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