And now, what the threes of you who read this blog have sorta desperately been clamoring for: more half-assed content. In an effort to switch it up a little bit, I decided it might be nice to do a second post each week, this one detailing an album I personally love that might not be quite as widespread in popularity as I believe it deserves to be. Whether this becomes a weekly feature, a monthly feature, or the first and last post in this vein ever is still up in the air and will depend on a myriad of factors, including but not limited to how long this post takes to write, whether I can think of another album I'm interested in writing about, and whether or not there's anything good on TV to distract me from writing. For now though, I'm excited about it: I enjoy bossing people around about what new music they should listen to and see no reason why that bossiness can't apply to albums released before January 2012. The first one up is a classic in some circles and completely unknown in others, Guided by Voices' album Bee Thousand.
Album: Bee Thousand
Band: Guided by Voices
Year: 1994
Reason for all these headings followed by colons: It's easier to write than forming actual paragraphs
Background: Prior to Bee Thousand, Guided by Voices was less a band than a loose collection of dudes from Dayton, OH who since the early 80's would sometimes hang around then-37 year-old 4th grade teacher Robert Pollard and drink beer, occasionally playing one of the thousands of songs Pollard had written when he wasn't going over multiplication tables or reading Maniac Magee or teaching kids whatever else they were supposed to learn in fourth grade (I don't remember the years too well, honestly). Their 1992 release Propeller, which only printed 500 copies, was actually supposed to be the final album for the "band" (again, really more of a fluid collective of musicians who Pollard apparently was nonstop hiring and firing), but the album somehow was able to garner buzz outside of Dayton (as everyone in the entertainment industry says: first you conquer Dayton, then the entire world), showing up on the college radio circuit. This increase in popularity also helped forge a more regular lineup of Pollard, Tobin Sprout and Mitch Mitchell on guitar, Greg Demos on bass, and Kevin Fennell on drums, which would eventually be referred to as the classic Guided by Voices lineup. This lineup would release an album (Vampire on Titus) and two EPs in 1993 (Robert Pollard is nothing if not prolific), but it would be their next album that would take them to the next level.
Wonderful history lessons aside, reasons why this album stands out to me: Well, the history lesson is applicable in that there is something romantic to the idea of a bunch of part-time rockers in their late 30s gathering together to drink a lot of beer and mess around with instruments on home-recordings in their garages. In 1994 it was extremely fashionable in music to appear both authentic and as if you did not give a fuck, and the idea of Guided by Voices as accidental rock stars fit neatly within that paradigm.
But none of that would matter, and I wouldn't listen to the album near as much as I do today, were it not for the fact that Robert Pollard simply was the best songwriter of the 90's. Hugely influenced by a lot of British Invasion and garage rock bands that I personally love, the guy has an uncanny knack for writing a hook or melody that will stay in your head for days. In addition to that, as I mentioned before, Pollard is an incredibly prolific writer: Wikipedia says Pollard has written over 1500 songs, and just in 2012 he's released two Guided by Voices albums and a solo album. Hummable melodies seemingly drip out of Pollard's head.
The other strength of Bee Thousand is ironically the one thing that likely kept Pollard's populist songwriting from finding a truly massive mainstream audience: the production and sequencing of the album. Bee Thousand wasn't recorded in a studio, as several previous Guided by Voices albums had been; instead it was recorded on four-track recorders in the garages and basements of its members. Additionally, the album consists of twenty short tracks (only one is longer than three minutes and many are between one and two minutes) that bleed into one another and were often recorded in only a few takes.
Though structuring the album in this way made it an important touchstone in the burgeoning lo-fi movement of the 90's (and the best of the bunch, in my opinion), I have to believe it was alienating for a lot of people used to clean production and three-plus minute verse-chorus-verse radio-friendly songs (they would ultimately get that album eight years later on 2002's excellent Isolation Drills, whose lack of mainstream success has always baffled me: I've played the song "Chasing Heather Crazy" for at least a dozen people, and every one of them has enjoyed it). However, I think Bee Thousand's lo-fi trappings really elevate the entire album: to listen to it all in one sitting is to be exposed to a kaleidoscope of catchy power pop. There are some rough spots - which keeps up the slacker, amateur, lo-fi ethos - but the short length of all the tracks means anything that doesn't connect with you won't be staying around for long. And more than acting as a way of passing quickly by subpar material, the large number of short tracks helps craft the image of Pollard as a songwriter who actually has too many good songs: he'll write a hook that I would happily listen to twenty more times, only to completely change gears a minute later to something else I would happily listen to twenty more times (I guess that's what the repeat track setting is for). The guy knows how to come up with catchy moments.
Selections: Though I heartily recommend listening to the entirety of the album, if I'm going to boil it down to the best tracks to sample, these would be the ones I'd choose (oh, and I recommend listening to the album on headphones: the recording style takes some getting used to and I think translates a little better to headphones):
Tractor Rape Chain
Echos Myron
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