Blimps go 90, on with the show
April 4, 2020 4:51 PM Subscribe
25 years ago today, Guided By Voices released Alien Lanes, a benchmark in lo-fi pop that rocketed them from status as an obscure 12 year old housebound indy band that rarely left their hometown of Dayton, Ohio to become a too-big-to-be-cult band that traveled the world and drank all the beer. To commemorate the occasion, Matador Records has released Watch Me Jumpstart, a 38 minute long documentary covering this turning point in the band's life, along with a special edition of Alien Lanes on audiophile vinyl with a limited edition bottle opener.
I saw them live not long after then and took some great photos which Matador ended up seeing. I got an email from their head designer asking to use one in a forthcoming release. I was thrilled, of course, but then... couldn't find the original or one at a resolution suitable for print. When I'd finally located it, they told me they went to press a week earlier.
I wish I could say I'm better organized as a result of the incident.
...
I love Alien Lanes and Under the Bushes Under the Stars. They're both masterpieces, imo.
posted by dobbs at 5:29 PM on April 4, 2020 [4 favorites]
I wish I could say I'm better organized as a result of the incident.
...
I love Alien Lanes and Under the Bushes Under the Stars. They're both masterpieces, imo.
posted by dobbs at 5:29 PM on April 4, 2020 [4 favorites]
*high-kick emoji*
I always thought Bee Thousand was their breakthrough album, given how much I remember "I Am a Scientist" being in heavy rotation on the radio, but I have to admit Alien Lanes has so many more hooks.
posted by theory at 5:38 PM on April 4, 2020 [8 favorites]
I always thought Bee Thousand was their breakthrough album, given how much I remember "I Am a Scientist" being in heavy rotation on the radio, but I have to admit Alien Lanes has so many more hooks.
posted by theory at 5:38 PM on April 4, 2020 [8 favorites]
Yep, I am a scientist is the only song that has come up in my car's streaming, when I've been searching for Pavement and/or Built to Spill, that I have favorited so far...
posted by Windopaene at 5:51 PM on April 4, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by Windopaene at 5:51 PM on April 4, 2020 [1 favorite]
I grew up in Dayton, Ohio, and went to college there. They got on my radar in 1994. My friend Michael, who bought CDs obsessively, got a copy of Clown Prince of the Menthol Trailer, I think because he was into comic books and it had a song about Matter Eater Lad. Bee Thousand was such a great record, unlike anything else at the time.
I didn't see them live till a couple of years later, after I moved to New York City. Bob Pollard cranks out the tunes so rapidly I could never keep up with them, but I've kept sampling over the years, enjoying how the sound swings from one pole to another. Isolation Drills is so different than the Bee Thousand/Alien Lanes era, but sometimes I think it's the best album ever recorded. It's certainly kept me going through these Isolation-Not-a-Drills.
My friends and I back in Dayton had our own lo-fi band in the early 90's and we've always joked since that we could have been Guided By Voices if only we'd had talent and ambition.
posted by rikschell at 5:52 PM on April 4, 2020 [1 favorite]
I didn't see them live till a couple of years later, after I moved to New York City. Bob Pollard cranks out the tunes so rapidly I could never keep up with them, but I've kept sampling over the years, enjoying how the sound swings from one pole to another. Isolation Drills is so different than the Bee Thousand/Alien Lanes era, but sometimes I think it's the best album ever recorded. It's certainly kept me going through these Isolation-Not-a-Drills.
My friends and I back in Dayton had our own lo-fi band in the early 90's and we've always joked since that we could have been Guided By Voices if only we'd had talent and ambition.
posted by rikschell at 5:52 PM on April 4, 2020 [1 favorite]
38 minutes! That’s like a GBV triple album!
posted by No-sword at 6:40 PM on April 4, 2020 [10 favorites]
posted by No-sword at 6:40 PM on April 4, 2020 [10 favorites]
I saw them a few times in Toronto between 1995 and 2000, always great shows but also always at the same venue which seemed to indicate the "big time" was not in the cards, unlike some other Matador bands of the era.
Coolest memory is Mitch Mitchell's ability to play guitar with a lit cigarette in his mouth for an entire song AND sing backup. That's rock talent!
posted by Paid In Full at 6:43 PM on April 4, 2020 [2 favorites]
Coolest memory is Mitch Mitchell's ability to play guitar with a lit cigarette in his mouth for an entire song AND sing backup. That's rock talent!
posted by Paid In Full at 6:43 PM on April 4, 2020 [2 favorites]
Getting to know Guided by Voices changed the way I heard music. I've been listening to the best-of, Human Amusements at Hourly Rates, a little bit more recently, because it just feels like home to me. The first albums I heard were Bee Thousand and Alien Lanes, if I recall correctly, but the first one I bought for myself was the best-of set. A lot of what's on Alien Lanes made it into that.
posted by limeonaire at 7:28 PM on April 4, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by limeonaire at 7:28 PM on April 4, 2020 [1 favorite]
I always thought of Mag Earwhig as their big breakthrough because the video for “Bulldog Skin” got such heavy rotation on MTV. Also thanks to the one time I saw them live (Bob + Cobra Verde) I will always respect his ability to pitch PBRs out to the cheap seats (there were no seats but you know what I mean).
posted by ejs at 7:57 PM on April 4, 2020
posted by ejs at 7:57 PM on April 4, 2020
I saw this at a film festival in college in 1996. It's...not good.
posted by fluttering hellfire at 8:34 PM on April 4, 2020
posted by fluttering hellfire at 8:34 PM on April 4, 2020
Yesssss this is one of my all time fave records thanks for posting
posted by capnsue at 8:35 PM on April 4, 2020
posted by capnsue at 8:35 PM on April 4, 2020
traveled the world and drank all the beer.
Guided By Beer -- that's what some of scenesters called them back in the day.
posted by philip-random at 9:30 PM on April 4, 2020
Guided By Beer -- that's what some of scenesters called them back in the day.
posted by philip-random at 9:30 PM on April 4, 2020
I saw them in PA back in early 2000s and was really surprised it wasn’t more packed bc all the music nerds who turned me on to them had lured me in with Self Inflicted Ariel Nostalgia which was agggessss old by then.
It was a great show. They had a giant tub of miller lite or some such beer on the stage.
Short on Posters is one of my favorite songs of all time by anyone in any genre.
posted by affectionateborg at 4:20 AM on April 5, 2020
It was a great show. They had a giant tub of miller lite or some such beer on the stage.
Short on Posters is one of my favorite songs of all time by anyone in any genre.
posted by affectionateborg at 4:20 AM on April 5, 2020
Nah, Bee Thousand is still the best. I'm ride or die for that record. Alien Lanes, like the rest of their oeuvre, is good, but Bee Thousand is impossible to top.
posted by kevinbelt at 6:36 AM on April 5, 2020 [3 favorites]
posted by kevinbelt at 6:36 AM on April 5, 2020 [3 favorites]
I saw Robert Pollard in a solo show in 2004 or so at the 40 Watt Club in Athens, GA. It was the worst concert I've ever been to. He didn't care about singing the songs or the people enjoying the songs. He got increasingly intoxicated, incoherent, and unpleasant as the night went on. It was incredibly disappointing and just devastating to my now spouse, who was a huge GBV fan and was so excited to see Pollard live.
posted by hydropsyche at 9:34 AM on April 5, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by hydropsyche at 9:34 AM on April 5, 2020 [1 favorite]
Mag Earwhig was the other one I heard at first. And yeah...it was like that at his recent Brooklyn show, too. The shows definitely have long had this insider Gen-X bro-fest vibe to them because I guess at one point, knowing about them was kind of this cool-guy shibboleth in itself, and so many dudes think it's just about drinking beer nonstop with Bob (and the accompanying sad behavior). And years of that have taken their toll on him and probably a lot of fans, for sure. Live From Austin, TX is near-unlistenable, with every song prefaced by a deeply slurred "This is a song..." from Bob.
There were other things. I remember the 2012 GBV show at Plush in St. Louis where some creepy pickup-artist scenesters were in the row of people behind me, where we were all standing on the floor, and blew on the back of my neck and other women's necks. And I couldn't help feeling sad in way reminiscent of #metoo feelings when I was at the Brooklyn show last fall, hearing Bob talk between songs about how his wife wanted to be there at the show but instead had at some point told him, "Fuck you." Then he played "Tractor Rape Chain," and it made me wonder if they'd fought about that, since even though it's basically a nonsense song, it's not exactly the greatest song title for the post-#metoo era. It didn't help that this big blond former football player–looking dude with a phone clipped to the belt of his jorts was leering at me, giving me unsolicited hints about whatever he'd been doing back in his car, between songs. I probably saw that whole show through a specific lens, though, because it was the first time I'd seen the band since I'd separated from my Gen-X ex-husband, who introduced me to the works of Bob Pollard. So I was seeing him and all the GBV fans around me in a different light that night, certainly. It felt a little bit like watching a cover band doing GBV songs, since it was Bob and a lot of far-younger ringers (not for the first time).
Those moments are sad. My first bio as a magazine editor included reference to GBV, though. Their 2010 reunion show at Matador at 21 was a transcendent experience, getting bounced around near the stage by a disgusting, sweat-dripping, beer-soaked mass of true believers. Just hearing them play the songs was marvelous at that point, amid a crowd that knew all the words just like we did. I'll always hold that moment in a beer-filled snow globe in my mind. Getting a high five from Bob as he left the stage through the crowd at a tiny St. Louis venue, The Bluebird, at the end of a Boston Spaceships show in 2008 was another high point. The moments in last fall's Brooklyn show, too, when the word "light" came up in a couple songs and someone turned the lights on in the windows above us...those were nice. Yeah, liking this band is now a bit of an exercise in liking problematic things, but I feel that way about Weezer too. See notes, previously.
MetaFilter: I'll always hold that moment in a beer-filled snow globe in my mind.
posted by limeonaire at 11:36 AM on April 5, 2020 [3 favorites]
There were other things. I remember the 2012 GBV show at Plush in St. Louis where some creepy pickup-artist scenesters were in the row of people behind me, where we were all standing on the floor, and blew on the back of my neck and other women's necks. And I couldn't help feeling sad in way reminiscent of #metoo feelings when I was at the Brooklyn show last fall, hearing Bob talk between songs about how his wife wanted to be there at the show but instead had at some point told him, "Fuck you." Then he played "Tractor Rape Chain," and it made me wonder if they'd fought about that, since even though it's basically a nonsense song, it's not exactly the greatest song title for the post-#metoo era. It didn't help that this big blond former football player–looking dude with a phone clipped to the belt of his jorts was leering at me, giving me unsolicited hints about whatever he'd been doing back in his car, between songs. I probably saw that whole show through a specific lens, though, because it was the first time I'd seen the band since I'd separated from my Gen-X ex-husband, who introduced me to the works of Bob Pollard. So I was seeing him and all the GBV fans around me in a different light that night, certainly. It felt a little bit like watching a cover band doing GBV songs, since it was Bob and a lot of far-younger ringers (not for the first time).
Those moments are sad. My first bio as a magazine editor included reference to GBV, though. Their 2010 reunion show at Matador at 21 was a transcendent experience, getting bounced around near the stage by a disgusting, sweat-dripping, beer-soaked mass of true believers. Just hearing them play the songs was marvelous at that point, amid a crowd that knew all the words just like we did. I'll always hold that moment in a beer-filled snow globe in my mind. Getting a high five from Bob as he left the stage through the crowd at a tiny St. Louis venue, The Bluebird, at the end of a Boston Spaceships show in 2008 was another high point. The moments in last fall's Brooklyn show, too, when the word "light" came up in a couple songs and someone turned the lights on in the windows above us...those were nice. Yeah, liking this band is now a bit of an exercise in liking problematic things, but I feel that way about Weezer too. See notes, previously.
MetaFilter: I'll always hold that moment in a beer-filled snow globe in my mind.
posted by limeonaire at 11:36 AM on April 5, 2020 [3 favorites]
I'm not a huge fan of music festivals, but seeing GBV and OFF! and Iggy Pop and DeVotchka AND PLAYING THE FESTIVAL OURSELVES was one of the greatest nights of my life. The VIP room with all these dudes eating catered sandwiches was also one of the most surreal experiences of my life. I spent the night in a rented school bus turned party mobile guarding all our gear from thieves in the night as it rained heavily and my g/f at the time obsessing over thinking I was cheating on her (an ongoing jealousy problem). The next day we almost destroyed the bus trying to get out of the mud and muck.
Anyways, I like the song about starting a new life, with my valuable hunting knife. And GBV played the song, and did the high kick and drank all the beers and that was sure of them.
posted by alex_skazat at 12:18 PM on April 5, 2020 [3 favorites]
Anyways, I like the song about starting a new life, with my valuable hunting knife. And GBV played the song, and did the high kick and drank all the beers and that was sure of them.
posted by alex_skazat at 12:18 PM on April 5, 2020 [3 favorites]
The only person I've seen match Bob Pollard for high-kicking enthusiasm and ability was Carrie Brownstein.
I saw both of their bands (separately) at Irving Plaza in NYC around 2003 or '04, not long before their bands broke up (for the first time), so I guess that may have been some kind of high-water mark for the high-kick.
posted by theory at 12:58 PM on April 5, 2020
I saw both of their bands (separately) at Irving Plaza in NYC around 2003 or '04, not long before their bands broke up (for the first time), so I guess that may have been some kind of high-water mark for the high-kick.
posted by theory at 12:58 PM on April 5, 2020
> Guided By Beer -- that's what some of scenesters called them back in the day.
That's how Kim Deal referred to them, and she knows from addictions.
I've never caught a GbV show. More's the pity, back in the day it sounds like it would have been fun in a way an early Replacements show would have been fun: When the bacchanalia was the part of the reckless onstage adventure rather than a prop to their reputation. But Paul Westerberg managed to grow up and move on from getting shitfaced onstage and Pollard decided to double down and make it his identity. Alcoholism is a hell of a thing.
At the end of the documentary in the FPP you get to witness them getting kicked out of their own show for heckling their (woman-led) opening band. As the penultimate scene after thirty minutes of watching the bandmembers separately discuss their (and especially Pollard's) anxieties over the transition from working joes to full-time rockstars, it's a bath in ice water -- hey, nerds are not so nice after all! -- but it also feels like a woke turn on the part of the filmmaker for a short mid-nineties flick about white guy problems.
posted by ardgedee at 1:13 PM on April 5, 2020 [2 favorites]
That's how Kim Deal referred to them, and she knows from addictions.
I've never caught a GbV show. More's the pity, back in the day it sounds like it would have been fun in a way an early Replacements show would have been fun: When the bacchanalia was the part of the reckless onstage adventure rather than a prop to their reputation. But Paul Westerberg managed to grow up and move on from getting shitfaced onstage and Pollard decided to double down and make it his identity. Alcoholism is a hell of a thing.
At the end of the documentary in the FPP you get to witness them getting kicked out of their own show for heckling their (woman-led) opening band. As the penultimate scene after thirty minutes of watching the bandmembers separately discuss their (and especially Pollard's) anxieties over the transition from working joes to full-time rockstars, it's a bath in ice water -- hey, nerds are not so nice after all! -- but it also feels like a woke turn on the part of the filmmaker for a short mid-nineties flick about white guy problems.
posted by ardgedee at 1:13 PM on April 5, 2020 [2 favorites]
one friend of mine was a particularly big fan, and sure enough, he fumbled himself into serious addiction before the 90s were done. Nothing fun about it.
posted by philip-random at 4:53 PM on April 5, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by philip-random at 4:53 PM on April 5, 2020 [1 favorite]
I've gone on and on about GBV here over the years. I'll only repeat myself to mention the King's Ransom/Happy Motherfuckers and Sad Clowns bootleg (live from Asheville, NC late 90's-ish), because it's freaking amazing. MeMail me if you need help finding it.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 8:24 PM on April 5, 2020
posted by DirtyOldTown at 8:24 PM on April 5, 2020
One of the greatest albums of all time! I already own on vinyl but I'm gonna need that keychain, so....
I visited Dayton a year ago and got really pumped when I saw the sign for Needmore Rd., presumably the inspiration for Needmore Songs, Pollard's publishing co.
posted by Allez at 11:52 AM on April 6, 2020
I visited Dayton a year ago and got really pumped when I saw the sign for Needmore Rd., presumably the inspiration for Needmore Songs, Pollard's publishing co.
posted by Allez at 11:52 AM on April 6, 2020
At the end of the documentary in the FPP you get to witness them getting kicked out of their own show for heckling their (woman-led) opening band
That's a weird reading. Making fun of the bands coming before or after you has always been frowned on, and the other band, Picasso Trigger, started it, heckling GBV during their soundcheck. It also wasn't 'their' show, the headliner was The Grifters.
As an aside, the difference in film quality between that video, shot in the 1990s, and today is almost unbelievable. Children making YouTube videos shoot more narratively coherent and watchable material.
posted by The_Vegetables at 12:17 PM on April 6, 2020
That's a weird reading. Making fun of the bands coming before or after you has always been frowned on, and the other band, Picasso Trigger, started it, heckling GBV during their soundcheck. It also wasn't 'their' show, the headliner was The Grifters.
As an aside, the difference in film quality between that video, shot in the 1990s, and today is almost unbelievable. Children making YouTube videos shoot more narratively coherent and watchable material.
posted by The_Vegetables at 12:17 PM on April 6, 2020
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A shout-out here to Matador Records, who curated the very best rock music in the last decade it was still arguably relevant.
posted by sjswitzer at 5:00 PM on April 4, 2020 [11 favorites]