When Surfer Blood singer John Paul Pitts was hanging out in KCRW’s studio after a recent live performance, he started talking about his love for Guided by Voices and I swayed him to share his appreciation in the form of a FANDOM post, with a playlist!
The first time I heard Guided by Voices was my junior year of high school. I had just started writing and recording my own music and heard the song “As We Go Up We Go Down” off of Alien Lanes, and wanted to write songs just like it.
It sounded like it was recorded on a cassette that someone left out in the sun by accident, but the songs were so clever and catchy.
I soon found out just how long their catalogue was. I still haven’t gotten through all of their twenty-something full-lengths, but I haven’t been disappointed yet.
Bob Pollard is an amazing lyricist and performer, we’ve had the pleasure of playing with them a few times and he still puts on a hell of a show after three decades.
This is one of the bands that’s been a true inspiration to me throughout the years.