Guided by Voices: Same Place the Fly Got Smashed

Guided by Voices: Same Place the Fly Got Smashed

1990

Rocket #9 Records

Format I Own it on: Compact Disc

Track Listing: 1.Airshow '88  2. Order for the New Slave Trade  3. The Hard Way  4. Drinker's Peace  5. Mammoth Cave  6. When She Turns 50  7. Club Molluska  8. Pendulum  9. Ambergris  10. Local Mix-Up/Murder Charge  11. Starboy  12. Blatant Doom Trip  13. How Loft I Am?


Alright. This one might actually make it into my top 5 GBV records. Or just outside the edges of that list. I effing love this one. It's a concept album about drinking but not the good timey Friday Night Record Party drinking. This is a night of drinking gone horribly wrong. And the sound and performances are appropriately dark and bleary (yet still packed with stellar melodies).

This album might present a couple of hurdles for new GBV listeners. The band retreats deeper into lo-fi, a good chunk of the album is hard-panned (which means it's not the most pleasant thing to listen to on headphones, but sound good blaring from home stereo speakers) and there's plenty of botched chords and out of tune guitars. Not to mention the album opens with "Airshow '88" which is a tuneless, shouting mess.

But man, is there some fucking great material on this album. Some of my favorite Robert Pollard vocal performances originate here; That second verse of the phenomenally rocking "Pendulum" where the music settles back down after the raucous chorus, but Bob's still all wound up and nails the performance to the ceiling. And "Local Mix Up/Murder Charge" is a brilliant vocal showcase. An epic mystery where Bob delivers the first half with a detached drawl (think John Lennon shell-shocked and drunk out of his mind, "all the pleasure seekers are out there tonight...") to the eventual death scene that shifts from screaming, bemused terror to a sort of humorous, Broadway-ish finish ("...and that's the electrifying conclusion!"). It's hard to believe this is the same guy from just a couple of album's ago. He's got such an expanded emotional range, more fearless in his performances and there's already a sense of self-mythologizing (especially for someone who was essentially recording these as "vanity projects." These were not albums you could go to your local record store and buy.)

Oh, and "Drinker's Peace" which is one of the best GBV songs, hands down. The poorly-tuned guitar sounds three sheets to the wind, and Pollard is appropriately numb. There's just so much regret and sadness.  When I first bought this album, I had to keep repeating the song over and over. Essential GBV for sure.

Other favorites, "The Hard Way" which rocks so much, "Club Molluska" which isn't much to speak of musically, but with that distant buzzing amp and Pollard's unhinged vocal, just glows. Oh, yea! My other favorite song (which is just as good as "Drinker's Peace" (but hardly ever gets mentioned)) is "When She Turns 50." Sure, it's a showcase for botched chording, but it's so sweet, sad and lovely that you can't believe it's not a revered classic you've known and cherished your entire life. The lyrics (and how they're delivered) really get me for some reason, Imagine Paul McCartney (circa the Cherry album) shit-faced yet nostalgic. "When I'm Sixty Four" with all the youthful dreaminess sucked out of it and replaced by an inebriated, middle-aged weariness:

"The tavern's open again
The line-up who light up will surely decide the fate,
Of these incorrigibles
Who plaster their messages up on the interstate...

When she turns 50
I might be dead

But acting happy again
For singing you songs about rush-hour traffic jams,
When the vodka kicks in
A night at the Rockies, digging in for the slam..."

Highly recommended. Sure it's overly dark (except for "How Loft I Am?" which closes the album on a big, bright optimistic note (on the opposite end of the spectrum is "Starboy" maybe their bleakest, most despondent song ever) but it's endlessly listenable. Like an alcoholic haze you can get lost in again and again...Probably not for everybody, but if you're a middle-aged drunk with adventurous taste in music this is going to be your go-to tear-in-your-beer listening...

Here's "The Hard Way" by Guided by Voices...Enjoy...

...oh, and we should probably listen to "Drinker's Peace" too...

One more...How about "When She Turns 50"...

Here's the revised GBV/Pollard ranking list (which is basically a list of GBV albums in reverse chronological order at this point, since Pollard keeps getting better and better during this time period (except the ranking of "Forever Since Breakfast" over "Devil Between My Toes" (which I still consider to be a pretty lousy album). 

1. Same Place the Fly Got Smashed

2. Self-Inflicted Aerial Nostalgia

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