Lets Go Eat The Factory

Description

Guided By Voices classic lineups first album of new material in fifteen years! After a fifteen year hiatus, the classic line up of Guided By Voices (Robert Pollard, Tobin Sprout, Mitch Mitchell, Greg Demos, and Kevin Fennell) finishes off its year-long reunion tour by releasing an album of 21 new songs, deliberately choosing to return to what bandleader Robert Pollard calls the semi-collegial approach of iconic GBV albums like Bee Thousand and Alien Lanes.

Lets Go Eat The Factory is much more than a mere return, however: sprawling, variegated, heavy, melodic, and yet still recognizably and coherently Guided By Voices in both its literal and mythic senses. At first I said: no reunion, period, explains Pollard about the decision to revive Guided By Voices. And definitely no record or re-formation. But the tour went so well; the response was really unexpected. I thought at some point that a lot of people would like to hear new GBV music. The chemistry was still there.

Choosing to eschew the recording studio, LGETF was instead manufactured in the living rooms, basements, and garages of various long-time bandmembers. Some tracks were recorded more-or-less live at Mitch Mitchells garage, where the band would often practice back in the early- and mid-90s. These sessions comprised Mitch, Bob, and Jimmy Pollard, Bobs brother and long-time collaborator, who, though never a part of the touring ensemble, always played a crucial role on the classic-era releases. Some tracks were improvised over acoustic jam sessions at Greg Demos house. Many were recorded at Tobin Sprouts place in Wherever, Michigan, and later lovingly fucked with in order to achieve the proper level of weirdness.

Band members occasionally switched instruments (Bob plays drums; Mitch plays drums; Kevin plays drums; Jimmy Pollard plays bass; Greg plays lead guitar; Toby plays pretty much everything; etc.), and Bob gladly accepted input from other band members. Tobin Sprout wrote or co-wrote and sings on six out of the 21 songs. The aesthetic is very much in keeping with Guided By Voices, but in some unexpected ways (more prevalent use of keyboards and samples, for one thing) the 21st century cant help but poke its nose into the resulting music. Devoted fans of Bee Thousand will not be disappointed in, for instance, the demonically tuneful Chocolate Boy, or the relentless chug of We Wont Apologize For The Human Race, which Tobin Sprout describes as Peter Gabriel singing I Am The Walrus.’ Other standouts include Doughnut For A Snowman, which Pollard calls the goofiest, twinkliest song Ive ever written, or Spider Fighter, a Tobin Sprout number that was in fact the first song title conceived for the new album, and which features a piano coda that Pollard likens to a Pete Townshend demo for Lifehouse.

Lets Go Eat The Factory will be released January 16th 2012 on Fire Records. Guided By Voices is Robert Pollard, Mitch Mitchell, Kevin Fennell, Tobin Sprout, Greg Demos with Jimmy Pollard.