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Promo Brunette

By: Robert Pollard Appears on: Of Course You Are “Promo Brunette” is a fascinating specimen of a Robert Pollard song to dissect. It consists almost entirely of verses, each of which begins the same and ends differently. It’s almost as if Pollard had a chord progression laid out for a verse but couldn’t decide how […]

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Planet Score

By: Guided By Voices Appears on: Motivational Jumpsuit Robert Pollard’s ode to a beloved St. Louis, Missouri record store is certainly one of the highlights of Motivational Jumpsuit. The song is somewhat basic in terms of guitar playing and song structure, just like some of the best classic GBV songs. You need to be logged […]

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Spanish Coin

By: Guided By Voices Appears on: It’s Not Them. It Couldn’t Be Them. It Is Them! In “Spanish Coin,” Robert Pollard pulls out some of his best guitar tricks: floating chord shapes and open note drones. Doug Gillard embellishes the tune with string and trumpet arrangements, plus an impeccable nylon string guitar solo. You need […]

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That’s Good

By: Guided By Voices Appears on: Space Gun Originally released in the form of a Robert Pollard boombox demo on Suitcase 3, “That’s Good” got the full band treatment for Space Gun, complete with a string arrangement. The main guitar parts really didn’t change, but Doug Gillard did add some lead fills, so those are […]

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Sons Of The Beard

By: Guided By Voices Appears on: Sweating The Plague “Sons Of The Beard” is the best kind of Guided By Voices album closing track: a sprawling, epic prog masterpiece featuring multiple different sections, tempos, time signatures, and some scorching lead guitar work by Doug Gillard. There is nothing I don’t love about this song, so […]

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Dunce Codex

By: Robert Pollard Appears on: Lord Of The Birdcage With the Hot Freaks digital subscription, we got to hear the “roughs” from Lord Of The Birdcage—all the songs from the album, but with just Robert Pollard’s vocal and guitar tracks. These provide clear audio of Pollard’s isolated guitar parts, which make the job of learning […]

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