Guided By The Mountain Goats

Posted By Ian on Dec 2, 2012

Alright, here’s a confession. Or 2. I saw Guided By Voices on the side stage of Lollapalloza in Chicago on the Bee Thousand tour. Thats not the confession. I was in awe and somewhat confused. I thought, “Who are these older than me guys in striped spandex rocking out like TheWho?” Next day I ran out and bought their latest at the time album, Bee Thousand and listened to it once. Thats part of the confession. Once. The confession is, I was so in my own box that I listened to it once. I thought “I think these songs are good, but the production sucks”. Now, that’s a confession. I didn’t like what came to be my favorite band because the “drum sound” wasn’t to my liking? I suck. Later, when the production value of GBV improved to my satisfaction on Mag Earwhig, my guitar player was playing it on our way to practice and I asked “Who is this?” “New Guided By Voices was his reply. I ran out the next day and bought it and listened to nothing but Mag Earwhig for at least 3 months. At least 3 times a day all the way through. No exaggeration. Obsessed. I turned my best friend onto it and we would call each other and talk about what song we were obsessing over that afternoon. It was insane. And awesome. They were coming through Metro on tour and we went to see them. We were so pumped to be seeing them on this tour. Couldn’t wait to hear every song that we knew by heart by now. Then the unthinkable happened. We went to the show. 3 hours long. Probably 50 songs. All awesome. Not a single song from Mag Earwhig  until the first encore. (It was “I Am A Tree”, in case you’re wondering) You have to understand what a shock it is to hear a 3 hour show filled with the greatest songs you’ve never heard. Sensory overload. Which became the name of the Guided By Voices game for years to come. Ran out the next day and bought literally all the GBV albums in the slot at the record store (A record store is a place where you used to be able to go and….) Alien Lanes, Under The Bushes Under The Stars, The Grand Hour, and of course Bee Thousand were all they had. Dove in and listened to NOTHING else for the next 18 months (year and a half of complete emersion in all things GBV to the complete exclusion of any other music except the bands I was playing in at the time)...