Guided By Voices brings you 20th anniversary vinyl reissues of two early gems from the Fading Captain Series and a brand new single from their newest project, Sweating the Plague.
The reissues featured were originally issued as small vinyl pressings (1000 copies) in 1999, and used copies of these Guided By Voices “side-projects” have regularly re-sold for hundreds of dollars each. Both have been remastered from the original analog tapes.
Kid Marine, the first-ever release of the Fading Captain Series and Robert Pollard’s third solo album, features "Far-Out Crops”, "Submarine Teams," and the sublime "White Gloves Come Off." Pollard handles all guitar and keyboard duties as well as vocals, joined by GBV’s Greg Demos (bass) and Tobin Sprout (piano) and the Breeders’ Jim MacPherson (drums), soon to join GBV for Do The Collapse.
Speak Kindly of Your Volunteer Fire Department was the first album of Pollard’s fruitful collaboration with long-time guitarist Doug Gillard (later to be known as Lifeguards). Gillard recorded all the instruments on Tascam 4-track cassette in Cleveland, then sent them via US Postal Service to Pollard who added vocals in a studio in Dayton. Eleven Pollard compositions along with 4 songs which Pollard wrote and recorded melodies over Gillard-penned instrumentals, starting an unusual songwriting process that Pollard pursued for several years with various long-distance collaborators. Nearly half the songs on the album became staples of the GBV live set for several years, including "Pop Zeus," "Tight Globes," "Frequent Weaver Who Burns" and "Do Something Real.”
"Heavy Like The World" is the subliminally seductive single from the forthcoming Guided By Voices album Sweating The Plague. “Silent Army” is a non-lp b-side.
Guided By Voices is an unlikely candidate for the most perfect rock band of all time, while at the same time being a thoughtful reflection on what a rock band is, a fantasy that becomes a fact.
