Monday, June 27, 2011

Guided By Voices - The GBV Super, Fun, Wow, Xtra Valu-Pak!

When I was approached by a reader a few weeks ago to share some scarce and miscellaneous Guided By Voices songs, it dawned on me that while I've posted no less than three voluptuous collections of rare GBV material, there were still plenty of gaps.  Not only that, that aforementioned trifecta (consisting of To Trigger a Synapse, The Carefree Kitchens Are a Blast, and most recently Beyond the Bars and Churches) wasn't the product of my labor and/or assemblage, but that of other gonzo GBV sycophants.  It's kind of misleading to credit myself as the "curator" of this fourth batch of long deleted vinyl sides, compilation appearances, and home recordings, but it's the closest I've come thus far to piecing together something in that arena (though technically, a handful of the tracks were cherry picked from already cherry picked fan comps, that for one reason or another I failed to obtain in their entirety). 

Whatever the case, here's thirty more doses of Pollard scree, offal and debris, in all their mangled, half-assed glory.  Things commence with the four songs from their 1994 split single with the Grifters.  From there it's onto more studio gold, including the three bonus tracks from the Jellyfish Reflector boot (5-7), the Nightwalker singles (8-10), compilation tracks, outtakes (17-26), and I close things out with the stark, melancholic, and exceedingly arcane "The Mind Refuser," culled from the Japanese incarnation of Half Smiles of the Decomposed.  One song here, "Whiskey on Your Breath" was also included on my first clusterfuck share (Trigger a Synapse), but I'm presenting again with slightly improved fidelity.  It's my favorite GBV outtake, and in fact, the melody was lifted for a song (the title of which escapes me) that later appeared on Suitcase 2.

Given their extended and apparently open-ended run of "Classic Lineup" dates, one would hope the boys had the horse sense to sneak into a recording studio for a week or two to rekindle some of that prolific, Clinton-era magic, but don't hold your breath - not by a longshot it would seem.  At any rate, three cheers for the mind refuser...

from split 7" w/ the Grifters
01. Hey Mr. Soundman
02. Announcers & Umpires
03. Evil Speaker B
04. Uncle Dave

Jellyfish Reflector studio songs
05. Pantherz
06. I'll Buy You a Bird
07. Bughouse

Freedom Cruise/Nightwalker split 7"
08. The Freedom Cruise - Cruise
09. Nightwalker - Lucifer's Aching Revolver

Nightwalker - one sided 7"
10. Firehouse Mountain

11. Scorpion Lounge Shutdown (Ptolemic Terrascope magazine comp 7")
12. One Track Record (Sponic magazine comp)
13. I Am A Scientist (live) (Threadwaxing Space Live: The Presidential Compilation)
14. Invisible Man (Breeders cover on vinly vers. of Crying Your Knife Away live boot)
15. Sucker of Pistol City (Plugs for the Program ep)
16. The Opposing Engineer Sleeps Alone (split single w/ New Radiant Storm King)

Otherwise unreleased:
17. Foolish Booger
18. Dancing With My Gun
19. Whiskey On Your Breath
20. Talk to Me
21. Industrial Morning
22. Up We Go (aka New World Rising)
23. The Happy Song
24. Never
25. Ruth (fan mix)
26. Sea of Clover (Sprout on vocals)

X Fest 99 compilation
27. My Valuable Hunting Knife
28. Teenage FBI
29. I Am a Scientist

30. The Mind Refuser (from Japanese Half Smiles of the Decomposed)

Hear

42 comments:

Dan Coffey said...

This looks GREAT! Will there be a download link soon?

Thanks!

joseph kyle said...

Cool beans! Oh, by the way, you should keep up with James Greer's website, he recently posted an unreleased Steve Albini version of "He's The Uncle" from "The Power of Suck," and it sounded AMAZING. But he only does so for a 24-hour period.

He also has a second GBV book coming out....

spavid said...

Guess a link would help. It's been updated.

What's the link to Greer's website? Thanks.

spavid said...

Think I just found the website, and apparently the song has been removed.

joseph kyle said...

yeah. he posted it last week, and only intended for it to be up for a limited time. he hinted about it coming out in the near future -- and rumors abound of Matador doing a deluxe GBV series, not unlike the Pavement series.

http://www.jamesgreer.net

ana m.g. said...

It's useful to note that "The Mind Refuser" is a 100% Doug Gillard written & performed recording. Just as in the case of "Free of This World" (the B side of the "Best of Jill Hives" UK E.P., Robert asked Doug to provide a DG recording for a bonus track. And now you know the rest of the story.

The Salvager said...

Thanks! I consider myself a hardcore GBV fan and it's always a nice surprise to find some songs I don't have!

Michael P. said...

Thank you. This fills in some gaps that otherwise would never be filled.

DickWhyte said...

Wow - thanks so much Neal - what an amazing little package of things. I am so grateful to you for the time and effort you've put into this. One thing - I think you've accidentally recorded Firehouse Mountain at 45rpm and the 7" is actually 33rpm (I took the file and slowed it down with Audacity - which did the job fine and dandy). It's pretty amusing sped up though! :-)

Also, thought you and your readers might be interested in this: http://forums.hipinion.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=8802 It's got links to a number of GBV radio shows and live performances which are otherwise pretty hard to find, including the EdgeFest tracks we talked about from their last show (you were right, the XFest tracks from '99 are a different kettle of fish). Unfortunately the EdgeFest songs ain't great - Bob sounds pretty tired and a little tuneless. I dunno, maybe its just me, but they weren't my favorite performances.

Anyway - thanks again for this. Truly legendary!!

spavid said...

Didn't realize "Mind Refuser" was a Doug Gillard song. Then again I don't have a physical copy of the Japanese version of Half Smiles.

As for you Dick, I'm Spavid to you on these pages! Went back and listened to "Firehouse Mountain." Holy fuck, I think I did record it at the wrong speed! Will have to redo it later this week and put up a revised link. Thanks for pointing out that rather egregious mistake.

joseph kyle said...

http://www.jamesgreer.net/2011/06/30/superwhore-james-greer/

here's another limited-run track from The Power of Suck, and it's a doozy. Only up for 24 hours, so better jump on it!

spavid said...

Thanks J. Just nabbed it. The only version of "Superwhore" I had was a live recording. Will have to keep an eye on Greer's blog.

DickWhyte said...

So sorry Spavid - will remember that for the future.

Rev. Dave said...

So, did Rapidshare remove your link or did you do it yourself while you re-edit the collection?

Rev. Dave said...

Did you remove your link while you re-edit or was it removed by Rapidshare?

MKV said...

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Please re-up Spavid even if for a limited time once again. I can't beleive I snoozed on this.

spavid said...

Thanks for alerting me. I had no idea this had been removed - apparently for copyright issues, though I never received a DMCA takedown notificiation. Not sure what I can do at this point, but watch this space.

Rev. Dave said...

Thanks very much. If you're worried about re-posting, just e-mail me a link and I swear not to spread it around -- you can even close the link after a few days.

vebersoldt said...

would love a re-up, even if for a short while. thanks so much.

panzan said...

ditto the cries for a re-up!

LostTransmission said...

Double ditto for the re-up!!!!

The Project: Pittsburgh said...

I hate being late to GBV awesomeness. I missed it too. Please anyone re-link anywhere! name it something like "take two.torrent"

spavid said...

Sorry I haven't been able to keep up with all the comments. Watch this space...

spavid said...

http://broomtunes.wordpress.com/2011/07/10/roygbiv/ Clik 'Valupak'

LostTransmission said...

Thanx a shitload!!!!!!!!!!!

MKV said...

I'm on it!!!!! Thanks bro.

mwothe said...

nice! thanks

Paranoid Futures said...

thank you!

phil said...

oh bum - seems i missed it again! dare i ask for a re-up? many thanks for everything you do

brick mower said...

Is the file still avialable? I tried downloading this at work and it says it's not up anymore. If it's not working can you please repost the link. What a great collection. Thanks

rhythmplague said...

please re-up this, i thought i'd heard everything!

roykoogee said...

whooo-hoooo! just in time for Christmas!!! thank you spavid, thank you oh thank you oh thank you!!!

spavid said...

Nu link: http://netkups.com/?d=40279f517cf7b

Peter Tron said...

cheers spavid!

hasnain raza said...

All Time Profit is best platform for best profit online on internet, earn 1.50% hourly for 200 hours, total 300% profit within a week
AllTimeProfit.com

Dan Nancarrow said...

Hi, the netkups link is down. Any chance it could be re upped?

cheers,

hasnain raza said...

Online Jobs on Blogs, Just Post a Comment on any blog site and earn $0.06 per Link, Just Like this, Visit and Click on Link Relation
JobzCorner.com

Greg Solo said...

There still a link to this. Thanks regardless. Cool blog.

Pop_Zeus said...

Thanks for posting this well compiled rarities collection. Half a dozen of these are songs I didn't have, always nice to plug some gaps in the collection. Whiskey on Your Breath is an early version of I Am Decided. I love that song and was so pleased to find another version. I would love to get a date on that early version. Sounds like mid 80's perhaps? Tracks 17, 18, 20-22 & 24 are on the Suitcases though. Any chance of reposting with the correct speed Firehouse Mountain (the sped up one is really funny though!)Cheers!

Tintoy-Stinks said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Tintoy-Stinks said...

Please re upload this. Thanks in advance.

Darren Demers said...

Given their extended and apparently open-ended run of "Classic Lineup" dates, one would hope the boys had the horse sense to sneak into a recording studio for a week or two to rekindle some of that prolific, Clinton-era magic, but don't hold your breath - not by a longshot it would seem. At any rate, three cheers for the mind refuser...
bin saeed readymade suit
ready to wear pakistani lawn suits