I procured this 15 track collection of GBV rarities a few years ago On Soulseek, but I know nothing of it's origins. Not even listed among the many GBV bootlegs on the great and otherwise thorough Guided By Voices Database, this is obviously a fan-assembled compilation. Carefree Kitchens is akin to the much lengthier To Trigger a Synapse clusterfuck I posted last Halloween.
Surprisingly, for a GBV mix of this scarcity, there's some pretty substantive and revealing cuts, not the least of wish demo incarnations of later to be classics "Echos Myron," "Smothered In Hugs," and even "Glad Girls," which much to my surprise began life all the way back in 1993. Almost as rewarding is "Sleepers," a buried gem which had a significant portion of it's melody grafted onto Bee Thousand's "Peep-Hole." Same situation with "Song of Below," which served as a demo of sorts for "The Goldheart Mounatintop Queen Directory," which appeared on Bee Thousand.
As many of you know, Robert Pollard and Co. for no explicable reason, aborted an entire album's worth of material that was to be released as The Power of Suck. Many of it's songs were later released on official GBV albums including Under the Bushes Under the Stars, but Carefree Kitchens ostensibly contains four songs from the abandoned Suck sessions, with only "I Am Decided" seeing the light of day on any official release (specifically the Suitcase 2 box). By the way, "Decided" has it's antecedents in a much rawer and livelier unreleased GBV song, "Whiskey On Your Breath" that I will try to upload in the not too distant future.
In the midst of all the aforementioned are a handful brief but admirable sketches, "Separation of Church and State," "Roving Reporter," "Good Old Mr. Expandable," and the distorto-punk outburst, "I Can't Win," all presumably recorded prior to GBV's notoriety. All in all, Carefree Kitchens is a real find for the die-hards out there. My tip of the hat to the fine soul(s) that cobbled together this collection, and of course, the bard of Dayton himself.
01. I Can't Win
02. Separation of Church and State
03. Echos Myron (acoustic demo)
04. I Am Decided (Power of Suck demo)
05. Song of Below
06. Stingy Queens (Power of Suck demo)
07. Roving Reporter
08. Sleepers
09. Speak Like Men (Power of Suck demo)
10. In Need You Now
11. Stumbling Blocks Into Stepping Stones
12. Good Old Mr. Expandable
13. Sweeping Bones (Power of Suck demo)
14. Glad Girls (1993 demo)
15. Smotherd in Hugs (demo)
12 comments:
Well done for posting this, half way through it at the moment and it's sounding pretty good so far, nice version of Echos Myron, what more could you want, I loved GBV to bits, and got a few Pollard solo records at the time and thought they were were pretty good, in particular Not In My Airforce, but I dunno the post GBV stuff has yet to do much, for me it doesn't even approach, but what gives, am I right, or am I being a bit wrong? I think the thing is a lot of the GBV stuff sounded like it was thrown together but it wasn't or they were incredibly lucky or both, but the later stuff really sounds like it's thrown together, or maybe I'm still pissed off he split up the band.
I did a kind of best of list, a mix tape if you will (aaargh) which you can hear ere:
http://increaseyourweirdness.blogspot.com/search/label/Guided%20By%20Voices
OK, now I am really impressed. At this late date I didn't expect to hear "new" GBV from the "classic" period. Love that "Echoes Myron" demo.
I have a tape of rarities (bought in some Boston music store) that is a variant on the "Trigger A Synapse" collection. I don't think there is anything there that isn't otherwise out, but coming upon your post will make me spend some time this long holiday weekend checking it out.
Thanks, again.
Ace K.
Thanks! I really appreciate the positive feedback. This compilation surprised the hell out of me too, with many songs surpassing the quality of the best of the "Suitcase" box sets. There will hopefully be more of this forthcoming.
Wow, this one's really nice! Quality songs from beginning to end (for a change!), many thanks...
yay! i made this comp a few years ago and there are a few different incarnations of it floating around. i rarely have a copy on hand myself, thanks to a HD crash last year, so i'm really happy it managed to escape destruction.
i'll be sure to notify this blog with any updates.
Wow, I'm loving this, thanks much for posting it. I've been with GbV since '95, and was lucky enough to see them on the reunion tour in Austin recently; but it's outtakes like this that show why I fell for this band so hard. Just the 'Quality of Armor - All Hail the Weed King' with the chatter...these are real artists, very few musicians could pull this off, for Bob it's just natural.
Once again, THANK YOU!
This compilation just happened to be on the CD that I plunked into my car player this morning and I had forgotten how good it is. Many "familiar" things, but in different versions or at least clearer versions.
Almost got me going again in search of that buried GBV gold, but I have been down that road before and hope I can resist the compulsion this time!
Thanks again.
Ace
might I suggest this for a future re up?
The link has been updated.
Please update the link. Thank you in advance.
Sir thanks for updating the link.��
Hear 'em here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLLURvVM4XtlIiH_2loepNu2ilEl_Y2djR
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