This is a band that turns on a dime, rips it up, psychs it out and can radically shape-shift to realize a three-act rock opera in 2 minutes and 48 seconds. There's humor and whimsical childlike musings, cinematic grace and elegance, dark futuristic undercurrents, heavy duty propulsion, twists and turns and kinetic magic.
. Vinyl LP pressing. Robert pollard is a lyrical master; not a word out of place, every line bristling with surprise, telling a story that's both irresistible and impossible. Once you hear it, you will know why. Pollard has acknowledged that this line-up's adroit talents pushes him to more daring and dizzying heights.
With a renowned work ethic and a daily pot of coffee, Robert Pollard continues to outclass younger generations of come-and-go rock bands. After 20+ years, 2000+ songs, 100+ albums, pollard still can't really explain or doesn't want to explain his secret: "The songs just come to me. In 2017, the new gbv line-up veterans doug gillard and kevin march and newcomers Mark Shue and Bobby Bare Jr blew audiences away and toured behind the ambitious and sprawling multi-vocalist double album August By Cake, followed just months later by the concise punchy and catchy How Do You Spell Heaven.
Closer You Are: The Story of Robert Pollard and Guided By Voices
Robert pollard has had an amazing and seemingly endless career in rock music, but he's also established himself as a consummate artist who works on his own terms. The authorized biography of robert pollard, indie rock icon and founder of the music group Guided By VoicesRobert Pollard has been a staple of the indie rock scene since the early '80s, along with his band Guided By Voices.
Until now. Author matthew cutter is a longtime friend of Pollard and, with Pollard's blessing, he's set out to tell the whole, true story of Guided By Voices. But his story has never been faithfully told in its entirety. A prolific artist, pollard continues to churn out album after album, much to the acclaim of critics and his obsessive and devoted fans.
Pollard was a longtime grade school teacher who toiled endlessly on his music, finding success only after adopting a do-it-yourself approach, relying on lo-fi home recordings for much of his and his band's career.
Tonight's the Night Live 2LP - Roxy
Close your eyes and you'll be right there in that dark, smoky, 500 capacity room in West, L. A. Young would be the first artist to christen the stage at what would become one of the world's great clubs, The Roxy Theater on the riotous Sunset Strip, right next door to the already infamous Rainbow Bar & Grille.
The album's final track "walk on" would not appear until the release of On The Beach, in July 1974. Produced by young and the late david briggs, these resultant recordings were mixed by John Nowland with updated post-production and mastering by John Hanlon - along with Chris Bellman - at Bernie Grundman Mastering using the original analog master tape source.
On a hot summer night in 1973.
Sparkle Hard
. The fact that stephen malkmus & the jicks have thrived, sub-cultural significance, rather than simply endured, over 17 years and delivered six albums of buzzy, constitutes an impressive legacy. It’s light ’n’ breezy, melancholic and reflective, head-down heavy, goodtime and bodacious, and it pulls off the smartest trick: it’s both unmistakeably The Jicks and – due to the streamlining of their trademark tics and turns, audacious, plus the introduction of some unexpected flourishes Auto-Tune! A fiddle! Guest vocalist Kim Gordon! One seven-minute song with an acoustic folk intro! – The Jicks refashioned.
Shrink-wrapped. It also has turbocharged energy and enthusiasm by the truckload. Shrink-wrapped.
Ogre's Trumpet
Double vinyl LP pressing. It has made frequent personnel changes but always maintained the presence of principal songwriter Robert Pollard. Shrink-wrapped. Shrink-wrapped. Plays songs from the 2017 albums how do you spell Heaven and August By Cake, along with a healthy dose of GBV classics and a cover of The Monkees to boot.
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There'S A Riot Going On Double-LP
These are dark times, in our heads as much as in the streets. Shrink-wrapped. Shrink-wrapped. You’d imagine most of the songs had sprung forth whole, since they will enter your head that way. Ira kaplan, georgia hubley, and james mcnew did it all themselves, in their rehearsal studio, with no engineer and no complicated equipment John McEntire later assisted in mixing.
You are there. There are shimmery hazes, spectral rumbles, a flash of backward masking. Confusion and anxiety intrude into daily life and cause you to lose your compass. They did not rehearse together beforehand; they turned on the recorder and let things coalesce. Shrink-wrapped. Songs came together over long stretches, sometimes as much as a year going by between parts.
There are times that call for anthems, something to lift you out of your slump and put fire in your feet.
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Mag Earwhig! Vinyl
How Do You Spell Heaven
. 2017 release from the uber-prolific Robert Pollard and his main day job, Guided By Voices. Shrink-wrapped. Guided by Voices is on a roll. Shrink-wrapped. Vinyl LP pressing. Recorded by the band in new york, how do you spell heaven capitalizes on the current incarnation's tour-buffed shine without sacrificing eternal verities such as but not limited to: off-kilter rhythmic jolts; krazy chords; purposefully imperfect harmonies; and fragmented structures that start and stop on a coin of small denomination and go somewhere else, and by Pollard in Ohio, and quickly.
Hot on the heels of the smothered-in-plaudits double album August By Cake comes this hot and heavy fifteen-tune long player, a melody-dense thwack to the earholes that will both energize and deplete your body of it's remaining music-appreciation enzymes. There's more, much more-the easiest, laziest way to sum up this latest album is the most obvious: How do you spell heaven? Shout it from the rafters: G-B-V! Shrink-wrapped.
Thus, ergo, quod erat demonstrandum: roll.
Clean
What A Time To Be Alive
Shrink-wrapped. Obviously, any sane person would gladly trade four to eight years of terrible music for not having our country dismantled to satisfy the whims of a vengeful child and his enablers. That said, and the urgency of current events gave Mac, Jim, Laura, good music and art still have a lot to say, and Jon the momentum to make something new sooner than later.
Shrink-wrapped. It makes creating your own vision of reality so much easier…” Despite the album’s driving force, policy, it would be a mistake to call the album political, which suggests it has anything to do with parties, or anything that can be broken down into a rational difference of opinion.
I think that’s important to not be completely bummed out about everything all the time. The title track charges in first and says it all. Shrink-wrapped. It’s about ‘how do you live / not go crazy’ in the current climate when it seems like every day there’s a new outrage being perpetrated. Evie nagy Shrink-wrapped.