Guided by Voices

Certain Songs #563: Guided by Voices – “How’s My Drinking?”

June 11, 2016 by Jim Connelly

Album: Isolation Drills
Year: 2001

Of course, drinking is one of those things that is all bound up in the mythology of Guided by Voices, as anybody who has ever seen Robert Pollard on stage, chugging beer after beer in between (or during) his songs would know.

So figure “How’s My Drinking” to be Pollard’s version of “Here Comes a Regular,” a slow, sad ballad that takes a deep dark look at what he might be doing to himself.

Certain Songs #562: Guided by Voices – “Run Wild”

June 10, 2016 by Jim Connelly

Album: Isolation Drills
Year: 2001

Just wanna to get some perspective here. Isolation Drills was the 12th studio album from Guided by Voices, not counting all of the singles, EPs, collections of ephemera and Robert Pollard solo albums that had come out in the second half of the 1990s.

So by this time, the song count was deep into the 100s, and yet, like I said yesterday, Isolation Drills might just be the best album Pollard ever released, and the an “Run Wild” is a key reason why.

Certain Songs #561: Guided by Voices – “Glad Girls”

June 9, 2016 by Jim Connelly

Album: Isolation Drills
Year: 2001

While Bee Thousand and Alien Lanes are always going to be sentimental favorites, the Guided by Voices album that would probably be seen as their best by any normal person would be 2001’s stellar Isolation Drills.

Starting off with the ringing roaring “Fair Touching,” Isolation Drills is where the big guitars of Mag Earwhig! meets the production values of Do The Collapse meets the crazy ass pop smarts of Alien Lanes.

Certain Songs #560: Guided by Voices – “Things I Will Keep”

June 8, 2016 by Jim Connelly

Album: Do The Collapse
Year: 1999

So on one hand, having abandoned the indie confines of Matador for the major-ish TVT and bringing a certified name producer whose name happened to be Ric Ocasek, Do The Collapse was clearly the Guided by Voices sellout album.

Especially since there was a whole two years between Mag Earwhig! and Do The Collapse. Gasp!

On the other hand, are you fucking kidding me? Despite the snoozy ballad “Hold On Hope,” Robert Pollard remained too idiosyncratic of a voice, his music too rooted in the past, his worldview too skewed sideways for any amount of spit and polish to breakthrough in the TRL era.

Certain Songs #559: Guided by Voices – “Jane of the Waking Universe”

June 7, 2016 by Jim Connelly

Album: Mag Earwhig!
Year: 1997

Of course, as a transition album, Mag Earwhig! wasn’t all immaculately-recorded songs featuring razor-sharp guitar lines and multiple-part song structures.

So for every Who-like “Portable Men’s Society,” there was a short & simple “I Am Produced;” for every shiny “I Am a Tree,” there was a fuzz-pop “Jane of the Waking Universe.”

Certain Songs #558: Guided by Voices – “I Am A Tree”

June 6, 2016 by Jim Connelly

Album: Mag Earwhig!
Year: 1997

I’m sure it seemed like an affront to worshipers of the lo-fi aesthetic for Robert Pollard basically sack the entire “classic” GBV lineup, recruit an entire new band (made up of Cleveland’s Cobra Verde), and record the majority of Mag Earwhig! in a real recording studio.

But to me, the thing I loved about Guided by Voices wasn’t the lo-fi aspect of their music, it was Pollard’s songs, and Mag Earwhig! had a healthy good dollop of his always reliable songwriting, as well as focused two guitar attack that was only previously hinted at.

Certain Songs #557: Guided by Voices – “Look At Them”

June 5, 2016 by Jim Connelly

Album: Under The Bushes Under The Stars
Year: 1996

After the twin triumphs of Bee Thousand and Alien Lanes, I was kind of disappointed with 1996’s Under The Bushes Under The Stars.

While it was sonically way more consistent that its predecessors, it didn’t have a lot of songs that immediately brought me into the record.

Certain Songs #556: Guided by Voices – “King And Caroline”

June 4, 2016 by Jim Connelly

Album: Alien Lanes
Year: 1995

In 1995, Jim Greer basically beat every other rock critic ever by joining the band he helped mythologize.

After all, Robert Duncan never joined KISS, Lester Bangs never played with Lou Reed and Dave Marsh didn’t join the E Street band, but after Bee Thousand, Greer replaced Greg Demos as the bass player in Guided by Voices.

Certain Songs #555: Guided by Voices – “Motor Away”

June 3, 2016 by Jim Connelly

Album: Alien Lanes
Year: 1995

To be honest, I could probably do a half-dozen songs from Alien Lanes, so just because I’m not writing about songs like “As We Go Up, We Go Down,” “A Salty Salute,” “My Valuable Hunting Knife” or Tobin Sprout’s “Little Whirl” doesn’t mean I don’t love them, it just means that I’m probably already doing too many GBV songs as it is.

That said, there was no way I wasn’t going to write about the two minutes of power pop glory that is “Motor Away.”

Certain Songs #554: Guided by Voices – “Closer You Are”

June 2, 2016 by Jim Connelly

Album: Alien Lanes
Year: 1995

After the electric shock recognition of Bee Thousand, I was way more prepared for the follow-up, 1995’s Alien Lanes, which crammed a completely ludicrous 28 songs into a 41-minute CD.

This kind of delicious overkill makes Alien Lanes if not the best Guided by Voices album, then definitely the most Guided by Voices album.

I seem to recall somebody somewhere comparing it to The Who Sell Out, and I like that comparison, but instead of mimicking a AM pirate radio station beaming the hits onshore, the experience of Alien Lanes is more like driving your car trying to tune in one of the local college radio stations, only you’re only able to get bits and pieces of each song, until you suddenly zero in on the greatest song you’ve never heard before that you might never hear again.