Guided by Voices: Sandbox

Guided by Voices: Sandbox

1987

Gotham City Music

Format I Own it on: Compact Disc (cos I'm not a gazillionaire)

Track Listing: 1. Lips of Steel  2. A Visit to the Creep Doctor  3. Everyday  4. Barricade  5. Get to Know the Ropes  6. Can't Stop  7. The Drinking Jim Crow  8. Trap Soul Door  9. Common Rebels  10. Long Distance Man  11. I Certainly Hope Not  12. Adverse Wind


For some reason, I usually see this one pointed out as being Guided by Voices worst album. I have no idea why, really. Maybe it's because Pollard himself has said so and therefore it's so? Maybe I enjoy Big Star-style power-pop more than the average GBV fan does? Maybe I have terrible taste in music and that's why I own so many Phil Collins albums? I dunno. But I love "Sandbox."

First off. I like every single song on it. I'd say about 10 out of these 12 songs are top-shelf fantastic. I can't think of many other GBV full-lengths that have such a high hit-to-miss ratio. For the record, the weak-spots (for me) are "The Drinking Jim Crow" even though it's probably the most GBV-ish song on here. It sorta sounds like "Everywhere With Helicopter" now that I think about it,  but it never comes up with a good chorus like that song did. The other weak spot is "Trap Soul Door," which is just a bit too moody and earnest for my liking, even though I highly enjoy that little "oooo" harmony at the very end. Even though, neither of these songs are bad by any stretch of the imagination. They're just the ones I'm slightly less enthusiastic about. 

Then there are a couple songs that I always forget I love until I re-listen to the album. Songs that I think have a shaky premise but ultimately overcome them. In this category are"Common Rebels" which has a fairly irritating and laughable vocal melody until the last minute or so when Bob suddenly full-throatedly belts it out and you're suddenly forced to appreciate the majesty of it. I also always kinda groan when the hickish cow-punk verses of "Certainly Hope Not" come on, but the chorus (which comes out of  absolutely nowhere) is a thing of beauty, Oh, yea. I should probably point out that Pollard's vocals are especially hick-ish on this record. No fake British accent here. If anything, it sorta sounds like a fake southern accent. 

And the fake southern accent works beautifully on "Every Day," which I place near the top of my all-time favorite GBV tracks.  The best REM song REM never wrote. Just 3 minutes of rural bliss pop. Shopping mothers rushing home to their pretty little houses (and lawns), where the guys blow all their money to put racing stripes on their shitty little cars. I don't know what it is about the song. It just seems to make every right move. It's also the type of song they would never do again, which makes me sad. I always liked it when they attempted to be a burlier version of REM. 

My other favorite on here has to be the album closer "Adverse Wind." When he wants to, Pollard sure knows how to properly close out an album and this is one of his finest examples. That soaring chorus of " I hear you crying, you're only a lifetime away..." sure gets you pumped to hit that replay button, which is my favorite kind of album closer (I've always thought there are two ways to properly close an album. 1. Put 'em through the ringer and exhaust the listener so when they're done they're like, "I am SPENT"  (see "Father Sgt Christmas Card" or (especially) "Inspiration Points") or 2. You save up one last short blast of overwhelming awesomeness (see "Adverse Wind," "Non Absorbing" or "Huffman Prairie Flying Field"). I don't know who's playing that shredding guitar line but they deserve a raise for sure. 

Just a lot of humble, rocking, poppy stuff. Rural indie rock. All beautifully sung with nice shimmering guitars. I can't recommend it enough (even though it's usually everyone's least favorite GBV album). I'd say give it a try even (maybe especially if) you're not entirely sold on GBV. Although the only way you can get it is in a big-ass box set at which point you'd be fully immersed into the deep end of GBV anyway. Oh, wait. They invented the internet and stuff. Just listen to it on youtube...Like this...

Here's "Everyday" by GBV...

oh, and "Adverse Wind." You should probably hear this one too...

Oh, yea. My ongoing real-time Pollard ranking list (from best to least-best):

1. Sandbox
2. Forever Since Breakfast
3. Devil Between My Toes

(this is going to be one absurdly long list once I'm done). 

Guided by Voices: Devil Between My Toes

Guided by Voices: Devil Between My Toes

1987

Format I Own it on: Compact Disc

Track Listing: 1. Old Battery  2. Discussing Wallace Chambers  3. Cyclops  4. Crux  5. A Portrait Destroyed by Fire  6. 3 Year Old Man  7. Dog's Out  8. A Proud and Booming Industry  9. Hank's Little Fingers   10. Artboat  11. Hey, Hey Spaceman  12. The Tumblers  13. Bread Alone  14. Captain's Dead


Wow! Is that an actual photo of the legendary Big Daddy on the cover? Alright. I'm adding a point for that...

This is GBV's first full-length. Their debut ep was recorded in a real-deal studio, with polished songs and the fidelity of a sparkling demo. This however is a mish-mash of great songs, so-so songs and a bunch of pointless instrumentals that sound like they were recorded in the deepest, dankest basement known to man. But it does creep the band slightly out of REM's shadow and forward into sounding more like the GBV we all know and love and for that it's notable...

The Great: "Hey, Hey Spaceman" is the sort of top-notch pop fantasia they would soon be tossing off left and right. A blueprint for the creamy goodness to come. The opener "Old Battery" is definitely a by-product of their REM obsession but it's so much weirder than REM ever got. It sounds like Michael Stipe with a fork in a light socket fronting Wire. And the melody is catchy. so it earns its place as an early-GBV classic.  "Dog's Out" has a nice-little choppy riff. The sort of thing they would later nail on tracks like "Postal Blowfish" and the chorus actually manages to muster up a bit of grandeur. They also end on a high note with album-closer "Captain's Dead" where they lay some long, nice harmonies over a bit of punkish zip.

Y'know what? After some deliberation, I've decided to toss "Portrait Destroyed by Fire" into the great category. It's one of those songs that took me awhile to warm up to, but I think it's important as the earliest example of the murky, prog that would become an important part of Pollard's repertoire. Plus it gives us an early sampling of Tobin Sprout's impish vocal stylings (again, a small taste of greatness to come). There's just something about  how it evolves from the long moody intro all the way into the fiery finale where Pollard howls the song's title while the flames surround him...A longform (5 minutes?!?!) hazy epic....

The So-So: Theoretically I should love "Discussing Wallace Chambers" and "Hank's Little Fingers" since they're the type of Pollard-pop that I love so much, but I somehow find them even too fluffy and sugary for me (an Apples in Stereo fan!!). This album contains the only examples of GBV pop songs that tip too much into the lightweight category, btw. Going forward there would be sufficient melancholy to counteract even the bubble-gummiest of melodies..."Cyclops" and "The Tumblers" are just sorta forgettable filler (and at two minutes and forty-five seconds "The Tumblers" still comes off as overlong)...

Pointless instrumentals: Yes, the remaining five songs are all pointless instrumentals. If you're a seasoned GBV fan this will seem weird, since I don't even know if they ever released five instrumentals total after this album Which is a practice I'm glad they quickly abandoned. I guess if I had to pick a favorite out of the pointless instrumentals, I'd maybe go with "Crux" just because it has a bit of movement (some rudimentary riffing over the world's boxiest, most card-boardish drum machine) the rest just sort of hum there and feed back ear-splittingly from time to time...

I do find it somewhat charming that GBV decided to half-ass it for their debut album. I mean, at this point nobody even knew they existed, so nobody was waiting with bated breath for their big debut. I mean, why not take that time to write some songs? Ah, well...Keep it Motion, I guess...

Alright...This is going to be a new feature during these GBV/Pollard posts. I'm going to attempt to rank every record (again, that I own. There are a ton I do not) as we go through them (strictly for selfish and academic reasons)...So here we go...

1. Forever Since Breakfast
2. Devil Between My Toes

There...I like "Forever Since Breakfast" slightly more than "Devil Between My Toes." In fact, "Devil Between My Toes" might be among the GBV records I listen to the least...But they would soon remedy it's deficiencies. Still, the great songs I listed above really are worth your time ("Hey Hey, Spaceman" especially)...

Let's stop talking and start listening. Here's "Hey Hey, Spaceman" by Guided by Voices...Enjoy...

Guided by Voices: Forever Since Breakfast

Y'know what? The blog was feeling a little stale. My output has ground to a halt. Let's spice things up, baby! I feel like doing a project. Here's a big one. I'm going to listen to every Guided by Voices/Robert Pollard album I own in chronological order and tell you my thoughts. GBV has long been my favorite band and I'm one of the rare people who feel Pollard hasn't put out enough albums. And with his 100th album coming up, I felt this would be a good time. It's something I love listening to and talking about. Now keep in mind, this isn't anywhere near a comprehensive Pollard list, this is only what I have, but I do have a goodly number of them, so let's get this rolling...




Guided by Voices: Forever Since Breakfast

1986

I Wanna Records/Matador

Format I Own it on: Compact Disc

Track Listing: 1. Land of Danger  2. Let's Ride  3. Like I Do  4. Sometimes I Cry  5. She Wants to Know  6. Fountain of Youth  7. The Other Place

The band's debut EP. I got this as part of Matador Record's 2003 box set "Hardcore UFO's." Prior to that, the album was so rare and prohibitively expensive that I could only speculate as to what it sounded like, Common critical consensus was that  it was subpar, overly slick and not indicative of what GBV would eventually become. Still I was curious. 

When the EP was finally re-released in 2003, I ran to the record store and bought a copy the day it came out. And even though it was marked Disc 5, it was the first one I tossed in the ol' CD player. And my opinion on it? It sounded like a long-lost REM EP. A fucking glorious long-lost REM EP. I'm telling you, if REM would have put this out, songs like "Land of Danger" and the life-affirmingly catchy "The Other Place" would be revered classics. Stipe and Co would have been on the receiving end of much critical knob-slobbering. 

As for the overly-slick tag? I don't hear it. I guess I could expect such criticisms when GBV were in their lo-fi heyday but I've heard so much Pollard material that is so much slicker than "Forever Since Breakfast" that I hardly notice the fidelity. Some of it sorta reminds me of early 2000's Doug Gillard-era GBV. Very fleshed-out with lots of guitar detail...

The distant vocals and background noise of "LIke I Do" does give us a glimpse of the airy, home-recorded lo-fi that was just around the corner...And it's the only song on the album under 3 minutes (another signifier of things to come). I'm a big fan of "Like I Do," actually. There's something about Bob's melancholy, quieter stuff from the earlier years. Back when he thought no one was listening. There's something especially isolated and lonesome about it all...

Can this EP be counted among the great GBV albums? Hell, no. But it's definitely a good, little listen.  Pollard was already a fantastic vocalist (he has a much sweeter tone here, his voice deepens and gets a bit grit over the next couple of albums) but he hadn't found his own voice yet. I'd call it an indispensable part of the (honorary) REM Discography though.  One of the top 5 REM releases for sure!

Alright, let's listen to some music...Here's "The Other Place"...Enjoy...

The Fall: Slates

The Fall: Slates

1981

Rough Trade Records

Format I Own it on: Vinyl

Track Listing: 1. Middle Mass  2. An Older Lover Etc.  3. Prole Art Threat  4. Fit and Working Again  5. Slates, Slags, Etc  6. Leave the Capitol


A 6-song 10-inch EP (that cost me a little more than I should have paid, but I couldn't resist that glorious cover) but don't let its brevity fool you. This thing is jam-packed with prime Fall. And although there's no big stand-out capital C classic you can really point to, it's one of their best and most interesting releases, because it acts as an exploded view of the Fall....

You get to view all the band's different aspects, from shambling rockabilly corkers ("Fit and Working Again), to bass driven drone rock ("Middle Mass") to spare ominous dirges ("An Older Lover").  The highlight might actually be "Leave the Capital" which is a sneak preview of the upcoming pop-Fall era. The song/play experiment, "Prole Art Threat" is also surprisingly great for it's eccentric structure. 

I really don't have a ton to say about this. It's a fun miniature. Like a well-shaken snowglobe filled with soot. It's the classic line-up (only Brix is the final, missing ingredient at this point), with Marc Riley and Craig Scanlon scratching up a storm on their guitars, the Hanleys tearing shit up on the rhythm section and of course Mark E Smith honking it up over all the madness. A super distinctive sound running at peak efficiency...

Here's " Leave the Capitol" by The Fall...Enjoy...