Guided by Voices
Guided by Voices is an American indie rock band formed in 1983 in Dayton, Ohio. The band had a variety of lineup changes, with singer and songwriter Robert Pollard remaining the group's sole constant. The most well-known lineup of the band consisted of Pollard, his brother Jim, Mitch Mitchell, Tobin Sprout, Kevin Fennell, and bassist Greg Demos.
Guided by Voices' drew influence from early British Invasion music, garage rock, psychedelic rock, progressive rock, punk rock and post-punk. The band has had a prolific output, releasing 43 full-length albums along with many other releases, and has garnered a dedicated cult following. Originally emerging out of the lo-fi music scene during the 1980s, their songs employed Portastudio four-tracks-to-cassette production methods, and are known for their frequent brevity.
Guided by Voices initially disbanded in 2004. In 2010 the "classic" lineup reunited to perform at Matador Records' 21st anniversary party, subsequently touring and releasing six new albums. GBV broke up a second time in 2014, but Pollard again rebooted the band with a new album and a new lineup in 2016, which continues to the present day.
History
Formation and early years (1983–1991)
Formed in Dayton, Ohio, in the early 1980s, Guided by Voices began their career as a bar band working the local scene. As lineups and day-jobs shifted, however, Pollard moved the band towards a studio-only orientation. Guided by Voices' recording career began with a stream of self-financed, independent releases beginning with the R.E.M.-inspired E.P. Forever Since Breakfast and followed by the albums Devil Between My Toes, Sandbox, Self-Inflicted Aerial Nostalgia, and Same Place The Fly Got Smashed. With only a few hundred copies of each album being pressed, these tended to circulate only among the band members' family and friends.Lo-fi era (1992–1996)
With the release of the ultra-limited album Propeller in 1992, Guided by Voices for the first time gained some recognition outside of their hometown. This was due in part to gaining fans in the college rock circuit and bands such as Sonic Youth, R.E.M. and The Breeders. New York City and Philadelphia were host to Guided by Voices' return to the live stage in 1993. At this time, the always-fluid Guided by Voices lineup coalesced around the core of Pollard, guitarists Tobin Sprout and Mitch Mitchell, bassist Greg Demos, and drummer Kevin Fennell. Sprout, who was briefly featured in an early-'80s version of the band, had re-joined circa Propeller and soon became Pollard's primary musical foil, in addition to contributing several of his own songs to the band's catalog. 1993 also saw the release of Vampire on Titus, as well as the Fast Japanese Spin Cycle and Static Airplane Jive EPs. Over the next year, the band began to receive national media exposure from sources such as Spin magazine.In 1994, after culling both new songs and reams of archival recordings from GBV's history, Pollard delivered the indie landmark Bee Thousand via Scat Records, with a distribution deal through indie label Matador Records. Soon, the band officially signed with Matador, concurrent with Pollard and his bandmates finally retiring from their day jobs to work in music full-time. The band surprised early audiences accustomed to the generally shambling, lo-fi and collage-like quality of the records with their energetic live show, featuring Pollard's homegrown rock theatrics, Mitch Mitchell's windmilling and chain smoking, sometime bassist Greg Demos' striped pants, a never-ending barrage of tunes that all seemed to clock in under 90 seconds, and prodigious alcohol consumption all around.
Their true Matador debut came in 1995 with Alien Lanes, which, despite a five-figure recording allowance, was constructed out of home-recorded snippets on the cheap. The band's underground following continued to grow, with notices coming from mainstream sources such as MTV and Rolling Stone. After sessions for a concept album entitled The Power of Suck were aborted, the band assembled Under the Bushes Under the Stars out of their first 24-track studio sessions, recorded with Kim Deal and Steve Albini among others, in 1996. However, the strain of heavy touring would ultimately lead to the demise of the "classic lineup", with Sprout deciding to retire from the road in order to focus on raising his first child, his painting, and his solo musical career. Sprout and Pollard marked the occasion by releasing simultaneous solo albums on the same day in 1996: Sprout's Carnival Boy and Pollard's Not in My Airforce, with each making a guest appearance on the other's album. Pollard maintained an active, parallel solo and side project career alongside GBV releases for the remainder of that band's existence.
Major label records (1997–2001)
Pollard formed a new incarnation of Guided by Voices with members of Cleveland group Cobra Verde in 1997. The following album Mag Earwhig!, combined a new hard-rocking swagger with classic lo-fi fragments and one track, "Jane of the Waking Universe", that featured the classic lineup for one last time. However, after another year of rigorous touring, the "Guided by Verde" lineup split in late 1997 following Pollard's announcement in an interview that he intended to work with other musicians on the next Guided by Voices project.Cobra Verde's Doug Gillard was tapped for yet another new Guided by Voices lineup in 1998, which also included "classic"-era bassist Greg Demos, former Breeders drummer Jim Macpherson, and eventually, former Amps/Breeders guitarist Nate Farley. Departing from Matador, this lineup worked with producer Ric Ocasek to create what was intended to be Guided by Voices' major label debut. Initially produced for Capitol Records, Do the Collapse was repeatedly delayed and finally released in mid-1999 on pseudo-indie label TVT. . Featuring a slick, heavily processed sound previously foreign to GBV albums, Do the Collapse failed to garner radio airplay, and was for the most part greeted with mixed reviews.
Through touring heavily throughout 1999 and 2000, Guided by Voices' live act became legendary, with shows often stretching past the three-hour mark, and populated by an endless stream of new and classic songs, Pollard solo tracks, impromptu covers of The Who, David Bowie and The Rolling Stones, all accompanied by continuous alcohol consumption. In addition to multiple swings through the United States and Europe, 2000 saw the band's first and only visits to Australia, New Zealand, and Japan. 2000 was capped with the release of the massive Suitcase, a four-disc, 100-song trawl through three decades worth of Pollard's enormous reserve of unreleased material.
2001's Isolation Drills was recorded with Rob Schnapf, who aimed to capture the band's live sound more closely than did Ocasek. Though the album debuted in Billboards top 200 and received higher critical notices than its predecessor, it did not achieve the sought-after radio breakthrough.
Later years (2002–2004)
After departing from TVT in 2002, Guided by Voices returned to Matador and released Universal Truths and Cycles, a departure from the previous two radio-aspiring albums, and a return to the band's mid-90s, mid-fi aesthetic. Universal Truths producer Todd Tobias would also record the band's final two albums for Matador. 2003 saw the release of the prog-styled Earthquake Glue, followed by the anthology box set Hardcore UFOs: Revelations, Epiphanies and Fast Food in the Western Hemisphere and the greatest hits compilation Best of Guided by Voices: Human Amusements at Hourly Rates.In 2004, Pollard announced he was disbanding Guided by Voices following the release of the Half Smiles of the Decomposed LP, and a final farewell tour. Pollard stated:
On November 9, 2004, Guided by Voices performed on the stage of Austin City Limits, broadcast by PBS on January 22, 2005. Their last television appearance was on Late Night with Conan O'Brien on December 2, 2004. They played the single, "Everybody Thinks I'm a Raincloud ". After a select round of final US shows, Guided by Voices played their final show at The Metro in Chicago on December 31, 2004. The four-hour, 63-song marathon finale is documented on the DVD The Electrifying Conclusion.
Post-GBV (2005–2009)
Pollard released his first post-GBV album in 2006 on Merge Records. The album, titled From a Compound Eye was a double LP produced by Todd Tobias. Later Pollard albums have been released on Merge and Pollard's own label, Guided by Voices Inc. The GBV song "Everyone Thinks I'm a Raincloud " was featured in the soundtrack for MLB 2K6.Following GBV's demise, Pollard was frequently asked about band reunions. In 2007 he told MAGNET: "To me, it's just cashing in. If you're gonna get the band back together, it should be to support a new record, not just to play the hits. That's like doing the county-fair circuit. I don't see Guided By Voices reforming. For one thing, there were 50 or 60 people in Guided By Voices over time."
Pollard also commented on the fact that GBV and his solo output are basically the same, when he told Harp magazine, in 2005, "You know, a lot of people try to distinguish things between what is Robert Pollard and what is Guided By Voices. I tell them basically that there is no difference; I am Robert Pollard and I am Guided By Voices."
In 2008, Pollard admitted to almost bringing GBV back for his album Robert Pollard Is Off to Business but decided against it, instead forming a new label titled Guided by Voices Inc.
The 1998–1999 lineup of the band reunited for a few songs, for Pollard's 50th birthday in 2007.
In October 2008, it was announced that Guided by Voices' music would be used for a 3-D film musical based on the life of Cleopatra to be directed by Steven Soderbergh with script by James Greer.
Soderbergh and Greer would rewrite the lyrics of the songs to fit the story.
Soderbergh had previously used a Guided by Voices song in his film Full Frontal, and wrote an introduction to a book on the band.
Pollard wrote the soundtrack to Soderbergh's film Bubble, and that music was released as Music for 'Bubble'. Guided by Voices and Pollard posters, t-shirts, and songs appeared frequently on British sit-com The IT Crowd.