By: Guided By Voices Appears on: When Robert Pollard dropped Please Be Honest on us in 2016, some felt that it could just as easily have been released as a solo album instead of under the Guided By Voices moniker. Of course, Pollard did play all the instruments on the album by himself, so this was […]
Make Use
By: Robert Pollard Appears on: For “Make Use,” the opening track on his 1998 solo album, Waved Out, Robert Pollard crafts an entire song with basically just one chord shape. It’s a perfect example of how much can be accomplished with the “floating chord shape” guitar technique that he uses in many of his songs. In […]
Poor Substitute
By: Ricked Wicky Appears on: Not to go off on a tirade, but if you’ve read one critic’s review of any Robert Pollard musical project, you’ve pretty much read them all. Here’s a drinking game for you: gather a bunch of these reviews, start reading through them, and down a shot any time you come across […]
Slick As Snails
By: Robert Pollard with Doug Gillard Appears on: I don’t know how to properly explain it, but there’s a certain kind of magic that occurs when Robert Pollard teams up with Doug Gillard. You can hear it all over the Guided By Voices records that feature Doug as lead guitarist, on the insanely great ESP […]
Cold Joker
By: Circus Devils Appears on: With an output as tremendous as that of the Guided By Voices catalog, it can become a little overwhelming at times to keep up with all of Robert Pollard’s solo and side projects. I believe it’s totally forgivable to not listen to everything he churns out as soon as it’s released; […]
Bad Love Is Easy To Do
By: Guided By Voices Appears on: Ah, the reunion albums…each one a tall glass of refreshing new songs, full to the brim with exactly the kind of tasty hooks we’d all come to expect from Bob and the “classic lineup” of Guided By Voices. Not only that, these six albums more than proved that the […]
Redmen And Their Wives
By: Guided By Voices Appears on: It was during their “final” tour, in 2004, that Guided By Voices were asked to perform on the live concert television series Austin City Limits. The entire performance—full of classic tunes as well as several from their latest album, Half Smiles of the Decomposed—was released on both and in 2007 […]
The Best Of Jill Hives
By: Guided By Voices Appears on: During the Universal Truths and Cycles and Earthquake Glue tours, I managed to attend quite a few Guided By Voices shows. I didn’t follow them around the country, but I did head out of state a few times to see them. During this time, Nate Farley and Doug Gillard […]
Love Is Stronger Than Witchcraft
By: Robert Pollard Appears on: On New Year’s Eve 2004, the world ended. Or at least, that’s how it felt to some of us die-hard fans of Robert Pollard and his band, Guided By Voices, when they played what was announced to be their final show (which was released in its entirety on the incredible […]
