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New adventures in hi-fi >> Guided By Voices: new sound, new label, old rock by CHRIS YURKIW
It's tough to know whether the operative word in that last statement is "different" or "slightly." Yes, the new and 11th proper album from Pollard's longtime Dayton dayjobbers, Do the Collapse, was recorded in a real studio with a real name-producer (Ric Ocasek)--dumping the infamous lo-fi, four-track sound that GBV was credited with virtually inventing when they broke out of Ohio circa 1993. And yes, save the famous ex-elementary school teacher Pollard, the band is all-new, including ex-Breeders drummer Jim MacPherson and guitarist Doug Gillard, who played with the Cleveland band Cobra Verde, which backed Pollard on the last GBV album, Mag Earwhig. But despite the predictable charge of "sell-out," the Voices are still college-radio faves (never before have they topped CMJ's chart), and their core sound remains the same on Do the Collapse, their first album for TVT Records. "It's pretty much what we've always been after," says Pollard, "doing a record that's got a great big guitar sound but a kind of '60s melodic sense. To combine the power of the '70s with the melody of the '60s is to create good music, in my opinion. "We've been threatening this for years. When we first started we made a record in a big studio. But we never had any success, we never had anybody that had any kind of empathy whatsoever for what we were trying to do. So it got to the point where we said, 'Yeah, we're tired of wasting money, so we'll just start doing things in the basement on the four-track.' And we found out that was better anyway, so we got kind of addicted to that." Despite appearances, the upping of GBV's production values has nothing to do with the sextet's concurrent switch from big indie Matador to even bigger indie TVT. According to Pollard, the deal to do a "big album" via Matador/Capitol was already in place--in fact, the album was already recorded--when Matador's selected distribution deal with Capitol fell through. "I had flown out to Capitol with Gerard [Cosley] of Matador," says Pollard, "and talked to Gary Gersh [then Capitol president], and he said, 'Yeah, we'll put you through Capitol, but you gotta make the record that you've always been capable of making,' with a producer and everything." When the deal died Pollard was in a pickle, only to be plucked out of the barrel by TVT, who had been interested in winning over GBV regardless. "There might be some [fans] who say 'I don't like these guys anymore because I like lo-fi.' I like lo-fi too," says Pollard, "but I also like hi-fi. And I have the best of both worlds right now, because I can do Guided By Voices in a more professional sense and I can do Robert Pollard or record under a pseudonym and do whatever I want--which I'm doing. "We've been around for 18 years! I don't see how it's possible to be around that long and sell out."
With the American Flag at Cabaret this Wednesday, September 22, 8pm, $15.50 |
"We're at a different level now," says Guided By Voices mainman Robert Pollard, who speaks about as quickly as he tears hooks out of his teeming tackle-box of songs. "I've got a different band; I've got a technically much more capable band; we're on a bigger label. Things are slightly different now."