Guided by Voices

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Guided by Voices
Guided by Voices performing in 2004.
Guided by Voices performing in 2004.
Background information
Origin Dayton, OH USA
Genre(s) Indie rock, Lo-fi, Alternative Rock
Years active 1983–2004
Label(s) Scat Records
Matador Records
TVT Records
Website Official site
Members
Robert Pollard
Doug Gillard
Nate Farley
Chris Slusarenko
Kevin March
Former members
Tobin Sprout
Mitch Mitchell
Tim Tobias
Jim MacPherson
Kevin Fennell
Greg Demos
Dan Toohey
Jim Greer
Don Thrasher

Guided by Voices (often abbreviated as GBV) was an American indie rock band originating from Dayton, Ohio. Since the band's formation in 1983, it experienced frequent personnel changes, but always maintained the presence of principal songwriter Robert Pollard. Guided by Voices disbanded in 2004, though many of its former members remain musically involved in solo careers or other side projects.

Noted at first for its lo-fi aesthetic and typically Portastudio four-tracks-to-cassette production methods, Guided by Voices' music revealed influences from post-British Invasion garage rock, psychedelic rock, progressive rock, punk rock and post-punk. The band also garnered much attention for its prolific output, with a seemingly endless stream of releases. Most songs are in the two-minute range, but many are even shorter; often they end abruptly or are intertwined with odd and homemade sound effects.

Contents

[edit] Early history

Formed in Dayton, Ohio in the early 1980s, Guided by Voices began their career as a bar band working the local scene. As lineups and day-jobs shifted, however, Pollard moved the band towards a studio-only orientation. Guided by Voices' recording career began with a stream of self-financed, independent releases including Devil Between My Toes, Sandbox, Self-Inflicted Aerial Nostalgia, and Same Place The Fly Got Smashed. With only a few hundred copies of each album being pressed, these tended to circulate only among the band members' family and friends.

[edit] The lo-fi years

With the release of the ultra-limited album Propeller in 1992 (of which only 500 copies were pressed, each with a unique, handmade cover), Guided by Voices for the first time gained some recognition outside of their hometown. This was due in part to gaining fans in the college rock circuit and bands such as Sonic Youth, R.E.M., and The Breeders. New York City and Philadelphia were host to Guided by Voices' return to the live stage (and first shows outside of Ohio) in 1993. At this time, the always-fluid Guided by Voices lineup coalesced around the core of Pollard, guitarists Tobin Sprout and Mitch Mitchell (not to be confused with Jimi Hendrix's drummer), bassist Dan Toohey, and drummer Kevin Fennell. Sprout, who had briefly featured in an early-'80s version of the band, had re-joined circa Propeller and soon became Pollard's primary musical foil, in addition to contributing several of his own songs to the band's catalog. 1993 also saw the release of Vampire on Titus, as well as the Fast Japanese Spin Cycle and Static Airplane Jive EPs. Over the next year, the band began to receive national media exposure from sources such as Spin magazine.

In 1994, after culling both new songs and reams of archival recordings from GBV's history, Pollard delivered the indie landmark Bee Thousand via Scat Records, with a distribution deal through indie label Matador Records. Soon, the band officially signed with Matador, concurrent with Pollard and his bandmates finally retiring from their day jobs to work in music full-time. The band surprised early audiences accustomed to the generally shambling, lo-fi and collage-like quality of the records with their energetic live show, featuring Pollard's homegrown rock theatrics (consisting of karate-kicks, leaps, and Roger Daltrey-inspired mic-twirling), Mitch Mitchell's windmilling and chain smoking, sometime bassist Greg Demos' striped pants, a never-ending barrage of tunes that all seemed to clock in under 90 seconds, and prodigious alcohol consumption all around.

Their true Matador debut came in 1995 with Alien Lanes, which, despite a five-figure recording allowance, was constructed out of home-recorded snippets on the cheap. The band's underground following continued to grow, with notices coming from mainstream sources such as MTV and Rolling Stone. After sessions for a concept album entitled The Power of Suck were aborted, the band assembled Under the Bushes, Under the Stars out of their first 24-track studio sessions, recorded with Kim Deal and Steve Albini among others, in 1996. However, the strain of heavy touring would ultimately lead to the demise of the "classic lineup", with Sprout deciding to retire from the road in order to focus on raising his first child, his painting, and as a solo musical career. Sprout and Pollard marked the occasion by releasing simultaneous solo albums on the same day in 1996: Sprout's Carnival Boy and Pollard's Not in My Airforce, with each making a guest appearance on the other's album. Pollard maintained an active, parallel solo and side project career alongside GBV releases for the remainder of that band's existence. These records were primarily self-released. Because GBV alumni were regularly featured, and songs from these albums were frequently included in GBV setlists, they are informally considered to be part of the GBV canon.

[edit] The "professional" era

Pollard created a new incarnation of Guided by Voices with Cleveland glam rockers Cobra Verde in 1997. The following album Mag Earwhig!, combined a new hard-rocking swagger with classic lo-fi fragments and one track, "Jane of the Waking Universe," that featured the classic lineup for one last time. However, after another year of rigorous touring, the "Guided by Verde" lineup split in late 1997 following Pollard's announcement in an interview that he intended to work with other musicians on the next Guided by Voices project.

Cobra Verde's Doug Gillard was tapped for yet another new Guided by Voices lineup in 1998, which also included "classic"-era bassist Greg Demos, former Breeders drummer Jim Macpherson, and eventually, former Amps/Breeders guitarist Nate Farley. Departing from Matador, this lineup (sans Farley) worked with producer Ric Ocasek to create what was intended to be Guided by Voices' major label debut. Initially produced for Capitol Records, Do the Collapse was repeatedly delayed and finally released in mid-1999 on pseudo-indie label TVT. (In the UK it was released on Creation Records). Featuring a slick, heavily processed sound previously foreign to GBV albums, Do the Collapse failed to catch on at radio, and was for the most part greeted with mixed reviews.

Through touring heavily throughout 1999 and 2000, Guided by Voices' live act became legendary, with shows often stretching past the three-hour mark, and populated by an endless stream of new and classic songs, Pollard solo tracks, impromptu covers of The Who, David Bowie and The Rolling Stones, all accompanied by continuous alcohol consumption. In addition to multiple swings through the United States and Europe, 2000 saw the band's first and only visits to Australia and Japan. 2000 was capped with the release of the massive Suitcase, a four-disc, 100-song trawl through three decades worth of Pollard's enormous reserve of unreleased material. (A second box set of unreleased songs, Suitcase 2, was released in October 2005.)

2001's Isolation Drills was recorded with Rob Schnapf, who aimed to capture the band's live sound more closely than did Ocasek. Though the album debuted in Billboard's top 200 and received higher critical notices than its predecessor, it did not achieve the sought-after radio breakthrough.

[edit] The final years

After departing from TVT in 2002, Guided by Voices returned to Matador and released Universal Truths and Cycles, a departure from the previous two radio-aspiring albums, and a return to the band's mid-90's, mid-fi aesthetic. Universal Truths producer Todd Tobias would also record the band's final two albums for Matador. 2003 saw the release of the prog-styled Earthquake Glue, followed by the anthology box set Hardcore UFOs: Revelations, Epiphanies and Fast Food in the Western Hemisphere and the greatest hits compilation Best of Guided by Voices: Human Amusements at Hourly Rates.

In 2004, Pollard announced he was disbanding Guided by Voices[1] following the release of the Half-Smiles of the Decomposed LP, and a final farewell tour. According to Pollard:

This feels like the last album for Guided by Voices. I've always said that when I make a record that I'm totally satisfied with as befitting a final album, then that will be it. And this is it.

On November 9, 2004 Guided by Voices performed on the stage of Austin City Limits, broadcast by PBS on January 22, 2005. Their last television appearance was on Late Night with Conan O'Brien on December 2, 2004. They played the single, "Everybody Thinks I'm a Raincloud (When I'm Not Looking)". After a select round of final US shows, Guided by Voices played their final show with their Detroit garage-rock protege band The Go as an opening act at The Metro in Chicago on December 31, 2004. The four hour, 63-song marathon finale is documented on the DVD The Electrifying Conclusion.[2]

[edit] Post GBV

Pollard released his first post-GBV album in 2006 on Merge Records. The album, titled From a Compound Eye was a double LP produced by Todd Tobias. Other Pollard albums released on Merge and Pollard's own label, Guided by Voices Inc. would follow.

Since GBV's demise, Pollard has frequently been asked about band reunions. In 2007 he told MAGNET: "To me, it’s just cashing in. If you’re gonna get the band back together, it should be to support a new record, not just to play the hits. That’s like doing the county-fair circuit. I don’t see Guided By Voices reforming. For one thing, there were 50 or 60 people in Guided By Voices over time." [3]

Pollard has also commented on the fact that GBV and his solo output are basicially one in the same, when he told Harp Magazine in 2005 "You know, a lot of people try to distinguish things between what is Robert Pollard and what is Guided By Voices. I tell them basically that there is no difference; I am Robert Pollard and I am Guided By Voices." [4]

In 2008 Pollard admitted to almost bringing GBV back for his album Robert Pollard Is Off to Business but decided against it, instead forming a new label titled Guided by Voices Inc. [5]

The 1998-1999 lineup of the band reunited for a few songs at Pollard's 50th birthday in 2007.

In October 2008 it was announced that Guided by Voices' music would be used for a 3-D film musical based on the life of Cleopatra to be directed by Steven Soderbergh with script by former GBV member Jim Greer.[6] Soderbergh and Greer will rewrite the lyrics of the songs to fit the story.[7] Soderbergh had previously used a Guided by Voices song in his film Full Frontal, and wrote an introduction to Greer's book on the band.[8] Pollard wrote the soundtrack to Soderbergh's film Bubble, and that music was released as Music for 'Bubble'.[8]

[edit] Discography

Main article: Guided By Voices discography

[edit] Studio albums

[edit] Guided by Voices Day

The official proclamation declaring November 12, 2004 to be Guided by Voices Day in the city of Los Angeles, CA

In 2004, during the band's final tour, many cities around the United States proclaimed a certain day to be "Guided by Voices Day" in that city. Some of them include:

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Special Announcement From Guided By Voices
  2. ^ The Electrifying Conclusion
  3. ^ http://magnetmagazine.com/interviews/rpollard.html
  4. ^ http://harpmagazine.com/articles/detail.cfm?article_id=3867
  5. ^ http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003800587
  6. ^ Fleming, Michael; Keslassy, Elsa (2008-10-23), "Soderbergh to make 3-D 'Cleopatra'", Variety, http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117994550.html?categoryid=13&cs=1 
  7. ^ Tobias, Scott (2009-01-06), "Steven Soderbergh", The Onion (A.V. Club), http://www.avclub.com/content/interview/steven_soderbergh/2 
  8. ^ a b Olsen, Mark (2006-01-29), "The Indie Boy in the Soundtrack Bubble", New York Times, http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/29/movies/29olse.html 

[edit] References

  • Greer, Jim (2005). Guided by Voices: A Brief History: Twenty-One Years of Hunting Accidents in the Forests of Rock. (New York) Black Cat/Grove. ISBN 0-8021-7013-7.
  • Woodworth, Marc (2006). Bee Thousand 33⅓. (New York) Continuum International Publishing Group. ISBN 0-8264-1748-5.
  • Warren, Jeff. Guided By Voices Database. Guided by Voices Database. Retrieved on 22 August 2007.
  • Linehan, Graham. [1] "The IT Crowd" Season 3 Episode 3

[edit] External links

v • d • e
Guided by Voices
Robert Pollard
Doug Gillard • Nate Farley • Chris Slusarenko • Kevin March
Former members
Tobin Sprout • Mitch Mitchell • Tim Tobias • Jim Pollard • Kevin Fennell • Greg Demos • Jim Macpherson • Don Thrasher • Jim Greer
Albums
EPs
Box Sets
Compilation
Related Articles
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