There are basically two schools of thought regarding Guided By Voices. One claims that the band are in their element with a four-track, turning out impressionist albums of fragmented, mini-pop songs reminiscent of Jon Anderson fronting REM. The other claims that they're a great pop band that has never made a great pop album because they're held back by their adherence to the four-track. Maybe GBV's frontman Robert Pollard is among the latter camp, since Do the Collapse is their first effort recorded in a full-fledged studio with a real producer, namely Ric Ocasek. Of course, the jump to professionalism could have happened simply because there was nowhere left for the band to go. Their amateurish, homemade guitar-pop was fascinating in 1994, when it broke out of the underground, but by 1999, it had become entirely too predictable thanks to an endless series of albums, singles, EPs and solo projects. Even hiring Cobra Verde as a backing band on Mag Earwhig! didn't really change things -- it was time for a shot at the big-time. As a matter of fact, Do the Collapse was even designed as their major-label debut, but the label passed on their option after hearing the finished result, so GBV headed over for TVT. It's hard not to blame the major label, actually, because Do the Collapse simply doesn't work. It's not that Ocasek's produciton is inappropriate or that the expanded length of the songs feel wrong, it's that Pollard is stuck in a rut. His songs follow familiar patterns and now that there have been so many of them, it's hard not to feel like they're all tossed off to a certain extent. No hooks gain hold, the imagery feels silly, there's no excitement or energy to the band's performances, which means the album feels exactly what any fan would fear from a GBV major-label release -- a puffed-up, inflated, overblown version of Alien Lanes. Ironically, it's clear that's not what Pollard or Ocasek wanted to do with Do the Collapse -- they wanted to cut GBV's Cheap Trick album -- but the band's strengths have deterioated so much, that's the only thing they were capable of cutting.
There are a lot of great quality posts this Funky Friday. Here's a track I'm gonna offer up a track ripe with a recognizable sample for this game of Wormhole!Here's Kool Keith, before he was Dr. Octagon/Black Elvis/etc. with The Ultramagnetic MC's
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I have Dzendvokh to thank for helping me figure out how to construct a little game out of posting a song on Mog and exploiting the comments section. Here are the rules I've flushed out so far, and are apt to change, seeing how it plays out with participation of you, fellow moggers! I haven't figured out how to make this competitive or points oriented, rather it works as a social networking ga...
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It's time once again for another rousing round of Wormhole! What's Wormhole you ask? Well, click on the previous link for full details and games (extra info here and here).This edition of Wormhole is gonna take things in a different direction. I'm going for the Slang Names of cities/areas in music. I'm thinking names like "Bed Stuy", "ATL", "Dirty South". It doesn't just relate to hip hop...
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I'm offering up a game of Wormhole! to test out this whole new Mog layout. Heck I don't even know if posting songs in the comments is available anymore - and that's the crux of Wormhole! I would watch the video and learn all about the NEW Mog, but then what would I do at work tomorrow.I offer to you a meatball of a starter:Mose Allion's "Back Country Suite: Blues (AKA Young Man Blues)"
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So, I'm just catching up around here... throwing out some posters I've done recently and some music I dig... excuse the big mess...Here's one of my favorite posters I've ever done... I've been sitting on this idea for a while... I used a now-defunct newspaper from San Francisco (The San Francisco Call) from exactly 100 years ago to the day of the show for this... I spent a lot of time on it......
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I have Dzendvokh to thank for helping me figure out how to construct a little game out of posting a song on Mog and exploiting the comments section. Here are the rules I've flushed out so far, and are apt to change, seeing how it plays out with participation of you, fellow moggers! I haven't figured out how to make this competitive or points oriented, rather it works as a social networking ga...
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There are a lot of great quality posts this Funky Friday. Here's a track I'm gonna offer up a track ripe with a recognizable sample for this game of Wormhole!Here's Kool Keith, before he was Dr. Octagon/Black Elvis/etc. with The Ultramagnetic MC's
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teenage fbieverywhere with helicopter
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So, the first official game of Wormhole! (beta) took place On Mog here. And I would like to thank these Moggers in order for their help and participation (directly or indirectly):SamTheArtist, Bartleby, Groon, DzendvokhFor their posts in the very first experimental stage of Wormhole! And these folks for their participation in the first official beta version of the game:brendanhalpin, TroyPowe...
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| Title | Lyrics | Buy |
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| 1 Teenage FBI |
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| 2 Zoo Pie |
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| 3 Things I Will Keep |
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| 4 Hold on Hope |
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| 5 In Stitches |
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| 6 Dragons Awake! |
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| 7 Surgical Focus |
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| 8 Optical Hopscotch |
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| 9 Mushroom Art |
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| 10 Much Better Now |
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| 11 Wormhole |
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| 12 Strumpet Eye |
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| 13 Liquid Indian |
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| 14 Wrecking Now |
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| 15 Picture Me Big Time |
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| 16 An Unmarketed Product |
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Click to purchase…
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 "Do the Collapse")
