Once in a while I come across a band that I am surprised not to have heard about. I recently started listening to
Pavement at the suggestion of my high school English teacher. He's a huge fan and is even going to their reunion show in New York this September.
Regardless, they were a whole section of indie music that I had not heard influencing bands such as
The White Stripes and
Modest Mouse (a couple of my favorites). Recently though, I stumbled upon
Guided By Voices led by singer/songwriter
Robert Pollard.
The band from Dayton, OH, started up in 1983 and recently broke up in 2004 (I guess '04 was a bad year for bands,
Dispatch and
Phish broke up that year too). Regardless, you can here the song writing of
Pavement and the guitar tones familiar to
Modest Mouse and
The Mountain Goats in
Pollard's songs (of which he has claimed over 1,300 to his name).
Pollard brings 'it' with the catchy lyrical structure and the punchy guitar that I love so much.
"Teenage FBI" by Guided By Voices from Do The Collapse (1999)"I Am A Scientist" by Guided By Voices from Bee Thousand (1994)"My Valuable Hunting Knife" by Guided By Voices from Alien Lanes (1995)-S
P.S. Fun Fact:
Guided By Voices basically released an album every year while active from '83-'04. They also used the same Lo-Fi style that
John Darnielle loves to use with
The Mountain Goats.
