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From Georgia Straight December 2000    
By Shawn Conner

Guided By Voices
Suitcase: Failed Experiments and Trashed Aircraft
#6 in the Fading Captain Series


Anyone claiming all the good band names have been taken is advised to take a look at the back of this boxed set. Not only does it collect 100 previously unreleased tracks from the Guided by Voices vaults, but lead singer and songwriter Bob Pollard has credited each song to a different (fictional) act. The chowderheads in Finger Eleven and Eve 6 should be kicking themselves for not thinking of the monikers Elvis Caligula, Artrock Unicorns, and Ghost Fart.

Anyway, if those names don’t give you some idea of the imagination, creativity, and sheer lunatic brilliance to be found in this four-CD set, there’s always the songs themselves. Suitcase has plenty, in all shapes and sizes, from rambling instrumentals to a ballad ("Wondering Boy Poet") that is a one-minute lesson in the value of brevity. There are anthemic rock ("Let’s Go Vike"), hooky toss-offs ("Carnival at the Morning Star School"), bong-fuelled basement workouts, and unclassifiable blends of all of the above and more. The tunes date from 1979 (the wonderfully titled "Mr. McCaslin Will Sell No More Flowers") to 2000. A few numbers, from full-on studio sessions, reflect the band’s growing recording budget, while some of the selections are just Pollard on guitar. The sticker on the cellophane wrap has a bluntly self-aware line: referring to the constant stream of product (numerous solo projects, records under different band names, singles, EPs, and a previous boxed set collecting GBV’s first four records), Pollard’s father is quoted as asking "When are you going to stop doing this stupid shit?" Of course, one person’s stupid shit is another person’s gold, and for GBV fans—which includes, potentially, anyone who loves rock ’n’ roll—Suitcase is a treasure trove of life-affirming melodies. And laugh-inducing band names like Urinary Track Stars.