Guided By Voices - Under The Bushes Under The Stars
By Michael Corcoran
Once again - transcribed by Lunner
Songwriters who are lucky enough to come up with 10 great melodies in their
lifetime must hate Robert Pollard, the 38-year-old former fourth grade
teacher who, like porno actor Ron Jeremy, does effortlessly what the rest of
his brethren pursue to the point of frustration. Guided by the same voices
that spurred strings of magical notes from the Mersey Beat poets of the '60s
as well as the staccato insurgence of punk in the '70s, the prolific Pollard
and his band have been tossing out colorful hooks since 1986 with the
frequency and precision of fly-fishermen.
Under The Bushes is GBV's 24th fresh-from-the-basement release. The band has
endured the low-fi tag because its records sound like they're being played
on a turntable with a fuzz covered needle. But more important than the raw
sound quality is the accessibility and spontaneity that four-track recording
affords GBV. Stunning tracks like "Cut-Out Witch", "Underwater Explosions"
and "Bright Paper Warewolves" sound as if they were recorded while the
passion was still flowing and scribbled notebook paper was still lying on
the floor of the rehersal space. The band has actually graduated to a
24-track studio, but Pollard's voice still clings like a shy child, and
Tobin Sprout still sounds like he strings his guitar with screen-door wire.
With lyrics that sound cut and pasted from a book by the Brothers Grimm,
Pollard's two minute tunes aren't fragmented so much as full compositions
that say plenty in a short period of time. On "Big Boring Wedding", he
sings, "Pass the word: The chicks are back," in a '70s art-rock voice that
brings to mind Pink Floyd and the Who's Quadrophinia, and the song perfectly
conveys the vapidness of the scene that Pollard is surveying. On "Look At
Them", the choppy power riffs and Pollard's flush, vein-bulging delivery
can't conceal a melody so strong you can lean against it.
Under The Bushes searches for something new in the pop-rock ruins and finds
that the quest is the thing. "I can't tell you anything you don't already
know", Pollard sings above a gorgeous acoustic guitar on "Acorns and
Orioles". But one hopes he'll keep trying.