Guided by Voices
The Grand Hour
1993, Scat Records
In the Season One finale of The Guided by Voices Story, the band had just recorded Propeller, their masterpiece. And then they broke up because they were getting old and Robert Pollard’s family was giving him the stink-eye over this stupid rock band that he had going.
It was all just a hobby anyway. A goof-off. Something to pass the time. Pollard is now over this music stuff and he won’t even miss it. Right? Cut to credits.
Season Two begins with a phone call to Pollard’s house.
It’s Robert Griffin of Scat Records out of Cleveland. He says something to the effect of that he loved Propeller and would like to put out more Guided by Voices music. If they’re interested.
Pollard says something to the effect of Hell, yes and then he throws together some new music on the quick. As related in Jim Greer’s book Guided by Voices: A Brief History, Griffin received a tape from Pollard a mere week later and this was it, The Grand Hour EP. The band’s first 7″ and their new beginning.
What a beautiful mess this record is, full of beer-buzzed basement vibes and the coziest lo-fi noise. It’s got two great songs (pulverizingly catchy punk thunderbolt “Shocker in Gloomtown” and stoner blast “Break Even”) that leap like tigers out of the murk, though the murk is pretty sweet, as well. The band are confident noise-makers here. This record is anything but slick, but it conjures up a vivid psychedelic world.
On a personal note, this was MY FIRST Guided by Voices purchase. It was around Thanksgiving 1995, I was curious about the band (I think I read about them in Spin), I was broke as a joke, and this was the cheapest CD in the bin at Border’s Books (R.I.P.). I’d never heard Guided by Voices before. I’d never heard lo-fi rock before. I was a babe in the woods. I still thought that Stone Temple Pilots were okay. I didn’t know what I was doing, but I bought this and loved it. I thought it was dreamy and mysterious.
Most people today say that this is one of the more “difficult” Guided by Voices records and that you shouldn’t start here, but I started here and now I’m the top Guided by Voices geek on my block. And I haven’t trusted where “most people” say you should start listening to a band ever since.