L-to-R: Michael, Dennis, Tony, Kevin, and Jon; all pics I am not in are by me.
So there were some massive fans of Guided By Voices in the audience at the ANZA this past night. Apparently two guys drove up (together?) from Oregon, for instance: Larry and Justin. They both did a great job of the songs they picked: Larry did "Hot Freaks" and Justin did two, "Surgical Focus" and "Death of the Party," a new song in the GBR repertoire, as I learned in doing my Straight piece. Justin was the only person to do two songs (other than Kevin Perley!). He also did the highest of the kicks that anyone did onstage--about 2/5ths the height of a "maximum Bob" kick but still, it was higher than anyone else made it!
All of those songs, of course, were in the third part of the evening, the karaoke component, which was really fun; everyone who sang did a fine job (though the worst bungler was me -- I completely fucked up a line in "I Am a Scientist," right near the end of a clip that got shot, which ends on my fuckup, alas; I recovered a bit thereafter but it's not filmed. I'm still impressed at how commitedly I belted out the first couple verses, though). (Youtube wants to copyright-protect it... if that link doesn't work you can try this one... it might not work either!).
Nice of Bryn Peaker to share the video with me! He came right over to my table to let me know he'd shot it. I also shot a few vids of the band proper, but most I'm just going to send to the band; but here's two from the first half, a Pollard solo song ("Flat Beauty") and "Echoes Myron," and here's "Jane of the Waking Universe," though, from early in the second set, just before my battery crapped out. All photos of the band below are by me, while photos of me are by Bryn. Speech impaired karaoke is now a thing!
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I learned some stuff tonight, aside from a few GBV songs I didn't know. When I was getting someone in the band -- Michael? Chris? to come over to my table and sign my gig poster, so that I could tuck it into my Propeller reissue, Larry offered me a fascinating story about the original cover variants of that album. His version -- as filtered now through me, with the caveat that my mind was somewhat altered in a few ways last night, not restricted to alcohol -- went something like, Bob's wife was losing her patience with all the time and energy and family resources Bob was pouring into his band, so she made him promise to quit. They had a two-year-old child and the band's previous efforts had gone nowhere, so it was just time to give up and focus on his home life. This left him without the budget to finish the cover art for the album GBV had just recorded, so he gave the members of the band blank covers and had them go home and create unique one-off art for the fronts, which were pasted and painted and otherwise inserted onto the blanks (Justin, who owns one, confirmed that stuff was just pasted on it collage-style). 500 albums were made, and no two had the same cover (!). Some of the variants are online here, but apparently, because some were sent to radio stations, not all copies have been recovered or seen; of the ones that are known to exist, Larry has two, but Justin's is signed by Robert Pollard, so he wins).
Anyhow, Propeller was supposed to be their last album, but it was the one that in fact got them noticed and signed, which led to Bee Thousand. You can, incidentally, hear the album here; the bandcamp (at the moment) anyhow uses the cover art for the current reissue.
If I understood Larry correctly, Pollard also got his Grade 5 class to colour and/or highlight the back cover drawings (one of which was a basis for the t-shirt Larry was wearing; note, if you try to spot him in the photos below, he's the one who looks a bit like David Cronenberg, if David Cronenberg were singing "Hot Freaks").
You can also see some of the variants, with auction prices, on Popsike. Sells for upwards of $5000 these days, in those first pressings; I'll make do with the cover art on my copy, which is based on an original variant. (Apparently every reissue in history has used a different one).
So that was educational. It was also really essential, if a bit sad, to learn that we may have seen the end of Guided By Voices as a touring unit -- news I clearly had not gotten at the time of my Straight article, where I wheedle for Bob to bring the band here. It was never officially announced, but Justin and Larry both reported that Pollard had told fans that if they wanted to see the band one last time, they better get down to Dallas, back in October of 2024. They're still making records, but GBV's touring days may be done!
Many, many people had very cool Guided By Voices t-shirts on; I had none, so I wore the shirt I wore when I went to see GBV in Seattle. (There are some fun bad photographs there, by the by). Even gladder to have seen them, now. Guess it may be my only time doing so.
It sure won't be my only time seeing Guided By Robots, though. Just great! Good friends singing great songs... how did that line go again? Everyone was really complimentary about my article and friendly, and a few fellow audience members offered me drunken love (no, not the carnal kind; but I ssure hugged more people than I expected I would, tonight. When do you hug strangers at a concert? I think I like these GBV-people).
"Tight Globes" and "Rally Boys" were my favourites of the songs I didn't know at all, but I'm going to check out that Keene Brothers album, too.
Oh, and Chris Walters, a sometimes-drummer for the band, chatted with me a bit about how he used to get friend requests for Chris Walter all the time. I apologized for leaving him out of the story I did for the Straight, but I couldn't confirm his name anywhere. He joined me for "I Am a Scientist," because, as with me, that song was the gateway drug; when I told him I had signed up for that song, he told me a story about hanging out with a friend in Kits, hearing that song on the radio, and then excusing himself to pop down to Zulu to buy a stack of Guided By Voices CDs, that very day. Robert Pollard has also said the song was really important for him, calling it "the first song that showed some maturity in my ability as a songwriter." I was glad to hear it in the band's own set!
Note: If you want to use these photos and you write for a publication that runs ads and generates income, please at least have the courtesty to ask --- unless you're in the band; I hope at least one of these shots is useful to you. I couldn't get a photographer out, so I just did the best I could... I photograph better than I sing...!
Great night -- can't wait til next year!
Photos in reverse order, except for the ones of me at the very bottom.
My phone died before I could shoot any of the other karaoke singers, but thanks again to Bryn for shooting me! See y'all again next year.
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