Dan and I have finished off all the GBV albums and Suitcase collections and now…it’s on to the EPs! We’re gonna start at the beginning and go through them in order. Ok, here we go…
Danmiman:
Forever Since Breakfast, 1986, 7 songs, 23 mins
Barely recognize the band in general or Pollard in particular on “Land of Danger.” “Let’s Ride” sounds like Pollard, but a young version to be sure. Do I just think that because this is an early emission? Maybe. But I still fine it placating, slightly twee perhaps, but diverting at least. “Like I Do,” sounds even more like GBV, murky, muffled vocals, though I don’t really like the sound. Can’t connect to it, as the rock critics like to say about music they don’t like. I guess that sounds fancier than sniffing, me don’t like. “Sometimes I Cry,” actually kicks ass, as no rock critic would say. Greg Kot would say, “This pleases thine ear,” but he’s a liar whom I caught lying about having had a conversation with Black Francis on WGN. “Fountains of Youth” is the first GBV song to sound like The Who. All in all, a sincere effort from the Dayton kids, the kind of album a nearly 40 year old grammar school teacher might record in his spare time.
Tbe Grand Hour, 1993, 6 songs, 10 mins
The second song on this EP is the classic “Shocker in Gloomtown,” a straight up GBV, no holds bar, gem. Covered by several bands, S in Gtown, is 80 seconds of rock bliss. “Off the Floor” starts promising, it’s a different GBV song, a good one, but then it changes into something else, a Pollard junky bait n’ switch. While I can’t say I recommend most of these songs, it is interesting that many of them share titles with great GBV albums that don’t contain the songs. “Alien Lanes” is the name of one of my favorite albums but probably the worst song on here. “Bee Thousand” is maybe GBV’s most sacred album for fans, but here the song is just kind of confusing; a patchwork of two other songs, both might be okay, but stitched together here, it dares listeners to like either one.
Static Airplane Jive, 1993 6 songs 11 mins
This required a little bit of detective work for me. Spotify does not have the EP, It has the song “Static Airplane Jive,” a jumble of a tune on one the suitcase albums. I had to resort to Youtubing it, and thank god Álvaro Hermosa Yuste and his 3.99k Youtube followers for making the whole album available—with liner notes! “Big School” is a balls out, flat out rocker. “Damn Good, Mr Jam” pleases thine senses nicely. We’re five minutes into a ten minute EP and have only heard two songs. This explain the length of “Rubber Man, “a song that is probably 20 seconds, (Álvaro Hermosa Yuste doesn’t provide song lengths,) but feels four times as long. The next couple of songs are equally short, equally unimpressive. Anyway, I feel like a real COMPUTER HACKER figuring out how to listen to this EP without Spotify’s assistance, and now I will enjoy the rest of my afternoon peeking through the blinds in the hopes that cops don’t bust me into prison jail.
Doctor M
Forever Since Breakfast (1986)
This seven-song EP is the VERY FIRST Guided by Voices release. The first thing that struck me is that Forever Since Breakfast doesn’t sound a whole lot like GBV – it’s more a mid ‘80s “college rock” sound. Though that might sound like a negative, the EP is actually a pretty respectable collection of songs. The production is good as well and sounds like they spent a few bucks getting it made. The songs are pretty standard stuff. No weird ones here. Sometimes I Cry, a solid rocker, is probably the highlight of the EP. A promising start.
The Grand Hour (1993)
The next one on our list is The Grand Hour from 1993. We’re picking up GBV’s career a full seven years later and, whoo boy, things are different. By 1993, we’re knee deep in GBV’s lo-fi sound. The Grand Hour consists of six short “songs” (broadly defined), totaling less than ten minutes. All are pretty rough, featuring crappy drumming, out-of-tune guitars, and lots of weirdness. I’m not sure I’m up for more of this stuff after listening to Suitcase Four last week. I think I’ve had my fill of banging around and yelling.
Static Airplane Jive (1993)
Though Static Airplane Jive is from the same year as The Grand Hour, it’s a more satisfactory collection, consisting of six terrific lo-fi tunes. Rubber Man is probably my favorite. It’s only 30 seconds but it’s a kickass 30 seconds – I wish they’d turned it into a full-length song. The entirety of Static Airplane Jive is featured on Scalping the Guru from 2022, which includes two other EPs, Clown Prince of the Menthol Trailer, and Fast Japanese Spin Cycle, both from the 1993-1994 period. Listen to Scalping the Guru if you’re in the mood for lo-fi GBV.
I am sitting in a hotel room in Ambridge, Pennsylvania on a Friday night. The check-in clerk has to buzz you in to get into the lobby, so maybe this isn’t the best neighborhood. I keep hearing some kind of banging coming from the next room. It doesn’t sound like sex so I’m not sure what the hell is going on there. All that’s irrelevant, however, as I have something important to attend to – writing reviews of obscure 30-year-old GBV EPs. —Mike
Mike:
I Am A Scientist (1994)
The EP starts out with the eponymous tune, I Am A Scientist. This beloved GBV song is, of course, also on the Bee Thousand album. The version on the EP, however, is much meatier, with a full band behind it. Honestly, I think I like this one better. At this stage in the project, I’m getting a little worn out on “tinny, crappo production GBV” and am craving more straightforward stuff. I think Suitcase Four, which I reviewed a couple of weeks back, burnt out my lo-fi circuit. Honestly, I was counting the tracks until that one was over.
Getting back to the EP in question…Do the Earth, a minor key rocker, is another good one. Hell - the other two songs are decent too. Sure, why not? I Am A Scientist is only four songs long, so even if you think it sucks, you’ve only wasted eight minutes of your life. Give it a listen once in a while – it’s pretty good and any of the tunes could’ve been included on a proper album.
Tigerbomb (1995)
Tigerbomb also starts out with alternate versions of well-known GBV tunes – in this case it’s My Valuable Hunting Knife and Game of Pricks from the Alien Lanes album. Again, both versions are more straightforward rock renditions of the tunes in question. The Tigerbomb version of Game of Pricks is especially good. It has 5.7 million listens on Spotify, which is Stairway to Heaven numbers for GBV. The next song on the EP, Mice Feel Nice (In My Room), is a weird one with an uncharacteristic bluesy vocal that sounds like a drunk Sam Cooke singing in the gutter. After that is Not Good For The Mechanism, a non-song consisting of fuzzed-out guitar with a half-baked melody over it. Blecch. The EP finishes up with Dodging Invisible Rays, a decent melodic tune with a ‘60s vibe. Overall, Tigerbomb is a bit patchy – half the tunes are worth a listen, while the other half didn’t do much for me.
Sunfish Holy Breakfast (1996)
This EP has three dirty, nude hippies on the cover. Giving it a second look, the guy in the front looks like he might be wearing a flesh-colored loincloth and may not actually be nude. There are ten songs on the EP, which I suppose is verging on what might be called an “album.” Half are lo-fi tunes with Pollard singing over solo guitar (either electric or acoustic). Most are just OK. Beekeeper Seeks Ruth, for example is a rambling, Suitcase-like tune without heckuva lot to offer. The best of the acoustic numbers is Trendspotter Acrobat, which has a distinct Kinks vibe to it. Nice.
The other half of Sunfish Holy Breakfast is with a full band. Again, some of these are just OK, while others are pretty good. Stabbing a Star is decent, as is Cocksoldiers And Their Postwar Stubble. I can’t even imagine what the hell that title is supposed to mean. The best song on the EP is If We Wait, which is a sweet, Beatlesque tune. If Pollard polished up the production and changed the arrangements, If We Wait would sound like a lot like Gerry and the Pacemakers. I mean that as a compliment, by the way. The song has 3.6 million listens on Spotify – way more than anything else on Sunfish Holy Breakfast, so apparently I’m not alone in my opinion. Overall, Sunfish Holy Breakfast is a respectable collection. Not all the songs are winners but there’s enough there to merit repeated listens.
Adjunct Instructor Dan:
I Am A Scientist EP
First song is, are you sitting, down? “I am a Scientist.” Never heard this exact version before and it’s a fine one. Seems more polished than the original with the exception of the sound dropping out a second or two in—like Pollard is saying, it’s still me, it not going to be perfect. A couple of forgettable songs follow then comes “Do the Earth.” I’d like to say it’s an impassioned plea for a sane approach to climate change, but I have no idea what it’s about. It mentions “space invaders” and “opium fields,” and it’s a really nice song, though the tempo shift 2/3rds of the way in doesn’t do it any favors. Speaking of the Earth, “Planet’s Own Brand,” the final song on the Ep is a fine toe tapper, by which I mean you can tap your toe to it. Pollard sings the line “Under the bushes, under the stars,” the name of an album on which this song, of course, does not appear. Every line in the Pollardverse points to another line, every reference refers to another reference wrapped up in a still different reference, as Churchill would put it, if he had ever heard “Winston’s Atomic Bird.”
Tigerbomb
Six songs in 13 minutes. The first is My Valuable Hunting Knife—a GBV all timer in any version, though this is not my favorite. That would be the one on Alien Lanes, even crunchier than the Hourly Amusements version, which is better than this Ric Ocasek sounding version. Still a good tune. Then comes “Game of Pricks” and it puts you right there man, a real good mood, but the comes the rest of the album it’s all kind of irritating. But forgive the old man his trespasses. If he needs to exorcise a “Not Good for the Mechanism” every now and again to keep the mechanism running, so be it. The Ep’s last ditty, “Diging Invisible Rays” is a straight up banger, as my grandson would say. If I had a grandson. (No rush, kids.)
Sunfish Holy Breakfast
“Jabberstroker” starts out concerning but ends up a nice little guitar driven idyl. Trendspotter acrobat makes me toes a-tap. If we wait sounds twee but it’s a great song. good number. This is an innocuous set of tunes—a throat clearer in the pantheon of GBV albums, EP or otherwise.
In the interest of listening to every damn GBV release, we’re delving into some really obscure shit. Two out of the three EPs this week aren’t on Spotify, so I had to dig around a bit on YouTube to find them. —Mike
Dano:
Plantations of Pale Pink
Because these ee-pees are not spoterfy (mm-mm, I always say it like sling blade) there is a pretty good chance I haven’t heard these tunes before. Systems Crash seems fine, though “Catfood on the Earwig” sounds familiar, parts of it do anyway. I think the guitar is from one song and the vocals from a different song. Could it be? “The Who VS Porky Pig” I don’t have much to say about, but I did want to type the title, just to see what it felt like to do so. It’s fun! And actually so is the song. I guess I hear a little T.Who in it, though not much P.Pig. Speaking of which, the version I am listening to on youtube has naught but one comment on it, and that comment is naught but one word: impeccable. I’m not going to do better than that. Ends with “Subtle Gear Shifting,” a song that didn’t quite grab me on the first listen but really grew on me in subsequent playin’s. Maybe I would add two words to @JLPESK’s review: pretty-much impeccable.
Wish in One Hand
As soon as I hear the first chords I am happy. Why? Oh, it takes a second, but this is “Teenage FBI.” That’s right—Pollard actually is a genius. I remember now, no one needs to tell me why I love this song. Next one is a little ditward called “Now I’m Cryin’,” and now I’m jammin.’ I like it. Pollard is workin’ that vocal instrument and the band is chuggin’ away behind him. The muddied, buried vocals work with the crunchy guitar sound. The last song is “Real,” and it’s real good. The eepee is only half over which means this song is a Proustian three minute, never-ending jam, which frankly could go another two more minutes as far as I’m concerned. It’s that good!
Plugs for the program
“Sucker of Pistol City” is a gorgeous, contemplative song, more of a solo pollard vibe to it than GBV. Builds to a satisfying conclusion. “Surgical Focus” with the vocals turned up, a little echoey, okay. Fine. I like the song a lot and this version doesn’t do much to alter that opinion any. The final song on the eepee is “Picture me Big Time,” which already is not one of my favorite GBV tunes, definitely not a GBV Gem, and this version, if it is even different from the one I’ve always heard, continues to not be one of my favorites. So of the three eepees we listened to this week, only Wish in One Hand feels like a real winner for me, though the song “Sucker of Pistol City” is right up there too, baby.
Mikey:
PLantations of Pale Pink (1996)
Plantations of Pale Pink sounds like a collection of B-side tunes that didn’t make the cut. Each of the six tracks is a proper song rather than just Suitcase-level putzing around, so that’s good. Did they get my juices flowing, however? Eh, not really. None of the tunes are terrible but they’re not gonna knock your socks off either. Most of the songs have only 5 to 7k listens on Spotify, so it appears that this EP isn’t a big fan fave anyways. Not all that surprising. Subtle Gear Shifting is probably the best track on Plantations of Pale Pink. The laggy, rambling vocals evoke a strong post-Pink Floyd Syd Barrett vibe.
Wish In One Hand… (1997)
This EP has only three songs – the bare minimum for an EP. Wish In One Hand starts out with the “original version” of Teenage FBI, a great tune from Do The Collapse. The EP version is a bit crunchier and doesn’t have the whoop-whoop synth noises and polish of the album track. It’s good regardless. The other two songs are Now I’m Crying and Real. Both are pretty respectable and probably could’ve made an appearance on a proper album. The production on these recordings is a bit too flat sounding to have appeared on Do The Collapse, however. Mr. Ric Ocasek would’ve wanted to juice ‘em up a bit.
Plugs For The Program (1999)
The Plugs For The Program EP is also three songs. It starts out with a nice acoustic version of Surgical Focus, another song from Do The Collapse. Bonus! Pollard’s vocals are actually in tune, but I suppose that’s what he was shooting for during the slick production GBV era of the late ‘90s. The other two songs on Plugs For The Program are Sucker of Pistol City and Picture Me Big Time. Both are good, somewhat moody-sounding tunes. Thumbs up there. The GBV database says that Plugs For The Program was a “special EP” that was only sold at a Boston-era chain of mom-and-pop stores, so apparently it’s pretty obscure. Thanks to a certain “Ryex 76” on YouTube, we can all listen to Plugs For The Program – only, however, after listening to an ad asking if we want to know the secret to having “the best poop of your life.” I skipped the ad, so I guess I’ll just have to settle for boring, mediocre poops.
Now that Dan and I have finished reviewing all 257 GBV albums, I thought it’d be a relatively straightforward task to just jump over to the EPs and plow through those. Well, the answer is NO – it’s not a straightforward undertaking. Some of the EPs listed on the GBV database are on Spotify, some aren’t. Of the ones that aren’t on Spotify, some are on YouTube, while others aren’t. Then, to top it off, there are some EPs on Spotify that aren’t listed on the damned database. So I’m just gonna review the ones I can get my hands on and leave it at that. At one time, I had the deranged notion that Dan and I would be able to review every damned song issued by GBV. I’m increasingly realizing that this is next to impossible, given the dozens of album reissues, bonus tracks versions, and other miscellaneous crap that’s out there. Alas, the Completerist will have to settle for “almost complete.” —Mike Strezewski, Nov 2023
Mike:
The Grand Hour (1993) (NOTE – After writing this review, I realized that I had ALREADY reviewed A Grand Hour a few weeks ago. Apparently, my attitude about GBV’s lo-fi stuff changed with a bit of distance from Suitcase Four as I liked it a lot more this time around. Read both reviews and decide for yourself). This EP features six lo-fi songs, similar to what you might expect from 1993-era GBV. The standout track is Shocker in Gloomtown, a rocker which is featured on GBV’s best-of album, Human Amusements At Hourly Rates. Break Even is another uptempo tune that got my attention – good song. There are two tracks on The Grand Hour with the same names as later GBV albums. One is Alien Lanes, which seems to have been recorded in the basement, featuring the crappy-ass drumming that we’ve come to expect from lo-fi GBV. The GBV database says it’s Kevin Fennell playing (GBV’s drummer at the time), but I have my doubts. This is clearly someone who can’t play the drums to save their life. Regardless, the song is pretty decent if you’re in the mood for that kind of stuff. The other song that shares a GBV album title is Bee Thousand. This one, however, isn’t much of a song. It’s mostly just banging and some weird vocals repeating “webo, webo, webo.” With the exception of the last track, The Grand Hour is a nice little collection from the lo-fi era
The Grand Hour
1993 6 songs, 10 mins
Dan:
“Shocker in Gloomtown” is on this thing and that’s what my young grand children would refer to as a banger. I love this song and this version of this song, and I also love the Breeders cover of it. “Off the Floor” sounds like two shitty songs played on top of each other. But why? “Break Even,” is a really nice sone, but this recording muffled. I feel like I’ve heard these songs before? Didn’t we hear shitty songs named “Alien Lanes” and “Bee Thousand” already? Or do I just think that because they’re the names of albums and I am genuinely confused. I’ve heard people, nerds, talk about how the Marvel Universe is hard to follow because of all the diverging story lines and employing tricks like multiverses. Maybe, but Marvel has got nothing on the Pollardverse. They should have a club called FOOP, Friends of ol’ Pollard.
Libbers:
I’ve been slow to post these EPs because I got overwhelmed about what songs go where and which go how. Fortunately Uncle Mike provided a list in his review, which I just copied and made a playlist myself. As I was typing this I thought of another way, which is to find album feature on Spoterfy mm-hmm, and it worked! Who’s a computer hacker! “Delayed Reaction Brats” and “He’s the Uncle” (speaking of uncles) are both prime GBV songs. “The Key Losers,” is a Pollard and an acoustic guitar, no less polished than half the shit on the regular album. “Finks” is actually more full than a lot of the songs on UBUS, with some standard inscrutable lyrics from Pollard against a driving beat. I don’t see a cut on this EP which could not have been on the the actual Under The Bushes album (Finest Joke actually was on a different album.) Maybe Pollard felt pushing the original album over the one hour mark was too much so he had to trim ten minutes. But these are all winners as far as I’m concerned.
Mikey:
This EP consists of five tracks from the – you guessed it – Under The Bushes Under The Stars sessions. Looking at the GBV online database, there are a number of versions of the Under The Bushes album. Some have 24 tracks, some have 26, and some have 33. It’s fucking confusing. The first three tunes on Spotify’s Under The Bushes EP are culled from a 1996 two-CD version of the album, while the remaining two are from a 1998 CD of Under The Bushes.
Here is a listing of the tunes, if you’re trying to keep all this shit straight:
1) Delayed Reaction Brats
2) He’s The Uncle
3) The Key Losers
4) Finks
5) The Finest Joke Is Upon Us
All five songs are pretty good, and the EP is definitely worth listening to. None of the tracks has more than 25k hits on Spotify, so apparently this one is hovering under the radar. Give it a listen. He’s The Uncle is a really nice tune (marred a bit by some annoying screechy mid-song feedback). The last tune, The Finest Joke Is Upon Us, is also on Mag Earwhig! from 1997. As far as I can tell, it’s identical to the album version.
Miguel:
The GBV database lists this one as a single rather than an EP. The 7” version has three tracks while the CD version has four. It’s listed as an EP on Spotify and has four tracks, so I’m going with that. The title song, I Am A Tree, is a kickass tune from Mag Earwhig!. It’s identical to the album version. The remaining tracks, Do They Teach You The Chase?, (I’ll Name You) The Flame That Cries, and The Ascended Master’s Grogshop are relatively quiet songs and all three are worth repeated listens.
Dan’l
“I am a Tree” and “I am a Scientist” are the two songs in which Pollard posits he is a thing. In one case a tree, and in the other, a scientist. In the latter Pollard says he seeks to understand himself and in the former he claims to count his rings. Of the two states of being, I think I would prefer to be a scientist because they are more ambulatory than trees, and I like to move around. However of the two objects, I prefer trees to scientists because trees are nice to look at, whereas scientists are often not, which is why they went into the sciences instead of modeling. Trees also provide shade. Have you ever tried to use Richard Dawkins to block the sun on a hot day? You can’t swing from the branches of James Watson, although you may be able find morel mushrooms at the base of Jane Goodall when she sheds bark. I also like the other three songs on this EP though they’re a little slow for me.
Mr L:
Down by the Racetrack.
Look, let’s be honest. These songs all sort of remind of other GBV songs I like much better. It’s probably true that these are rough drafts, or sketches that led to better stuff. The opening note of “It Travels Faster Through Thin Hair” is absolutely the opening to “Tractor Rape Chain,” though by the second measure it’s wildly divergent. Other songs reverberate and echo, and I don’t mean like Myron. This is interesting to me, someone who is not casual in his fandom, but it’s like homework listening to it. There is certainly some pleasure from hearing it but honestly I’d rather be doing other things. “Copy Zero” is a great song.
Glue on a Bicycle
I tracked some of these songs separately. Tbey were okay, particularly “Little Jimmy the Giant” and “Waves of Grey.” This stuff is not on Spoterfy (mm-hmm) and I ended up on a “Disc-something,” swhere you can buy but you can’t just listen , something I didn’t realizer until after I accepted all the cookies! Even though it’s not on Youtube in its entirety, searching “Glue on a Bicycle” does give you a few useful videos about patching punctures in bike tubes which I would strongly recommend everyone watch.
That wraps up the EPs. I want Mike to agree to do all the solo stuff but I think I need to give him a break first. Have to figure out the right way to ask. And do it in chronological order, which is almost as random as anything else, since my method turned out to be not very random at all. Thoughts?
Dr. S:
Down by the Racetrack (2013)
This EP comprises six oddball tunes, all done with a lo-fi sound. Most are pretty weird, half-baked, and not all that interesting. Copy Zero and Down by the Racetrack (the title tune) aren’t too bad. Neither one really got me all that excited, however. So there
Glue on Bicycle (2013)
The GBV database says this was a “promo CD-only EP available in select stores as well as with any CD/LP English Little League orders from Fire Records.” Apparently you had to jump through some hoops to get your hands on one of these bad boys. The seven songs on the EP are all B-sides from English Little League singles. I don’t want to prejudge Glue on Bicycle, but I wasn’t a giant fan of the English Little League album, so I’m gonna guess that the B-sides from this time period aren’t about to send me into a frenzy. We’ll see…
Three songs on the EP (Jellypop Smiles, Full Framed Luberon, and See You Soon) are “songs” only in the broadest sense of the word. The first two are just irritating noises with yelling over them, while the third is half-baked plinking around on the piano with distorted vocals over it. Three of the other tracks are Tobin Sprout tunes – it seems like a fair number of his contributions are being relegated to B-sides. Hmmm… All three (She Wore Blue and Green, Build A Bigger Iceberg, and Waves of Gray) are simple but pleasant tunes with a Byrds-like vibe to them. Not bad. The final track on the EP is Little Jimmy The Giant, a halfway decent Pollard tune that sounds like it was recorded in the basement. The band makes a few mistakes playing it, which makes is seem like the track is a recording of the band practicing the tune. No idea why this song wasn’t given a proper treatment, as Little Jimmy The Giant sounds like it had some potential.
Mike:
My final act as a reviewer of Guided By Voices’ recorded output (at least until the next album comes out) is to listen to two split EPs featuring GBV and another artist. The first of these is Selective Service, which is a split EP by Guided By Voices and Airport 5. The first four songs are attributed to GBV. All four are the same tracks on the Dayton, Ohio – 19 Something and 5 EP from 2000 (by the way).[1] The first tune is a live version of a great song – Dayton, Ohio – 19 Something and 5, while the other three are Bob-in-the-basement type tracks. It’s just him on an acoustic guitar. All three are quiet, moody sounding, and kept my attention. The title track, Selective Service, is a unique spoken word song – I liked it. So yeah, the GBV portion of the EP is pretty much just Pollard and it’s decent. Not top of the line material but a respectable listen.
The remaining seven tracks are from the band Airport 5, which is basically Pollard and his sometime collaborator, Tobin Sprout. Apparently he and Mr. Sprout hadn’t worked together since 1996, so this EP was somewhat of a reunion for the two. I hope they hugged and put all the bad feelings behind them. I suppose – technically – I’m not supposed to be reviewing this part of the EP, since it’s not attributed to GBV, but I’m gonna do it anyways.
Of the seven Airport 5 songs, most are just OK or not very good at all. Stifled Man Casino is a fantastic song, but that’s pretty much the only one. Total Exposure has a great hook, but the song just repeats the hooky part over and over. This one could have been much better if Pollard and ol’ Tobey had worked on a bit more. Two other songs, Wheel Hits the Path (Quite Soon) and Peroxide are just OK. A few of the Airport 5 songs on the EP, however, are complete duds. Probably the least of these is Eskimo Clockwork, which is just someone piddling around on the piano. On In The Brain, the final song on the EP, Pollard sounds like he’s just making the melodies up on the spot. The last minute consists of Pollard singing “everything is burning…in the brain” over and over.
The second of the two EPs, 8 Rounds: GVSB vs. GBV, is a split EP with Girls Against Boys (i.e., GVSB). It was recorded live at a Washington, D.C. radio station. I haven’t listened to the Girls Against Boys tracks, as they’re nowhere to be found, streaming-wise, but I was able to locate the GBV tracks. As this was recorded in 1997, all the songs are pretty early ones. They originate from Propeller (Unleashed! The Large-Hearted Boy and Some Drilling Implied), Alien Lanes (Motor Away and My Valuable Hunting Knife), with one song from the Grand Hour EP (Shocker in Gloomtown). The recordings are well done and honestly, some of the live versions on the EP are better than the studio originals. This applies particularly to the tracks from Propeller. The production on that album is muffled and crappy sounding, so these versions have a lot more impact than the ones we’re used to. Listening to these also helps remind you that it’s not just the chords and the melody that make a tune great - production is a big part of a song’s success or failure.
[1] In a previous review, I mentioned that I couldn’t find the Dayton, Ohio – 19 Something and 5 EP anywhere. I guess I found it.
Dan:
In many ways this has gone from the Guided by Voices to the Mike Strezewski project for me. I begged him one afternoon while we swilled beers in a basement pub to listen slash comment on all the Guided By Voices albums—I thought it would be easy for me because I already had done it mostly, written two or three sentences for each album. I could focus myself on learning the ancient art of SquareSpacing web design. Whhhell, as it turned out, Mike’s reviews were more than a paragraph, they were like an MLA length one page mini essays, some even using in text citation and footnotes at time. I had to beef up my reviews just so they would match his in girth and length (forget substance, I had no shot) and sadly, my web design skill were SUB-subpar. (Did you know you have to design something so it looks good on laptops AND cell phones? I mean, Jesus!) I felt like a little boy getting kicked out of a band he starts in college, something that actually happened to me. (By the way, it was also Mike who kicked me out that band. I wasn’t practicing, but still.)
First, Selective Service. “Total Exposure” is a solid track, really engaging and shows the Pollard firing on all cylinders in his wistful mode. Oh, hey, off the subject, I just read an interview with Pollard where the question was asked “Which of your 3000 songs which is your favorite,” and he listed a bunch before admitting it was pointless. Still, the first one he said was “Alex Bell.” A great song, but sort of a strange one to come to mind first, right?
Okay, anyway, back to this album, I love the live version of “Dayton Something Something,” because at the end he says, that’s kind of a sad song a little bit, hm? Like even he’s surprised. “What Hits the Path” is great! “Cold War Water Sports” is a moody little tune. I realize I’ve heard a lot of these songs a lot—"Stifled Man Casino” is one of my favorites and nearly every song on this thing is on my 180+ song GBV Gems playlist. “Eskimo Clockwork” isn’t. Some of these songs are credited to Pollard’s frequent collaborator, Tobin Sprout. (I like Tobin but I’m an even bigger fan of his brother, Brussel.)
OH! In that same interview, Pollard lists Robin Zander as one of his favorite vocalists just behind Daltrey. That gave me a jolt of hometown pride even though Rockford Illinois isn’t my hometown and Robin Zander doesn’t live here. Robin’s all right and some of his kids live here and play in local bands. They aren’t kids really, age-wise. I like having Rockford as my closest city. It gets a bad rap but not by me—I dig it. Wow, this fade on “Peroxide” is looong…
GVSB, the other release we’re reviewing, is pure joy from the opening pulsing notes of “Unleashed the Large Hearted Boy.” Every song is a banger, as my grandchildren say. All great songs and made all the more vital in this “Peels-esque Session” mode. “Motor Away” might be my favorite GBV song of all time today, only here a little slower, slightly less motoring, a little more adding up the numbers when the time will come. No wait, “My Valuable Hunting Knife” is my favorite song, jaykay, it’s “Shocker in Gloomtown.” I love this band. Good to be reminded why occasionally.