New Guided by Voices CD, "Earthquake Glue," is amazing!

[RandomKoolzip]

My favorite band, GbV, has let me down a lot lately. The last album, "Universal Truths and Cycles," was terrible, a dissonant, amelodic mess apart from a few isolated moments, and Robert Pollard's solo output (Airport 5, etc) isn't exactly timeless stuff either. "UT&C" was the only GUided by Voices-related CD I've ever sold. I was almost ready to give up on Pollard and GbV.

B U T !!!!! This new album is incredible! "Earthquake Glue" holds together as a whole album, like "Bee Thousand" or "Self-Inflicted Aerial Nostalgia," but with cleaner production. Pollard seems to have rediscovered his ability to sing, and also seems to have realized that he's a great songwriter. THe melodies here are sublime, like the best prog rock/power pop/British Ivasion/ post-punk all mashed together in an Arena Rock blender. Kevin March, the new drummer, is spilling out Keith Moon-ular kit rolls in every available corner. I just got it yesterday and I'm listening to it right now.

My favorite tracks are "My KInd of Soldier," "Dirty Water," and "Mix up the Satellite," but as a whole, the album coheres, and there's little of the obvious filler clogging the arteries like the last few Guided By Voices records....In short, GbV fuckin rules again!!!

[calm_blue_ocean]

1. I fully agree

I have only heard half the record, but it was enough to convince me to place my order at Amazon. The "Jill Hives" song deserves special metion. I had written GbV off as a live band at this point -- didn't even bother with Universal Truths.

Also, the Pitchfork review from yesterday says much the same thing. Basically that the GbV critical community has cried wolf for so many years now (basically since Under The Bushes, Under the Stars), it is getting hard to believe that another great record was coming out, but one finally has.

On a GbV side project note, I did enjoy the Circus Devils "Ringworm Interiors" LP a couple years back. Quite different from GbV. Has anyone heard the second Circus Devils, that Harold Pig record?

[Brotherjohn]

2. How do you think it compares to...

...Do the Collapse? That one was also somewhat dissappointing to me, as was Universal Truths...

I have a lot of GBV, but there's so much out there it's impossible to get everything. My favorites of what I have are Alien Lanes, Bee Thousand, and Mag Earwhig! I think I've heard some of Vampire on Titus and liked it. How does the new one compare to those?

Edit:
I liked Under the Bushes, Under the Stars pretty well, too. I think they went downhill after that and Mag Earwhig!

[calm_blue_ocean]

3. I am always amazed the so many people liked or loved . . .

Mag Earwig. I always theorize that maybe it was the first GbV experience for a lot of people. I put Mag Earwig on my "computer jukebox" recently after not listening for several years -- still don't like it.

Other GbV recommendations: Fast Japanese Spin Cycle EP, Propeller LP, Tigerbomb 7", Speak Kindly of Your Volunteer F.D. LP, that 9 song ep with "Crick Uphill" (blanking on the name).

[Brotherjohn]

5. Well, I only regularly listen to 5-6 songs from it that I put on a tape.

Although "Now to War" and "The Finest Joke Is Upon Us" are among my absolute favorite GBV songs, I will give you that it probably was not as consistent a collection. Songs like "I am a tree" and "Bulldog Skin", while slick and radio-friendly, fall kind of flat after a while. I think Under the Bushes, Under the Stars is a more consistently good CD.

No, i'm not a GBV neophyte, however. I started listening during the Bee Thousand/Alien Lanes era, and had several other of their CDs before Mag Earwhig! came out.

[RandomKoolzip]

4. I don't think they went downhill so much as that

Robert Pollard, after "Mag Earwhig!," had acquired that most sinister of curses, an uncritical audience. I admit that I was/am one of them...I'll buy anything Pollard puts out, but I won't always like the whole thing. Call me a cultist if you will, but I believe Pollard is currently the greatest living melodicist; there's really nobody anywhere who does what he does, except maybe Nick Solomon, and he's more of a guitar hero than a crafter of melodies. Which is why "Prince Whippet" and "Universal Truths" and "Life Starts Here" were so disappointing- nobody was around to tell Bob that maybe his song ideas were weak, and there was gonna be a bunch of slavering fanboys like myself to lap up whatever product shoots forth from his mouth... I have to admit also that I'm probably the only GbV freak who LOVED "Do the Collapse." That's one of his best efforts, IMHO, because it's so focused (no scattershot rambling, just get to the melody...)

BTW, I just had to play "Dirty Water" five times in a row...God, what a great fuckin tune!!!


I think that every GbV fan is awaiting another "Bee Thousand, " but I also bet that that album is considered so incredible because of the context; It was the first GbV album most people heard, and Pollards inventions were indeed mindblowing to behold for the first time. I think that "Mag Earwhig!" is better, though. Cobra Verde were THE backup group for Bob.

I'm not sure what happened in Bob's private life to inspire the new album, but I'm just glad it's happening! Keep the good stuff coming, Mr. Pollard!

PS has anybody heard the "Beard of Lightning" album yet?

[Brotherjohn]

6. Not "downhill" as in losing talent. Just an ebb...

like you say, the uncritical audience could be a factor.

But Pollard has always been prolific to the point of perhaps putting out some things that didn't really need to be released. And after you've been doing it for so long, it gets harder and harder to consistently keep up that level.

I think if the Beatles had stayed together, they'd have become a mediocre band by the late 70s. You can only keep up that level of excellence for so long. Look at Paul McCartney's music into the 80s... SUCKED!! But his early 70s Wings stuff was still pretty good.

I agree that Pollard is perhaps the best melodicist in music today. Compares favorably to Lennon/McCartney. Finding a catchy melody or hook that hasn't been done is the real trick to making new and interesting music. The rest is filling. This is why I think, despite the sometimes poor production and inconsistencies, GBV has been one of the best bands in the last decade or two.

[dolo amber]

7. It is, thus far

My *summer* album. (I say thus far because there's still a bit of summer left and I just got my hands on the quite spiffing new album Fannypack - So Stylistic which is described on their website thusly:

"This is clever, PG 13 “kinder-booty” and it’s a wonderful and spectacular thing. “It’s like Kraftwerk trying to score with J.J.Fadd and The Waitresses while listening to dancehall in a strip club!!!” Standout track being "Cameltoe", just in case anyone is interested ;))

but I digress...I too have been letdown and fearful that the boys had run out of steam, but this new record is as good as it gets. It has that "Alien Lanes" seamlessness that a lot of their newer stuff, imo, has been lacking. My only critisism of it is that I sort of miss the crackly in-the-basement 4 track production sound. I always maintained that the minute they started sounding over produced I was defecting, but while this one is infinitely more produced, they've managed to escape being too slick.

[calm_blue_ocean]

8. One last GbV related comment . . .

In the movie Roger Dodger, the 16 yo kid from Ohio looks uncannily like a young version of Bob Pollard. Coincidence?