Guided by Voices (The Forgotten Songs)..
in anticipation of the new album Space Gun, here are some obscure lo-fi tunes from the tireless band.. |
| 1 |  | Guided by Voices
Wish In One Hand
Now I'm Crying - even as their production got better after the 90's, they kept their toss-away EP tracks like this rocker delightfully lo-fi, to great effect.. |
| 2 |  | Guided by Voices
Plugs for the Program
Sucker of Pistol City - an achingly pretty understated song, the type that Pollard seems to produce with smug casualness.. |
| 3 |  | Guided by Voices
Same Place the Fly Got Smashed
Pendulum - a swinging tune with a grand chorus that is entirely undercut by the wispy mixing, and all the better for it in fact.. |
| 4 |  | Guided by Voices
Static Airplane Jive EP
Hey Aardvark - a sweet campfire sing-along with some nonsense lyrics.. |
| 5 |  | Guided by Voices
Devil Between My Toes
Dog's Out - a punkish rocker from their debut full-length, and the song The Offspring and a slew of other pop-punkers ripped off for all its worth.. |
| 6 |  | Guided by Voices
Sunfish Holy Breakfast
If We Wait - another short dose of sugar and sadness, beautiful and abandoned.. |
| 7 |  | Guided by Voices
Tonics and Twisted Chasers
Dayton Ohio 19 Something and 5 - a tribute to the band's hometown, where Pollard used to teach grade school before coming into his true self, a tequila-drunk, chain-smoking granddaddy of indie.. |
| 8 |  | Guided by Voices
Clown Prince of the Menthol Trailer
Matter Eat Lad - a cheeky noise burst, attitude and a chorus that suddenly dips into melody.. |
| 9 |  | Guided by Voices
Fast Japanese Spin Cycle
Dusted - an urgently strummed guitar, a warped cello, and Pollard summoning more melancholy for something out his perpetually-addled mind.. |
| 10 |  | Guided by Voices
Vampire on Titus
Sot - a fuzzed out, fantastic noisy rock tune from the album that just preceded the band's breakout, Bee Thousand.. |
| 11 |  | Guided by Voices
Self-Inflicted Aerial Nostalgia
The Great Blake Street Canoe Race - some sparkling guitars set off this Beatles-esque tune from the band's early days.. |
| 12 |  | Guided by Voices
The Grand Hour
Break Even - a messier, rowdier version of the song that figures on Bee Thousand.. |
| 13 | | Guided by Voices
Tonics and Twisted Chasers
At the Farms - an ambient electro-breakdown in the middle of a GBV song? yes, sah.. |
| 14 |  | Guided by Voices
Nate Farley Session
Alone, Stinking, and Unafraid - this beauty of a song that could have easily slipped into college radio rotation has only every figured on live bootlegs and this studio session.. |
| 15 |  | Guided by Voices
Forever Since Breakfast
Fountain of Youth - all the way from their debut EP, and the first thing they officially put on record, this song catches Pollard still trying to figure out where he's going, and so he tried a bit of everything in 4 minutes.. |
| 16 |  | Guided by Voices
Get Out of My Stations
Scalding Creek - i'll forever love this acoustic tune, just because halfway through, someone drops a cymbal very loudly and it's left on tape.. |
| 17 |  | Guided by Voices
King Shit and the Golden Boys
We've Got Airplanes - a GBV song that sounds like a GBV song, and it couldn't be better this way.. |
| 18 | | Guided by Voices
Vampire on Titus
Wish I Was a Giant - sometimes, GBV's lo-fi proclivities meant that an instrument or vocal track were buried so deep in the mix, you could hardly hear it.. here too, Pollar sounds like he's screaming from the bottom of a mine-shaft.. it works, giving the song a desperate atmosphere that would have been lost in a clearer instant.. |
| 19 |  | Guided by Voices
Suitcase: Failed Experiments and Trashed Aircraft
Lonely Town - credited as Sucko in Suitcase, the bottomless pit of B-sides Pollard put out, Lonely Town has lovely guitars dolling up a little mid-tempo marvel.. |
| 20 | | Guided by Voices
Static Airplane Jive EP
Damn Good Mr. Jam - a slow burner, sad and lovelorn and with a beautiful noisy solo to close it off.. |
| 21 |  | Guided by Voices
Tigerbomb
Dodging Invisible Rays - how this indie gem never made it onto a full-length will forever be unknown to me.. |
| 22 | | Guided by Voices
Suitcase: Failed Experiments and Trashed Aircraft
Pantherz - a forgotten treasure from the scrapped album that never came to be called the Power of Suck.. |
| 23 |  | Guided by Voices
Alien Lanes
Auditorium - favourite GBV tune #3.. |
| 24 |  | Guided by Voices
Bee Thousand
Mincer Ray - favourite GBV tune #2.. |
| 25 | | Guided by Voices
Vampire on Titus
Gleemer (The Deeds of Fertile Jim) - favourite GBV tune #1.. |
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