Guided By Voices--what's their deal, anyway???

[saultime]

It?s insanely lame of me to admit, but I saw GBV on Austin City Limits the other day, and that was really the first time I?ve every listened to them.

Anyway, I really dug it. I went out the next day and picked up a ?best of? CD.

I?m really into?and right now I?m wondering where this has been all my life.

But what?s there deal? Is this like the drunkest band ever, or what? I don?t think I?ve seen a picture of Bob Pollard without a Miller Lite in his hand. He was even holding a plastic cup of beer on Austin City Limits!

That?s cool and all, I can certainly relate. Whatever. But could these guys keep it together live, or was it just a joke?

I have to say, one of the things I like most is when rock musicians aren?t afraid of chaos?and seem about 1 step away from loosing it all, but somehow keep it together. That rocks.

Like I said, I really REALLY love what I've heard so far. I?m looking for sort of a ?big picture? perspective I?m not getting from the records, and from not seeing them live, ever. What were they about?

[rolandk]

I saw them a couple years ago and Bob, the rhythm guitar and bass players each drank about 12 beers and smoked a pack of cigarettes. I couldn't even imagine doing that night after night.

[DryCounty]

Well, they called it quits before I could see them. I quite like a lot of their music and some of it I can do without. Regardless, this picture should tell you most everything you need to know:

http://www.gbv.com/gifs/GBV_Cleveland.jpg

(edit -- sorry, didn't know that image would be so fing big)

[joel hamilton]

My partner, Tony, is going out on tour with doug from GBV soon. They are doing his solo stuff. They will be back in austin for SXSW.

GBV played their last shows here in NYC at Irving plaza not to long ago.

Tony and Doug recorded some cool stuff here at the studio during that time.

[theposterkid]

Hey! I was in the front row of that GBV ACL taping. Did you see me? Oh yeah, how would you know?

anyway...i think the drummer and the lead guitar player were the only two people that didn't touch a beer during the show.

the crowd was just as drunk as bob was for sure. some girl in her mid-20's spilled beer on my friend and i during their first song, and later was pinching the cameramen in choice spots. they were true professionals. they didn't even flinch.

[GLEA]

It?s insanely lame of me to admit, but I saw GBV on Austin City Limits the other day, and that was really the first time I?ve every listened to them.

Anyway, I really dug it. I went out the next day and picked up a ?best of? CD.

I?m really into?and right now I?m wondering where this has been all my life.
....

I felt the same way when I was turned on to them in '93 /94. I've got nearly every thing they've done: a stack of singles, 3 box sets, DVD, and a load of albums, cds and bootlegs. It is almost too much. That best set is a good start. The usual line is Bee1000 and Alien Lanes are the best ones, but I have only not like the one before the last one. That was because there was't enough lead guitar for my tastes. I only saw them twice, London in '99 and in a little bar in Boise the next year. That bar gig was one of the best ever shows I saw. It wasn't one of their marathon 3 hour gigs, but that meant they stayed focused the whole time.

Now, I saw the Who and the Move and the Kinks and a load more, (and I mean in the '60s) and I thought that was as close as it gets. Great melodies, great music great lyrics. Really should have been much bigger, but so it goes.

Pollard is a great guy and a huge music fan. On the hits box set, there are pictures of his record collection... one of my pal Deniz' records was on the top of one stack!

We covered a GbV song, and he was into it. He was surprised when I introduced myself, 'cause he thought we were a bunch of young guys. I'm older than Pollard and at least two of the other guys on our records are even older than me!

The ACL show was pretty good, but so short.

Doug Gillard, was the perfect foil for Pollard and he's a great writer hisself.

[Antero]

They played at my university last year. Apparently the dude was blasted out of his gourd and verbally abusive.

They are good though. I'm more of a Pixies guy, but I can certainly appreciate them.

[bobbydj]

I got into them about a year ago, even though I heard them first about 6 years ago. I was reading Dennis Cooper and I told a cd-aholic friend that he needed some GbV in his mind. But it didn't seem to be working. Fuck knows why it took me so long to get it. I just bought a vinyl copy of Vampire on Titus last year (on a whim), and that sort of clicked - and then pretty much everything else fell into place. Love 'em.

[Mark]

Pollard is a great guy and a huge music fan. On the hits box set, there are pictures of his record collection... one of my pal Deniz' records was on the top of one stack!

Not Deniz Tek, ex Radio Birdman?

Who currently works as an emergency/trauma doctor in Montana!

[lonesome_tone]

i can still remember hearing GBV for the first time, the summer, maybe like 96/97, riding on the passenger seat of a Honda CRX, you know, the really foul cockroach-hatchback? it was a 'real' cassette of Bee Thousand, and I was thinking, man does this tape sound worn out.... but I loved it, and I took to it like a fish to water.

Nowadays they're just one of my absolute fave bands, and I can't help but relate alot of stuff that I like (in that world) to them. The fact that most of their classic stuff was 4 tracked and boomboxed, and it's mostly better than their 'produced' stuff, is just really incredible. More bands should really take the hint.

They're also the only cool band to play here (Trenton, NJ) in a very long time. I was extremely psyched, extremely drunk, and very hoarse after that show.

My faves, like I said are the four trackey ones, Bee Thousand, Alien Lanes, and Propeller. Vampire on Titus is really good. I like Do The Collapse. I really like Under the Bushes, Under the Stars. Bob's latest solo album is excellent.

Tobin's solo stuff is cool, and he does many of their classics from the 92-95 time period. I listened to a Doug Gillard thing today (Gem) and it was cool. He wrote 'I am a Tree' which is probably one of my favorite late-period tracks. Bob doesn't write all the songs, a little bit peeve of mine that it's so assumed (like just him on the cover of the Best Of, which contains half a dozen Tobin and Doug songs...)... but I love the band anyways.

The NEW Bee Thousand triple LP edition, you gotta get it bro! It sounds cleaned up and you can hear the songs' proper endings and beginnings and stuff like that.

[bigtoe]

hey-

they are the bomb...and i like them in all the incarnations.

like you - when i heard em in 94 i went out two days later and bought everything they had at Dr.Wax...and i was like "jesus where have I been?!"

2 years later...i was sitting in a studio watching 'em practice as the CV/GBV line up. don let me do a pollard vox session and it was way bizarre as i was such a freak for em at the time.

they do drink...but they are great musicians. the stuff the last band will do from this point forward i'm sure will rule...the stuff i know from cle town:

bob is working with todd tobias...who was in gem with his bro tim. todd's a sound freak and tim writes some of the aboslute best songs on the planet. they are both in "clouds forming crowns" (formerly 'bloom' before a court threat)...and they are going on tour in PA and NY in march. todd doesn't hit the road...the guys in the mighty viva caramel! are the touring band. (btw- todd books out of waterloo sound recording if anyone wants to record with him. i saw him last year and he wants more work!)

"Tony and Doug recorded some cool stuff here at the studio during that time."

joel - i've done some of gem and doug's solo stuff in the past on 8 track and boy howdy am i excited to hear doug's stuff given the treatment!! his new first official solo LP is 24 track recorded at waterloo in kent and it completely rules. those two are backing up alex chilton! nuts! doug just rules on all levels. he's trying to squeeze some time in for a recording seminar here in cleve i'm setting up. great fella.

have fun exploring the gbv to the OP. not to sound cliche but they are the only thing that comes close to the beatles for me. ok. i'm cliche...what do you want? i live in ohio and work at a desk...i've got my tie on.

gush,
Mike

[nipsy]

hey-

..... not to sound cliche but they are the only thing that comes close to the beatles for me. ok. i'm cliche...what do you want? i live in ohio and work at a desk...i've got my tie on.

gush,
Mike

you need to listen to some xtc, loosen that tie baby.......

[nipsy]

alien lanes......

[I'm Painting Again]

hey-

..... not to sound cliche but they are the only thing that comes close to the beatles for me. ok. i'm cliche...what do you want? i live in ohio and work at a desk...i've got my tie on.

gush,
Mike

you need to listen to some xtc, loosen that tie baby.......

and the beegees 1st..

[Mr PC]

I live in Cincinnati, about an hour south of Dayton, Ohio where GBV is from. I kick myself for not seeing them more than a couple of times. I've just started getting into them about 6 months ago. Nice timing.

I have a friend who is about 37 years old and is from Dayton. She would sneak into their gigs in Dayton bars when she was in high school. Damn it would be great to have a time machine. They were a going concern for quite a long time. Pollard was a grade school teacher, a local band guy here in Cinci actually had him for a teacher.

Anyway, one of the shows I saw was in a little bar, and the last few songs were sung by fans because Bob was laid out on the stage, too drunk to get up. The fans knew all of the lyrics though, and the GBV bass player let one of the kids play bass on a couple of songs.

It is especially great to get into them now, with all that is wrong and cynical with the music business. They very much embody what rock-n-roll is really about. (beer, of course).

PC