Noted at first for its lo-fi aesthetic and typically Portastudio four-tracks-to-cassette production methods, Guided by Voices' music revealed influences from post-British Invasion garage rock, psychedelic rock, progressive rock, punk rock and post-punk. The band also garnered much attention for its prolific output, with a seemingly endless stream of releases. Most songs are in the two-minute range, but many are even shorter; often they end abruptly or are intertwined with odd and homemade sound effects. Some even start with songs fully incorporated on earlier albums, like how "Ester's Day" from Bee Thousand has a snippet of "At Odds With Dr. Genesis" from King Shit and the Golden Boys.
Formed in Dayton, Ohio in the early 1980s, Guided by Voices began their career as a bar band working the local scene. As lineups and day-jobs shifted, however, Pollard moved the band towards a studio-only orientation. Guided by Voices' recording career began with a stream of self-financed, independent releases. With only a few hundred copies of each album being pressed, these tended to circulate only among the band members' family and friends.
With the release of the ultra-limited album Propeller in 1992 (of which only 500 copies were pressed, each with a unique, handmade cover), Guided by Voices for the first time gained some recognition outside of their hometown. This was due in part to gaining fans in the college rock circuit and bands such as Sonic Youth, R.E.M. and The Breeders. New York City and Philadelphia were host to Guided by Voices' return to the live stage (and first shows outside of Ohio) in 1993. At this time, the always-fluid Guided by Voices lineup coalesced around the core of Pollard, guitarists Tobin Sprout and Mitch Mitchell (not to be confused with Jimi Hendrix's drummer), bassist Dan Toohey, and drummer Kevin Fennell. Sprout, who was briefly featured in an early-'80s version of the band, had re-joined circa Propeller and soon became Pollard's primary musical foil, in addition to contributing several of his own songs to the band's catalog. 1993 also saw the release of Vampire on Titus, as well as the Fast Japanese Spin Cycle and Static Airplane Jive EPs. Over the next year, the band began to receive national media exposure from sources such as Spin magazine.
In 1994, after culling both new songs and reams of archival recordings from GBV's history, Pollard delivered the indie landmark Bee Thousand via Scat Records, with a distribution deal through indie label Matador Records. Soon, the band officially signed with Matador, concurrent with Pollard and his bandmates finally retiring from their day jobs to work in music full-time. The band surprised early audiences accustomed to the generally shambling, lo-fi and collage-like quality of the records with their energetic live show, featuring Pollard's homegrown rock theatrics (consisting of karate-kicks, leaps, and Roger Daltrey-inspired mic-twirling), Mitch Mitchell's windmilling and chain smoking, sometime bassist Greg Demos' striped pants, a never-ending barrage of tunes that all seemed to clock in under 90 seconds, and prodigious alcohol consumption all around.
Their true Matador debut came in 1995 with Alien Lanes, which, despite a five-figure recording allowance, was constructed out of home-recorded snippets on the cheap. The band's underground following continued to grow, with notices coming from mainstream sources such as MTV and Rolling Stone. After sessions for a concept album entitled The Power of Suck were aborted, the band assembled Under the Bushes Under the Stars out of their first 24-track studio sessions, recorded with Kim Deal and Steve Albini among others, in 1996. However, the strain of heavy touring would ultimately lead to the demise of the "classic lineup", with Sprout deciding to retire from the road in order to focus on raising his first child, his painting, and his solo musical career. Sprout and Pollard marked the occasion by releasing simultaneous solo albums on the same day in 1996: Sprout's Carnival Boy and Pollard's Not in My Airforce, with each making a guest appearance on the other's album. Pollard maintained an active, parallel solo and side project career alongside GBV releases for the remainder of that band's existence. These records were primarily self-released. Because GBV alumni were regularly featured, and songs from these albums were frequently included in GBV setlists, they are informally considered to be part of the GBV canon. Also in 1995, the band contributed the song "Sensational Gravity Boy" to the AIDS benefit album Red Hot + Bothered produced by the Red Hot Organization.
Pollard created a new incarnation of Guided by Voices with Cleveland glam rockers Cobra Verde in 1997. The following album Mag Earwhig!, combined a new hard-rocking swagger with classic lo-fi fragments and one track, "Jane of the Waking Universe", that featured the classic lineup for one last time. However, after another year of rigorous touring, the "Guided by Verde" lineup split in late 1997 following Pollard's announcement in an interview that he intended to work with other musicians on the next Guided by Voices project.
Cobra Verde's Doug Gillard was tapped for yet another new Guided by Voices lineup in 1998, which also included "classic"-era bassist Greg Demos, former Breeders drummer Jim Macpherson, and eventually, former Amps/Breeders guitarist Nate Farley. Departing from Matador, this lineup (without Farley) worked with producer Ric Ocasek to create what was intended to be Guided by Voices' major label debut. Initially produced for Capitol Records, Do the Collapse was repeatedly delayed and finally released in mid-1999 on pseudo-indie label TVT. (In the UK it was released on Creation Records). Featuring a slick, heavily processed sound previously foreign to GBV albums, Do the Collapse failed to catch on at radio, and was for the most part greeted with mixed reviews.
Through touring heavily throughout 1999 and 2000, Guided by Voices' live act became legendary, with shows often stretching past the three-hour mark, and populated by an endless stream of new and classic songs, Pollard solo tracks, impromptu covers of The Who, David Bowie and The Rolling Stones, all accompanied by continuous alcohol consumption. In addition to multiple swings through the United States and Europe, 2000 saw the band's first and only visits to Australia and Japan. 2000 was capped with the release of the massive Suitcase, a four-disc, 100-song trawl through three decades worth of Pollard's enormous reserve of unreleased material. (Two more box sets of unreleased songs, Suitcase 2 and Suitcase 3, were released in October 2005 and November 2009, respectively.)
2001's Isolation Drills was recorded with Rob Schnapf, who aimed to capture the band's live sound more closely than did Ocasek. Though the album debuted in Billboard's top 200 and received higher critical notices than its predecessor, it did not achieve the sought-after radio breakthrough.
After departing from TVT in 2002, Guided by Voices returned to Matador and released Universal Truths and Cycles, a departure from the previous two radio-aspiring albums, and a return to the band's mid-90's, mid-fi aesthetic. Universal Truths producer Todd Tobias would also record the band's final two albums for Matador. 2003 saw the release of the prog-styled Earthquake Glue, followed by the anthology box set Hardcore UFOs: Revelations, Epiphanies and Fast Food in the Western Hemisphere and the greatest hits compilation Best of Guided by Voices: Human Amusements at Hourly Rates.
In 2004, Pollard announced he was disbanding Guided by Voices following the release of the Half-Smiles of the Decomposed LP, and a final farewell tour.
On November 9, 2004 Guided by Voices performed on the stage of Austin City Limits, broadcast by PBS on January 22, 2005. Their last television appearance was on Late Night with Conan O'Brien on December 2, 2004. They played the single, "Everybody Thinks I'm a Raincloud (When I'm Not Looking)". After a select round of final US shows, Guided by Voices played their final show at The Metro in Chicago on December 31, 2004. The four hour, 63-song marathon finale is documented on the DVD The Electrifying Conclusion
In June 2010, Matador Records announced that the "Classic '93-'96 Lineup" of Robert Pollard (vocals, guitar), Tobin Sprout (guitar), Mitch Mitchell (guitar), Greg Demos (bass) and Kevin Fennell (drums) would reunite to perform at the label's 21st Anniversary celebration in Las Vegas, in October of that year. A full reunion tour was subsequently announced, with the band selling out nearly every date. The tour included stops at Hoboken's Maxwell's and the Southgate House in Newport, Kentucky, two venues that the band had built a history with due to legendary shows there in the past. When asked by Spinner if there might ever be another proper GBV record Pollard said "I've thought about it sometimes but it's a very long shot," he says. "We all kind of do our own thing. I'm not completely eliminating the possibility."
The band played their "last ever" performance at North Carolina's Hopscotch Music Festival in September 2011, however later that month the band announced that they would be releasing a new album, Let's Go Eat the Factory on 1 January 2012. The band released a second post-reformation LP, Class Clown Spots a UFO, on June 12, 2012. A third, The Bears for Lunch, followed in November. Another album, English Little League, was released in 2013. In a July 2013 interview with Magnet Magazine, Pollard stated that English Little League could be the final GBV album. However, in September, a fifth reunion record, Motivational Jumpsuit, was confirmed for release on Guided By Voices Inc. and Fire Records in February 2014. A sixth reunion album, Cool Planet, has also been announced for May 19, 2014.
In 2016, Guided by Voices (lineup at the time only Robert Pollard) released their 22nd album, Please Be Honest. Pollard played every instrument on the album. In 2017, the band, with another new lineup, released their 23rd album, August by Cake. This lineup has since recorded 16 studio albums, with their newest, Nowhere to Go But Up, released on November 24th, 2023.
Apology in Advance
Guided by Voices Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
For the jigsaw's missing teeth
For the animals in their holes, at least
There is argument in your eyes
So I'm loosening all my ties
The ones that you have come to despise
Bite me when I eat off
Someone else's plate
It is now I should attempt
Perhaps to think and wait
Result to contemplate a fate
That's waited this long for me
And the night's too bright
To hide from sight
So I better get things right
I keep searching, turning on, equally frustrated
Hopelessness and sickness always, kick you up a storm
A disabled vet, well, I'm not there yet
Been around the block, I even threw up one street over
Absorbed in the holding cell, all blemishes exposed
With the plastic hand of man I can
Stepping up, I go limp at the sound of women laughing
Leaving me to speculate the odds of one last chance
To apologize in advance
I apologize in advance
The lyrics to "Apology in Advance" by Guided by Voices seem to paint a picture of a person who is trying to explain themselves and preemptively apologize for any shortcomings or mistakes they may make. The mention of the jigsaw with missing pieces and the animals in their holes suggests incompleteness or something missing, and the singer wants to acknowledge this. The line "There is argument in your eyes" indicates tension or conflict between the singer and someone else, and the singer decides to loosen ties that the other person dislikes in an attempt to ease the tension.
The chorus seems to express a sense of recklessness or disregard for convention, as the singer suggests biting them when they eat off someone else's plate. They then reflect on their situation and contemplate their fate, acknowledging that they need to get things right. The final verse includes imagery of frustration, hopelessness, and illness, but the singer ultimately asserts that they are not "disabled" yet and still have agency.
Overall, the lyrics convey a feeling of vulnerability and acknowledging one's flaws while still maintaining a sense of agency and determination.
Line by Line Meaning
I apologize in advance
I am aware that I may say or do something that will require an apology and I apologize for it now.
For the jigsaw's missing teeth
I am sorry for any incomplete, missing or broken pieces that may affect the outcome or experience of the situation.
For the animals in their holes, at least
I am sorry for any disturbance or interruption of the natural environment of animals that may be affected by my actions, but at least they have a place to go.
There is argument in your eyes
I sense that there is disagreement or tension in the situation based on the expression in your eyes.
So I'm loosening all my ties
In an effort to ease tension, I am metaphorically loosening all of the connections or obligations that may be causing strain in our relationship.
The ones that you have come to despise
I am specifically targeting the ties or connections that you have grown to dislike or resent over time.
Throw the heat off
I want to deflect any negative attention or criticism away from me by changing the subject or shifting the focus of the conversation.
Bite me when I eat off
I am expecting or accepting the consequences of potentially taking something that doesn't belong to me.
Someone else's plate
I am referring to taking or benefiting from someone else's work, possessions, or accomplishments without permission or credit.
It is now I should attempt
I realize that now is the time to make an effort or attempt to correct a mistake or change a behavior.
Perhaps to think and wait
I may need to take a moment to reflect or wait for more information before making a decision or taking action.
Result to contemplate a fate
I am considering the potential outcome or consequence of a particular action or decision.
That's waited this long for me
I am acknowledging that there may have been a need for action or change for some time, and accepting responsibility for not addressing it sooner.
And the night's too bright
The situation may be so intense or glaringly obvious that it cannot be ignored even in the darkness of night.
To hide from sight
I am unable to conceal or avoid the issue at hand any longer.
So I better get things right
I understand that the outcome or resolution is important and I need to make sure I handle the situation properly.
I keep searching, turning on, equally frustrated
I am continually looking for answers, solutions, or explanations but am feeling unsatisfied or unfulfilled with the results.
Hopelessness and sickness always, kick you up a storm
Feelings of despair or illness can lead to a turbulent or unsettled state of mind and being.
A disabled vet, well, I'm not there yet
Although I may be struggling or experiencing difficulties, I am not at the point of complete despair or inability to function on my own.
Been around the block, I even threw up one street over
I have been through challenging situations and may have even fallen short or made mistakes in the past.
Absorbed in the holding cell, all blemishes exposed
I am completely consumed or trapped by a problem or difficult situation, and any flaws or shortcomings are evident or highlighted.
With the plastic hand of man I can
I have the ability or power to manipulate or control a situation, but it may not be genuine or real.
Stepping up, I go limp at the sound of women laughing
I may intend to take charge or assume responsibility, but certain triggers or events can cause me to lose confidence or feel powerless.
Leaving me to speculate the odds of one last chance
I am contemplating the likelihood of being given another opportunity to make something right or amend a situation.
To apologize in advance
I am expressing the desire or need to make amends or seek forgiveness before any potential mistakes or conflicts occur.
Contributed by Kennedy F. Suggest a correction in the comments below.