Guided By Voices
Alien Lanes
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White men with guitars: this remains the paradigm for indie rock, college rock, underground rock – whatever, nevermind. Still, despite its obsolescence due to politically incorrect Caucasian maleness, this brand of indie rock still produces vital, exciting music and continues to blaze into uncharted territory as well as rediscover territory long thought settled. Many such groups ultimately find themselves shot from obscurity into the limelight: R.E.M., of course, remain this genre's figurehead, and Nirvana, Hüsker Dü and Sonic Youth (which, of course, have a significant female member, Kim Gordon) followed similar paths to their places in rock history. Currently, Pavement's
Read More lethargic avant pop reigns as the indie-rock sound du jour, but that could be threatened by this year's model, Guided by Voices. GBV manage to be even more politically incorrect than their contemporaries: Not only are they guitar-wielding males, but since their ages peak in the late 30s, they're practically baby boomers, making them especially unlikely indierock superstars. You would never guess it from the youthful spirit of their music, though: hooky rock that infuses songwriting smarts and a love of melody with a sometimes spiky, sometimes whimsical sense of experimentation. GBV first drew serious attention in 1993 with Vampire on Titus; their next album, the masterful Bee Thousand (1994), with its kaleidoscopic command of the pop vocabulary, solidified their acclaim. GBV's maturity should come as no surprise, considering their history. While they appear to be an overnight success, they have actually been together since 1983, honing their craft on numerous self-released albums that never made it outside their hometown of Dayton, Ohio. These albums – many of which are collected on Box – chronicle the band's evolution into its signature sound as styles are tried out and discarded like so many clothes. The result of this woodshedding hits home most clearly, however, on GBV's new album, Alien Lanes. If anything, Alien outshines Bee Thousand in its startling consistency; over the course of 28 songs, GBV explore nearly as many styles, in the process creating a magnum opus of pure pop for now people. GBV typically get tagged as avatars of low-fi – a sound characterized by hiss and noise, the result of home taping on primitive recording equipment. Indeed, like most previous GBV projects, Alien was recorded in a basement on four-and eight-track machines. The coarse sound gives the album the feel of a treasured bootleg, a millionth-generation tape of a favorite unknown band on which lie gems of unquestionable value. Alien's diamonds in the rough include "Game of Pricks," whose title belies desperately sweet power pop. On that song, lead vocalist and primary songwriter Robert Pollard croons opaque proverbs like "You can never be strong/You can only be free
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