After Bee Thousand gave Guided By Voices a wider audience, it became evident that Robert Pollard saw himself as more than just the band's songwriter and frontman, and as his career ambitions grew, he became increasingly frustrated with the limitations of his band. Matters came to a head prior to the recording of Mag Earwhig! as Pollard broke ties with longtime guitarist and fellow songwriter Tobin Sprout and fired the rest of the group. While Pollard and Sprout soon buried the hatchet, Sprout opted not to stay on as a full-time member of the group, and Pollard was now Guided By Voices' uncontested leader. He hired Cleveland-based blues/garage rockers Cobra Verde as his backing band for the next GBV album, and Mag Earwhig! sounded a good bit different as a result; while there were a few stray four-track experiments with Sprout scattered about, most of the album had a solid, professional sheen, and Cobra Verde rock harder and sound tighter than any of the lineups Pollard had worked with in the past. Unfortunately, his songwriting wasn't quite up to his usual standards, which the new clarity of this album makes all the more evident. Pollard is incapable of making an album without a few fine songs, and "Bulldog Skin," "Sad If I Lost It," "Not Behind the Fighter Jet," and "Portable Men's Society" certainly fill the bill, but it may well be significant that Mag Earwhig!'s most exciting song, the joyous "I Am a Tree," was written by Cobra Verde's Doug Gillard. While there's plenty to enjoy here, Robert Pollard's next experiment in hi-fi record making, Do the Collapse, would prove to be much more successful.
So, I'm going to do a quick list of songs that to me are perfect. Songs that it would be shameful to change anything. These are just ones that pop into my head as I'm scrolling down my iTunes artist list... Please add to the list via comment (obviously these are just my opinions, and actually don't really reflect my favorite songs).1. Guided By Voices - "I Am a Tree"2. Beck - "The Golden Age"3....
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this album is full of sonic gems.review:Mark Athitakis, salon.com:with the band's 12th album, "Mag Earwhig!" Pollard has finally found a reliable gold mine in rock's junkyard, a 21 song album of surprising diversity and consistency. Having dismissed his old backup band and replaced it with members of fellow Ohioans Cobra Verde, "Earwhig!" sports a sound that's both tighter and more experimental...
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I would have posted a Columbus band, but there aren't so many Columbus band video's floating around on the web...so here is a great GVB song...and they are from Dayton, only an hour west!
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this album is full of sonic gems.review:Mark Athitakis, salon.com:with the band's 12th album, "Mag Earwhig!" Pollard has finally found a reliable gold mine in rock's junkyard, a 21 song album of surprising diversity and consistency. Having dismissed his old backup band and replaced it with members of fellow Ohioans Cobra Verde, "Earwhig!" sports a sound that's both tighter and more experimental...
More >
So, I'm going to do a quick list of songs that to me are perfect. Songs that it would be shameful to change anything. These are just ones that pop into my head as I'm scrolling down my iTunes artist list... Please add to the list via comment (obviously these are just my opinions, and actually don't really reflect my favorite songs).1. Guided By Voices - "I Am a Tree"2. Beck - "The Golden Age"3....
More >
| Title | Lyrics | Buy |
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| 1 Can't Hear the Revolution |
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| 2 Sad If I Lost It |
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| 3 I Am a Tree |
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| 4 The Old Grunt |
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| 5 Bulldog Skin |
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| 6 Are You Faster? |
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| 7 I Am Produced |
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| 8 Knock 'Em Flyin' |
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| 9 Not Behind the Fighter Jet |
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| 10 Choking Tara |
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| 11 Hollow Cheek |
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| 12 Portable Men's Society |
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| 13 Little Lines |
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| 14 Learning to Hunt |
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| 15 The Finest Joke Is upon Us |
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| 16 Mag Earwhig! |
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| 17 Now to War |
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| 18 Jane of the Waking Universe |
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| 19 The Colossus Crawls West |
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| 20 Mute Superstar |
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| 21 Bomb in the Bee-Hive |
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Click to purchase…
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 "Mag Earwhig!")
