By: Robert Pollard with Doug Gillard Appears on: Speak Kindly of Your Volunteer Fire Department “Life Is Beautiful” has a guitar melody that’s really fun to play and built around an open string drone technique. The fourth and third strings will ring open on the D and G notes, respectively, while the note on the […]
Tag: Open String Drone
Hammer In Your Eyes
By: Robert Pollard Appears on: From a Compound Eye I have a theory about several of the songs on From A Compound Eye. The songs in question are “Hammer In Your Eyes,” “Kick Me And Cancel,” and “I’m A Widow,” and the theory is that Robert Pollard sat down with his guitar and wrote the main […]
You Own The Night
By: Guided By Voices Appears on: Zeppelin Over China The first single from the upcoming Guided By Voices double LP, Zeppelin Over China, is titled “You Own The Night,” and it’s a full-on Pollardian suite of a tune, complete with various pieces of music stitched together as a sonic collage and an undeniable hook of a chorus. […]
You Satisfy Me
By: Boston Spaceships Appears on: Brown Submarine If you’re a member of the GUIDED BY VOICES Facebook fan group, you may have heard of the synchronized listening sessions that someone organized. Basically, it’s a bunch of people listening to an album at the same time and commenting about it in real time to a Facebook […]
Tenth Century
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 […]
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 […]
Sport Component National
By: Guided By Voices Appears on: Space Gun Just as Robert Pollard uses a collage as the artwork on many of his album covers, so also does he write some of his songs in the same fashion. In “Sport Component National” from Space Gun, he combines snippets of seemingly unrelated melodies and music into a cohesive […]
Flight Advantage
By: Guided By Voices Appears on: Space Gun “Flight Advantage” from Space Gun comes charging like a wild stallion right out of the gate, and the energy doesn’t relent until its frantic race is finished. The song uses an open string drone, with the open D note on the fourth string ringing throughout each chord. You […]
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 […]
Map And Key
By: Ricked Wicky Appears on: King Heavy Metal Nick Mitchell brought some tasty guitar work to Robert Pollard’s table throughout their collaborations on Pollard’s solo album Of Course You Are, the three Ricked Wicky albums, and the 2016 Guided By Voices tour. One of the finest guitar solos he contributed, in my opinion, was on […]
