Guided by Voices
  f. 1985, Dayton, OH, USA

From Dayton, Ohio, USA, Guided by Voices (in the following: GBV) took several years to find favour with America's alternative rock audience.  Although consistently prolific, in truth, their obscurity had much to do with some unfulfilling early material that hardly predicted the comparative artistic grandeur of albums such as Bee Thousand and Crying Your Knife Away. Led by teacher and singer  Robert Pollard alongside Tobin Sprout, the mgroup made its debut with the risible Forever Since Breakfast EP in 1986, which could have been categorized as progressive rock were it not for a lack of technical ability. The group's first four albums similarly fail tp provide conclusive evidence of a defined songwriting ability, which is clearly what Pollard has aimed at. The real improvement began with 1992's Propeller, which saw them steer closer to a clean pop sound suppress some of the irritating, ponderous excesses of earlier albums. Lyrically, too, Pollard was now communicating with more simplicity  and conviction, with "Exit Flagger" becoming their first bona fide "classic song". The accompanying The Grand Hour EP also featured "Shocker in Gloomtown", which was later reinterpreted by GBV fans the Breeders. Vampire on Titus finally brought the group out of obscurity, with late-arriving fans of Sebadoh and Pavement sensing common ground with what became known as the 'lo-fi' movement (a sound demanding a simplicity of execution and emotional authenticity), Two 7-inch singles with typically exotic titles ("Static Airplane Jive" and "Fast Japanese Spin Cycle") then preceded Bee Thousand, which many critics cite as the group's best album. On this recording the group simultaneously manages it to sound like a US garage band, 1965 Beatles, early Velvet Underground and Captain Beefheart's Trout Mask Replica period; yet at no time do they sound anything less than highly original - a perplexing yet brilliant combination. The verdict on Bee Thousand was supported by a new maturity in Pollard's songwriting which swapped introspection for more erudite, prosaic character sketches. Crying Your Knife Away, a double live album, the the career-spanning Box compilation, built on their new newfound popularity, as former music journalist Jim Greer joined the band as its new bass player. Under the Bushes, Under the Stars, a 24-track collection of minimal pop songs, pushed the group away from its lo-fi four-track origins, building on the success enjoyed by a spate of 7-inch sinngles including "Motor Away" and "My Valuable Hunting Knife", the latter voted one of the 50 best singles of 1995 by the UK rock magazine Select. Mag Earwhig! was released following debate about the band's future, but prouved to be as worthy as anything they had released before. The band's TVT label debut, the Ric Ocasek-produced Do the Collapse, followed in 1999. One year later, GBV released the second major box set of their career, Suitcase: Failed Experiments and Trashed Aircraft, a collection including over 100 unreleased recordings and reportedly spanning 25 years. Another studio effort, Isolation Drills, appeared in early 2001.