By: Guided By Voices Appears on: Universal Truths And Cycles The title track from Universal Truths And Cycles features a Robert Pollard guitar technique that I call “Barre Four.” This consists of barring (pressing down multiple strings at once across the same fret) across four consecutive strings. In some cases (as with “Downer” or “My […]
Tag: Guided By Voices
Man Called Blunder
By: Guided By Voices Appears on: Surrender Your Poppy Field “Man Called Blunder” is one of my favorite songs from Surrender Your Poppy Field to play on guitar. There are a lot of changes from one section to another, as well as a few fun riffs using open string drones. A favored Robert Pollard guitar […]
Volcano
By: Guided By Voices Appears on: Surrender Your Poppy Field Guided By Voices guitarist Doug Gillard spices up the “quiet verse/loud chorus” dynamic of “Volcano” with a few cool guitar moves. During the verses, he plays a sparse open string drone figure, leading to explosive power chord choruses. You need to be logged in to […]
Cul-de-Sac Kids
By: Guided By Voices Appears on: Surrender Your Poppy Field With all his years of songwriting experience, Robert Pollard shows us yet again that he still knows how to write a song that’s just plain fun. “Cul-de-Sac Kids” begins with gentle acoustic guitar strumming, bursts into power-chord poppiness, and ends with whistling over a string […]
Always Gone
By: Guided By Voices Appears on: Surrender Your Poppy Field For Surrender Your Poppy Field, Guided By Voices really ran the gamut production-wise. There are songs with sleek, shiny production like its predecessor Sweating The Plague on one end of the spectrum. On the other end, we have a song like “Always Gone,” which sounds […]
Arthur Has Business Elsewhere
By: Guided By Voices Appears on: Surrender Your Poppy Field In terms of song structures, “Arthur Has Business Elsewhere” is one of the more conventional songs from Surrender Your Poppy Field, and its circus instrumentation and waltz-y ¾ time signature have earned it comparisons to The Kinks and Sgt. Pepper-era Beatles. Beneath it all, though, […]
Useless Inventions
By: Guided By Voices Appears on: Earthquake Glue In “Useless Inventions,” Robert Pollard crafts a verse chord progression using a fifth chord shape (root note and fifth note) on the fourth and third guitar strings combined with a technique he frequently uses which I’ve nicknamed “Drop The Bass.” You need to be logged in to […]
My Wrestling Days Are Over
By: Guided By Voices Appears on: Sweating The Plague On “My Wrestling Days Are Over,” Guided By Voices took a Psycho And The Birds approach to recording: the band used Robert Pollard’s original boombox demo as the main vocal and guitar track and then recorded additional guitar and synth overdubs to it. In my opinion, […]
Shocker In Gloomtown
By: Guided By Voices Appears on: The Grand Hour “Shocker In Gloomtown” was released on the EP The Grand Hour in 1993, and Guided By Voices has been performing it at almost live show since then. Check the song’s live stats on GBVDB; it’s right up there behind the other classics such as “Game Of […]
Tractor Rape Chain
By: Guided By Voices Appears on: Bee Thousand One of the Robert Pollard guitar techniques I mention frequently on this site is one that I call “Floating Chord Shapes.” This involves taking an open position chord shape and playing it elsewhere on the guitar neck. In the case of “Tractor Rape Chain,” Pollard crafts a […]
