[The Soup Nazi]

Originally Posted by Severian

I've read it or something like it many times before. Not sure where louder's quote came from

The "pretty ethereal, acoustic, like R.E.M.'s last album" quote is from Kurt's last Rolling Stone interview, published in January 1994. I bought that issue at a Tower record store when it came out and I read it so many times I think I've almost memorized the damn thing. (Automatic For The People and In Utero were my bibles back then, so I was beyond thrilled.) But you don't need to examine my brain, as the interwebs (they have 'em for computers now) have digitally preserved this shit:

 

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/ne...rview-19940127

By the by, I'm not positive right now but I think the interviewer was David Wild, not David Fricke as stated there.

[Severian]

Originally Posted by The Soup Nazi

Yah well how could you not? There was a limited advance release of Mono on its own but as far as I know there's no version of Stereo alone. It was kind of a fuckup, really — Paul said you were supposed to see the Stereo front cover, flip the package and meet Mono by his malevolent alter ego Grandpaboy. So it was meant to be Stereo/Mono, but if you were, say, checking the thing at a record store, you got Stereo's front and back covers without a hint of the other album inside. Shit backfired, then; assclown reviewers called it "Paul Westerberg's new album, Stereo, yet another collection of mostly acoustic mid-tempo songs. A bonus disc of throwaway rockers is included". Motherfuckers.

I don't remember it that way exactly. I was fully aware of the "Stereo/Mono" thing. I remember that album pretty well, as it soundtracked a cross-country drive in college and resonated heavily with me because of the fucked relationship I was in at the time. Anyhoo, I don't know about the back cover -- who knows where the actual cd is, it's been 15 years -- but I remember it being clear, at least on the inside, that they were two albums. Stereo by PW and Mono by Grandpaboy. I wasn't confused about it, didn't think it was a bonus disc... knew the deal before I owned the album. Pretty sure it was promoted as Stereo/Mono.

I only mention that I bought them together because Mono got its own release ahead of schedule, with a Grandpaboy "tour" before the double alb. even came out. I was just giving some context about when I bought the album.

Anyway I believe you. Stereo is very good too. But Mono was my drug of choice from the first moment.

Originally Posted by The Soup Nazi

Stereo is its equal, gorgeous, fucked up (three songs end abruptly as the tape runs out [or PW deliberately cut 'em off — believe what you will]; the tracklist goes to hell when the unlisted "Strike Down The Band" sneaks in; after the "last" track there's another hidden tune, a fiery Flesh For Lulu cover (!) driven by chaotic Gasoline Alley-ish drums) and lyrically brutal. The whole two-disc set is the best fucking album of 2002 when you consider that Yankee Hotel Foxtrot is actually a 2001 LP whose release got delayed by moronic corporate boners. But no, The Flaming Mooks were all the goddamn rage. "Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots? My fourth graders could have come up with a better album title." —Robert Pollard.

Oh Fucking Bob Pollard.
Yoshimi was a tremendous album. Better than Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. Better than Stereo/Mono. The title is great. Musically is was perfect zag to Soft Bulletin's zig. wasn't album of the year (THAT would have to be a little thing called Murray Street.... duh), but it was a collection of great pop songs. The Flaming Lips hit a home run there. Don't hate.

But at the time, I had Stereo/Mono at #3 I think. Who the fuck can remember now, but Bob Pollard hates any band that can release albums that are good all the way through. Remember that "Fuck Pavement, fuck the Pixies" nonsense? Great songwriter once in a while, but he can drink Yoshimi's piss.

It's a GREAT album title (and great album art)

[Severian]

Originally Posted by The Soup Nazi

The "pretty ethereal, acoustic, like R.E.M.'s last album" quote is from Kurt's last Rolling Stone interview, published in January 1994. I bought that issue at a Tower record store when it came out and I read it so many times I think I've almost memorized the damn thing. (Automatic For The People and In Utero were my bibles back then, so I was beyond thrilled.) But you don't need to examine my brain, as the interwebs (they have 'em for computers now) have digitally preserved this shit:

 

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/ne...rview-19940127

By the by, I'm not positive right now but I think the interviewer was David Wild, not David Fricke as stated there.

I have the complete Rolling Stone book published by the editors. It's ages old of course but I didn't own it until my girlfriend picked me up a copy last year at a used book sale. I recently re-read the very interview you're taking about.

Automatic was one of my babies too. Not as much as In Utero, but still a big one for me that year.

[The Soup Nazi]

Several years ago, somebody compiled an anthology of Bob Pollard's stage banter. Seems like a good time to revisit it!

"If the guy next to you ever bought a Counting Crows album, punch him in the face!"

"Don't you guys think Led Zeppelin would have been better if I had been their singer? Robert Plant SUCKS."

"I think Bob Dylan sucks. Bob Dylan never wrote a good song."

"Devo is better than the Beatles."

"Mickey Dolenz is the best American rock singer ever."

"You can't say anything bad about Willie Nelson. Willie Nelson is a legend. But you know what? Willie Nelson sucks. You know what he said? He said when he heard the music of Matchbox 20 it renewed his faith in songwriting. Fuck that guy!"

[After pondering how his lyric "We'll even the score in World War Four" doesn't really make any sense, he went on to say:]
"Just shows how you shouldn't think too hard about your lyrics. Somebody should tell that to Michael Stipe. Have you had enough of that guy? That dude's a weirdo! His problem is he thinks he's smart."

"The difference between us and Sonic Youth is that Sonic Youth will play 2½ hours. They will do that. We will play 2½ and maybe three hours. But in that 2½ hours, we will play 55 or maybe 60 songs. Sonic Youth will play 12."

"Yoshimi Versus The Pink Robots? My fourth graders could have come up with a better album title."

"We're playing more hits than Tommy James and the Shondells."

"Radiohead? Those motherfuckers never played a good riff in their lives!"

"Then in the early 90s we became the kings of the lo-fi genre... and Pavement was pissed! Pavement was pissed!"

"What we taught the world is that you can suck and still rule."

"So who do you think is paying the bills at Matador? Cat Power? She sucks. Yo La Tango? [sic] Interpol? Uh, wait, I guess Interpol is paying the bills..."

"The worst band from 1966 is better than any band on MTV right now."

[At a show in Seattle:]
"Hello, we're Guided by Voices. We're not big Hendrix fans, but boy we sure do love that Mudhoney."

"We like to keep a cooler of beer on stage... because we're hopeless, pathetic alcoholics... and we say fuck you, that's what we say to it. Everyone that says we have a drinking problem, we say fuck you. I said it to my mom."

"I'm pretty fucked up, so if I fuck it up, fuck it."

"Now I'm so fucked up already I can't even talk. Hey HEY! — You're out there, and you think you're watching us disintegrate in front of your eyes. No. No — we are watching YOU disintegrate in front of OUR eyes. That's right! We are doing a three hour show and by the end we'll still be standing and you will all be a fuckin' mess!"

"You know, you think we're up here talking a lot and you're like — how come they're doing so much talking? Why don't you play some music? You know why? Because this is HALF TIME. Most bands, they'd be done right now. Uh uh. Not us! This is HALF TIME kids. Other bands would be done right now. We are only half way through!"

"Guided By Voices is the best band name. It's symmetrical. Guided — seven letters. By — two letters. Voices — seven letters."

"Here's a song off Bee Thousand. D'you know if you hold your tongue and say 'Pete Townshend' it sounds like Bee Thousand? Here try it..."

"Hey, who's the best band in the world, Wilco or Weezer?"

"Fuck Henry Rollins — always tryin' to scare people with his neck and shit! I'll take that motherfucker on any day, you can tell him I said that too!"

"Joan Jett? My brother is a better guitarist than her. Hell, your brother is a better guitarist than her."

"Yo La Tengo? A critic, a chick and a fat guy? You call that a rock band?"

"We've been around for 20 years. That's longer than Sonic Youth. You guys like Sonic Youth? Sonic Youth worships at the altar of Guided By Voices! You guys like Superchunk? Superchunk worships at the altar of Guided By Voices. You guys like Sebadoh? [About three people cheer] See, they don't worship at the altar of Guided By Voices and nobody knows who they are!"

"We're better than The Cars, we're better than The Police... Wait, we're not better than The Cars. But we're still beter than The Police."

"Finally got it right. We fucked up that ending the last three times we did it. We like to appear to be tight — we ain't tight. We like to appear to look good — we don't look good. You might think we might smell good — not happenin'. You'd like to think we practice once in a while. Fuck practice. Dude, we don't practice. You know bands that practice all the time? That's pussy."

[pepper_green]

the hold yr tongue and trying to say Pete Townshend bit was pretty clever.

[noisereductions]

Remember that album he put out of just stage banter?

[The Soup Nazi]

Originally Posted by noisereductions

Remember that album he put out of just stage banter?

Yes, Relaxation Of The Asshole, on the Yuk Yuk Motherfucker Production label! I imagine its clear precedent is Elvis Presley's Having Fun With Elvis On Stage, from 1974.

[pepper_green]

Originally Posted by noisereductions

Remember that album he put out of just stage banter?

I thought a lot of those looked familiar. that was long ago.

i used to go see GBV and me and my friend used to joke about how Pollard is probably passed out in the van. dude's a song writing drunk.

[pepper_green]

The Beatles - Revolver in mono. it's the best Beatles album behind the White Album.

it's better than Rubber Soul and Peppers combined. Help! and Beatles for Sell is better than Rubber Soul.

Revolver is a masterpiece.

[noisereductions]

I cant rank them... white album, pepper and revolver are my top 3 though.

[Severian]

Originally Posted by The Soup Nazi

Several years ago, somebody compiled an anthology of Bob Pollard's stage banter. Seems like a good time to revisit it!

"BLAHRHAA" -- Bob Pollard

Less than 20% of those quotes were funny. Poor Bob Pollard.

Also, at NO POINT were Guided by Voices together longer than Sonic Youth. 1984 to 2003 or some shit? Then 2004 to 2010 or some shit? Then 2011 to whatever.

1981-2011, without interruption and entirely without bullshit. For a teacher, he's a dumb motherfucker. Even for a drunkard teacher.

Don't get me wrong, I love Guided by Voices as much as the next guy. At least, the portion of their catalog that's worth hearing. But there's not a single GBV album aside from Alien Lanes that I would listen to from start to finish today without falling into a coma. Except maybe their "best of" and live records. Sooooo much crap. Crap songs are as much a part of the GBV DNA as booze and nonsense. They touched the sun on occasion, but Sonic Youth doesn't worship at the altar of the indie rock Axl Rose and his merry band of fuckwits. That's ludicrous.

[Severian]

Originally Posted by pepper_green

The Beatles - Revolver in mono. it's the best Beatles album behind the White Album.

it's better than Rubber Soul and Peppers combined. Help! and Beatles for Sell is better than Rubber Soul.

Revolver is a masterpiece.

Yeah, Revolver is the second best Beatles album behind the White Album. Totally agree.

[noisereductions]

Wait, you dont like Bee Thousand? I put that one above Alien Lanes. Barely, but still.

[Severian]

Originally Posted by noisereductions

Wait, you dont like Bee Thousand? I put that one above Alien Lanes. Barely, but still.

No I like Bee Thousand. I like tons of GBV albums. But I don't listen to any of them from start to finish anymore except for Alien Lanes. Even that one I haven't heard in a while. Part of it is that the good songs are so painfully catchy that they creep into my skull like the space slug from The Wrath of Khan and control my mind from within. They're a real bitch to get out.

Bee Thousand is just fine. Great even. But it's not, like, an album album. None of them are. I tend to like albums I can play through from beginning to end. Guided by Voices have never made this kind of music, but I also don't think they've ever tried. Obviously Robert Pollard is an gifted, but VERY inconsistent songwriter and obsessive compulsive recorder.

He's comparing himself to SY and the Lips, two bands with similar obsessions with recording tons and tons of music, but who have both, along the way, learned and perfected the art of album-making as well... not to mention Sonic evolution. GBV is important and has been great, but they — ok, I guess it's just "he" at this very late point in the game nobody's watching — is just not at the SY level. Nowhere close, in fact, to Sonic Youth or the Lips.

[Severian]

I used to kind of think of the Flaming Lips as GBV from some kind of alternate universe where Pink Floyd and Butthole Surfers and Suicide were the band's to emulate instead of the Beatles, The Who and King Crimson. Dayton and OKC are comparable enough, yeah?

Then the Flaming Lips, like, grew up (ssssort of). And while there was a time in the early to mid-'90s when the two bands were going after pretty much the same sound (see 1994's Due to High Expectations... The Flaming Lips Are Providing Needles for Your Balloons as a nice example), the Lips went on to say "fuck this" to what they were doing, and started to get adventurous and experimental, resulting in some of the best records of the '90s and even 2000s. GBV just kept doing their thing over and over and over and over and over.

Now the comparison seems mental, because the Lips sound absolutely nothing like GBV, while GBV still sounds exactly like GBV.

[pepper_green]

Alien Lanes is terrific! seriously seriously good songs on there. used to love GBV for like two months but came to the realization I could just sit around the house and listen to the beatles and king crimson. ha.

better than Pavement or SY? no way man. yeah GBV got old quick.

[The Soup Nazi]

Originally Posted by pepper_green

Help! and Beatles for Sell is better than Rubber Soul.

On the subject of early(-ish) works by bands who would then move on to create giant masterworks, I prefer the Stones and the Beach Boys.

[The Soup Nazi]

 

[evollove]

I'll trade my CD of Alien Lanes with someone.

---

BEATLES FOR SALE is a notch below the predecessor HARD DAY's NIGHT, their first masterpiece. HELP! is their second

RUBBER gets by on atmosphere, but there are some real stinkers on there when it comes to actual tunes.

BTW, for the life of me I've never understood the conjunction of RUBBER and REVOLVER. They are often treated as twins. Even George is some doc or other says he feels they're connected. I can't hear it.

Anyway, almost everything after Revolver is a hangover. Strawberry was recorded shortly after Revolver, and they should've quit right then, artistically speaking. Pity.

[Severian]

Originally Posted by evollove

I'll trade my CD of Alien Lanes with someone.

---

BEATLES FOR SALE is a notch below the predecessor HARD DAY's NIGHT, their first masterpiece. HELP! is their second

RUBBER gets by on atmosphere, but there are some real stinkers on there when it comes to actual tunes.

BTW, for the life of me I've never understood the conjunction of RUBBER and REVOLVER. They are often treated as twins. Even George is some doc or other says he feels they're connected. I can't hear it.

Anyway, almost everything after Revolver is a hangover. Strawberry was recorded shortly after Revolver, and they should've quit right then, artistically speaking. Pity.

Masterpiece? Really? Hard Day's Night and Help! are great records, but masterpieces? I think that's pushing it.

If they'd quit after Revolver they would never have released, like, a third of their best songs. I don't really see how the White Album is just a Revolver hangover. Or Abbey Road. I'm not really picking up what you're putting down here, friend.

I think for a Beatles fan I'm atypically fond of their early stuff (love Anthology 1) but I think it's madness to suggest that Sgt. Pepper's, White Album, Abbey Road, etc. shouldn't have been made. Even Magical Mystery Tour. There's just so much great shit in that little pocket. It's pretty much all gold actually.