Fans of Guided by Voices, one of the pillars of American indie rock throughout the 1990s, would occasionally get a break from Robert Pollard’s swinging-for-the-rafters tenor when the band’s George Harrison figure, Tobin Sprout, would offer up one of his lovely, delicate compositions like “Awful Bliss” from the group’s landmark recording Bee Thousand.
Sprout’s tremulous, high voice and guitar were hardly his only contributions to Gbv. His home studio and four-track recorder were the band’s home base for his ten-year tenure for the band, and much of their defining lo-fi sound is credited to his input.
Sprout’s tremulous, high voice and guitar were hardly his only contributions to Gbv. His home studio and four-track recorder were the band’s home base for his ten-year tenure for the band, and much of their defining lo-fi sound is credited to his input.
- 1/20/2017
- by alexheigl
- PEOPLE.com
Steven Soderbergh's TV series adaptation of "The Girlfriend Experience" just debuted this past weekend and he's getting ready to pitch the next two seasons of "The Knick." If you thought that's more than enough for one person to handle, you thought wrong. Somewhere in all of that, the director has knocked out a music video for Dtcv. Read More: Interview: Steven Soderbergh Talks "The Knick' Season 2, The Future of TV, And Much More The band features French singer-songwriter Lola G. and former Guided by Voices member James Greer, and the latter is key. Years and years ago, Soderbergh tried to mount a big screen, 3D musical “Cleo” which would've featured music by Guided By Voices' frontman Robert Pollard. Obviously that didn't happen, so we'll have to settle for this semi-abstract video in which vintage footage of rural American life comes right up against the impersonal modern world.
- 4/12/2016
- by Kevin Jagernauth
- The Playlist
Steven Soderbergh continues being productive in new and unexpected directions with what’s technically (unless we’re blanking on something) his first short-form music video. (At the start of his career, he was nominated for a Grammy for Best Long-form Music Video for his work on the Yes concert video 9012 Live, some of which you can watch here.) The band is Dctv, headed by James Greer, a guitarist from one of the classic early lineups of Guided by Voices; recall that one of Soderbergh’s long-discussed, never-realized projects was Cleo!, a rock musical about Cleopatra with music by Gbv mastermind Robert Pollard.
- 4/12/2016
- by Filmmaker Staff
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
Keeping tabs on Ryan Adams’s creative output is basically a full-time job. You could say he’s the Robert Pollard of the sad-bastard crowd: In 2015 alone, he’s released five 7-inch singles, a live album recorded at Carnegie Hall, and, just this morning, to the utter delight of the internet and Taylor Swift, a song-for-song redo of the pop juggernaut 1989. Considering this last point, it’s easy to imagine a wave of potential new fans coming to Adams’s discography right now and having no possible idea where to start. Although Adams’s lack of release restraint is a nightmare for completists and record collectors, it’s a boon for the rest: There’s a version of Ryan Adams for almost everybody — whether you’re into the Grateful Dead’s pickled country deconstructions, the obscure corners of Sst Records’ catalogue, the Smiths’ melancholy jangle, or stripped-down folk-rock. On the downside,...
- 9/21/2015
- by Annie Zaleski
- Vulture
Guided By Voices drummer Kevin Fennell may not have succeeded in selling his drum kit on eBay for $55,000, but he has succeeded in airing the band’s dirty laundry. In a post on the auction’s Facebook page, a friend of Fennell (read: probably Fennell) posted an email correspondence between Fennell and Gbv frontman Robert Pollard. In the back-and-forth, Fennell claims he resigned from the band, while Pollard insists he was fired. The email also sheds a little light on Fennell’s beef with the band, which he claims stems from the band’s recent lack of live ...
- 10/25/2013
- avclub.com
Last week, news broke that Guided By Voices drummer Kevin Fennell was selling (or attempting to sell) the “simply good looking” kit he used on Bee Thousand, Mag Earwig, and other Gbv records, asking a mere $55,000 on eBay. Now comes news that Fennell is no longer in the band—a move that either came because of the sale or that may have sparked the sale, it's not entirely clear. All we have to go on is a statement from Robert Pollard’s management, saying, “The band Guided By Voices has nothing to do with the sale of ...
- 10/24/2013
- avclub.com
It may have only cost Robert Pollard and Co. the price of a four-track player and a few cases of Meister Bräu to launch themselves into the indie rock stratosphere, but THR points out the makers of Bee Thousand have set an auction to start at $55,000 for their original drum kit. The kit belongs to original Guided By Voices drummer Kevin Fennell and includes two toms, a bass drum, several cymbals and a foot pedal. Though the lo-fi garage rockers experienced their fair share of lineup changes after signing to a major label in 1995, Fennell’s drum kit somehow...
- 10/18/2013
- Pastemagazine.com
There were hints that the Guided By Voices classic line-up “reunion” was probably not just a touring thing after the band released three albums over the course of 2012. Now the band has announced a fourth record, English Little League, due April 30. Frontman Robert Pollard and Co. seem likely to keep up their current pace: The “plan” for the foreseeable future is for the band to release three new albums a year. It looks like Guided By Voices’ reunion will just go on forever, and while the output might be a little overwhelming, that's (probably) not a bad ...
- 1/23/2013
- avclub.com
After having already released two albums this year alone (Let's Go Eat The Factory and Class Clown Spots A UFO), lo-fi superstars Guided By Voices have announced that The Bears For Lunch will be released Nov. 13 through the band's own label, Gbv Inc. Ever-prolific frontman Robert Pollard has also released two solo LPs in 2012. At this rate, they can probably fit in five or six more before New Year's. A full tracklist is below. 'The Bears For Lunch' Tracklisting 01 King Arthur The Red 02 The Corners Are Glowing 03 Have A Jug 04 Hangover ...
- 9/28/2012
- avclub.com
Four years ago, when Steven Soderbergh was just beginning to entertain the idea of breaking the world record for most film projects completed in the time between announcing his imminent retirement and actually hitting the beach with a metal detector, one of his wildest pipe dreams was Cleo, a rock musical, in 3D, starring Catherine Zeta-Jones as Cleopatra, Hugh Jackman as Marc Antony, and Ray Winstone as Julius Caesar, with music from Guided By Voices frontman Robert Pollard. (Former Gbv bassist, novelist, and onetime Spin senior editor Jim Greer wrote the screenplay.) The project appeared to collapse when Jackman bailed ...
- 6/18/2012
- avclub.com
With a $30 million budget, a high-profile cast including Hugh Jackman and Ray Winstone, and music written by Guided By Voices' frontman Robert Pollard, Steven Soderbergh's 3D musical “Cleo” never faced an easy road to the big screen. The film was scheduled to shoot in spring of '09, but following Jackman's speedy departure, and then Soderbergh's own directorial issues with “Moneyball,” the project fall apart with faint hope of it being revived. The role of Cleopatra was always Catherine Zeta-Jones' though, and following our interview with Soderbergh about his musical's possible future onstage, the actress has recently echoed that intriguing possibility.
While promoting “Rock of Ages” on “The View” this past week, even amongst the inane babble surrounding her, Jones revealed her interest in Soderbergh's vision. "I just finished a movie with him ['The Bitter Pill' with Rooney Mara] and we have an idea -- actually it was for a movie -- to play Cleopatra,...
While promoting “Rock of Ages” on “The View” this past week, even amongst the inane babble surrounding her, Jones revealed her interest in Soderbergh's vision. "I just finished a movie with him ['The Bitter Pill' with Rooney Mara] and we have an idea -- actually it was for a movie -- to play Cleopatra,...
- 6/18/2012
- by Charlie Schmidlin
- The Playlist
Hardcore fans of indie rock and Beltway trivia already know that White House press secretary Jay Carney is a mega-fan of the band Guided By Voices, but the rest of the nation got a taste of just how deeply Carney digs the lo-fi legends when he dropped a gratuitous compliment into his daily press briefing yesterday.
After announcing that President Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron were headed to Dayton, Ohio, for an Ncaa tournament play-in game, Carney gave in to the impulse to add, "As you probably know, Dayton is the home of the Wright Brothers, the Dayton Peace Accords, and Guided By Voices, the greatest rock 'n' roll band of the modern era, in my humble opinion."
The press corps just laughed.
The video was posted to the Facebook page of Guided By Voices founder and frontman Robert Pollard on Tuesday afternoon, inspiring the band's fiercely loyal...
After announcing that President Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron were headed to Dayton, Ohio, for an Ncaa tournament play-in game, Carney gave in to the impulse to add, "As you probably know, Dayton is the home of the Wright Brothers, the Dayton Peace Accords, and Guided By Voices, the greatest rock 'n' roll band of the modern era, in my humble opinion."
The press corps just laughed.
The video was posted to the Facebook page of Guided By Voices founder and frontman Robert Pollard on Tuesday afternoon, inspiring the band's fiercely loyal...
- 3/14/2012
- by Michael Hogan
- Huffington Post
When we interviewed Robert Pollard back in December about the recent Guided By Voices comeback LP Let's Go Eat The Factory, we shouldn't have been surprised when the famously prolific songwriter casually mentioned that Gbv had another album in the works for 2012. That album, Class Clown Spots A UFO, will be released in June, but the first single, "Keep It In Motion," comes out March 19 as a 7-inch with two other songs. "Keep It In Motion" is a fleet-footed pop song anchored by a hammering drum machine beat and sweetened by Tobin Sprout's backing vocals ...
- 3/9/2012
- avclub.com
There are dozens of guys out there who can claim to have spent time, however brief, in Guided By Voices. But it takes only a few seconds of hearing Let’s Go Eat The Factory to recognize the exact right combination of guys who recorded the band’s most beloved records. Saying Factory deserves to be placed in the vaunted company of 1994’s Bee Thousand and 1995’s Alien Lanes would be overselling it a bit. But Robert Pollard’s first album with the so-called “classic” line-up of Gbv—Tobin Sprout, Mitch Mitchell, Greg Demos, and Kevin Fennell—in ...
- 1/3/2012
- avclub.com
The "classic" lineup of mid-90s lo-fi gurus Guided By Voices apparently had so much fun reuniting last year with "a whole bunch of beer-drenched marathon shows," they couldn't call it quits. After playing what was supposed to be their final concert last year at Seattle's Hopscotch Festival, Robert Pollard, Tobin Sprout, Greg Demos, Mitch Mitchell and Kevin Fennell are back with their first album since 1996: Let's Go Eat The Factory. It's due out in full New Years Day 2012, but for now we've got a snatch of one of the four B-sides (we're as confused on this as Stereogum) off the album's The Doughnut For A Snowman 7 " (which is out and available for download). "One, Two, Three, Four" joins a hallowed line of cheerful indie counting songs that are as fun for adults as kids. Take it on a long road trip with the family for some cool, responsible bonding.
- 12/12/2011
- by The Huffington Post
- Huffington Post
It's been one hell of a week for '90s/rock-era news. R.E.M. split, Nirvana's "Nevermind" 20th anniversary is on Saturday, Guns N' Roses is touring America, Pearl Jam's rock doc and subsequent soundtrack is out and Radiohead is acting like Radiohead. On a smaller scale -- but significantly -- Guided By Voices have taken their reunion to the next step and are releasing the first album of new material from its "classic" lineup for the first time since 1996. (The band's final lineup split on New Year's Eve in 2004). Robert Pollard, Tobin Sprout, Greg Demos, Mitch Mitchell and Kevin Fennell (circa...
- 9/22/2011
- Hitfix
Amid a classic Gbv lineup reunion, Robert Pollard’s recent well-received solo album Lord Of The Birdcage, and the justified suspicion about Uncle Bob’s side projects, Boston Spaceships has had a difficult time selling itself as the rightful heir to Guided By Voices. That certainly isn’t the fault of the group’s albums. Let It Beard continues Boston Spaceships’ winning streak, but more than that, it’s a surprisingly cohesive, consistent double LP from a songwriter not known for cohesion or consistency. Let It Beard’s 26 songs shoot a bleary-eyed glance at Gbv’s past with snatches ...
- 8/9/2011
- avclub.com
By Amanda Sprecher
The Pitchfork Music Festival hit Chicago this past weekend, and this concertgoer is here to tell you why you should join her there next year.
1. You actually get to see the bands you want to. The Pitchfork Music Festival has expanded since its 2005 debut, working its way up from one day to a full three-day affair. For this past weekend's event, the sound systems were improved immensely, and it was more organized. Rarely were there the giant overlaps between bands that force festival-goers to make difficult choices.
Due to the size of Union Park, only the festival was expanded and luckily not the crowds. This year attracted approximately 48,000 people over a three-day period, which might sound big, but compared to larger-scale indie festivals like Coachella, it was very comfortable.
Do you want to check out rising electronic artist James Blake croon at his keyboard from three rows...
The Pitchfork Music Festival hit Chicago this past weekend, and this concertgoer is here to tell you why you should join her there next year.
1. You actually get to see the bands you want to. The Pitchfork Music Festival has expanded since its 2005 debut, working its way up from one day to a full three-day affair. For this past weekend's event, the sound systems were improved immensely, and it was more organized. Rarely were there the giant overlaps between bands that force festival-goers to make difficult choices.
Due to the size of Union Park, only the festival was expanded and luckily not the crowds. This year attracted approximately 48,000 people over a three-day period, which might sound big, but compared to larger-scale indie festivals like Coachella, it was very comfortable.
Do you want to check out rising electronic artist James Blake croon at his keyboard from three rows...
- 7/19/2011
- by MTV News
- MTV Newsroom
Robert Pollard was writing suitcases full of songs before he had an audience, and he’ll likely keep on churning them out even after the last hardcore Guided By Voices fan finally falls over from exhaustion. But while Pollard’s legendary prolificacy continues to amaze, his ability to group enough of his good songs into consistently strong records has diminished since Gbv’s 2004 breakup. Lord Of The Birdcage isn’t a full return to Pollard’s ’90s prime—the peak for Gbv and Pollard solo records like Not In My Airforce and Waved Out—but it’s one of ...
- 6/21/2011
- avclub.com
Yesterday, Thurston Moore released Demolished Thoughts, his fourth and inarguably best solo album in the three decades since he co-founded Sonic Youth. Unlike his previous song-oriented solo works, Demolished Thoughts finds its sound--lush, lonely, Beck Hansen-assisted rock, retextured with acoustics--and sticks with it from start to finish. After one of the most enviable and inspiring careers in indie rock, Moore continues to reinvent his image and offerings with unexpected approaches.
But it doesn't work for everyone; in fact, everyone probably shouldn't try it. Below, we look at five bandleaders who have yet to make a solo album, and why we hope it stays that way.
Steven Tyler: Several years ago, Guided by Voices frontman Robert Pollard released an infamous collection called Relaxation of the Asshole, a best-of culled from the worst of his drunken banter. Even if you dislike his band, it's sort of an essential one-time listen.
But it doesn't work for everyone; in fact, everyone probably shouldn't try it. Below, we look at five bandleaders who have yet to make a solo album, and why we hope it stays that way.
Steven Tyler: Several years ago, Guided by Voices frontman Robert Pollard released an infamous collection called Relaxation of the Asshole, a best-of culled from the worst of his drunken banter. Even if you dislike his band, it's sort of an essential one-time listen.
- 5/25/2011
- by Grayson Currin
- ifc.com
Guided by Voices, sketched by Todd Diciurcio. If you’re anything like me, your Facebook feed today is filled with hastily snapped iPhone photos of last night’s Guided by Voices show at Terminal 5 in New York. This was the last show in the supremely excellent “classic lineup” reunion tour, and Robert Pollard and the boys gave it their all. Those of us who didn’t manage to wangle V.I.P. passes were well-positioned to watch my pal Todd Diciurcio live-sketching the band from his perch on the stage-right balcony. In case you were wondering about the results, we’ve got them right here. Click to enlarge! To see Todd at work, and view the stage from his vantage point, click through to the jump. Related: “Playing Host at Robert Pollard’s Art Opening”...
- 11/8/2010
- Vanity Fair
Bedroom-pop auteur Bradford Cox has dabbled in the childlike yet menacing psychedelia of Syd Barrett, the sumptuously lonely songcraft of Brian Wilson and Phil Spector, the funky drone of Stereolab, the mind-freezing soundscapes of Brian Eno, and the slapdash four-track buzz-pop of Robert Pollard. But he’s never brought all those influences together in one place like he does on the new Halcyon Digest. Before now, Cox has split his time between the propulsive trippiness of his band, Deerhunter, and the dreamier, sweetly shambling Am rock ’n’ roll of Atlas Sound. It became more difficult to tell the projects apart ...
- 9/28/2010
- avclub.com
Robert Pollard’s recent promise to release five albums in 10 months was slightly ominous. The last two solo albums from the Guided By Voices frontman were dozy, crunchy affairs; Circus Devils’ stabs at spooky psychedelia have been touch-and-go; and Boston Spaceships—the collaboration with former Gbv’er and Takeovers multi-instrumentalist Chris Slusarenko and The Decemberists’ John Moen—still had some proving to do, even though the group’s latest albums were bristly enough to scrub off any lingering traces of Brown Submarine’s gunk. But Uncle Bob had the right idea when he promoted The Spaceships from one of ...
- 9/7/2010
- avclub.com
On Friday, I co-hosted the opening of an exhibition of collages by Robert Pollard, the human juggernaut of audio-visual creativity best known as the front man of the legendary indie-rock group Guided by Voices. In a sense, Bob’s collages predate his music: before he ever recorded a demo, he used to create elaborate album covers for imaginary bands, complete with dreamed-up track listings and personnel lineups. Those early experiments were reflected in the “fake record store” that took up a corner of the exhibition space: there, under a blue neon sign that read, The Public Hi-fi Balloon, visitors could browse through a wide selection of “fake” seven-inch and LP covers by such nonexistent bands as Pimple Zoo, Erotic Zip Codes, and Sun Ups. There was even a “fake record store employee asshole,” played by Bob’s friend Mark Beck.
- 8/30/2010
- Vanity Fair
Shawn Lee records and releases albums at a pace that few beside Robert Pollard could match, but at least Lee tries to make each one distinctive. His latest, Sing A Song, features vocalists on every track, and leaves aside Lee’s usual internationalist “soundtrack jazz” in favor of retro soul that wouldn’t sound too out of place on Daptone—that is, if Daptone were more interested in psychedelic-ified ’70s R&B rather than the sweaty, rootsy ’60s kind. Not that Lee stays completely committed to the bit; “Fade Up” has a spacey, futuristic feel, while the oddball ballad “I ...
- 7/20/2010
- avclub.com
Influential indie rock band Guided by Voices will reunite for a full Us tour this autumn. Frontman Robert Pollard announced the tour on his official website today, reports Pitchfork. The band is scheduled to play its first reunion show on September 30 in Austin, TX before taking the stage at Matador Records's 21st anniversary festival in Las Vegas in October. Guided by Voices will also join Times New Viking and Blitzen Trapper for a few show dates. (more)...
- 7/16/2010
- by By Mike Moody
- Digital Spy
Like Pavement and countless other beloved indie rock bands before them, Guided By Voices has reunited for the road. The announcement comes on the heels of news that the "classic" 1992-1996 lineup will be taking the stage at the Matador @21 bash. Dubbed the The Hallway Of Shatter-Proof Glass Tour, the stint takes Robert Pollard, guitarists Tobin Sprout and Mitch Mitchell, bassist Greg Demos and drummer Kevin Fenne out starting on Sept. 30 at the new East Side Drive-In in Austin, then going until Nov. 7. Gbv has announced that Times New Viking will be opening on the front leg, Blitzen...
- 7/15/2010
- by Katie Hasty
- Hitfix
The most famous line-up of cult indie rockers Guided by Voices is to reunite to celebrate Matador Records' 21st anniversary. The Ohio group, fronted by Robert Pollard, will perform at the label's Las Vegas bash in October, before embarking on a U.S. tour.
Pollard, who formed the group in 1983, will reteam with Tobin Sprout, Mitch Mitchell, Greg Demos and Kevin Fennell for the shows.
Matador artists Pavement, Sonic Youth, Belle & Sebastian, Spoon, Cat Power and The New Pornographers, among others, will join the weekend-long party, which will take place at the Palms Casino & Resort, according to Billboard.com. <br...
Pollard, who formed the group in 1983, will reteam with Tobin Sprout, Mitch Mitchell, Greg Demos and Kevin Fennell for the shows.
Matador artists Pavement, Sonic Youth, Belle & Sebastian, Spoon, Cat Power and The New Pornographers, among others, will join the weekend-long party, which will take place at the Palms Casino & Resort, according to Billboard.com. <br...
- 6/30/2010
- by AceShowbiz.com
- Aceshowbiz
There is a certain type of indie rock aficionado out there who is particularly committed to a single band. A single man, really, as Guided By Voices have gone through a handful of changes in personnel, with only frontman/songwriter/mastermind Robert Pollard consistently around for every release. Being a fan of Guided By Voices requires a great deal of devotion simply because Pollard is such a complicated artist. He is a bit of a workaholic, and writing and recording appears to be something of a compulsion for him. Conservatively speaking, there have been no fewer than 16 studio albums that bear the Guided By Voices name, and that isn't counting the multi-disc, multi-volume Suitcase series of outtakes, any live albums, split EPs or albums credited to Pollard as a solo artist. It's a tremendous amount of material to keep track of, and finding a starting point is almost impossible. But...
- 6/21/2010
- by Kyle Anderson
- MTV Newsroom
Add Cleopatra to the list of subjects that are being developed by multiple producers at once. A new biography of Cleopatra, by Stacy Schiff, is about to be published, and Michael Pietsch of Little, Brown says that Scott Rudin has picked up the rights to the book (he actually bought the rights years ago, before the book was even written) and is working with Angelina Jolie to develop a movie from the material. Right now, the idea is that Jolie would play Cleopatra, as if that needs to be explained. Note that this isn't Cleo, Steven Soderbergh's proposed 3D musical about Cleopatra with music by Robert Pollard and Guided by Voices. Totally different projects. Soderbergh's is basically backburnered, as he put it off when Moneyball fell into his lap and hasn't come back into the frame in the wake of his ouster from the baseball picture. Doubt anyone will...
- 6/12/2010
- by Russ Fischer
- Slash Film
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