscute @midnight-alibi @moonage-babe @mycollectionmylife @juliannas-wild-oats @thedeviousdevilxx @lonelyfuckingcat @cel3brity-skin @popcorn-adler @stvnszlr @ride-the-hammett

How many people can I tag? I just wanted to see how many mutuals I can remember. I won't do it again. Swear! It took wayyy too long! If I forgot you then I'm sorry, or I thought you'd hate it, or you're welcome!

[musickickztoo]

Robert Pollard *October 31, 1957

[polaroidblog]

[rastronomicals]

Guided by Voices

[guerrilla-operator]

GUIDED BY VOICES, "FOREVER SINCE BREAKFAST"

[mdemn]

“so what happened to the dog?” “the don tried to drown her. i broke his nose.”

mafia: definitive edition (dev. hangar 13) / you don't know me (i'm your dog) - guided by voices / i bet on losing dogs - mitski / hermit the frog - marina and the diamonds

[xohzero]

as we go up, we go down by guided by voices

chromesthesia collage. watercolor, hand typed lyrics, collaged elements.

[privt-eye]

Under The Bushes Under The Stars (1996) - by. Guided By Voices

[stolenchapstick]

i've waited too long... ♪

[doomandgloomfromthetomb]

Guided By Voices - The Lounge Ax, Chicago, Illinois, April 5, 1995

First the Faces and now GBV? Fuck Dry January, I guess. This great tape of the band in 1995 at Chicago's late/lamented Lounge Ax club comes from a newly kicked off archival project of mammoth proportions — the digitization/preservation of Windy City taper Aadam Jacobs' collection. No tape left behind!

The details: Aadam Jacobs is a notable figure in the Chicago music scene, known for his extensive audio recordings of live shows during the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000’s. For two-plus decades, he attended a dozen or more gigs a month, setting up his microphones and deck and audio taping the performances for his private collection. Often referred to as "Chicago's Taping Guy," Jacobs has spent decades capturing thousands of live performances, particularly in Chicago's indie rock and underground music venues. Jacobs' dedication to preserving these live performances has culminated in a vast archive of audio tapes. There are roughly 10,000 tapes with approximately 3 sets per tape so the archive likely is 30,000 separate performances.

The Aadam Aarchive is already off and running with all kinds of cool stuff from the past 40 years — many thanks to all involved. On this particular night in 1995, Pollard and co. were just starting to tour behind Alien Lanes; the 30+-song set features a hefty helping of that classic LP, plus plenty of even-newer material. Bob was deeply inspired during this era, writing insanely catchy tunes effortlessly and prolifically. He was also pretty mellow — GBV shows hadn't quite turned into drunken revelries at this point (though everyone is drunk, don't get me wrong). Funny to hear him casually sharing jokes and indie rock gossip with the Lounge Ax crowd. Now, where's Elliott Smith's opening set???

[dustedmagazine]

Guided By Voices — Strut of Kings (GBV Inc.)

Photo by Ellen Qbertplaya

In an interview following the announcement of the new Guided By Voices record, Strut of Kings, Robert Pollard explained why it would, uncharacteristically, be the group’s only release this year: “I just wanted to give this one a little more time to sink in with the fans. Give them some breathing space.” Take Pollard at his word: Strut of Kings is worth the focus and, speaking of space, it’ll take up as much as your speakers allow.

Back in 2018, I wrote that Space Gun (also that year’s only GBV album) was “a protein-rich re-entry point from which to backtrack through the post-millennium catalog…with triumphant blends of sweeping rhythm guitar, ascending lead riffs and rolling rhythm sections.” Six years and 13 albums later, I’ll say the same of Strut of Kings, only more so. As on Space Gun, Pollard is backed by Bobby Bare Jr., Doug Gillard, Mark Shue, and Kevin March, but here they play with a stormier ambition that adds an extra potency to the songs. This isn’t angry music, exactly, but it is noticeably heavier and sounds off with a harder-rocking urgency.

On the edgier end of things come ornery, ear-ringing slugfests like “Olympus Cock In Radiana” and “Cavemen Running Naked.” The first of which heaves around thick, fuzzy guitar arpeggios over a dogged stomp with the bare menace of early Black Sabbath. The second evokes both Queens of the Stone Age with its brute force drumming and taut, meaty riffs and Thin Lizzy with its buzzy, glamorous bursts of guitar. Sequenced between those two and yet darker is “Leaving Umbrella.” The track, slow, sheer and draped with cymbal crashes and sliding walls of distortion, finds Pollard wallowing in a psychedelic, fantastical fog, like a long lost David Bowie album for Southern Lord.

Ill-tempered bangers aside, Strut of Kings is, like so much of Pollard’s vast catalog, at its best in rich, punchy, power pop mode. One of Pollard’s great strengths as a vocalist is delivering even his hardest-to-parse lines with the conviction of confessional poetry. As the sparkling strum and thrust of “Fictional Environment Dream” is lifted by sustained electronic keys, “trying to sell me/on such same primitive tools/programming fever dreams/with the fools/let them expel me” might as well be Matthew Sweet lamenting “I’m sick of myself when I look at you.” It’s one of several moments when the musical ambition and vigor of this album crosses into more radiant, but no less powerful territory. Take, for instance, the long, elegiac build of “Bit Of A Crunch,” from clean, picked guitar to a robust, sunbreak-after-rain stadium balladry close to Oasis’ ragged, golden “Don’t Go Away.” Perhaps the record’s most potent blend of beauty and brawn, however, is “Serene King.” At the bridge, while Pollard raps towards his jet plane takeoff on the final refrain, a rapid series of single guitar notes shoot up from the bullying rumble of bass, drums and blasting, third-rail rhythm chords, taking the song from fist-pumping to something like transcendent.

Chalk it up to the explosive instrumentals, but the lyrics, often the most beguiling aspect of a Guided By Voices record, aren’t the most memorable part of Strut of Kings. One verse, though, from the album closer “Bicycle Garden,” stands out: “Though all the roses are dying/the old nest climbing with ivy/is lively.” What better way to describe Pollard’s indefatigable musical career than in terms of voracious regeneration. With this latest liveliness, Pollard and company continue that relentless growth. And remember, they’re leaving the breathing space for you: no one said they needed it.

Alex Johnson

[bandcampsnoop]

2/3/25.

Day Two of the "Look How Good I've Got It" music posts - The Moles are back with "Composition Book". The Moles have been the solo project of Richard Davies since "Instinct" - a clear sound shift from their early work.

And while The Moles (originally from Sydney, Australia, now based in Boston?) no longer resemble anything close to the original lineup, the quality of music remains. The four songs available here are sparser than any Moles release I can recall - guitar, some bass, drums and vocals - with a clear emphasis on vocals. "Had to Be You" is actually a cover of a song by The Bats off "Daddy's Highway". The album also contains another gem off "Daddy's Highway", "Tragedy".

The Moles are doing an east coast tour - some dates with Tobin Sprout, some with Guided By Voices. "Composition Book" is being released on vinyl by Bob Pollard's Splendid Research Records. This digital Bandcamp presence is courtesy of Fire Records.