Guided by Voices:Propeller

Guided by Voices:Propeller

1992

Scat Records

Format I Own it on: That modern marvel, the Compact Disc

Da Track Listin': 1. Over the Neptune/Mesh Gear Fox  2. Weedking  3. Particular Damaged  4. Quality of Armor  5. Metal Mothers  6. Lethargy  7. Unleashed! The Large-Hearted Boy  8. Red Gas Circle  9. Exit Flagger  10. 14 Cheerleader Coldfront  11. Back to Saturn X Radio Report  12. Ergo Space Pig  13. Circus World  14. Some Drilling Implied  15. On the Tundra



Alright, roll up yer sleeves cos we're diggin' into some good stuff...It just struck me that two years passed between "Same Place the Fly Got Smashed" and "Propeller." Two whole years without a GBV album?!?!  As legend has it this was Guided by Voices' first final album. Their last hurrah. The "Last Smiles of the Decomposed" of 1992. 

Because I wear a barrel, I own the 90's Scat Records CD version (but not the "Vampire on Titus/Propeller" twofer I see get talked about a lot. I'm not so sure those two albums are really compatible). But this album originally came out in a limited 500 vinyl copies with cool handmade covers...

The Natty Light one is easily my favorite. The record shop I frequent told me that years ago an original "Propeller" made its way into their store and sold for a whole heap of money. Woe be to my checking account if I ever run across one of these. 

I have no idea about the actual number of songs Pollard has written but since he's put out a 100 full-length albums, I'd say "thousands upon thousands" is a pretty safe number. Out of those thousands upon thousands one of them has to stand out among all the others. One of them has to encapsulate everything GBV is about. What is Robert Pollard's best song? His shining moment? I've mulled this over many times and I kinda keep coming back to "Propeller"'s opening track, "Over the Neptune/Mesh Gear Fox." 

"Over the Neptune/Mesh Gear Fox" has everything. It starts off with as an imaginary GBV live show (I'm not even sure if the band played live shows during this era), with the now ubiquitous chant of "GBV! GBV! GBV!" (when was the last time you went to a GBV show and didn't hear that chant? It breaks out literally ever 10 minutes or so. But it's origins lie in the band overdubbing themselves into a stadium-sized roar. They willed the obligatory crowd chant into existence, which is a fairly ingenious move). It begins as just Pollard delivering a sing-songy hook over a lone guitar (which constitutes a significant portion of Pollard's oeuvre) before the full band kicks in, sounding like the ideal version of themselves. Fuzzy, lo-fi guitars and pure basement majesty. Pollard throws off great melody after great melody (the "It's the things you say, It's the things you do, go right through me..." section seriously gives me goosebumps every time). 

"Hey, let's throw the great party,Today for the rest of our lives.The fun is just about to get started,So throw the switch, it's rock and roll time..."

Where was all the great stadium rock in the 90's? Turns out it was right here. I'm telling you. If the Beatles or The Who had put this song out, it would be lauded as one of the all-time greats...Don't let its relative obscurity fool you. 

And the first 3/4ths of this album are filled with other such highlights (honestly, the only song on the first 3/4ths that I'm not nuts about is "Particular Damaged" which has no discernable melody as far as  I can tell. It's just a repetitive guitar figure with Pollard howling over it). "Weedking" proves that it's possible to capture true grandeur on a small budget. "Quality of Armor" is an ace pop song (My band covers it and one of my proudest moments as a musician(?) was watching a bunch of mohawked tough-punks moshing in a circle to our interpretation of this GBV tune). "Exit Flagger" is another early GBV anthem that no live show is complete without (if you listen to this song and don't feel like you can take on the world afterwords, then you're listening to it wrong). "Unleashed!," "Metal Mothers," it all rules. 

And this is where Tobin Sprout, who would become Pollard's greatest songwriting foil, becomes a real presence.  He really excels at sweet, munchkin-y pop, the first taste of which we get on "14 Cheerleader Coldfront," a simple acoustic track where he and Pollard do some really lovely harmonies. It's all touching and nostalgic while maintaining a WTF mysteriousness. 

If the album didn't slightly falter near the end, it might be in the running for my favorite GBV album. I consider the dividing point to be "Back to Saturn X Radio Report" which is a collage of songs from an aborted album (this track was extremely intriguing in the pre-"Suitcase" era. What were these songs? Where could I get the full versions? There was one section that eluded me forever which turned out to be "Tractor Rape Chain (Clean it Up)"from the Darla 100 compilation). After that there are some cool songs but no flat-out classics. We get "Ergo Space Pig" which appears to be an exercise in making weird noses (fine, but not what I listen to GBV for. I might praise it if it were on a Half Japanese album or something), "Circus World" indulges in some languorous melancholy, "Circus World" is sorta interesting because it reminds me if Kiss attempted a wandering, amorphous melody and "On the Tundra" closes the album on a high note (an understated British Invasion number). 

On the whole, this is a must-have if you're interested in GBV. Definitely a great starting point, since it contains many of the band's finest moments. It's just a great hand-written love letter to the glory of Rock n' Effing Roll. It's been a couple decades since I first heard this and it's never lost an ounce of its magic. Long live Rockathon...

Let's listen to some music. Here's "Over the Neptune/Mesh Gear Fox" by GBV enjoy...

Here is my revised ranking. Each new GBV album is still getting better than the last (except poor old "Devil Between My Toes"...

1. Propeller

2. Same Place the Fly Got Smashed

3. Self-Inflicted Aerial Nostalgia

4. Sandbox
5. Forever Since Breakfast
6. Devil Between My Toes