..There's no need to reach all the way back to the 60s or 70s to discover a band with as much power and melody as The Who... .This generation has GUIDED BY VOICES..Born and nurtured in the Lo-Fi nest... sounding like a slightly British garage band, but hailing from Dayton, Ohio, GBV ripped through two decades... leaving empty beer bottles and brilliant tunes in their wake..The heart of GBV is Robert Pollard. The former school teacher turned tunesmith seems to have an inexhaustible supply of pop gems... which he sprinkles throughout the multitude of releases over the years... almost all of them with lyrics that will delight and confound (think Dylan shoving words into a blender)....For every great tune, there's usually a piece of difficult listening... and that's the catch with this band... they just don't compromise. .Having said that... Putting together a single cd of their best stuff was one of the more difficult musical chores I've ever had to go through... there's so much great stuff that had to be cut... To make matters worse (or better, depending on your point of view) I had the exact same problem putting together a Robert Pollard Best Of solo CD... so much great stuff... snip... snip... NOOOO!... snip....If you've never heard them, I'd recommend getting ??Do The Collapse??... A lot of GBV fans put this album down because of the production (courtesy of Mr. Cars... Ric Ocasek)... or the fleshed-out songs... That's a bunch of crap. This album is filled with brilliant songs... "Surgical Focus," "Teenage FBI," "Dragons Awake," "Wormhole" "Wrecking Now"... the list goes on... .That album will also lead you to explore more of their work... Great (and I don't use the term loosely) albums like ??Industrial Drills??, ??Alien Lanes??, ??Bee Thousand?? and ??Earthquake Glue??. (make sure to listen to the great song "Best of Jill Hives"!!!).The song I'm uploading is from a solo album Pollard did with longtime GBV guitarist Doug Gillard, ??Speak Kindly of Your Volunteer Fire Department??. The song is called POP ZEUS. It is on the short list of all-time classic PERFECT POP SONGS. There is a pure joyous quality to this song that I never tire of. I can listen to it twenty times in a row and it still makes me want to get up... dance about the room... create a piece of memorable art... hug a complete stranger... you get the idea. .......and a video from the greatest DIY band in rock....I AM A SCIENTIST.
dermahrk says
Unfamiliar with Guided By Voices (other than the name) until now.
Pop Zeus - unfortunately, the singer starts out sounding like the vocalist for Yes. Then the crunchy guitars kick in - Thank God! Nothing twee about the arrangement.
I Am A Scientist - different vocalist? Sure sounds different. Pointer: when making a video, and pretending to play guitar, try to put all SIX strings on it. Playing a five string guitar, with one missing, spoils what little illusion there is. :-)
Not bad. Not bad at all...
Dale says
I assure you, there's not overlooked around here, but it's always good to add another voice to the chorus. I hadn't heard "Pop Zeus" before; it's absolutely delicious.
ZenPop says
dachmo - agree...both are great... but I tend to think GBV fans tend to overlook the genius of the later work, too...
dermahrk - same singer... Robert Pollard.... The more you listen to him, the better he gets...
dale... yeah... people that dig deeper usually find this group worth checking out...
walking... yup. it's one of mine... I'm going to drop my posters in as I comment on the bands... (I've been fortunate enough to be able to do posters only for bands I dig... maybe I'm limiting myself in the work, dept.... ha...)
..There's no need to reach all the way back to the 60s or 70s to discover a band with as much power and melody as The Who... .This generation has GUIDED BY VOICES..Born and nurtured in the Lo-Fi nest... sounding like a slightly British garage band, but hailing from Dayton, Ohio, GBV ripped through two decades... leaving empty beer bottles and brilliant tunes in their wake..The heart of GBV is Robert Pollard. The former school teacher turned tunesmith seems to have an inexhaustible supply of pop gems... which he sprinkles throughout the multitude of releases over the years... almost all of them with lyrics that will delight and confound (think Dylan shoving words into a blender)....For every great tune, there's usually a piece of difficult listening... and that's the catch with this band... they just don't compromise. .Having said that... Putting together a single cd of their best stuff was one of the more difficult musical chores I've ever had to go through... there's so much great stuff that had to be cut... To make matters worse (or better, depending on your point of view) I had the exact same problem putting together a Robert Pollard Best Of solo CD... so much great stuff... snip... snip... NOOOO!... snip....If you've never heard them, I'd recommend getting ??Do The Collapse??... A lot of GBV fans put this album down because of the production (courtesy of Mr. Cars... Ric Ocasek)... or the fleshed-out songs... That's a bunch of crap. This album is filled with brilliant songs... "Surgical Focus," "Teenage FBI," "Dragons Awake," "Wormhole" "Wrecking Now"... the list goes on... .That album will also lead you to explore more of their work... Great (and I don't use the term loosely) albums like ??Industrial Drills??, ??Alien Lanes??, ??Bee Thousand?? and ??Earthquake Glue??. (make sure to listen to the great song "Best of Jill Hives"!!!).The song I'm uploading is from a solo album Pollard did with longtime GBV guitarist Doug Gillard, ??Speak Kindly of Your Volunteer Fire Department??. The song is called POP ZEUS. It is on the short list of all-time classic PERFECT POP SONGS. There is a pure joyous quality to this song that I never tire of. I can listen to it twenty times in a row and it still makes me want to get up... dance about the room... create a piece of memorable art... hug a complete stranger... you get the idea. .......and a video from the greatest DIY band in rock....I AM A SCIENTIST.
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