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CD
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GBVI 100CD
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"When we last heard from Guided By Voices, they had released an astonishing four albums in just over 12 months. Each has a distinctive creative identity: Zeppelin Over China was a meat-and-potatoes double album, Warp And Woof was a return to the band's low-fidelity roots and under-two-minute earworms, Sweating The Plague was a slice of moody stadium rock, and Surrender Your Poppy Field was an unpredictable grab-bag of all of the above. After venturing through the tangled brambles of Plague and Poppy Field, here is a sunny summer reprieve, a relentless barrage of hooks -- Mirrored Aztec is the latest stop on this runaway train. Like its immediate predecessors, Mirrored Aztec is both its own entity and unmistakably GBV. It's also their most immediately welcoming and inviting offering in years -- there's nothing a fan of The Who, Big Star, or Wire, wouldn't love. For the GBV uninitiated, the clean, confident hooks of highlights 'Bunco Men,' 'Haircut Sphinx,' 'A Whale Is Top Notch,' 'Party Rages On' and the strummy 'To Keep An Area' will resonate immediately. It also contains some unprecedented GBV moments, too, like 'Math Rock,' an apparent tribute to the titular subgenre featuring classroom instruments and a children's choir, 'Please Don't Be Honest,' a dreamy reversal of the band's 2016 song and album Please Be Honest, and 'Thank You Jane,' perhaps the most open-hearted, guileless power-pop song from Pollard's pen in ages. If Pollard's discography -- 107 albums and counting -- seems intimidating, do not fear! With a brand-new, high-quality, all-the-waythere album every several months, it's abundantly clear that no band's fanbase has more fun."
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LP
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GBVI 100LP
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LP version. "When we last heard from Guided By Voices, they had released an astonishing four albums in just over 12 months. Each has a distinctive creative identity: Zeppelin Over China was a meat-and-potatoes double album, Warp And Woof was a return to the band's low-fidelity roots and under-two-minute earworms, Sweating The Plague was a slice of moody stadium rock, and Surrender Your Poppy Field was an unpredictable grab-bag of all of the above. After venturing through the tangled brambles of Plague and Poppy Field, here is a sunny summer reprieve, a relentless barrage of hooks -- Mirrored Aztec is the latest stop on this runaway train. Like its immediate predecessors, Mirrored Aztec is both its own entity and unmistakably GBV. It's also their most immediately welcoming and inviting offering in years -- there's nothing a fan of The Who, Big Star, or Wire, wouldn't love. For the GBV uninitiated, the clean, confident hooks of highlights 'Bunco Men,' 'Haircut Sphinx,' 'A Whale Is Top Notch,' 'Party Rages On' and the strummy 'To Keep An Area' will resonate immediately. It also contains some unprecedented GBV moments, too, like 'Math Rock,' an apparent tribute to the titular subgenre featuring classroom instruments and a children's choir, 'Please Don't Be Honest,' a dreamy reversal of the band's 2016 song and album Please Be Honest, and 'Thank You Jane,' perhaps the most open-hearted, guileless power-pop song from Pollard's pen in ages. If Pollard's discography -- 107 albums and counting -- seems intimidating, do not fear! With a brand-new, high-quality, all-the-waythere album every several months, it's abundantly clear that no band's fanbase has more fun."
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CD
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GBVI 098CD
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"Starting off the year with a 100-song marathon in Los Angeles on New Year's Eve, Robert Pollard is setting a mighty high bar for Guided By Voices in 2020. Following three acclaimed and stylistically distinct full-length albums in 2019, Surrender Your Poppy Field, is a head spinning tour de force: a bit of everything... plus more! And hands down the most adventurous GBV album ever. There are lo-fi four-track tape recordings, there are songs recorded with a single microphone in a basement, there are big studio fully produced hook-laden pop songs, and there is a lot in between. Seemingly, the guiding concept of Surrender Your Poppy Field was to make the songs sound as different from one another as possible: sudden shifts in mood, tempo and rhythm, unexpected chord progressions, false endings and codas, string orchestrations, mysterious voices... It's an exhilarating and dizzying trip to an inventive world of strange characters: Andre the Hawk, Queen Parking Lot, the Cul-de-Sac Kids, the Hard Hitter, the Steely Dodger, the Stone Cold Moron, A Man Called Physician, A Man Called Blunder... Not content with their usual mastery of the 4 P's (punk, pop, prog, psych) Professor Pollard pushes the envelope on Poppy Field, and continues to redefine GBV from a myriad of angles. Anyone who thinks that he's gotten complacent after 104 albums hasn't been paying attention! Don't miss out."
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LP
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GBVI 098LP
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LP version. "Starting off the year with a 100-song marathon in Los Angeles on New Year's Eve, Robert Pollard is setting a mighty high bar for Guided By Voices in 2020. Following three acclaimed and stylistically distinct full-length albums in 2019, Surrender Your Poppy Field, is a head spinning tour de force: a bit of everything... plus more! And hands down the most adventurous GBV album ever. There are lo-fi four-track tape recordings, there are songs recorded with a single microphone in a basement, there are big studio fully produced hook-laden pop songs, and there is a lot in between. Seemingly, the guiding concept of Surrender Your Poppy Field was to make the songs sound as different from one another as possible: sudden shifts in mood, tempo and rhythm, unexpected chord progressions, false endings and codas, string orchestrations, mysterious voices... It's an exhilarating and dizzying trip to an inventive world of strange characters: Andre the Hawk, Queen Parking Lot, the Cul-de-Sac Kids, the Hard Hitter, the Steely Dodger, the Stone Cold Moron, A Man Called Physician, A Man Called Blunder... Not content with their usual mastery of the 4 P's (punk, pop, prog, psych) Professor Pollard pushes the envelope on Poppy Field, and continues to redefine GBV from a myriad of angles. Anyone who thinks that he's gotten complacent after 104 albums hasn't been paying attention! Don't miss out."
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CD
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GBVI 095CD
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"Guided By Voices is now an unlikely candidate for the most perfect rock band of all time, while at the same time being a thoughtful reflection on what a rock band is, a fantasy that becomes a fact. Sweating The Plague, the band's 29th album and their third this year, spars playfully with stadium-sized fidelity and uncharacteristically impactful arrangements. Producer Travis Harrison's counterintuitive approach to Guided By Voices' historically lo-fi sound is that he doesn't want it to sound homemade, while the grinding tectonic plate guitars of Doug Gillard and Bobby Bare Jr. anchor the album. Play it loud! Being a fan of Guided By Voices can feel like standing in a ticker-tape parade and reaching out to grab at stray releases as the endless flurry of output from the Needmore Songs publishing house billows around -- but here's twelve compatible nuggets of Pollard content in one handy package, all boxed up and ready to go."
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LP
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GBVI 095LP
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LP version. "Guided By Voices is now an unlikely candidate for the most perfect rock band of all time, while at the same time being a thoughtful reflection on what a rock band is, a fantasy that becomes a fact. Sweating The Plague, the band's 29th album and their third this year, spars playfully with stadium-sized fidelity and uncharacteristically impactful arrangements. Producer Travis Harrison's counterintuitive approach to Guided By Voices' historically lo-fi sound is that he doesn't want it to sound homemade, while the grinding tectonic plate guitars of Doug Gillard and Bobby Bare Jr. anchor the album. Play it loud! Being a fan of Guided By Voices can feel like standing in a ticker-tape parade and reaching out to grab at stray releases as the endless flurry of output from the Needmore Songs publishing house billows around -- but here's twelve compatible nuggets of Pollard content in one handy package, all boxed up and ready to go."
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CD
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GBVI 091CD
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"Following Guided By Voice's sprawling double-album Zeppelin Over China, Robert Pollard has written and recorded another full-length in record-breaking time. It's Warp And Woof, exuberantly barreling through twenty-four songs in just thirty-seven minutes with a brevity similar to mid-90s GBV albums Alien Lanes and Vampire On Titus. GBV kicked this one out in a flash, recorded in studios, club soundchecks, hotel rooms and even in the tour van. After completing Zeppelin, Pollard felt the itch to record a few EPs. Just as GBV had done back in 1994, he would use them to channel his ever-flowing ideas to an outlet. But when a magical boombox writing session produced six fully formed songs in under half an hour, Pollard realized he had an album on his hands. What to do? With a band so formidable they've been dubbed the Golden Age of GBV, they completed much of the recording on the road. The 2018 Space Gun Tour provided impromptu recording venues. Pollard recorded vocals in hotel rooms, complimentary condominiums, and small studios. Doug Gillard cut guitar tracks for 'End It With Light' through his Mesa Boogie rig at the soundcheck at the Ottobar in Baltimore. Bobby Bare Jr. recorded his spacey main rhythm guitars for album closer, 'Time Remains in Central Position' at the same show, but in the backstage green room. Kevin March added drum tracks in a studio in his hometown Montclair, New Jersey. Gillard played guitar on 'Bury the Mouse' in a van hurtling at 60-plus m.p.h., and Mark Shue laid bass on 'Angelic Weirdness' as he balanced on the speeding van's bench seat..."
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LP
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GBVI 091LP
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LP version. "Following Guided By Voice's sprawling double-album Zeppelin Over China, Robert Pollard has written and recorded another full-length in record-breaking time. It's Warp And Woof, exuberantly barreling through twenty-four songs in just thirty-seven minutes with a brevity similar to mid-90s GBV albums Alien Lanes and Vampire On Titus. GBV kicked this one out in a flash, recorded in studios, club soundchecks, hotel rooms and even in the tour van. After completing Zeppelin, Pollard felt the itch to record a few EPs. Just as GBV had done back in 1994, he would use them to channel his ever-flowing ideas to an outlet. But when a magical boombox writing session produced six fully formed songs in under half an hour, Pollard realized he had an album on his hands. What to do? With a band so formidable they've been dubbed the Golden Age of GBV, they completed much of the recording on the road. The 2018 Space Gun Tour provided impromptu recording venues. Pollard recorded vocals in hotel rooms, complimentary condominiums, and small studios. Doug Gillard cut guitar tracks for 'End It With Light' through his Mesa Boogie rig at the soundcheck at the Ottobar in Baltimore. Bobby Bare Jr. recorded his spacey main rhythm guitars for album closer, 'Time Remains in Central Position' at the same show, but in the backstage green room. Kevin March added drum tracks in a studio in his hometown Montclair, New Jersey. Gillard played guitar on 'Bury the Mouse' in a van hurtling at 60-plus m.p.h., and Mark Shue laid bass on 'Angelic Weirdness' as he balanced on the speeding van's bench seat..."
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CD
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GBVI 081CD
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"In 2018, Guided By Voices will release precisely one new album, Space Gun. Once you hear it, you will know why. With a renowned work ethic and a daily pot of coffee, Robert Pollard continues to outclass younger generations of come-and-go rock bands. After 20+ years, 100+ albums, 2000+ songs, Pollard still can't really explain (or doesn't want to explain) his secret: 'The songs just come to me.' In 2017, the new GBV line-up (veterans Doug Gillard and Kevin March and newcomers Mark Shue and Bobby Bare Jr) blew audiences away and toured behind the ambitious and sprawling multi-vocalist double album August By Cake, followed just months later by the concise punchy and catchy How Do You Spell Heaven. Pollard has acknowledged that this line-up's adroit talents pushes him to more daring and dizzying heights. The band will be touring throughout 2018. And now, here it comes: Space Gun, the fullest realization yet of Pollard's song talents, with the band firing on all cylinders. There's humor and whimsical childlike musings, cinematic grace and elegance, heavy duty propulsion, dark futuristic undercurrents, twists and turns and kinetic magic. This is a band that turns on a dime, rips it up, psyches it out and can radically shape-shift to realize a three-act rock opera in two minutes and 48 seconds. Robert Pollard is a lyrical master; not a word out of place, every line bristling with surprise, telling a story that's both irresistible and impossible. Invention and imagination remain the undiminished life-forces of a Guided By Voices record and this one absolutely crackles with this energy: this band is on fire."
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LP
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GBVI 081LP
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LP version. "In 2018, Guided By Voices will release precisely one new album, Space Gun. Once you hear it, you will know why. With a renowned work ethic and a daily pot of coffee, Robert Pollard continues to outclass younger generations of come-and-go rock bands. After 20+ years, 100+ albums, 2000+ songs, Pollard still can't really explain (or doesn't want to explain) his secret: 'The songs just come to me.' In 2017, the new GBV line-up (veterans Doug Gillard and Kevin March and newcomers Mark Shue and Bobby Bare Jr) blew audiences away and toured behind the ambitious and sprawling multi-vocalist double album August By Cake, followed just months later by the concise punchy and catchy How Do You Spell Heaven. Pollard has acknowledged that this line-up's adroit talents pushes him to more daring and dizzying heights. The band will be touring throughout 2018. And now, here it comes: Space Gun, the fullest realization yet of Pollard's song talents, with the band firing on all cylinders. There's humor and whimsical childlike musings, cinematic grace and elegance, heavy duty propulsion, dark futuristic undercurrents, twists and turns and kinetic magic. This is a band that turns on a dime, rips it up, psyches it out and can radically shape-shift to realize a three-act rock opera in two minutes and 48 seconds. Robert Pollard is a lyrical master; not a word out of place, every line bristling with surprise, telling a story that's both irresistible and impossible. Invention and imagination remain the undiminished life-forces of a Guided By Voices record and this one absolutely crackles with this energy: this band is on fire."
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