By: Guided By Voices Appears on: Zeppelin Over China On “Everything’s Thrilling,” Robert Pollard is once again up to his old tricks. This song is based on an open D note drone and a lot of the same chords he typically uses with this drone technique: D, G/D, and Cadd2. When you consider how many […]
Tag: Guided By Voices
Why Did You Land?
By: Guided By Voices Appears on: The Official Ironmen Rally Song One of Robert Pollard’s most often used songwriting guitar techniques involves fretting a note on one string and allowing an open string either above or below it to ring out with it. For example, in “Why Did You Land?” he uses this technique with […]
Sleep Over Jack
By: Guided By Voices Appears on: Half Smiles of the Decomposed I’ve mentioned at least a few times on this website that I’d love to be able to hear all of Robert Pollard’s demos, and “Sleep Over Jack” is one in particular that I always thought would be interesting to hear. As I learned how to […]
Thimble Society
By: Guided By Voices Appears on: Warp And Woof “Thimble Society” from the 2019 Guided By Voices album Warp And Woof is rock the way GBV does best: short, riff-driven, and with a catchy melody. In this post, we’ll take a look at the guitar tab and chords for this magnificent composition. You need to be logged in […]
What Begins On New Year’s Day
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
