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 […]
Tag: Guided By Voices
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 […]
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 […]
Goodbye Note
By: Guided By Voices Appears on: August By Cake “Goodbye Note” is one of the two songs contributed by Doug Gillard for the August By Cake album. It features a few terrific riffs and some slick lead work. You need to be logged in to view the rest of the content. Please Log In. Not […]
Free Agents
By: Guided By Voices Appears on: Earth Man Blues “Free Agents” is a classic example of a Guided By Voices song that grew on me the more I heard it. I used to think it was just okay, but I eventually became obsessed with it, especially after seeing the band perform it live in Lancaster […]
I Share A Rhythm
By: Guided By Voices Appears on: It’s Not Them. It Couldn’t Be Them. It Is Them! “I Share A Rhythm” originally appeared on Suitcase 3, but was given the full band treatment on It’s Not Them. It Couldn’t Be Them. It Is Them! where it really shines. Still, being able to hear Robert Pollard’s original […]
The Bell Gets Out Of The Way
By: Guided By Voices Appears on: It’s Not Them. It Couldn’t Be Them. It Is Them! On first listen, “The Bell Gets Out Of The Way” struck me as a very 1950’s style song. The chord progression and vocal melody during the verses sound similar to Sha-Na-Na’s “Those Magic Changes” from Grease in my opinion […]
Cherub And The Great Child Actor
By: Guided By Voices Appears on: It’s Not Them. It Couldn’t Be Them. It Is Them! Robert Pollard’s songwriting process can often yield puzzling results. In the case of “Cherub And The Great Child Actor,” he starts off with a simple guitar riff as an intro, uses it again for a first verse, and then […]
Flying Without A License
By: Guided By Voices Appears on: It’s Not Them. It Couldn’t Be Them. It Is Them! In “Flying Without A License,” Robert Pollard uses open drone strings in the main guitar riff, which culminates in a single strum of an E chord. Other than that riff, there are just a few other chords that you’ll […]
Dance Of Gurus
By: Guided By Voices Appears on: It’s Not Them. It Couldn’t Be Them. It Is Them! Other than the lead guitar solo at the end of the song, “Dance Of Gurus” is relatively simple to play. The hardest part might just be getting the syncopated strumming down in a few of the sections, so I’d […]
