The "pretty ethereal, acoustic, like R.E.M.'s last album" quote is from Kurt's last Rolling Stone interview, published in January 1994. I bought that issue at a Tower record store when it came out and I read it so many times I think I've almost memorized the damn thing. (Automatic For The People and In Utero were my bibles back then, so I was beyond thrilled.) But you don't need to examine my brain, as the interwebs (they have 'em for computers now) have digitally preserved this shit:



http://www.rollingstone.com/music/ne...rview-19940127

By the by, I'm not positive right now but I think the interviewer was David Wild, not David Fricke as stated there.

I don't remember it that way exactly. I was fully aware of the "Stereo/Mono" thing. I remember that album pretty well, as it soundtracked a cross-country drive in college and resonated heavily with me because of the fucked relationship I was in at the time. Anyhoo, I don't know about the back cover -- who knows where the actual cd is, it's been 15 years -- but I remember it being clear, at least on the inside, that they were two albums. Stereo by PW and Mono by Grandpaboy. I wasn't confused about it, didn't think it was a bonus disc... knew the deal before I owned the album. Pretty sure it was promoted as Stereo/Mono.

I only mention that I bought them together because Mono got its own release ahead of schedule, with a Grandpaboy "tour" before the double alb. even came out. I was just giving some context about when I bought the album.

Anyway I believe you. Stereo is very good too. But Mono was my drug of choice from the first moment.


Oh Fucking Bob Pollard.
Yoshimi was a tremendous album. Better than Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. Better than Stereo/Mono. The title is great. Musically is was perfect zag to Soft Bulletin's zig. wasn't album of the year (THAT would have to be a little thing called Murray Street.... duh), but it was a collection of great pop songs. The Flaming Lips hit a home run there. Don't hate.

But at the time, I had Stereo/Mono at #3 I think. Who the fuck can remember now, but Bob Pollard hates any band that can release albums that are good all the way through. Remember that "Fuck Pavement, fuck the Pixies" nonsense? Great songwriter once in a while, but he can drink Yoshimi's piss.

It's a GREAT album title (and great album art)

I have the complete Rolling Stone book published by the editors. It's ages old of course but I didn't own it until my girlfriend picked me up a copy last year at a used book sale. I recently re-read the very interview you're taking about.

Automatic was one of my babies too. Not as much as In Utero, but still a big one for me that year.

Several years ago, somebody compiled an anthology of Bob Pollard's stage banter. Seems like a good time to revisit it! :D

the hold yr tongue and trying to say Pete Townshend bit was pretty clever.

Remember that album he put out of just stage banter?

Yes, Relaxation Of The Asshole, on the Yuk Yuk Motherfucker Production label! :D I imagine its clear precedent is Elvis Presley's Having Fun With Elvis On Stage, from 1974.

I thought a lot of those looked familiar. that was long ago.

i used to go see GBV and me and my friend used to joke about how Pollard is probably passed out in the van. dude's a song writing drunk.

The Beatles - Revolver in mono. it's the best Beatles album behind the White Album.

it's better than Rubber Soul and Peppers combined. Help! and Beatles for Sell is better than Rubber Soul.

Revolver is a masterpiece.

I cant rank them... white album, pepper and revolver are my top 3 though.

Less than 20% of those quotes were funny. Poor Bob Pollard.

Also, at NO POINT were Guided by Voices together longer than Sonic Youth. 1984 to 2003 or some shit? Then 2004 to 2010 or some shit? Then 2011 to whatever.

1981-2011, without interruption and entirely without bullshit. For a teacher, he's a dumb motherfucker. Even for a drunkard teacher.

Don't get me wrong, I love Guided by Voices as much as the next guy. At least, the portion of their catalog that's worth hearing. But there's not a single GBV album aside from Alien Lanes that I would listen to from start to finish today without falling into a coma. Except maybe their "best of" and live records. Sooooo much crap. Crap songs are as much a part of the GBV DNA as booze and nonsense. They touched the sun on occasion, but Sonic Youth doesn't worship at the altar of the indie rock Axl Rose and his merry band of fuckwits. That's ludicrous.

Yeah, Revolver is the second best Beatles album behind the White Album. Totally agree.

Wait, you dont like Bee Thousand? I put that one above Alien Lanes. Barely, but still.

No I like Bee Thousand. I like tons of GBV albums. But I don't listen to any of them from start to finish anymore except for Alien Lanes. Even that one I haven't heard in a while. Part of it is that the good songs are so painfully catchy that they creep into my skull like the space slug from The Wrath of Khan and control my mind from within. They're a real bitch to get out.

Bee Thousand is just fine. Great even. But it's not, like, an album album. None of them are. I tend to like albums I can play through from beginning to end. Guided by Voices have never made this kind of music, but I also don't think they've ever tried. Obviously Robert Pollard is an gifted, but VERY inconsistent songwriter and obsessive compulsive recorder.

He's comparing himself to SY and the Lips, two bands with similar obsessions with recording tons and tons of music, but who have both, along the way, learned and perfected the art of album-making as well... not to mention Sonic evolution. GBV is important and has been great, but they — ok, I guess it's just "he" at this very late point in the game nobody's watching — is just not at the SY level. Nowhere close, in fact, to Sonic Youth or the Lips.

I used to kind of think of the Flaming Lips as GBV from some kind of alternate universe where Pink Floyd and Butthole Surfers and Suicide were the band's to emulate instead of the Beatles, The Who and King Crimson. Dayton and OKC are comparable enough, yeah?

Then the Flaming Lips, like, grew up (ssssort of). And while there was a time in the early to mid-'90s when the two bands were going after pretty much the same sound (see 1994's Due to High Expectations... The Flaming Lips Are Providing Needles for Your Balloons as a nice example), the Lips went on to say "fuck this" to what they were doing, and started to get adventurous and experimental, resulting in some of the best records of the '90s and even 2000s. GBV just kept doing their thing over and over and over and over and over.

Now the comparison seems mental, because the Lips sound absolutely nothing like GBV, while GBV still sounds exactly like GBV.

Alien Lanes is terrific! seriously seriously good songs on there. used to love GBV for like two months but came to the realization I could just sit around the house and listen to the beatles and king crimson. ha.

better than Pavement or SY? no way man. yeah GBV got old quick.

On the subject of early(-ish) works by bands who would then move on to create giant masterworks, I prefer the Stones and the Beach Boys.

I'll trade my CD of Alien Lanes with someone.

---

BEATLES FOR SALE is a notch below the predecessor HARD DAY's NIGHT, their first masterpiece. HELP! is their second

RUBBER gets by on atmosphere, but there are some real stinkers on there when it comes to actual tunes.

BTW, for the life of me I've never understood the conjunction of RUBBER and REVOLVER. They are often treated as twins. Even George is some doc or other says he feels they're connected. I can't hear it.

Anyway, almost everything after Revolver is a hangover. Strawberry was recorded shortly after Revolver, and they should've quit right then, artistically speaking. Pity.

Masterpiece? Really? Hard Day's Night and Help! are great records, but masterpieces? I think that's pushing it.

If they'd quit after Revolver they would never have released, like, a third of their best songs. I don't really see how the White Album is just a Revolver hangover. Or Abbey Road. I'm not really picking up what you're putting down here, friend.

I think for a Beatles fan I'm atypically fond of their early stuff (love Anthology 1) but I think it's madness to suggest that Sgt. Pepper's, White Album, Abbey Road, etc. shouldn't have been made. Even Magical Mystery Tour. There's just so much great shit in that little pocket. It's pretty much all gold actually.

I love the Stones, but I'm not sure they ever made what I would call a true masterpiece. They're responsible for one of the best six-album runs in rock history (Satanic Majesty through Goat's Head Soup), but all of those albums were defined by their soaring highlights rather than their all around brilliance. Maybe I'm just picky about the word "masterpiece," but to me, that means, more or less, perfection. And I don't think the Stones have a truly perfect record to their name, much as I love them.

You have neurological problems and should see a specialist ASAP or stop posting.

Haha!! Ok ok. Sorry.

Exile probably qualifies. Not my favorite but it probably qualifies.

They've just never made a White Album or a Revolver or a Kind of Blue, Highway 61 Revisited, etc.

I would say Let it Bleed but it has hat hoedown version of Honky Tonk Women that I skip. not hatin on hoedowns but y'know. it's not THE Honky Tonk version with the killer groove and that riff.

funny, Sev, you mention Satanic as part of the classic period. fun to hear them attempt something like that whle still being the Stones. usually people start with Jumpin Jack Flash or Beggar's to describe that era. to each their own I gues.

Yeah I know it's not considered part of their classic run by most Stones purists (or pop culture in general) but fuck it, I love that record. Some great tunes on that one, and I think it's where they kicked things up. An obviously snarky nod to the Beatles, in whose shadow the band lived for so long. It's part of the Stones taking ownership of their identity and legacy.

Plus, "Citadel" is incredible and "She's a Rainbow" is perfect. It was an influential record in its own right. The outsider's Sgt. Pepper, or whatever. Inspiring tons of great bands from the Flaming Lips to the Brian Jonestown Massacre.

To keep it simple, I'll call a "masterpiece" an album where I don't skip any tracks. I skip a few on PEPPERS, I skip all over the place on WHITE, and I skip nearly half of ABBY. I maybe skip one or two on HARD or HELP!

Is someone going to trade ALIEN LANES with me?

Probably not, because Alien Lanes is one of those albums that has burrowed its way into used bins everywhere. Not to the extent of, say, REM's Monster, but still, it's pretty easy to find.

Re: Masterpieces/"masterpieces"
You skip through half of Abbey Road? Wow. Which half, out of curiosity? The first half has the sometimes grating Octopus's Garden, and Maxwell's Solver Hammer isn't always what I want to hear. But it had George's defining statement (Something), and the world's favorite Beatles song according to Internets (Come Together), also Oh! Darling and I Want You (She's so Heavy), which is one of my personal favorites.

The second half is like one big, busy, wonderful song. Remember back when radio was an actual thing, how they'd often play the entire "Abbey Road Medley" starting with Mr. Mustard (sometimes even You Never Give Me Your Money) and go straight through The End (often leaving out Her Majesty, which bothered me)... anyway, 'member that? It's hard to imagine listening to, like, every other track in that sequence, so I assume you're skipping the first half, or just some scattered songs throughout. No bggie, just curious.

I skip tracks on The White Album too, even though it's my fave. But I skip weird ones that most people like. Blackbird, which I like very much, but it's been quite overused in popular culture as a go-to soundtrack for "I'm sad but I'm inspired, not giving up, blah, blah" moments. I also skip While My Guitar Gently Weeps, which I really don't like much (sorry!!), and find rather boring. But still, all things considered, regardless of which version, White is my favorite and I'd call it a masterpiece, despite the fact that it has skippable tracks ("number nine..").

As far as albums go, Revolver is the "best." I feel that it's a bit overshadowed by Sgt. Pepper's, which is a mighty album indeed, but in terms of consistency and just plain remarkable and enterprising pop songcraft, Revolver is the gold standard for the Beatles as a band. Even though I technically like the White Album more, it would be silly to argue that it's superior as an album.

trade Alien Lanes what?

Trade for something better. I'd like to have CD collection where I'll actually listen to everything. I'm getting close. Also have a shitty LADYTRON Cd for some reason I want to unload.

--

I really like "You Never Give Me Yr Money" and "I Want You," but I gotta say, ABBY has always left me a little cold.

Oh yeah. Check out this podcast: The Beatles Multi-Track Meltdown by Anthony Robustelli

Dude isolates individual tracks from the Beatles. Like, hear nothing but the vocals to "Nowhere Man" or the guitar plus sitar in "She Said," etc. A revelation, or at least a neat way to hear the same songs afresh.

oh I got you. Yeah, I've been trying to kind of do the same. It'd be cool to look at shelves of CDs' and saying "each one of those is an album I love."

I purged a TON of CDs years ago. Just a fuckton. Got a couple hundred bucks for them at an independent store when I was getting ready to leave the city.

But now I have a bunch MORE CDs and a bunch of NEWER CDs that I don't really need. But I think I at least got rid of all the stuff I actively disliked.

my problem is that nobody wants CD's really. I have 200-300 of them sitting in my closet that I've deemed "I don't need these ones." :\

Fuck. If anyone wants to sell some stuff dirt cheap, lemme know.

Have you read "Here, There and Everywhere" by Geoff Emerick? Nice little book about the Beatles in the studio, describing various techniques and things, during the Revolver and Sgt. Pepper years. Fun read, though it's been a while for me.

the vast majority of CD's I'm getting rid of are hip hop.

Damn. I already own every hip-hop album I love. Actually, I could use a copy of Ice T's OG.


!!! I acquired it last night. I've been on a rock memoir binge. (See "What are you reading?") Looking forward to it.

Were you the one who had the Jay-Z special edition "sneakers" bonus disc from the Black Album era?

If so maybe we could talk some turkey. It's the rare hip-hop album that I want and don't own, but that there is one of them.

yes, I have that one - and yes it is one that I was planning to get rid of.

If you have an actual list of "want and don't own" lemme know. Maybe I can cross a few off the list at one time?

:) cool! Let's talk about it when you finish. I'll even re-read it.

Oh, and I'm listening to this:



This really holds up. It's been a while, and I'd kinda forgotten about it in my mental list of hip-hop's best of, but shit man. This is one of the all time greats. Got me bouncing in my Subaru in a snow storm. Ha!