This story is featured in CityBeat's April 17 print edition.
Robert Pollard is in a league of his own. There might be songwriters of varying degrees of effectiveness who have been nearly as prolific, but precious few have been able to transform their obsession with fragmented rock and roll songs into a body of work that has become a way of life. It’s easy to picture the 66-year-old Pollard waking up in the morning, walking into the kitchen in his Dayton, Ohio home and writing a song by the time he finishes his first cup of coffee.
Pollard’s long-running band Guided by Voices has seen a multitude of lineup changes over the last four decades, yet each configuration has ably conveyed their beer-swilling ringleader’s indefatigable vision — ear-wormy songs rife with crafty guitar riffs, undeniable melodies and esoteric lyrics that have their own peculiar logic. Or as Pollard said in a recent interview with American Drunkard about his lyrical approach: “The meaning overall is not so important. Each line or stanza can have its own meaning. I’m not even sure what a stanza is.”
As anyone who has witnessed one can attest, a Guided by Voices live show is an altogether different beast from the band’s recorded output (largely no-frills productions that tend toward the lo-fi). Proof from a show at the old Southgate House in April 1994: As Pavement frontman Stephen Malkmus took the stage for their headlining set, he says this of GBV’s opening-slot performance: “Wow, I didn’t know The Who were playing tonight.”
The first two stops on Guided by Voices’ current spring tour featured 40-plus songs from across their long and winding discography — from “I Am a Scientist” off of 1994’s breakout record Bee Thousand to a handful of tracks from their most recent release, last November’s Nowhere to Go But Up (which, according to AllMusic.com, is their 39th studio album!). Curiously, the final song of each show was “Glad Girls” (from 2001’s stellar Isolation Drills), a fan favorite among many in GBV’s voluminous output.
Guided by Voices and Wussy play Madison Theater on April 26 at 8 p.m. Info: madisontheater.com.
