Guided By Voices - Bee Thousand

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Guided By Voices Bee Thousand
1994
Scat
VBR

(red text = sample track)

1 Hardcore UFO's 1:54
2 Buzzards and Dreadful Crows 1:43
3 Tractor Rape Chain 3:04
4 The Goldheart Mountaintop Queen Directory 1:45
5 Hot Freaks 1:42
6 Smothered in Hugs 3:00
7 Yours to Keep 1:15
8 Echos Myron 2:42
9 Gold Star for Robot Boy 1:39
10 Awful Bliss 1:12
11 Mincer Ray 2:21
12 A Big Fan of the Pigpen 2:09
13 Queen of Cans and Jars 1:55
14 Her Psychology Today 2:04
15 Kicker of Elves 1:04
16 Ester's Day 1:51
17 Demons Are Real 0:48
18 I Am a Scientist 2:24
19 Peep-Hole 1:25
20 You're Not an Airplane 0:33


Reviews:

Rolling Stone (8/11/94, p.66) - 4 Stars (out of 5) - "...BEE THOUSAND is a tour de force by a good old-fashioned American basement genius....the real miracle of BEE THOUSAND is that it not only celebrates the power of rock music, it also embodies it..."
Spin (12/94, p.78) - Ranked #10 in Spin's list of the '20 Best Albums Of '94' - "...a thousand hooks, offering perfect distillation of...basement tape aesthetic....sloppily records immaculate melodies capable of breaking your heart...they're so insistently catchy and so fleetingly brief..."
Spin (7/94, p.69) - "...Guided By Voices hides absolutely shattering melodies that call to mind a thousand reference points..."
Magnet (p.96) - "[I]t does show the amount of thought Pollard puts into making and sequencing a record."
Village Voice (2/28/95) - Ranked #8 in the Village Voice's 1994 Pazz & Jop Critics Poll.
Mojo (Publisher) (p.57) - Ranked #80 in Mojo's "100 Modern Classics" -- "[T]hey peak with a batch of tunes that sound like long-lost Beatles and Who demos."
Mojo (Publisher) (p.118) - 4 stars out of 5 - "Rarities galore make this a must for any self-respecting fan."
New York Times (Publisher) (1/5/95, p.C15) - Included on Neil Strauss' list of the Top 10 Albums Of '94 - "...The most consistent album of quickie tunes yet from this 12-year-old Dayton, Ohio band."
NME (Magazine) (8/13/94, p.46) - 7 (out of 10) - "...Exactly why the indie-rock world hasn't yet gone as misty-eyed over Guided By Voices as it did over Pavement and Sebadoh is one of the great mysteries of our age..."

The cult of indie rock thrives on the unexpected discovery, and in 1994 Guided by Voices was just the sort of musical phenomenon no one figured was still out there -- 30-something rock obsessives cranking out fractured guitar-driven pop tunes in a laundry room. Robert Pollard and his stable of beer buddies/backing musicians had been churning out stuff like Bee Thousand for years, but the album's surprise critical success marked the first time the group found a significant audience outside their hometown, and it made a clear case for Guided by Voices' virtues -- as well as their flaws. From the moment "Hardcore UFOs" kicks in, it's obvious that Pollard has an uncanny gift for a hook and a melody, and Bee Thousand's 20 cuts are dotted with miniature masterpieces like "Echos Myron," "Smothered in Hugs," and "Queen of Cans and Jars." However, there are also more than a few duds that threaten to cancel out the goodwill the great songs generate, and Pollard is an acquired taste as a lyricist -- his freakishly poetic verse has a real charm, but it's hard to figure out what he's on about. (GBV's other principal songwriter, Tobin Sprout, contributes less often, but manages a higher batting average.) The lo-tech rumble of the album's D.I.Y. production also wavers between being a help and a hindrance, depending on the songs, and as musicians Guided by Voices veer between sounding like inspired amateurs and, well, just amateurs. On Bee Thousand, Guided by Voices sounds like a passionate and gloriously quirky garage band fronted by a thrillingly and maddeningly idiosyncratic songwriter; its many pearly moments make it a fascinating discovery for rock enthusiasts, but a few years would pass before this band was fully earning the new accolades showered upon it.

- All Music Guide

Drive Like Jehu - Yank Crime

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Drive Like Jehu Yank Crime
1994
Interscope Records
VBR

(red text = sample track)

1 Here Come the Rome Plows 5:44
2 Do You Compute 7:12
3 Golden Brown 3:14
4 Luau 9:27
5 Super Unison 7:24
6 New Intro 3:32
7 New Math 4:06
8 Human Interest 3:24
9 Sinews 9:12

Spin (7/94, p.73) - "...a show-stopper--a fresh reminder that cutting-edge guitar rock still needs gnarls to transcend..."
Alternative Press (8/94, p.78) - "...The result is an album that the truly technically proficient, cool-as-cake musician, or environmentally artistic producer will enjoy..."
Magnet (p.69) - "[A]n explosive tangle of careening tempo changes, hoarse-throated vocals, barely contained guitar histrionics and mindful aggression."
NME (Magazine) (6/11/94, p.33) - 8 - Excellent - "...Jehu are solid, compact and monstrously tight....YANK CRIME has a deeply masochistic appeal, delivering raging chaos with a military precision...."

The band's second and, unfortunately, final album, Yank Crime is as worthy and awesome as its predecessor, losing not a jot in the change from independent to major label status. Including some longer, more complex tunes this time around, Drive Like Jehu is otherwise essentially unchanged, fusing brawling, crisp rhythms and high volume intensity with technical complexity, feeling like a mad science experiment gone completely out of control. Aside from the guest backing vocals on the frazzled angst explosion "Luau!" by fellow San Diego music fiend Rob Crow, it's again all down to the band's four members, with drummer Trombino providing the strong, take-no-prisoners mix. Perhaps even more than the debut, Yank Crime solidified Drive Like Jehu's reputation as kings of emo. While use of that term rapidly degenerated to apply to sappy miserableness by the decade's end, here the quartet capture its original sense, wired, frenetic, screaming passion, as first semi-created by the likes of Rites of Spring. Whether making it short and sweet, as the surprisingly gentle instrumental "New Intro" demonstrates in three minutes, or taking time, like the nearly ten-minute conclusion "Sinews," the band wastes not a note. Froberg's sense of intense, almost accusatory delivery is astonishingly dramatic throughout, whether in full cry or with a touch of restraint, as on the rhythmic chorus of "Do You Compute." His guitar partnership with Reis is still in full cry, creating honestly epic zoned and screaming feedback roars and waves -- the aforementioned "Do You Compute" is one fine example, as is "Luau!," which builds to a awe-inspiring, eternally ascending rise. While a recording of the band's incendiary live shows would be the best way to remember the quartet, Yank Crime is a thoroughly excellent if unexpected way to bow out, artistic rock that actually, honestly, and totally rocks.

- All Music Guide