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.
Big School
Guided by Voices Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Big school
Servant to master
Sinister bastard
All the worlds are
Colliding all around you
Knowledge escapes you
Society rapes you
And I'm going back to
Big school
It's the big school
Now we're talking about
The big school
Big school
Now if I could free you
What would you be then
Look at my eyes through the telephoto lens
And notice the traces
Of faraway places
We're both driving my car back to the
Big school
It's a million miles away
And it's in the backyard
The big school
And it's way up on the hill
The big school
Big school
Don't look back
Don't you ever look back
Cause it just might catch you
Big school
Big school
The lyrics to Guided by Voices's "Big School" seem to deal with a sense of unease and discomfort with society, and a desire to escape it. The title itself refers to the idea of formal education as a place of structure and control, with the singer feeling like a "servant to master" who is being influenced and manipulated by some sinister force. They feel like they are not able to access the knowledge that is supposed to be available to them and instead are being "raped" by society.
However, the singer also presents a sense of hope in the form of "my notebooks," which could represent a source of personal education and empowerment. They are going back to "big school," perhaps a metaphorical reference to a place of self-discovery and freedom from societal constraints. The idea of having "traces of faraway places" also suggests a longing for new experiences and a desire to break away from the monotony of daily life.
Throughout the song, there is a sense of tension and urgency, with the repeated refrain of "big school" driving home the importance of this escape from societal pressures. The final lines caution against looking back, suggesting that the journey forward requires a complete break with the past.
Line by Line Meaning
One, two big school
Counting down the steps to the entry of the place where one will face education
Big school
The place of formal education where learning is transmitted from teacher to student
Servant to master
The teacher holds command over the students and imparts knowledge as an authority
Sinister bastard
Perhaps referring to the teacher or the education system, a negative connotation is used to display contempt or anger
All the worlds are
All the knowledge from diverse fields are encompassed by this place of study
Colliding all around you
The learning of different fields collides together to be absorbed by the student, creating a mix of knowledge
Knowledge escapes you
Implying that even though diverse knowledge is presented, students may not be able to grasp it all
Society rapes you
The society may have standards of education or expectations that are forced onto students, leading to a negative or forceful association with the concept of learning
I've got my notebooks
The student is prepared for the lesson with their learning materials
And I'm going back to
Returning or continuing with the education process
Big school
The institution that provides formal education
Now we're talking about
Introducing or emphasizing the concept of big school and its importance
If I could free you
The freedom from the constraints of formal education
What would you be then
What kind of person would one become, without the bounds of education?
Look at my eyes through the telephoto lens
Probably referring to the camera's lens, the singer asks the listener to observe intently as the lesson is imparted to them
And notice the traces
The visible indications of the artist's experiences and knowledge
Of faraway places
Perhaps, indicating the diversity of knowledge one may find in different locations
We're both driving my car back to the
Going back to the institution of education
Big school
Emphasizing the importance of the institution of formal education, for both the singer and the addressee
It's a million miles away
Perhaps referring to the challenges of reaching this place of learning
And it's in the backyard
Ironically commenting on how educational institutions can be easily accessible and yet missed, just like objects in the backyard
And it's way up on the hill
Perhaps presenting formal education as an unreachable, yet desirable goal, like the climb up a hill which is both challenging and rewarding
Don't look back
Suggestions to not dwindle in the past but move forward and focus on the present education
Don't you ever look back
A repetition of the above line, emphasizing to not let the past distract from the current education
Cause it just might catch you
The past and the history of the place of learning may distracts from the journey of the present
Big school
The importance of the institution of formal education
Lyrics ยฉ O/B/O APRA AMCOS
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Oscar Travis
Classic line up, classic sound, bliss
HIGH/LOW
Love this song!
wildhoneyใฏใคใซใใใใผ
I love the sound of this, of old gbv.
Canada PortX
Fretless killing it here!
Chad Wilton
Hell Yeah! Having this shipped to me in Myanmar. Rockin' Rangoon.
derocket88
This is and was and will be forever true Guided by Voices!!!
Colleen Robash
So looking forward to this turning up in the mail๐ฅ๐ซ
Fell, Destroyed
Soooo damn good
ioncewasmikey
Fucking rad. I imagine a few people must be disappointed this isn't the actual infamous Scalping The Guru album though.
atomeyes99
who cares. this is rad.