 |  |
| P Is For Pollard Guided By Voices puts out "rarities" collections at the rate some bands release actual albums. Since the beginning of their quasi-aboveground era (circa 1994, with the release of Bee Thousand), their recordings have come furiously. King Shit & The Golden Boys, the fifth disc/sixth LP of the extremely dense Box. The Sunfish Holy Breakfast EP. The "fanclub only" Tonics & Twisted Chasers CD (which can easily be acquired in most classier indie record stores, or when seeing the band live). The Hold On Hope EP, which only really counted as a repackaging effort to those who had gone to the trouble of collecting the import-only vinyl singles from the Do The Collapse album. The point is that these records, and virtually all Guided By Voices product, is tailored for obsessives. View the new Suitcase collection, which quite proudly bills itself as four CDs of discarded junk. And still we line up to buy it. What's wrong with us? We, the Postal Blowfish, the Men Called Aerodynamics, the Scalped Gurus? Most likely, postage stamps proved too easy, and baseball cards seemed too obvious. Even a true fan will admit that an embarrassingly small percentage of GBV/Robert Pollard/Tobin Sprout/Terrifying Experience/Nightwalker/Lexo & The Leapers material is actually worthwhile on its own. Only a very gracious fan could wade through both boxed sets and emerge with a full disc's worth of killer material. The best GBV albums, Bee Thousand and Alien Lanes, have a couple of bad tracks apiece themselves.
Bizarrely though, the GBV phenomenon has bucked economic law. In the case of this band's releases, increases in supply increase demand. There is such a multitude of Guided By Voices product -- in such a variety of formats, colors, shapes, and varying rarity -- the concept of actually owning everything is nearly unfathomable. Therefore when a true fan sees something he's not seen before (like the Fast Japanese Spin Cycle EP, or the "Get Out Of My Stations" 7", or Tobin Sprout's limited, um, rarities 2xLP) he has to buy it. Because there's a good chance he won't see it again. And there's no way to find out if it's good or not except to buy it! If the logic of the preceding paragraph made sense to you... wait, allow me to rephrase... If you saw any logic in the preceding paragraph, you are probably qualified to be a Guided By Voices fan. It's a taxing occupation, but a rewarding one. Because as great as the morass of releases is, there is always a new song to be found. "Mice Feel Nice" on the "Tigerbomb" 7"! "June Salutes You" on the "Official Ironman Rally Song" single! Or, my God, "Shocker In Gloomtown" on The Grand Hour EP! These are must-hears! It all starts innocently enough. You buy, on recommendation from a friend, a favored college radio DJ, or the guy who's always behind the counter at the local record store, one of the more widely available albums. Alien Lanes, probably, or Bee Thousand, or Under The Bushes, Under The Stars. Hell, even the subpar (to a true fan's ear) Mag Earwhig! has enough gems to get one hooked. The nasty part is that these "starter" kits are available everywhere, even at Best Buy or Borders or your corporate chain-type stores. Then, in much the way our D.A.R.E. counselors warned us about easily-available marijuana leading the way to harder drugs, you find yourself in seedier and seedier record stores, buying questionably packaged, even more questionably recorded obscurities that probably even won't be that good. But they might be! Even your home computer isn't safe it leads to eBay, SecondSpin, and the newsgroup-listed collections of recovering addicts. Like drug addiction, a good Guided By Voices fix gets harder and harder to fulfill. The first albums you buy will be the best ones, then things get dicier and dicier. Cruelly, Robert Pollard, the Manuel Noriega of Dayton, Ohio, keeps pushing more and more product to market. The only real difference between this and heroin addiction is the lack of track marks. Away from my turntable and my vinyl stash last summer, I think I had withdrawal symptoms. I kept waking up in a cold sweat with a sudden irrational desire to play "Subspace Biographies" until my stylus wore right through my vinyl copy of Waved Out! There's always a big score right around the corner. Found a mint copy of the essential double-live semi-boot Crying Your Knife Away a while back. Almost wept when I heard the unlisted drunken Breeders cover on side four. Almost bought a second copy of Speak Kindly Of Your Volunteer Fire Department so I could send one set of the souvenir Fading Captain Series postcards to friends and keep the other. My hands shaking, I put one back... For the time being. |
|
Pearl Jam |
| Discuss Guided By Voices with freaks much like yourself. We've started a discussion for people like you. Please join in and reveal the crowning achievement of your artist worship. |
| Hi everyone. My name is Western Homes. I am Stoned Comedian Ringo. I am Mighty Pro-Jet, I am Baron Von Richtofen. I am "Jane Of The Waking Universe," "Non-Absorbing" and loaded for bear. Ladies and gentlemen, the club is open. The club is open. The club... is open. |
| more gbv at nude as the news |
 Pearl Jam Velvet Underground Led Zeppelin Jimmy Buffett Phish Ween Prince The Replacements Mott the Hoople Guided By Voices Jeff Buckley Beastie Boys Bob Dylan |