Guided By Voices: Classic or Dud?

For some there is an ethical dilemma in purchasing and supporting further GBV endeavors; that is, will you continue to contribute to the behavior that both enlivens (his creative life) and destroys (his personal life)? Would it still be rock and roll without the cigarettes, booze, and groupies? I have mixed feelings about this, but then again there are worse things than being a martyr for rock and roll.

Ballsy and ALIVE, GBV is "CLASSIC" rock.

ts: emily dickinson vs. robert pollard

I played drums in a band that played “motor away” and I was the only one who understood the rhythm. Sigh

Wow

“I’ll never know…”

Doug Gilliard kinda ruined this band

Been saying that since 1997

Obviously the albums with him aren't as good as the preceding ones without him. It would be expecting a lot for them to continue at that level. That they didn't always seemed to me to be due to a dip in Pollard songwriting/trying to get bigger as much as Gilliard. Would you be able to elaborate what specifically you think Gilliard did to the band?

I’ve never listened to Mag Earwig. I do not like Bulldog Skin, except for the “maximum riffage” part in the video.

the last two songs on mag earwhig are classic GbV but yeah otherwise what a let down after that all-time run from bee thousand through bob's first solo album

has anyone listened to the new one that came out today?

I don't like his guitar playing, simple as that.

My problem with Gillard is that he plays with all of the swing, improvisation, and feeling of a robot. It's the complete opposite of GBV mark I. Two different bands.

I guess Bob didn't mind and wanted a stable, dedicated musician to continue his project with, and I get that, but to me everything beyond Bushes just sounds like sh1t

this is partially based on me seeing them like a month ago and frankly most of the show was dreadful, did about 10 classics in a 42 song set, but Gilliard began their transition to this ploddy riff rock shit, it was just song after song of this hookless muck. he's just heavy handed and - maybe I shouldn't blame him, I'm sure this is how Pollard wants it to be - it really just kills the spirit of what the band was, this soaring ramshackle midwest burnout dream of british rock

the other obvious thing was tobin leaving which i think over time you can really get an appreciation of what he brought to the band both on guitar and i'm sure helping with some of pollards' songs (and his own)

the whole thing was such a bummer and even worse because everyone seemed to be so invested in pretending we were having fun

Every once in a while I check in on whatever this band is up to and it’s a shrug at best

It's definitely down to Pollard, it's what he wanted, like trying to get every rhythm section to play as bombastically and as much like the Who as possible.

also pollard's onstage drinking definitely doesn't feel like a fun let's party thing anymore :/

^^^
That was kind of why I was asking, because he doesn't seem to be one to take much input from others. A lot of this seems down to Pollard getting a taste of success with the classic lineup and thinking he could reach another level with a shift in sound, so Gilliard is as much symptom as disease.

xp

ums, that was my feeling when I saw the first classic lineup revival in 2011(?) - this is a lot less fun at near 40 than it was in my 20s.

xpost I think that's maybe a fairer way to put it wrt Gilliard

the other thing, which i know is antithetical to GBV, but you know...maybe if you would have released a lot less albums and done a better job of editing yourself it might have helped?

pollard also seems to have lost his ability to write great choruses. there was one newer song they played that stuck out as a lot better the rest - Rally Boys off Zeppelin Over China, at least it has a decent hook

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aa78df4AQrg

Bob is still drinking on stage ?

about 10 classics in a 42 song set

this has been the gbv live standard for a decade plus now

songs i heard from the new one are good! but it’s also the first time ive paid attention in a while

"Trust Them Now" from Earth Man Blues is a gem.

xpost - first time I'd seen them probably 15 years since this disastrous show St. Paul when the whole band was so fucked up (besides Doug and the drummer) where the other two could barely stand up and the bassist (kid from that one video) kept asking people to get him coke onstage. he also borrowed my friend's bass rig (his band was opening) and blew his speaker by turning every knob to 10

Bob was indeed drinking tall boys out of a cooler onstage

how many did he go through during the show?

i still like the early 00s records especially Earthquake Glue. the post reunion stuff imo is where the quality really divebombs and the hooks can disappear for long stretches, theres no real distinction between GBV and solo pollard anymore. Earth Man Blues kind of stood out to me as the one recent one that manages to string together enough hooks to feel closer to the old stuff.

I had a bummer time at the last gbv show I went to too. Lots of bro-ery and embarrassing behavior. I felt like I didn’t belong there. Which is sad bc I totally did. I still enjoy listening to them but the shine doesn’t come from the new stuff. For me.

I had a LOT of fun at the 2011 reunion and it has been downhill since then.

Midwestern rock n roll jock likes beer. Can’t say I’m surprised.

Anyway I think Bob’s written a shitload of great songs since 96. And I like Gillard too.

Try Crystal Nuns Cathedral or How Do You Spell Heaven for 2 recent-ish consistently fine records.

Midwestern rock n roll jock likes beer. Can’t say I’m surprised.

Anyway I think Bob’s written a shitload of great songs since 96. And I like Gillard too.

Try Crystal Nuns Cathedral or How Do You Spell Heaven for 2 recent-ish consistently fine records.

I like “speak loudly of your volunteer fire department” a lot, that is actually a pretty solid full length imo if a different flavor than the classic GBV

Midwestern rock n roll jock likes beer. Can’t say I’m surprised.

well yeah no shit they were always known for that, just feels a little different when the white haired elderly gentleman is shuffling around and slurring his words than it did in the 90s

take it to the limit / one more time

one of the people I went with said a year before he wasn't drinking onstage anymore but must not have taken

Ok, but do you also like king shit and the golden boys? How do you rate propeller?

Oh for sure. The records from 92-96 are untouchable. I’ve just found a lot to like in his recent albums as well.

“All my life I’ve wanted scissors / not the kind that are so forgiving”

Doug is really sick at guitar though, Death of Samantha have some awesome guitar parts. Tobin left, and Bob wanted to be more slick I think. In retrospect its just a drastic shift in the kind of band they were trying to be so personally I'm probably about ready to give many of those late 90s ones another spin and early 2000s onward ones a chance in the first place.

“I wish I could give a shit / just a little bit / lethargy / lethargy …”

flowing just like the days

deliver this message to the one i love the most: i lost all my money to a three hundred pound ghost.

OTM

I’ve never listened to Mag Earwig. I do not like Bulldog Skin, except for the “maximum riffage” part in the video.

― brimstead, Friday, June 28, 2024 8:05 AM (three days ago) bookmarkflaglink

the last two songs on mag earwhig are classic GbV but yeah otherwise what a let down after that all-time run from bee thousand through bob's first solo album

has anyone listened to the new one that came out today?

― reggie (qualmsley), Friday, June 28, 2024 8:13 AM (three days ago) bookmarkflaglink

I know Mag Earwhig isn't as solid as any of the albums in the run that directly preceded it, but it absolutely has some classics beyond the last two tracks imo (though I do love those last two tracks -- amazing way to end an album). Sad If I Lost It, Not Behind the Fighter Jet, Choking Tara, The Finest Joke Is Upon Us, Now to War, Jane of the Waking Universe... I feel like the majority of GBV fans would love all or most of those. Even though Mag is the start of the Gillard era, it's a transitional album and in my mind it's more of a piece with what came before it than what came after it.

LEARNING TO HUNT

They're better than they've ever been, in my opinion. When I saw them in September, Gillard was on FIRE and they sounded a lot like WIRE sometimes. The whole stretch from Space Gun through Warp & Woof was absolutely phenomenal! I'm starting to think people just like the past, and Bob's got a song for that: "Wish You Were Young" by Mars Classroom

I like the past, too, but GBV have stuck with me as long as I've stuck with them, and I'm proud of 'em

“Gillard was on fire”

Does not compute

'Universe Room' arrived via Rock-A-Thon this past week, and when I listened to it this weekend, there was a single song that really grabbed me. First time in a long time that's happened with a GBV/Pollard release.

^ "not" a single song?
(or, if that's not a typo, which song?)

Having heard it myself, I imagine "not" was the intention. The albums is a real slog to get through, with little that stands out, even more so than their other recent albums

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uH7ymLN3c5E

new song boring as shit as expected

new album title "Thick, Rich and Delicious" Bob what are you doing?

he needs rick rubin to give him the johnny cash treatment

He needs to expand his palette imo
Failure to do that will result in more boring samey music.

you can tell it's a bad new song when it starts out with that midtemp Les Paul "chunk chunk chunk chunk chunk chunk chunk"

album cover is really good and very vintage GBV looking, on the plus side

Wednesday singer did a cover of "Game Of Pricks" but it sounds like a cover of Phoebe Bridger's cover of same song rather than the original.

you can tell it's a bad new song when it starts out with that midtemp Les Paul "chunk chunk chunk chunk chunk chunk chunk"

OTM. Bob should have just ditched the first two minutes of the song.

well after talking shit, some of this is the best stuff they've done in ages. still some sludge but the highlights are really high

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFtdNzLzLxM

Misread "after talking shit" as, well, you know, and was about to accuse you if tmi.

Yeah I listened to this today after ignoring any advance tracks. On first listen this is way better than the last 5 or 6 albums.

this record rules?????

Anyone checking out the Excited Ones Substack about GBV? Even as a casual fan, I've been really enjoying it. It goes pretty deep, interviewing a lot of the behind-the-scenes people.

No, but I need to check that out! Thanks for the heads up. Need something to read now with An Earful O' Wax seemingly gone dormant.

The new one really is killer. I haven't been as down on the recent records as most people here, but the new one really is a special one.

best one since Earth Man Blues (2021) which was...apparently 9 albums ago lol

It's wild that this is the 19th(!) album by the current lineup, since 2016. For comparisons sake, the original run from the start to 2004 only had 15 albums total.

I do love the easter egg of finally getting a "Captain Kangaroo Won the War" song a decade after it was used for the title of Suitcase Four.

Man, the second side of the new one (everything from "Beatle Bob" on) is just about perfect. Love to hear them putting the Who worship on such prominent on display and also going into "dark Byrds" mode. Just perfect walking-around-in-the-fall-at-dusk music. I actually thought their other album from this year (Universe Room) was one of the better releases from the current lineup too, but it's kind of the opposite of this one! One of the things I liked about it was that they didn't try to force any big pop moments onto it -- no real choruses, mostly just weird and/or low-key songs. And now it feels like they deliberately held back the catchier stuff for the new album, and somehow both albums are better for it. One thing they do have in common the average song-length seems to be shorter than it was on their previous...several albums, which is a welcome change.

the Rip Van Winkle album he put out in July is also great, my favorite thing he's done in many years

can someone give me the best three and only three albums since Isolation Drills?

Nearly impossible for me as there’s been many I love but keeping it strictly GBV ill go with:

How Do You Spell Heaven?
Crystal Nuns Catherdral
Welshpool Frillies

Earthquake Glue is definitely one of them, thats the best of the early 00s ones imo, over isolation drills

Never like that album much tbh.

I'd say Space Gun, Earth Man Blues and the new one, Thick Rich and Delicious.

This new one is really so good, lots of great guitar playing and "(You Can't Go Back To) Oxford Talawanda" is the stickiest hook Pollard's written in decades. Apparently it's one he's been carrying around forever too.

it sounded familiar like it was a repurposed older fragment i'd heard but maybe not

Yeah he used that same melody and lyric on one of the solo albums.

Which one? Not ringing a bell for me, but it does sound a little familiar.

Outro to You Can’t Challenge Forward Progress from Lord of the Birdcage.

"Lord of the Birdcage", now there's a good album!

Thanks! That is like one of the three Pollard solo albums I don't own and hadn't streamed it in years. Cool to hear that same hook pop up there.

Birdcage is pretty solid I think but not one of the greats as far as I recall.
As for best gbv albums since isolation drills, I should have made room for Earth Man Blues.

Earthquake Glue is definitely one of them, thats the best of the early 00s ones imo, over isolation drills

Agree with this, though I didn't always think so. It's really grown on me in the past 10 years or so.

Universal Truths and Cycles and Surrender Your Poppy Field would be my other two picks for post-Isolation Drills albums. Earth Man Blues is way up there too though.

Thanks! I liked isolation drills and it was the last one I owned I think, so that’s why I said that. It’s not my high water mark per se. I’m gonna listen to as many of these as I can stand, been feeling like dipping back in.

"The Lighthouse Resurrection" really turned me around. Loving this one so much more than the last (which didn't move me at all).

the Rip Van Winkle album he put out in July is also great, my favorite thing he's done in many years

― some dude, Tuesday, November 4, 2025 6:19 PM (two days ago) bookmarkflaglink

I really like it, too. Especially "Prose Kaiser"

I've missed the last few dozen GBV and related releases, but I listened to the new one and it sounded good!

Apparently it's one he's been carrying around forever too.

I've always wondered how well Pollard et al. keeps track or remembers their catalog.

yeah i've seen him so loaded on stage and they do like 40 songs and he remembers all the lyrics with no notes

they probably are only dipping into like <10% of the catalog for their shows though right? he doesnt need to remember all 32 songs on Zeppelin Over China, maybe 1 of them is in their rotation

i assume even today after 30 more albums their setlists are largely the newest album + the 90s stuff