Thursday, April 11, 2013

Let's Go Eat the Factory (2012)

Let's Go Eat the Factory
(2012, Guided by Voices Inc.)


The year 2012 marked the return of Guided by Voices! This also marked the renewal of joyous nerds and audiophiliac's collective squeals of elation. And for the loving curmudgeon, a languished groan as the saga continued. Well, at least as far as the LP realm was concerned. In 2010, after Pollard reported to Magnet Magazine in 2007 that he saw reunions as a "cash grab," Guided by Voices kicked off their reunion tour with their '90's "classic line-up" members in Dallas, TX at The Palladium Showroom.  It was the band's (or moniker's) first appearance since their 2004 final show on New Year's Eve at The Metro in Chicago, IL. Originally intended as a small string of shows into November of 2010, GBV stuck together, playing more shows into 2011. Somewhat inevitably, the recording bug bit, and Pollard and the lineup headed back to the Tobin Sprout 8-tracks, and drafty garages of yesteryear.

Guided by Voices by nature has always been a rotating cast of characters, but for tour and new LP this reunited cast consisted of Pollard, Tobin Sprout, Mitch Mitchell, and Kevin Fennell. By returning to the cries of" classic-line-up," the reunited GBV were able to fill seats at shows, and garner significant praise for the first GBV reunion LP of the (up to 2013), 4 album run of reunion LPs.  Were some colorful characters left out from said "classic" era?  Of course (Don Thrasher, we hardly knew ye'. Jim Greer, why have you forsaken me? Peyton Eric? Is that your real name?).  Did this reunion of classic help produce a classic LP from GBV? Not exactly.  

Most media covering the release of the LP began salivating; A collective swoon over the return to the lo-fi, spontaneous recorded grit of the glory days  While there is grit, spontaneity, and some lo-fi qualities, the LP feels more like a weak Pollard solo LP mixed with a dash of some sub par Tobin Sprout outtakes. Some bright spots do prevail, and the hopeful irreverence of early GBV LPs, at times, undeniable.  Overall, the return is a rather bleak, occasionally fun, trip down memory lane. However, memory lane here holds few reconciliations for the listener when mirrored against the classic, mid-90s GBV run this LP was forever held against. Is this expectation unfair? Or is this LP just a lazy? 




SIDE A:
Laundry and Lasers-  3 The classic line-up is back!  Pulsating feedback drones, and sharp, minor chord guitar stabs.  Nicely distorted mid-fi. Reminiscent of a Universal Truths and Cycles era song with '96 Matador era production and pounding.

The Head- 3 Boinging bass notes, awkward chord progression and bumbling guitar strums. Intrusively loud, one note organ blast. More GBV in feel than in well written tune. Intriguing enough. Rips off more past GBV weirdness than it can chew, perhaps, but still perfectly odd.

Doughnut for a Snowman- 3 One of the singles off the LP. Folksy opening with recorder playing low-rent, mystical Led Zepplin Bilbo Baggins stuff. Breaks into slow tempoed, go-down-easy pop. Lyrics are flat-out terrible. Is Pollard getting a kickback from the Krispy Kreme corporation? In fact, in an 2012 interview with Magnet magazine, Pollard said he originally wrote this as a doughnut jingle, that never made it. Take what you want from that. At the very least, a toe-tapper with few memorable hooks.

Spiderfighter- 2 A pretty lame, semi cock-rocker, with proggy guitar noodling and slightly space-tinged vocals. Uncomfortable and loud post punk/art rock. Hammering piano part leads into an incredibly schmaltzy, McCartney piano outro. Two notes gently played while Sprout repeats the same lyrics. Not Sprout's finest hour.

Hang Mr. Kite-  3  Orchestrated, cold as ice song. Sounds dated, and wholly depressing without the rewards of other such chilling GBV songs of the past. "Hang Mr. Kite" is a flaccid kite that never really takes off.

God Loves Us- 1 Simplistic bass line with garage rock tom-pounding. Guitar blasts in, giving it a simple "Postal Blowfish" type feel. Then the TERRIBLE vocals come in. “We are living proof, that God Loves us, we are we are we are we are" etc.- to end. What the fuck?

Unsinkable Fats Domino- 4 One of the stronger tracks on the LP, this is a throwback to easily likable GBV songs of days past, but does feel a bit forced. Slightly awkward guitar arrangement and vocal hook in chorus, but despite that proves a pretty effective track.

Who Invented the Sun-  3 A whispered, wavery Sprout introduces this song while strumming on a brittle guitar. As though Galaxie 500 had mixed with ‘70s attic balladry and resulted in this track.  Propeller era type closet recording. Sloppy and barely held together, oozing with delicate charm.

The Big Hat and the Toy Show- 1 Perhaps trying to recreate the what-the-fuck charm and outlandish, enjoyability that comes with older tracks like “Her Psychology Today", however,“Big Hat…” is a noisy noodly waste of time, that sounds more like a Pollard solo track off Suitcase 3.

Imperial Racehorsing- 3 Steady, buzzing lackadaisical rhythm encompasses the spine of the track. Slightly pot-tinged tune, with psychedelic horns popping in and out. Big time guitar noodling on a small scale pop up and out of the track. More weird than catchy, but the hooks are buried and burn slow.


SIDE B:
How I Met My Mother-  2 What?  How I Met My Mother?  Ideas are running low in plenty of departments here.  It’s a short one, with one single good go-around hook.

Waves- 4  Visceral, shoegazey kind of pop song. Bright and airy with Sprout vocals almost completely buried in the mix, making it a trebled instrumental that flows by easily. One of the simplistic stand-outs on this album. Recommended for spring time listening.

My Europa- 1 Guitar wobbles in and out of the mix as Pollard croons, in and out of tune. Sounds pretty off-the-cuff, which is fine in the GBV spirit, but on the grand reunion album it’s ultimately ill placed. We’ve heard a million of these on Suitcase collections, there is not much need for this here.

Chocolate Boy- 4  Acoustically driven track with lush string backing.  No grand hook to speak of, but the vocal melodies are reminiscent of the early ‘90s. This song fails to deliver as big as expected considering a solid foundation, but is still a breezy, light, and catchy quality song.

The Things That Never Need- 1 Creep-city piano rings out as a bunch of kids talk over it, and guitar noise pops in and out.  Oh, say it ain’t so.

Either Nelson- 1  Oh, come on already.  Uninspired, sloppy staccato guitar jabs while an even more sloppy piano goes crazy over this wet noodle of a track. Deservedly DOA.

Cyclone Utilities (Remember Your Birthday)-  1 Sounds like something off an older GBV ep from the early ‘90s. Barely held together, stripped down. Unfortunately, a little too long for it’s own good, and basically goes nowhere.

Old Bones- 3  Sounds like Tom Waits if David Bowie produced him.  Tobin Sprout track that gets lost in dated, creepy synth, and balmy organ noises.  Subtly beautiful and affecting. You don’t wanna like it, but it can make you weep a little between the bones.

Go Rolling Home- 2  Short, like the old days. Weird, like the old days. Lo-fi, like the old days. But catchy? Inspiring? Cryptically beautiful? No.

The Room Taking Shape- 3 Acoustic strums, dueling drunkenly back and forth. Wavery Pollard vocals, make it sounds like a lost outtake straight from of the Clown Prince of The Menthol Trailer EP.  Creakily interesting and nostalgic.  

We Won’t Aplogozie for the Human Race- 2 Off-putting, fucking depressing, go nowhere song soaked in minor chords and sullen orchestration.  Way too long for it’s own good. May have worked as an eerie 1 minute snippet song. But a weak closer to a particularly weak comeback.

18 comments:

  1. You left out Greg Demos's name in the lineup list.

    Jules

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  2. Thanks. Will be fixed! Demos rules!

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  3. Listened to this again this afternoon. I'd give "How I met my mother" a 4, and "Either Nelson" a 4 just for the guitar towards the end. It is kind of a weak reunion album though. "Hang Mr. Kite," "god Loves us" and "the things that never need" are undeniably dire. Glad that they kept going and eventually gave us "bears for lunch."

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  5. You are being so unfair with this record. "God Loves Us" is a fabulous track and the fact that you diss the lyric is kind of mind-blowing because it is perfectly similar to a lot of spiritual songs penned by Sprout.

    Standouts: "Laundry...", "Doughnut", "Unsinkable", "Waves", "Chocolate" (you got these three right), "Imperial Racehoring" and "We Won't Apologize..."

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  6. I know a bunch of people LOVE this record, and consider this the best reunion LP, and a bunch who don't care for it. When I reviewed it I really, really hated it. I've grown to it as a whole but still find myself thinking it's a weaker effort. To each his own. Doesn't mean I won't put it on the record player next week!

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  7. I listened to side one this morning. ONe thing I like about it, it doesn't have as many of the generic sounding rockers that bring down the later reunion albums. I think Xeno Pariah, Trash Can.. and NOble Insect really brought down English Little League....

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  8. Either Nelson, i like the chorus part. The whole song reminds me of Ed Kueppers Laughing Clowns

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  9. listening to this right now. at its best, a pretty damn good album.

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  10. "laundry and lasers" is at least a 4. easily.

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  11. "cyclone utilities" is so weird and rocking at the same time. and then "old bones" follows it. it's taken years but i've really gotten to like this album.

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  12. I just realized "Imperial Racehorsing" references the Circus Devils song "The Gasoline Drinkers." But instead of "Gasoline drinkers oh no, it's coming at me like it did" it's "New beauty secrets oh no, she's coming at me like she did." How odd.

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  13. I dunno, I LOVE this album. I think it's so insanely brave that with all the attention focused on a big comeback/reunion record, they produced this dark, bizarre experimental post-punk-y thing more akin to Circus Devils meets Vampire on Titus than to, say, UTBUTS. To me, Big Hat and Toy Show is the only real bad song (is -1 possible, Eric?), but everything else is exceptional - the Tobin songs are beautiful (Spiderfighter is a "semi-cock rocker"? Whuhhh?) and Bob is in his "putting great melodies over anything even vaguely musical" mode, with Imperial Racehorsing, Laundry and Lasers, We Won't Apologize, Fats Domino, and The Head standing out to me as total 5's. Of course, I think Class Clown was an even better album (top 5 GBV for me), but I would take Factory over all of the other reunion LPs as well as all of the new Gillard-group albums save for the mighty Warp and Woof and the vastly underrated Poppy Fields.

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  14. "who invented the sun" hits differently tonight

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