Guided by Voices
Half Smiles of the Decomposed
2004, Matador Records
And now an ending.
As you may know, this was the grand finale of Guided by Voices at the time. No more Guided by Voices after this. They were going out with an amicable break-up. Robert Pollard needed to move on. The news was everywhere. Maybe you read about it in Rolling Stone. Maybe you read it on some music news website or a message board. Maybe you went to a record store in the autumn of 2004 and saw Half Smiles of the Decomposed snuggled in the new release racks with a sticker on the shrinkwrap straight from Matador Records that touted it as The Final Album.
If you were a fan, you likely felt an urgency to not miss out on The Electrifying Conclusion tour, which was a shorter tour than usual. No Europe. No Canada even. It officially began in August, wound its way through about two dozen reliable stops in the US, and had a hard ending. New Year’s Eve in Chicago.
The band whose show was always a party would end on the biggest party night of the year.
And then lights out. That would be it. So long, Guided by Voices.
Or maybe not.
Continue reading “Robert Pollard-Mania! #90: HALF SMILES OF THE DECOMPOSED”