Guided by Voices – Bee Thousand
As I find myself in the dark and shadowy nether region between the youthful, vibrant scenester and the aging hipster, I am desperately trying to avoid the pitfall of clinging to the music I held dear in the former classification as I approach the latter. It’s important to expand one’s tastes, I feel, but easier to stay the course and utter a hearty “Well, fuck it.” I refer to this phenomena as “first album was better syndrome” or “chronic pabst blue ribbon’s disease.”
Go to any show and look back at the bar. You’ll see them there, the Infected, recounting the days when Matador was still a relevant record label, a faint glisten in their eyes and a Hot Water Music tattoo on their calves.
That being said, I am going to go ahead and recommend an older album (“Well, fuck it”), praying that it does not speed the proliferation of those stagnant musical miasmas.
I’m not sure why people seem to have forgotten about this band. It’s not for lack of songs; their catalog puts Lil’ Weezy to shame. And as I troll the waters of Facebook and MySpace, other bands of the era are well represented; stuffed and mounted as in the game room of a British burra sahib, under “Favorite Music.” For instance, Sonic Youth gets an appropriately healthy nod. Yo La Tengo, also.
But I’d like you to listen to GBV’s seventh album and opus one, Bee Thousand. It’s really good.
It’s not just the simple songwriting (which is genius) or the achingly warm lo-fi recording (which is lovely), it’s the fact that Bob Pollard and co. have synthesized these elements into something that, like the Shrike, exists in its own space. Do this experiment. Listen to a song you like. Then a Bee Thousand track. Repeat. You’ll find that after the initial adjustment your ear must make to the degraded sound quality, you are swept away.
Songs start then end, suddenly and mysteriously in washes of guitar, and then they start again. The vocals harmonize like a British Invasion band and still retain a sense of American folk familiarity. The lyrics are obtuse (Don’t hide / The snake can see you) but still decipherable (Give me time to light / A sentimental torch tonight). My favorite lyrics come from the summertime-evoking opening track “Hardcore UFOs” :
Sitting out on your porch
Watching Hardcore UFOs
Drawing pictures
Playing solos
'Till ten
WTF, right? But it works! Long before “bedroom recording” became a mainstay of the music journalist’s arsenal, Guided by Voices already had the 4-track and a $90 pawnshop guitar out and were making incredible, familiar, and kind of shitty-sounding rock music.
I’m not sure why people seem to have forgotten about this band. It’s not for lack of songs; their catalog puts Lil’ Weezy to shame. And as I troll the waters of Facebook and MySpace, other bands of the era are well represented; stuffed and mounted as in the game room of a British burra sahib, under “Favorite Music.” For instance, Sonic Youth gets an appropriately healthy nod. Yo La Tengo, also.
But I’d like you to listen to GBV’s seventh album and opus one, Bee Thousand. It’s really good.
It’s not just the simple songwriting (which is genius) or the achingly warm lo-fi recording (which is lovely), it’s the fact that Bob Pollard and co. have synthesized these elements into something that, like the Shrike, exists in its own space. Do this experiment. Listen to a song you like. Then a Bee Thousand track. Repeat. You’ll find that after the initial adjustment your ear must make to the degraded sound quality, you are swept away.
Songs start then end, suddenly and mysteriously in washes of guitar, and then they start again. The vocals harmonize like a British Invasion band and still retain a sense of American folk familiarity. The lyrics are obtuse (Don’t hide / The snake can see you) but still decipherable (Give me time to light / A sentimental torch tonight). My favorite lyrics come from the summertime-evoking opening track “Hardcore UFOs” :
Sitting out on your porch
Watching Hardcore UFOs
Drawing pictures
Playing solos
'Till ten
WTF, right? But it works! Long before “bedroom recording” became a mainstay of the music journalist’s arsenal, Guided by Voices already had the 4-track and a $90 pawnshop guitar out and were making incredible, familiar, and kind of shitty-sounding rock music.
Please for to listen:
Usher ft. Young Jeezy – Love in This Club
Usher ft. Young Jeezy – Love in This Club
I guess there is some controversy surrounding the credibility of this single’s production, but who cares?
First, If this guy can use Garageband to make a cool beat and charge six figures for it, I still have hope to be the next Timbaland.
Second, I can totally bounce to this.
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