Guided by Voices
Mag Earwhig!
1997, Matador Records
For indie rocker kids, there was an uncomfortable truth about Guided by Voices and in 1997 they finally had to face it.
Robert Pollard likes and is very much influenced by prog-rock.
And not in a “math rock” way, which was cool back then. Bands who were into crazy time signatures and got compared to King Crimson and their LP was out on Touch & Go. That was okay.
Pollard probably digs that stuff, too, but he’s more into Peter Gabriel’s Genesis. He likes concept albums and all of that mystical, pastoral British junk. Fantasy imagery and songs that might kick in with the good part after about four minutes of build-up because kids in 1973 (a year when Pollard turned 16) had the attention span for that. Or at least they were stoned enough to go with it.
Yep, the guy known for recording songs that barely last a minute in his basement was influenced by the most long-winded and indulgent rock genre around.
Artists. They’re complicated.