By: Guided By Voices Appears on: How Do You Spell Heaven “Tenth Century” from How Do You Spell Heaven is one of those great “cool-down” numbers that Robert Pollard likes to throw onto his albums, just to take a break from the near-constant rocking. Although it stays pretty light for the most part, with acoustic guitars […]
Tag: Arpeggio
We Liken The Sun
By: Guided By Voices Appears on: August By Cake “We Liken The Sun” from August By Cake is a track that I didn’t give enough attention when the album first came out. I guess that’s somewhat acceptable, as there were plenty of new songs vying for attention all at once. I’ve really come to appreciate this […]
Liar’s Box
By: Guided By Voices Appears on: Space Gun “Liar’s Box” from Space Gun is one of those great Robert Pollard tunes that defies all standard song structure. It has one or two parts that repeat during the song, but other than that, it’s a series of distinct parts that sum up to a satisfying whole. As […]
Time Trapper
By: Circus Devils Appears on: Laughs Last On my first listen of the 2017 Circus Devils album Laughs Last, “Time Trapper” was a track that immediately caught my attention. That melancholy acoustic guitar, playing those desolate arpeggios over a bleak synth, set to Robert Pollard’s haunting vocal melody…I knew I wanted to learn how to play […]
Steppenwolf Mausoleum
By: Guided By Voices Appears on: How Do You Spell Heaven What is this murky, abysmal sound enveloping your soul? Oh, it’s just “Steppenwolf Mausoleum,” one of the highlights of the 2017 Guided By Voices album, How Do You Spell Heaven. Fear not: the gloom will soon give way to crunchy guitar tone, blasting power chords […]
Slick As Snails
By: Robert Pollard with Doug Gillard Appears on: Speak Kindly of Your Volunteer Fire Department I don’t know how to properly explain it, but there’s a certain kind of magic that occurs when Robert Pollard teams up with Doug Gillard. You can hear it all over the Guided By Voices records that feature Doug as […]
Love Is Stronger Than Witchcraft
By: Robert Pollard Appears on: From A Compound Eye On New Year’s Eve 2004, the world ended. Or at least, that’s how it felt to some of us die-hard fans of Robert Pollard and his band, Guided By Voices, when they played what was announced to be their final show (which was released in its […]
