The oldest hipster in north Alabama, David Gutowski is often found rummaging through used record bins, muttering a combination of Bob Pollard lyrics and abominations to the world. His online presence, Largehearted Boy, is home to a meandering weblog and the new millenium’s answer to the Grand Ole Opry radio show: GBV Radio.
Guided By Voices – Earthquake Glue [Something Really New]
I have to admit, I didn’t expect to like this record. After Bob Pollard let me down with his last several Guided By Voices releases (as opposed to the several side projects he puts out per year), I was expecting another watered down album. I was wrong, Earthquake Glue is a surprisingly solid effort from the man, his band, and producer Todd Tobias. Pollard’s songwriting is still the focus, his poetry the star attraction, but the band is finally a tight unit and the album, from the first track to the last, is amazingly cohesive. The low points that marred the last several albums are absent, but unfortunately for me, so are the high points. Isolation Drills had “Twilight Campfighter” and “The Brides Have Hit Glass,” Universal Truths and Cycles had the title track that simply awed me with their lyrical beauty, but nothing on this album comes close to that for me. There are some very good songs, though, “Useless Inventions” and “The Best Of Jill Hives,” and I’ll take a good, solid album over a severely uneven release any day.
More Parts Per Million – The Thermals [Something New]
This record allegedly cost only sixty dollars to produce, but like most great art, its value lay in the substance, not the trappings. Fuzzed out pop with glittering hooks and danceable rhythms, the songs are a testament to a lack of pretense, no demographically calculated postproduction here. This band is all circumstance and no pomp. The first single, “No Culture Icons” gets repeated regularly at full volume in my car, where I scream along with the lyrics, “Hardly art, hardly starving, hardly art, hardly garbage,” to the consternation if passersby who just don’t get it.
Yellow Banana Hang On The Box [Something Old]
How can you not like a grrlpunk band from China? Their sound is both raw and pure on this 2001 debut record. Their lyrics are often angry (as signified by song titles like “Ass Hole, I’m Not Your Baby” and “Kill Your Belly”) but their voice is true (and who wasn’t angry when young). Their rare combination of power, anger, feminism and humor make this record a favorite (and make me wonder why anyone would listen to garbage like Sum 41). — David Gutowski