By: Guided By Voices Appears on: August By Cake “What Begins On New Year’s Day” is a simple, melancholy, mostly acoustic guitar song that Robert Pollard included on the Guided By Voices album August By Cake, having been previously released on an Amazon Prime music compilation titled Indie For The Holidays. We’ll use a few first-position […]
Category: tab
Let More Light Into The House
By: Boston Spaceships Appears on: Let It Beard For the studio recording of “Let More Light Into The House,” fellow Boston Spaceshippers Chris Slusarenko and John Moen transformed Robert Pollard’s acoustic guitar demo into a full-on dirge; an open string drone guitar figure plods along during the first section, giving way to shuffling drums, urgent piano […]
No Steamboats
By: Boston Spaceships Appears on: Let It Beard I’ve always considered Let It Beard to be my least favorite Boston Spaceships album. That’s not to say I never liked it, but in mental rankings it just always seemed to get bottom placement. Lately I’ve been reconsidering this evaluation, as I’ve been spending a LOT of time […]
Keep It Coming
By: Guided By Voices Appears on: The Pipe Dreams of Instant Prince Whippet Isn’t it funny how Guided By Voices can put out a release with ten songs and a running time of twenty-three minutes and call it an EP? Granted, a couple of those songs may be less than a minute long, but it still […]
Weatherman And Skin Goddess
By: Robert Pollard Appears on: Robert Pollard Is Off to Business Today’s post features guitar tablature and chords for a true musical masterpiece: Robert Pollard’s “Weatherman And Skin Goddess.” It’s one of his longer songs, clocking in at just under five and a half minutes, so there are a few parts here to learn. You […]
Foreign Deputies
By: Guided By Voices Appears on: Warp And Woof “Foreign Deputies” features a guitar shape that Robert Pollard uses frequently, played as an arpeggio with a B note ringing throughout on the open second string. It’s very similar to the arpeggio figures played in “We Liken The Sun.” In “Foreign Deputies,” however, you can just assign […]
Just To Show You
By: Guided By Voices Appears on: How Do You Spell Heaven As far as Guided By Voices closing tracks go, “Just To Show You” ends How Do You Spell Heaven on a relatively non-rocking note. Is it a sign of Robert Pollard’s maturity, or is he just keeping us all on our toes by taking […]
Dirty Water
By: Guided By Voices Appears on: Earthquake Glue In the post for “Apology In Advance,” I mentioned that there are certain songs from Earthquake Glue that never really “did it” for me, and “Dirty Water” had been one of them for a long time. Obviously, I loved those harmonized guitar lead lines towards the end […]
Gray Spat Matters
By: Guided By Voices Appears on: Space Gun “Gray Spat Matters” from Space Gun is a very straightforward rock song. Constant driving rhythm, power chords, and a steady beat throughout. It’s been holding its place in the band’s live set since its release, and I’m hoping it stays for a long time. You need to be […]
Bunco Men
By: Guided By Voices Appears on: Mirrored Aztec, Suitcase – Failed Experiments and Trashed Aircraft I used to write songs. After a while, it started to feel pointless. Robert Pollard was writing songs like “Bunco Men” and then not even releasing them on albums; we didn’t get to hear most of them until the first […]
