Artist bio

Guided By Voices is the primary vehicle for Dayton, Ohio-based rocksmith Robert Pollard, and has proved one of the most tireless, exciting rock bands of its time.

Pollard, a former elementary school teacher, formed the group in 1985 around a group of Dayton musicians and friends, including frequent collaborator Tobin Sprout. Their first four albums didn't cross many radar screens, but 1992's excellent Propeller earned the group a modicum of national recognition, with such musical notaries as Kim Deal and Thurston Moore naming themselves fans.

Two years later, the group's second breakthrough came with Bee Thousand, a home-crafted epic, classic rock and roll album that exploded the group's popularity and almost overnight, instituting GBV as "the" quintessential indie rock band. The group signed a big record deal with Matador, and then proceeded to make their next album at home and keep the money. Smart guys, these Ohians.

But rock aspirations got the better of them. The group began experimenting with "real studios" and fleshing out their songs into full-on rockers and such in the late '90s. Pollard solidified his role as the band's driver in 1997, after Sprout left and Pollard kicked out the rest of the members, hiring indie rockers Cobra Verde as their replacements. CV guitarist Doug Gillard stayed on as Pollard's favorite post-Sprout sideman thereafter, while other members came and went and stayed and left, the most volatile seat being on the drum riser.

And last we heard, Pollard and his merry band of mischief-makers were still swilling Bud Light and rocking long into the night at a club near you. Get up slowly, and tear yourself away from your computer. You might be able to get there in time to catch set closer "My Valuable Hunting Knife>Baba O'Riley".

Albums by this artist

Half-Smiles Of The Decomposed (2004)

Human Amusements At Hourly Rates (2003)

Universal Truths And Cycles (2002)

Isolation Drills (2001)

Suitcase (2000)

Do The Collapse (1999)

Mag Earwhig! (1997)

Bulldog Skin 7" (1997)

Tonics and Twisted Chasters (1997)

Sunfish Holy Breakfast (1996)

Under The Bushes, Under The Stars (Recommended) (1996)

Alien Lanes (Recommended) (1996)

Bee Thousand (Recommended) (1994)

Crying Your Knife Away (1994)

The Grand Hour (1993)

Propeller (Recommended) (1992)

Concerts

March 18, 2002
The Dublin Pub, Dayton, Ohio

December 30, 2001
Apollo Theatre, New York

Features

Guided By Voices History: Part II: 1994-1999
Published October 31, 2005

Guided by Voices History: Part III: 1999-2004
Published October 31, 2005

Guided By Voices History: Part I: 1983-1994
Published October 30, 2005

GBV: A Eulogy: Or, Pollards We Have Known
Published December 30, 2004

NATN's Wholly Subjective Top 100 GBV Songs Of All Time:
Published December 30, 2004

The Top 100 Songs Thingy: Um, The Second Half.
Published December 30, 2004

Interviews

Doug Gillard
October 23, 2003

Rock Of Ages
March 27, 2001

Guided By Voices

Bee Thousand

» MARK GROESCHNER | STAFF WRITER

NATN Recommended

Guided By Voices

Bee Thousand

Scat, 1994

RiYL: Wire, The Who, The Beatles

With only a four-track recorder and a couple of high school cronies, elementary school teacher/Guided By Voices leader Robert Pollard managed to record one of the most visionary albums in the last 25 years, without entering a recording studio.

By recording stadium rock anthems in their basements, Guided By Voices more or less force you into their world, and as any true rock fan will attest, GBV-land is sometimes a very hard place to leave, because let's face it...the songs are amazing.

Picking up where The Beatles, The Who, and J.R.R. Tolkien left off, chief songwriter Pollard is able to create a retro sound that is completely his and his alone.

Rather than re-writing classic rock tunes about love, life, and teenage wastelands, Pollard has come up with a method of songwriting that makes his style of music relevant: he comes with the song titles before he writes the songs. By scribing inviting monikers like "I Am A Scientist," "Kicker of Elves," and "Demons Are Real," Pollard is able to govern his songwriting (which is heavily rooted in '60s psychedelic pop and '70s progressive rock) accordingly. By having fresh titles to work with, Pollard can avoid penning cliche chorus lines and hooks.

Pollard's other genius lies in the overall concept of Bee Thousand. Taking cues from artists like Brian Wilson and Wire, Pollard is able to craft a rock-and-roll masterpiece boasting 20 songs in a mere thirty-six minutes. Between acoustic heartbreakers like "Goldheart Mountaintop Queen Directory," and "Awful Bliss," Pollard gives the listener a private tour of the house that rock built, with cameos by the art-rock meets bar-room-blues of "Hot Freaks," arena rockers like "Buzzards And Dreadful Crows" and the eerie memoir that is "Smothered in Hugs."

Using Tobin Sprout as the Lennon to his McCartney (or Kannberg to his Malkmus, for you true lo-fi stallions) Pollard is able to construct an album full of secret nooks and hiding places where any fan of rock and pop could lose themselves for hours. Despite the fact the the album sounds as if it was mixed through a transistor radio, and the occasional clipped guitar solo, the songwriting and sequencing on Bee Thousand are near perfect.

MARK GROESCHNER | Mark Groeschner is the creator of the late, great satirical Web site Public Nigmity. When not soothing the nerves of his pudgy cat Yoda or harassing people from afar on the Internet, he works for the commercial/video production company Brand New School.