Everybody loves a good indie-rock origin story — like Paul Westerberg holding it down as a janitor in the office of a Minnesota senator before joining the Replacements, or Dayton, Ohio’s Robert Pollard teaching grade school while biding his time before Guided By Voices became a thing. Here’s a new one for you: Meet Mike Maple, a mailman in the small college town of Marquette, Michigan who spends his time walking the postal beat dreaming up relentlessly fun punk-rock tunes to play in his band Liquid Mike. “Given what...
- 2/7/2024
- by Jon Dolan
- Rollingstone.com
As the tenth anniversary of Glen Campbell’s Ghost on the Canvas was approaching, Dave Kaplan —whose Surfdog Records released the haunting album in 2011 — was pondering ways to honor it. A late-period landmark for Campbell, who died in 2017 after a lengthy battle with Alzheimer’s disease, Ghost on the Canvas found the venerable pop-country singer and guitarist covering songs by a new generation of writers — alt-rock types like Paul Westerberg, Guided By Voices’ Robert Pollard, Jakob Dylan, and Teddy Thompson. The album ranked Number 88 on Rolling Stone‘s list of...
- 1/25/2024
- by David Browne
- Rollingstone.com
Most bands wouldn’t dare give their new album the same name as a 2016 blockbuster starring Ryan Gosling, but Guided by Voices have never been most bands. “La La Land” was a phrase before Faye Dunaway mistakenly said the film won Best Picture at the 2017 Oscars, and Robert Pollard is reclaiming it. The band’s first — and unlikely last — album of 2023 will drop Jan. 20 via Gbv Inc Records.
“La La Land is somewhat of a companion piece to Tremblers and Goggles by Rank and continues to explore a path of...
“La La Land is somewhat of a companion piece to Tremblers and Goggles by Rank and continues to explore a path of...
- 10/5/2022
- by Brenna Ehrlich
- Rollingstone.com
Guided by Voices are diving into the archives for their next release, Scalping the Guru, which features tracks from four EPs the prolific indie rock band released in 1993 and 1994. The new album arrives on Oct. 28 via Gbv Inc.
Robert Pollard selected the track list and sequenced the new project so that it plays like a cohesive album. The songs were taken from 1993’s Static Airplane Jive (City Slang), 1994’s Get Out of My Stations (Siltbreeze), Fast Japanese Spin Cycle (Engine Records), and Clown Prince of the Menthol Trailer (Domino). In...
Robert Pollard selected the track list and sequenced the new project so that it plays like a cohesive album. The songs were taken from 1993’s Static Airplane Jive (City Slang), 1994’s Get Out of My Stations (Siltbreeze), Fast Japanese Spin Cycle (Engine Records), and Clown Prince of the Menthol Trailer (Domino). In...
- 9/6/2022
- by Jon Blistein
- Rollingstone.com
Guided by Voices’ Robert Pollard has reimagined and combined his two out-of-print 2007 albums into a new release, Our Gaze, set to arrive May 20 via Rockathon Records.
The new project pulls songs from the two LPs Pollard released on Oct. 9, 2007: Standard Gargoyle Decisions and Coast to Coast Carpet of Love (both albums were originally issued by Merge Records). Though both albums are still available digitally, they’ve been out-of-print in physical formats for a while now, which is why Pollard decided to winnow the combined track list down to 15 songs...
The new project pulls songs from the two LPs Pollard released on Oct. 9, 2007: Standard Gargoyle Decisions and Coast to Coast Carpet of Love (both albums were originally issued by Merge Records). Though both albums are still available digitally, they’ve been out-of-print in physical formats for a while now, which is why Pollard decided to winnow the combined track list down to 15 songs...
- 3/29/2022
- by Jon Blistein
- Rollingstone.com
Guided by Voices are back already with a new song, “Excited Ones,” from their upcoming 35th album, Crystal Nuns Cathedral, out Mar. 4 via Rockathon Records.
“Excited Ones” boasts big power-pop energy with its stomping drums and guitars that crunch with just a bit of jangle. “Excited ones,” bellows Robert Pollard, “You squeeze them all to death/They don’t have much to say/But maybe if we say one more, they’ll stay!”
Crystal Nuns Cathedral marks the continuation of a characteristically prolific period for Guided by Voices. The indie-rock...
“Excited Ones” boasts big power-pop energy with its stomping drums and guitars that crunch with just a bit of jangle. “Excited ones,” bellows Robert Pollard, “You squeeze them all to death/They don’t have much to say/But maybe if we say one more, they’ll stay!”
Crystal Nuns Cathedral marks the continuation of a characteristically prolific period for Guided by Voices. The indie-rock...
- 1/5/2022
- by Jon Blistein
- Rollingstone.com
Near the end of Guided by Voices’ beer-drenched, 60-song-plus set at Columbus, Ohio’s Athenaeum Theatre Saturday night, frontman Robert Pollard mused to the audience: “I was born on the stage. I was squirted out on the stage…”
The crowd — a motley crew of locals and super-fans who had crossed the country for the event — roared back, Miller Lite and White Claw soaking all manner of Gbv shirts commemorating scores of albums, from 2019’s Zeppelins Over China to 1994 track “Hot Freaks,” off of Bee Thousand. Bob was finally back, and,...
The crowd — a motley crew of locals and super-fans who had crossed the country for the event — roared back, Miller Lite and White Claw soaking all manner of Gbv shirts commemorating scores of albums, from 2019’s Zeppelins Over China to 1994 track “Hot Freaks,” off of Bee Thousand. Bob was finally back, and,...
- 8/29/2021
- by Brenna Ehrlich
- Rollingstone.com
Guided By Voices have released a new song, “My (Limited) Engagement,” the first offering from what will be their second album of 2021, It’s Not Them. It Couldn’t Be Them. It Is Them!, out October 22nd via Rockathon Records.
“My (Limited) Engagement” pairs a steady drum downbeat with crunchy guitars, which open into a jangly chorus and, later, a tidy solo. “I need a slogan to cling to,” Robert Pollard sings on the final hook, “Just a ringer/For my engagement.”
“‘My (Limited) Engagement’ is hook-laden heavy guitar pop...
“My (Limited) Engagement” pairs a steady drum downbeat with crunchy guitars, which open into a jangly chorus and, later, a tidy solo. “I need a slogan to cling to,” Robert Pollard sings on the final hook, “Just a ringer/For my engagement.”
“‘My (Limited) Engagement’ is hook-laden heavy guitar pop...
- 8/2/2021
- by Jon Blistein
- Rollingstone.com
Guided By Voices are known for having 50-plus-song setlists and when they hit the road in August, they’ll have four more albums of new material to choose from.
On Monday, the band announced their first tour since the Covid-19 pandemic shut down live music in 2020. The initial dates begin in Columbus, Ohio in August and culminate in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on December 18th. Tickets will go on sale on Friday at 10 a.m. local time.
The ever-prolific band dropped their most recent album, Earth Man Blues, in April, following three...
On Monday, the band announced their first tour since the Covid-19 pandemic shut down live music in 2020. The initial dates begin in Columbus, Ohio in August and culminate in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on December 18th. Tickets will go on sale on Friday at 10 a.m. local time.
The ever-prolific band dropped their most recent album, Earth Man Blues, in April, following three...
- 5/17/2021
- by Brenna Ehrlich
- Rollingstone.com
Guided By Voices may have just dropped their best album in decades — Earth Man Blues — but Robert Pollard and Co. aren’t taking a break any time soon. Pollard’s side project Cub Scout Bowling Pins announced Tuesday, May 4th, that their LP, Clang Clang Ho!, will be released July 2nd via Guided By Voices Inc.
To herald the record’s arrival, the band is out with “Magic Taxi,” an Xtc-meets-Byrds-esque pop song that sees Pollard entreating, “Take a ride in my magic taxi.” The LP follows the Cub Scout Bowling Pins‘ recent EP,...
To herald the record’s arrival, the band is out with “Magic Taxi,” an Xtc-meets-Byrds-esque pop song that sees Pollard entreating, “Take a ride in my magic taxi.” The LP follows the Cub Scout Bowling Pins‘ recent EP,...
- 5/4/2021
- by Brenna Ehrlich
- Rollingstone.com
When the pandemic hit, Robert Pollard of Guided by Voices decided to go spelunking into his archives of unfinished songs and discarded demos from the last five to 10 years. “I was blown away that I had discarded them,” he tells Rolling Stone. “Anyway, I combined some of them and created new arrangements. Others I just left the way they were.”
The result is Earth Man Blues, which Pollard calls “a collage of rejected songs” set for release on April 30th. Despite Pollard’s humble tone, however, it’s one of Gbv’s most eclectic,...
The result is Earth Man Blues, which Pollard calls “a collage of rejected songs” set for release on April 30th. Despite Pollard’s humble tone, however, it’s one of Gbv’s most eclectic,...
- 2/22/2021
- by Brenna Ehrlich
- Rollingstone.com
We haven’t heard from Guided By Voices’ Robert Pollard since December 2020, so it’s only right to start off 2021 with a record from the prolific musician’s “mysterious” new band Cub Scout Bowling Pins. The group will drop a seven-inch called Heaven Beats Iowa on January 22nd via Guided By Voices Inc., so you can likely guess who’s behind this project. The title track is out now.
Gbv had a bang-up 2020, dropping three albums: Surrender Your Poppy Field, Mirrored Aztec, and December’s Styles We Paid For. The...
Gbv had a bang-up 2020, dropping three albums: Surrender Your Poppy Field, Mirrored Aztec, and December’s Styles We Paid For. The...
- 1/6/2021
- by Brenna Ehrlich
- Rollingstone.com
Robert Pollard of Guided By Voices is notably not a fan of the Internet, a sentiment he turns into power-pop perfection on “Electronic Windows to Nowhere,” off the band’s third album of 2020, Styles We Paid For. The record was even initially going to be titled Before Computers — until Pollard chose something more fittingly oblique.
The track starts off driving and steady, chugging forward with a deliciously tight four-four beat from drummer Kevin March. Then Pollard comes in with his Anglophilic, derision-drenched vocals to tell the tale of “Seamus and...
The track starts off driving and steady, chugging forward with a deliciously tight four-four beat from drummer Kevin March. Then Pollard comes in with his Anglophilic, derision-drenched vocals to tell the tale of “Seamus and...
- 12/15/2020
- by Brenna Ehrlich
- Rollingstone.com
The Breeders’ Kim and Kelley Deal took part in conversation with Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown during an upcoming Rolling Stone Fridays for Unity event, which is set to air this Friday, October 30th.
“Has anybody ever told you you look like Robert Pollard from Guided by Voices?” the Dayton, Ohio twins ask the senator in unison. “Is that good or bad?” he asks them, to which they reply, “It’s good!”
After establishing who is older (Kelley by 11 minutes), they ask Brown about the Affordable Care Act’s precarious position this election.
“Has anybody ever told you you look like Robert Pollard from Guided by Voices?” the Dayton, Ohio twins ask the senator in unison. “Is that good or bad?” he asks them, to which they reply, “It’s good!”
After establishing who is older (Kelley by 11 minutes), they ask Brown about the Affordable Care Act’s precarious position this election.
- 10/26/2020
- by Angie Martoccio
- Rollingstone.com
Read: 500 Greatest Albums of All Time List
Voters were asked to submit ranked ballots listing their 50 favorite albums of all time. Votes were tabulated, with the highest-ranked album on each list receiving 300 points, the second highest 290 points, and so on down to 44 points for number 50. More than 3,000 albums received at least one vote.
Artists, Songwriters, and Producers 9th Wonder Johntá Austin A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie Mick Avory
The Kinks Glen Ballard Alice Bag Bas Jon Batiste Big Boi Beyoncé Branko Michael Brun Eric Burdon
The Animals John Cale
The...
Voters were asked to submit ranked ballots listing their 50 favorite albums of all time. Votes were tabulated, with the highest-ranked album on each list receiving 300 points, the second highest 290 points, and so on down to 44 points for number 50. More than 3,000 albums received at least one vote.
Artists, Songwriters, and Producers 9th Wonder Johntá Austin A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie Mick Avory
The Kinks Glen Ballard Alice Bag Bas Jon Batiste Big Boi Beyoncé Branko Michael Brun Eric Burdon
The Animals John Cale
The...
- 9/22/2020
- by RS Editors
- Rollingstone.com
Guided By Voices will mark the 25th anniversary of their 1995 LP Alien Lanes with a new reissue via Matador Records’ Revisionist History series.
Released April 4th, 1995, Alien Lanes was the prolific Ohio indie rock outfit’s first album on Matador, and the follow-up to their acclaimed 1994 album Bee Thousand.
“We were fearless at the time we recorded Alien Lanes,” frontman Robert Pollard said in a new statement. “That’s why it bristles with insane energy and confidence. We were still riding the high accolades of Bee Thousand and probably should...
Released April 4th, 1995, Alien Lanes was the prolific Ohio indie rock outfit’s first album on Matador, and the follow-up to their acclaimed 1994 album Bee Thousand.
“We were fearless at the time we recorded Alien Lanes,” frontman Robert Pollard said in a new statement. “That’s why it bristles with insane energy and confidence. We were still riding the high accolades of Bee Thousand and probably should...
- 4/2/2020
- by Daniel Kreps
- Rollingstone.com
Tobin Sprout’s new song is kind of a downer — in the best possible way. From 1987 to 1997, when Sprout was a songwriter for Guided by Voices, his simple writing stood in contrast to frontman Robert Pollard’s bombast. That same distinctive style is on full display on “The Man I Used to Know,” his new solo single. While Pollard weaves larger than life tales of carnival barkers and otherworldly creatures, Sprout is decidedly terrestrial. His mournful, soft voice intones, “The man I used to know/He’s falling downward/Calling on the world/Goodbye/Goodbye,...
- 3/2/2020
- by Brenna Ehrlich
- Rollingstone.com
Robert Pollard almost threw up on New Year’s Eve when Guided by Voices kicked off 2020 with a 100-song set at Los Angeles’ The Teragram Ballroom.
“It was difficult because I have a bum hip,” the intrepid high-kicker tells Rolling Stone. “It felt fine for about the first two hours of the show and then it started hurting. … I didn’t hold back at all in the vocal department. You can’t. The songs are what they are and I really belt them out. There’s no way to really...
“It was difficult because I have a bum hip,” the intrepid high-kicker tells Rolling Stone. “It felt fine for about the first two hours of the show and then it started hurting. … I didn’t hold back at all in the vocal department. You can’t. The songs are what they are and I really belt them out. There’s no way to really...
- 1/7/2020
- by Brenna Ehrlich
- Rollingstone.com
“The world is crumbling and I don’t have much to say,” sings Greta Kline, leader of the band Frankie Cosmos, on the band’s new album. It’s a striking admission in a time when everyone else seems to be playing pundit in their own teapot echo chamber. And despite specializing in gently drifty guitar-rock and singing with the kind of recessively reedy voice that usually implies a retreat into one’s interior biosphere, Klein isn’t an escapist, at least not always. “For what it’s worth,” she notes a couple songs later,...
- 9/6/2019
- by Jon Dolan
- Rollingstone.com
The key ingredients for any great music fest include a stellar and eclectic lineup and a scenic venue, and the 2018 edition of Forecastle Festival in Louisville, Kentucky, checked both those boxes. Situated on the banks of the Ohio River, where the views at sunset are worth a ticket price alone, Waterfront Park hosted the largest crowd in the festival’s 16-year year history, as fans assembled to see headliners Chris Stapleton, Arcade Fire and Modest Mouse. Rolling Stone was on-site, putting together this list of the 15 best things we witnessed over the weekend.
- 7/16/2018
- by Joseph Hudak, Adam Gold, Robert Crawford and Charlie Zaillian
- Rollingstone.com
Of all the rock albums coming out in 2010 that can be considered hotly anticipated, the new record from the recently-reunited Blink-182 might be tops on the list. When it finally drops, hardcore fans will be able to experience the making of their new masterpiece first hand, as the band announced they are going to capture the recording experience first-hand as part of a making-of doc they're calling "The Blinkumentary."
While there have been plenty of documentaries that have tracked tours or specific shows, there have only been a handful of films that have really broken into the creation of great albums. But the ones that do exist are particularly amazing. If "The Blinkumentary" reveals the sorts of things that the following flicks do, then we're in for a classic.
"Some Kind of Monster"
Metallica originally just wanted to capture the energy of their 2003 album St. Anger, but following James Hetfield...
While there have been plenty of documentaries that have tracked tours or specific shows, there have only been a handful of films that have really broken into the creation of great albums. But the ones that do exist are particularly amazing. If "The Blinkumentary" reveals the sorts of things that the following flicks do, then we're in for a classic.
"Some Kind of Monster"
Metallica originally just wanted to capture the energy of their 2003 album St. Anger, but following James Hetfield...
- 1/12/2010
- by Kyle Anderson
- MTV Newsroom
Filed under: Music & Musicals, Casting, RumorMonger
Well, duh. That's what you're thinking after reading that headline. Of course Steven Soderbergh is going to make a live-action 3D rock 'n' roll musical about Cleopatra. He couldn't find a backer for the animated all-female pop opera about Nikola Tesla, and the black-and-white German-language kabuki play about Attila the Hun fell through, so naturally the live-action 3D rock 'n' roll musical about Cleopatra would have to be his next choice. Anybody could have seen that coming.
Soderbergh, who has directed about 20 theatrical features covering about 15 different genres and styles, seems determined to make his most unusual film yet. Variety says it's called Cleo, it's budgeted at $30 million, and Soderbergh is pursuing Catherine Zeta-Jones (whom he worked with in Traffic and Ocean's Twelve) to play Ms. Patra and Hugh Jackman to be her Marc Antony. We know they can both sing. But can they sing in 3D?...
Well, duh. That's what you're thinking after reading that headline. Of course Steven Soderbergh is going to make a live-action 3D rock 'n' roll musical about Cleopatra. He couldn't find a backer for the animated all-female pop opera about Nikola Tesla, and the black-and-white German-language kabuki play about Attila the Hun fell through, so naturally the live-action 3D rock 'n' roll musical about Cleopatra would have to be his next choice. Anybody could have seen that coming.
Soderbergh, who has directed about 20 theatrical features covering about 15 different genres and styles, seems determined to make his most unusual film yet. Variety says it's called Cleo, it's budgeted at $30 million, and Soderbergh is pursuing Catherine Zeta-Jones (whom he worked with in Traffic and Ocean's Twelve) to play Ms. Patra and Hugh Jackman to be her Marc Antony. We know they can both sing. But can they sing in 3D?...
- 10/24/2008
- by Eric D. Snider
- Cinematical
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