Guided By Voices: Nowhere To Go But Up (2023)

The third new GbV album of the year (and the 16th to come from the Pollard/Gillard/Bare/Shue/March lineup) is yet another win.

Grateful Dead: Without A Net (1990)

 The last of the original-canon Dead albums to enter my vinyl collection. Very glad I held out. This new pressing is beautiful, and beautifully priced. The performances on this set, recorded in 1990, capture Brent-era Grateful Dead at the peak of its powers.

Guided By Voices: Mag Earwhig! (1997)

Over 39 albums in 36 years (and counting, rapidly) the band behind the name Guided By Voices changed considerably (and often) and made a great variety of records with an almost countless assortment of musical contributors, all of whom defer to Robert Pollard. Some albums were slick, some were packed with classics, some were patchworks of scratchy, lo-fi mini-masterpieces, and some were just plain weird. None more so than 1997’s Mag Earwhig!, though not for the usual reasons. 

By this point, Guided By Voices had finally taken hold and were on the cusp of major label-hood when guitarist Tobin Sprout, whose contributions were far fewer than Bob’s but so very great in their own right, left the band after 1996’s Under The Bushes Under The Stars. Bob took that opportunity to sack the rest of the band, instead hiring Cobra Verde to back him up, and pushing onward. 

This partnership would last one album and tour before Bob again sacked everyone (except for guitarist Doug Gillard, who continues to play in GbV to this day) and built a new band. The lone album to come from this transitional lineup features 21 songs. A handful, however, are holdovers from the prior lineup, so those dudes  feature on songs like “I Am Produced” and “Jane Of The Waking Universe”, while the new band can be heard on stuff like “Bulldog Skin”, “Portable Men’s Society”, and the Gillard-penned “I Am A Tree”. This is all stitched together with lo-fi solo Bob tracks, most of which are fragmentary, some lucid, some obtuse. Basically, this is a typical GbV album. It’s just the personnel (and circumstances) that make this a bit of a tough nut. 

Following this album would come a Pollard solo album called Waved Out and then two albums for TVT records, starting with 1999’s Rik Ocasek-produced Do The Collapse. That album kicked off what is more or less the second great GbV lineup. The most commercially successful version of GbV, they would produce five albums over the next four years and tour the world many times over, before splitting in 2004. 

Meanwhile, Cobra Verde went back to being Cobra Verde and that was that.

Arthur Lee: Vindicator (1972)

 A little Arthurly for this Saturday morning.

Widespread Panic: Space Wrangler (1988)

 A little WSMFP for a Friday night!

Grateful Dead: Saint Of Circumstance (rec. 6/17/91)

 Giants Stadium 6/17/91. The Dead weren’t always ON during the stadium era but when they were, they would elevate the whole goddamn place. Any show that opens with “Eyes Of The World” is going to be something huge. Quite possibly the best “Saint Of Circumstance” the band ever played. And then there is “Dark Star”, weaving in and out and all around the second set while never actually getting there. This is the height of the Bruce/Vince era and the band was on a completely different level.

Scrawl: Plus, Also, Too (1987)

 Scrawl’s 1987 debut is punchy and just damn cool. I don’t know them as well as I should but it’s pretty obvious that Jenny Toomey listened to this band a lot, as this reminds me of a louder, more raw Tsunami. This is an album that I’ve had for ages and probably listened to a few times way back but it’s still fresh to my ears and I dig it a lot. I have a couple more of their records so I will take a quick dive. And then probably pull out my Tsunami records….

Grateful Dead: Dick's Picks Vol. 2 (rec. 10/31/71)

 Whenever you hear about the best “Dark Star” it’s usually 8/27/72, 2/27/69, 6/10/73, or any from 1974.  This version is right up there with the best. It may even sit at the top. Just absolutely cataclysmic. The rest of this short set is super solid as well. The band was only a couple months’ in on the Keith Godchaux era and they were really starting to jell. I am ever so grateful for this new pressing from Real Gone, the first to be mastered to vinyl from the source tapes. This sounds amazing and has perhaps the greatest use of a blank side ever.