Robert Pollard and Doug Gillard..."Speak Kindly of Your Volunteer Fire Dept."

why the phrase "electric newspaper boy" resonates so deeply with me, why it makes me feel ineffaceably alive...i don't know, but here you go...



i'm attending the guided by voices reunion show in columbus, ohio, so i'm expectantly devouring the countless, massive amounts of music conducted under pollard's genius (yes, i believe him to be possessed of it in his own unmistakable way). i've been listening to guided by voices and robert pollard for nearly 6 or 7 years now, and though i may not listen to them as unflaggingly as i have in the past couple of years, i always return reverently before his drunken altar. pollard's solo career (until the recent dissolution of gbv) has remained mostly obscure to anyone but inveterate, dedicated fans. quite a shame considering "not in my airforce" and "waved out" are both studded with a gluttony of gems. then there's "speak kindly of your volunteer fire department," a record that provides me with a surfeit of warmth and happiness. collaborating with late-era gbv guitarist doug gillard, "speak kindly..." finds pollard at his most deliriously pop-oriented. it should be a cardinal sin to listen to songs this deliciously well-written. "pop zeus" is a rather obvious tune to praise (disgustingly perfect as it is), but tracks like "and i don't (so now i do)," "frequent weaver who burns," "slick as snails," "tight globes," and "larger massachusetts" are equally as enticing. lyrically, pollard is at his best here, and vocally he has rarely sounded as powerful and assured. even something as seemingly disposable as "soul train college policeman" is endeared due to its performance (and the strange sincerity with which "post-christmas cupcake handgrenade" is sung). in its entirety, this is a great record, on an equal footing with pollard's earlier solo effort "waved out." despite the preponderance of memorable tunes, the closing song ("and my unit moves") remains my unwavering favorite for reasons i could never possibly express.

download bob pollard and doug gillard's lovely little album:

http://megaupload.com/?d=G296J5IN

Guided by Voices..."Mag Earwhig!"

bob pollard & co. at its finest...



i'm definitely a populist in terms of "bee thousand," as it remains one of my favorite musical documents, but people tend to gravitate around the "era" encapsulating "propeller," "bee thousand," "alien lanes" and "under the bushes under the stars." guided by voices are typically derided (pollard in particular) as being unable to maintain a kind of quality control, but i'm nearing asceticism in my devotion and belief in the near majority of their catalogue. i love the earlier, ramshackle and lo-fidelity efforts as much as anyone (especially overlooked marvels such as "same place the fly got smashed," "sunfish holy breakfast" and "vampire on titus"), but the summary dismissal of the latter half of gbv's existence is inexcusable to me. the hip opinion is to chastize and inveigh against the band for its reliance on the hiss and murky distractions of limited recording devices, the lo-fi aesthetic, etc., but people overlook that what qualifies as "lo-fi" wasn't a luxury or affectation as it is currently. a band like guided by voices was driven and populated by people in their mid-30s who couldn't afford session time and preferred to do it themselves, rather nobly. their songs and ineluctable charm are not dependent on methods of production - a good song remains a good song. after disbanding gbv's "classic" line-up (a misnomer, horribly, since something like 50 people at any point played with the band) pollard recruited more conscientious and "professional" players. however outrageous people may have found this, the results are beyond this kind of record store banter bullshit.



"mag earwhig!" is beset with only 3 flaws - all of them forgivable, all of them occuring within the first 5 songs. those faults are - noticeably - "can't hear the revolution," "i am a tree" and the increasingly putrid "bulldog skin." aside from that, however, this record is phenomenal, at times reaching far beyond "under the bushes under the stars." "jane of the waking universe," "little lines," "sad if i lost it," "i am produced," "portable men's society," "not behind the fighter jet," "choking tara" and the chokingly-dense, apocalyptic "the finest joke is upon us" - my favorite on the album - alight in a kind of starburst grove, registering a level of intensity rarely reached on previous releases. the two successive albums - "do the collapse" and "isolation drills" - are far more uneven and tenuous, though still retaining a stunning amount of great songs (the former nowhere near as unlistenable as is often claimed). they regained their balance on their triumvirate of final releases, "universal truths and cycles," "earthquake glue" and "half-smiles of the decomposed," all of which permit the band to bow out gracefully (leaving - in my mind - a nearly unblemished discography).

download "mag earwhig!" by guided by voices:

http://www.mediafire.com/?byz90150wbz

GUIDED BY VOICES..."VAMPIRE ON TITUS"

"vampire on titus" contains the most abrasive, penetrative and hostile fidelity of any of the early gbv recordings. i would make a casual guess and say that i listened to it nearly 10 times before anything remotely appealing began to emerge from the density and fog of tape hiss, feedback and oddly-mixed vocals; now it's among my favorite guided by voices albums, so what the hell do i know? the album also contains some of the more puzzling and strange songs that robert pollard has ever written, and at what point that statement becomes a hyperbole - i simply don't know. you never know, try it out - it certainly has its out sound to it, however unpleasant it appears at first.





download "vampire on titus"

http://www.sendspace.com/file/w2j42i

DREAMIES..."PROGRAMS 10 & 11"

seriously...words would disobey any attempt to express the fragility, hebephrenia and warmth of this music



somewhere hovering over 3 years ago i began an itinerant, almost blindfolded hunt about the greater record stores of toledo and ann arbor, terribly disdainful of my own life and stoic as to its outcome, embalming my self-worth and esteem within the vestments and rewards of music, finding myself only slightly appeased (on any significant level) when stumbling across something remarkable. i was denuded of internet access and wary of accessing any of the computers within campus labs, so i began blindly purchasing things for their aesthetic qualities, finding albums that had unique covers, wondering what the music behind that artwork signified, where it went, what minor world it conjured for itself. fortuitously, it was with this haphazard method that i became ingratiated to the company of this heat, united states of america, susan christie, jean-claude vannier and dreamies. glazing over the artwork - which at the time looked as if to be some ludicrous mock-up of a cereal box - observing the white, hollowed out head that contained the words "program 10" and "program 11" within its respective hemispheres. i listened to the album before reading the inserts that accompanied it, and i'm still immeasurably happy that i conducted things in such a manner. appropriately, this music does affect a state that resembles the logic and pathology of a dream; ambient and electronic noises merge with an acoustic guitar and samples taken from a transistor radio - somewhere among the fog and density trembles a small, double-tracked, cracked alabaster voice; and though the lyrics are inscrutably recited, nearly obscured by the atmosphere, somehow this all makes perfect sense.

as with most "lost" albums, this one has a story behind it. dreamies is the work of one man, bill holt, who upon hearing the beatles "white album," emerged from a suburban coma, quit his reputable job (allegedly at a fortune 500 company) and assembled an acoustic guitar, sampling device and one of the first commercially available moog synthesizers. his aims weren't particularly modest, as he intended to make a continuation of the song "revolution number 9" from the "white album," composing two side-long musical suites (26 minutes each) that take the structural device of the infamous, widely abjured lennon tune - the careening samples of dialogue and electronic coruscations - and impart pop sensibilities and melody within the ambient noise. to say this had even the scantest ripple or effect on anyone when it was released in 1973 would be an act of divine revisionism, as only something like 100 copies of this were privately pressed. quitting his job and recording an album of what is often called aural collage proved to be an impecunious decision, as he ended up bankrupting himself, falling to penury, eventually waddling back to a normal job. he left this as his living testament, and luckily he has been afforded the opportunity to record another dreamies album recently, entitled "program 12." i've yet to hear it and am somewhat reticent, especially given the immensity of my love for this album. as far as "lost" albums go, this is exceeded by nothing and no one - remaining one of my absolute favorite curiosities and listening experiences, and i can only marvel at the ambition it displays. please, please - if you enjoy this record, please purchase it from holt's website. the cover alone is worth the 10 dollars, and this man deserves any penny you can spare for putting something so hypnotic into this sad, grey world.

download dreamies' "program 10 & 11"
http://www.mediafire.com/?oyyrm1nw2rk

THE MOLES..."UNTUNE THE SKY"

another of my favorite albums, and another neglected group. the moles are an australian group that formed in the late 80s, and perhaps it is owed to their regional location that they share sonic similarities with many of the dunedin groups in new zealand, though admittedly they are both more feedback-oriented and melancholic than most of the kiwi bands. their music has an interesting polarity, in that some songs (such as the first track, featured above) emit swaddling rays of sunburst pop, while other songs are more austere with pensive lyrics, minor keys and interesting progressions. my favorite tunes are the fermenting death march of "the happy garden" and the swelling, prismatic anthem "lonely hearts get what they deserve" (featured below).



though "untune the sky" wasn't released until 1992, its spirit is very much bound to the underground music of the 80s, and it has an indescribably "communal" feel to it. some of the tracks aren't immediately accessible (more than a few people have some trouble with "tendrils and paracetamol," which was the moles' attempt to replicate a drug-addled state of mind). there are a good variety of moods here, as well as a dynamism that results from how peripatetic the songs can be. the conclusion of the album is the organ-driven "nailing jesus to the cross," which is both humorous and inescapably sad - the two emotive states that the moles pinball between (garnering them even more comparisons with the chills). their sophomore and final album, "instinct," pursued another direction entirely, foreshadowing leader richard davies' orchestral pop work with the band cardinal. "instinct" is somewhat more baroque, forsaking the ear-rattling feedback for trumpet horns.

download the moles' "untune the sky" (tracks 1-11 are the full album, while the remaining tracks are supplements)

http://rapidshare.com/files/143260928/Moles1.zip.html

a nod to the beautiful Alex Chilton/Big Star

i don't think many obscure songwriters have their names praised and life commemorated on the floors of congress, but this is one atypical instance where such a thing occurred.



alex chilton has made music that has left an indelible, deep mark within my heart. he has conveyed inexpressible emotions through his songs that are both celebratory and haunting, and the fact that he is not more heavily lauded and appreciated is simply maddening. big star is comparable to the velvet underground in their sphere of influence, in the pervasive reach of their recordings but in an entirely dissimilar way. big star didn't necessarily invent or reinvent anything, but more pointedly made music that was disarmingly honest and stark at times, and it's more for their spirit and conviction than the sounds they explored that they are beloved and revered. which isn't to in any way slander or impugn the music itself, because it is beautiful above all, possessing at times an incredible sensitivity. there's no real use in diving into the ephemera and trivia surrounding the band or its crushing lack of success, because the back story to everything is inconsequential, and what matters is the music.

i'm not exactly partial to the first record, despite the fact it contains songs as remarkable as "thirteen" and "ballad of el goodo"...but there's just too much of chris bell (chilton's foil) for my taste (despite the fact that bell's solo album, "i am the cosmos" is quite good). chilton's songs are all i remember clearly from it, and its most rewarding quality is the fact it anticipates the perfection and artistic depths of their sophomore album (sans bell) "radio city," featuring "september gurls," "get what you deserve," "o my soul," and my favorite "daisy glaze."



"radio city" was the last of the "classic" big star sound (though that's still something of a misnomer), typified by the heavy rhythm section and jangling, crystalline guitar arrangements. following "radio city" big star assembled to record an untitled record that remained unreleased for a couple of years due to its lack of structural coherence, manic compositions and - i guess - lack of commercial appeal. eventually the record was released as "3rd," and then re-released in the 90s with a rearranged track listing under the title "sisters lovers." i'm preferential to the track order of the first release, as the the re-release makes the album seem much more fractured than it actually is. "3rd" is filled with a mournful air, string sections that seem to rise unexpectedly from the ether. it follows its own logic and is comparable - in atmosphere - to nico's "marble index." it is not so much an album of songs as it is a gorgeous, mysterious place in which the body deliquesces. big star of course disbanded and chilton went on to a solo career that is absolutely puzzling at times, though not without its charm. he died recently from a heart attack at 59 and left behind a body of work that will forever be inextricably tied to my heart.




here are my two favorite big star records (more chilton-related works will be uploaded soon, too)

big star #1 record and radio city:

http://rapidshare.com/files/185028410/BgStr-12-0.rar


3rd (with original track listing)

http://rapidshare.com/files/181751418/Third_Sister_Lovers.zip