ROCK INSIDER

Guided by Voices returns to old ways for new album

Photo by Daniel Coston/Retna Ltd ROBERT POLLARD

ENLARGE PHOTO

By Don Thrasher, Contributing Writer Updated 1:45 PM Thursday, January 19, 2012

Rumor is Robert Pollard nearly broke the Internet last year.

When word broke he’d secretly recorded a new album with the classic Guided by Voices lineup of Tobin Sprout (guitar, vocals), Mitch Mitchell (guitar), Greg Demos (bass) and Kevin Fennell (drums), fanboys around the world tripped over themselves rushing to share the news online.

And it was big news. “Let’s Go Eat the Factory,” released earlier this month, is the first GBV album since 2004’s “Half Smiles of the Decomposed,” and the first with the “Classic Lineup” since 1996’s “Under the Bushes, Under the Stars.”

For Pollard, recording a new album was a natural progression after the successful round of reunion shows the band began in October 2010.

“We’ve been doing these shows and they’ve been going really well,” Pollard said. “The chemistry is pretty good so I figured we might as well make a record and I think these guys kind of deserved to do one.”

The excellent new album lacks the tape hiss and other lo-fi touchstones of Classic Lineup-era releases “Bee Thousand” and “Alien Lanes,” but it does follow the method of assembling the songs from a variety of recording sessions at different locations.

“This new stuff is pretty cool,” Pollard said. “We did some stuff at Greg’s where we didn’t have drums and we just messed around on detuned acoustics and stuff. We did some stuff at Mitch’s where we did the same thing but in a different sense. We played abbreviated kits and pounded it out with power chords because Mitch is Mr. Powerchord.

“Toby does all his stuff like he’s already been doing it,” Pollard continued. “He’s getting a really good sound out of his studio in Michigan so we rehearsed nine or 10 power rockers and went up there and recorded them.”

Although this approach was the primary working method for Guided by Voices during the early days, by the late ’90s up until the group’s demise in 2004 the albums were all recorded in one studio and the songs on each release shared a similar fidelity.

“I think it’s pretty cool when you put all the different elements together,” Pollard said. “That always used to be our thing. We’d record some stuff in the studio and some stuff on 4-track or some stuff live in the basement. It’s cool to get back to doing that.”

And Guided by Voices isn’t finished releasing albums. The follow-up, “Class Clown Spots a UFO,” is done and set for release in May.

Artist info: www.robertpollard.net.

Contact contributing arts and music writer Don Thrasher at donaldthrasher8@aol.com.

Share this article