Tag: #gbv

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Songs For Socks: A Three Hour Tour

In the spirit of the 18-inning marathon the other night between the Sox and hated Dodgers, as well as an equally epic recent show, I thought I’d drop in with a soundtrack for Socks to close out your weekends. The latter individual accompanied me to said show, the latest appearance of ever-prolific fave Guided by Voices, who amazingly played my favorite venue in town and dropped another near-three hour, fifty song fun bomb on the crowd. They sounded great as always — and who’s going to complain about getting nearly 180 minutes of music in a room as cozy as your living room? (assuming of course it’s not something dreadful like The Chainsmokers or Imagine Dragons) — but it wasn’t a home run like usual. The difference this time was in how they sequenced the show, opting to frontload a lot of new stuff at the top — including multiple songs from the THREE ALBUMS the band plans to release next year, let alone the two they’ve released in the past year — which kept the energy lower than normal as the crowd waited to hear something they recognized.

This isn’t a knock on the quality of the newer material — in particular songs like “My Future in Barcelona” and “Cohesive Scoops” sounded pretty great — it’s just that thanks to the relentless pace of the band’s releases, it’s virtually impossible to keep up and connect with everything they put out. Normally the band will sandwich new stuff between some old favorites, allowing the crowd to sing along to the songs they know while appreciating the unfamiliar in smaller doses. For whatever reason they changed things up that night, with frontman Bob Pollard (aka “Robert Fucking Pollard” as the shirt someone from the crowd gifted him said) kept telling the crowd it was going to be like a fireworks show where all the hits would come at the end (after also reminding folks several times the band HAD no “hits,” which outside of chart position and name recognition I would strongly disagree with).

That got me to thinking about Socks and other noobs in the crowd who might be seeing the band for the first time and missing what makes them so great. The value and technical skill shine through (because again — three hours, fifty-plus songs for guys who can rip when they want to is nothing to sneeze at), but burying the best stuff til the end might not make the best case. It’s sort of like showing up to a first date in cargo pants and ordering seltzer and a side salad (both things wifey did on ours) — you might be obscuring your best qualities and making the other person work a little harder to see them than you should in a first impression.

That’s where I come in — because I love this band so much and because I think it’s nearly impossible with someone as prolific as they are to not find SOMETHING you like in their holdings — I came up with what my setlist would be if I were king for a day. (Which I’m sure will happen any day now…) That way the Sockses of the world can get a better sense of what these guys can do and maybe fall for them like I did. (Just like I did my cargo-wearing wife.) Because these guys are really good — as I’ve written before, despite needing an editor from time to time (a position I will gladly fill if asked), they go from sounding like the Who and Kinks one minute to Stone Temple Pilots, Neutral Milk Hotel, and REM the next, all without sounding hackneyed or cliched. And with close to thirty albums and hundreds of songs under their belt — a quantity that would impress regardless of the commensurate quality (honestly, seeing them live and play songs called out from the crowd, I’m amazed they remember the music for so many songs, let alone Bobbo remembering all the words) — there’s a lot to like.

So give it a spin and see what you think. I treated it like a setlist and not a greatest hits list, and therefore folded in stuff from Bobbo’s side projects (mainly the Boston Spaceships), songs sung by other members of the group (vs just those by Uncle Bob), and some covers, and tried to capture a little bit of everything — the polished and the raw, the rippers and the retro, the new stuff and the classics. I kept it in line with a regular GBV show (ie the fifty-odd song, three hour range) and thus inevitably left a ton of great stuff out, but there should be more than enough here to pique your interest and show you a good time. Soft, loud, pretty, weird, I tossed em all in and tried to build to a crescendo, leaving you with your fist in the air and ready to take the day. (Just like I hope the Sox do tonight…) So Socks, here you go — THIS is Guided by Voices…

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We’ll close with a couple one offs from the past few weeks, just to keep the party going. First up is the latest single from Run the Jewels, who tossed a track out for the recent Venom movie, “Let’s Go (The Royal We).” Thankfully the song sounds better than the movie looks (despite the excellent Tom Hardy starring) and it finds Mike and El still in top form. Nothing new or crazy here, just hard hitting beats and lyrics from the pair as always. They’re allegedly in the midst of recording their fourth album, so hopefully we don’t have long to wait for more. In the meantime, give it a listen here:

Next we’ve got the product of another collaboration, this time mega-DJ Diplo, producer Labrinth, and pop star Sia, as the collective LSD. The trio released a mini-EP last month with three songs, one of which is the relentlessly catchy “Thunderclouds.” The other two tracks were a bit underwhelming to me, but this one is a hands-down winner, particularly the stuttering “HEY-EY-OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOooooooooo!” hooks that get lodged in my brain for hours every time I hear it. Pretty good time at the shopping mall — give it a spin and see how resistant you are:

Last up is the surprise reappearance of half the legendary Daft Punk, this being Frenchbot Thomas Bangalter who resurfaced with a short set masquerading as a single, “Riga (Take 5).” In line with the lengthy spirit of this post, it’s a 14-minute slow burn that, similar to the best stuff from his normal act, relentlessly builds towards an explosion. Recorded last year for the film of the same name (a small Latvian film apparently, so don’t beat yourself up for not having heard of it), Bangalter cut this in one take, which is pretty impressive and reminds you of how amazing their live sets were. (In contrast to a lot of the electro crap now, which is all pre-programmed, pre-recorded bullshit.) It sounds just like Daft and gets you moving just the same, which is never a bad thing. Hopefully there’s more to come (either from him or the duo) in the near future. See what you think here:

That’s it for now — until next time, amici…

–BS

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Big Red Sunday — Voices, Beasties, and a Champion in Waiting

With this month’s fantastic World Cup coming to a close in a few short hours, thought I’d pop in to make this a true champion of a day for you and highlight a few finds. First up is the latest from the relentlessly productive Bob Pollard and Sunshine fave Guided by Voices. Despite already putting out an album this year (on top of two last year and one the year before), they’re already teasing more new material — from their two already completed albums (one of which is a double album) that they’ll be releasing over the next two years.

Pollard’s definitely a “throw it at the wall and see what sticks” kind of guy — he’s released more albums under the GBV moniker than there have been World Cup champions (32 to a measly 20, plus umpteen other side projects and solo albums) — and at this point every offering highlights the dangers of that approach (vs bands who dote over material and go five or six years between albums). It’s impossible to both keep up and connect with so much new material (Tim Heidecker’s comments last year are hilarious and spot on), but there’s always some really good tunes in there so you can’t ignore them altogether. As the caller in that clip says the live shows are always the best place to find out which two/three/four songs you need to add to the arsenal (the band really is best at calling itself on its bullshit), which I’ll be doing in a few months when they roll through town. In the meantime, the first single’s not bad — the second half after the string interlude captures the uplift of some of the old GBV choruses nicely. Check it out here:

Next we’ll do a duo of offerings from the National — a couple new tracks that they debuted at a recent show in Croatia and the side project for guitarist Aaron Dessner. The former two are nothing earth-shaking — just two more solid songs from a band that’s quietly been putting out excellent albums for over a decade. I was reminded of this when they recently put out the live version of their exceptional 2007 album Boxer, which I still remember discovering accidentally back home, walking into long lost favorite Earwax Cafe for lunch and hearing this sad baritone coming out of the speakers. I initially thought it was Stephen Merritt from the Mag Fields, as it was a scorching hot day and I’d positioned myself next to the industrial-sized fan to cool down and couldn’t hear very well. Thankfully I asked the waitress what album it was of theirs (this being well before the days of Shazam) and she kindly corrected me as to who it really was. I’ve been a fan ever since, so hopefully they keep the trend going on the next album — “Quiet Light” is my initial favorite of the two:

As for the side project, it’s a hipster’s wet dream — Dessner from the National and Justin Vernon from Bon Iver releasing a surprise album as Big Red Machine. All that’s missing is some free trade coffee, hand stitched clothing, and eccentric facial hair and you’ve achieved their nirvana. It’s apparently a project that’s ten years in the making, and they recently debuted songs for it at Vernon’s Eaux Claires festival in his native Wisconsin and posted four studio versions online. It’s an interesting mix of Vernon’s recent more bleep-bloopy style Bon Iver and Dessner’s understated guitar riffs, but works well from what they’ve offered so far. Dessner’s looped part on “Gratitude” is pretty and hypnotic while Vernon again channels Bruce Hornsby (though I’m pretty sure Hornsby and his fans would have a heart attack if he ever sang a line like Vernon’s). My early fave from the four is “Hymnostic,” though, as it strips down the electronics and just showcases Vernon’s incredible voice, all warmth and soul over its three minute duration. We’ll see what the rest of the album holds — in the meantime, give it a listen here:

We’ll close with the latest in Stereogum’s ongoing series, “Things To Remind Everyone Sunshine is OAF,” this entry focusing on the 20th anniversary of the Beastie Boys’ Hello Nasty album. The article does a good job walking through some of the difficulties people had with the album and the trajectory the band was on (and where they subsequently ended up). I’ve always been hit or miss with them myself, liking a lot of what they put out, but then scratching my head on some of the songs/albums — I suppose they’re similar to GBV in that aspect, but the Beasties were always underwhelming if not terrible live for me (as most rap is) whereas GBV are always epic delights in person. I never struggled with this album as much as the author, though — I remember listening to it exhaustively the summer it came out (along with the Chili Peppers’ Stadium Arcadium), popping it in for the first time in the juco parking lot after class and loving it from the opening notes of “Super Disco Breaking.” It wasn’t “classic” Beasties with oodles of samples, it was weirder with different beats and sounds — and while it had monster hits like “Body Movin” and “Intergalactic” (which absolutely dominated MTV that summer), it also had quirkier favorites like “Just a Test,” “The Negotiation Limerick File,” and “Unite.” Baby Bobby spent a lot of time listening to those in his beat up old Probe that summer, testing the limits of his stock speakers while driving around causing mischief. Those are the three I’ll leave you with, too — the album as a whole still stands up, but those three remain faves, ones I still remember every word to despite not listening to them much in 20 years. Give em a ride yourself and get a little amped up before the big final.

Until next time! –BS