Guided by Voices
Cut-Out Witch
1996, Matador Records
The only Guided by Voices picture disc, as of this writing, and like most picture discs, it’s inessential. Audio dorks say that they inherently have worse sound quality than regular records, but a slob like me wouldn’t know anything about that. This one sounds fine, I guess.
But it is pretty much a trinket, a bauble. Something for the nerds. If you have this, you’re a nerd.
Not that there’s anything wrong with the music on it (in my nerd opinion, at least). On the A-side are two fine album tracks from Under the Bushes Under the Stars and the B-side offers two fine performances live in the studio for WHFS in Washington DC for rock critic Dave Marsh’s “Inside Dave’s Garage” radio show, recorded in August 1995.
If you’ve seen Guided by Voices live in any configuration from 1996 on up to the current day, you’ve probably heard them play “Cut-Out Witch”. It’s a setlist stalwart, a band favorite, a fan favorite, one that gets the kids jumping. And the reason is simple: It rocks. It’s all about the tension and release, the quiet build-up and then the spastic chorus, all of which bounces off of the playful evil guitar riff that changes tempo with everything else.
I’ve always interpreted the lyrics as being about guys who think that a relationship with a certain woman is going to solve their problems only to find that it doesn’t always work out that neatly.
Meanwhile, the image of a “cut-out witch” has a double meaning. It conjures up images of a child’s activity book. Cut and paste stuff. Cut out the witch and paste her into your life.
However, “cut-out” also means discounted products, slow sellers let go at a bargain. Every record collector knows about the cut-out bin shit. LPs with the top-right corner sliced off, CDs with that little gash in the spine of the case.
I guess none of those make the woman in this equation look good, but I could very well be wrong about all of this. I’m bad at song interpretation. I don’t know what any song means (with the exception of “Baby Got Back”). Maybe “Cut-Out Witch” is about beer.
Coming up next is “Rhine Jive Click”, an album cut that doesn’t even try to be a single and there’s nothin’ wrong with that. It’s another tension-and-release number, no verse-chorus-verse structure here. It’s a song that kind of stares at you dangerously, going up and down in intensity, until it decides to stop after a minute and a haif and exit the scene. I don’t know why it’s here, but I don’t mind. Let’s also mention that the lyrics feature a good use of the word “fucking”.
Flip this bitch over and get rocked with two Propeller songs blown out live and rough. “Unleashed! The Large-Hearted Boy” leaps for your throat like punk rock (beer-lubed Midwestern division) and this rampaging take on “Some Drilling Implied” informs you of the sweaty screamer that the album version dirge only hinted at.
The two live tracks later turned up on the band’s Hardcore UFOs box set that came out on Matador in 2003, but this picture disc is how the nerds listen to them.