UFR Weekly Newsletter #11: Voices

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David Cotrone

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Feb 20, 2011, 6:09:45 PM2/20/11

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Guided by Voices is worth talking about. They started by recording tapes of their songs. Their songs lasted only a minute or two and their friends listened to them in their cars. Their sound spread. They played in bars across the country, a lot of the time in Ohio. Robert Pollard, the lead singer, quit his job as an elementary school teacher. He used words from his students to make lyrics. He wrote a song about being stabbed in the back. I’ve entered the game of pricks with knives in the back of me, he says. I never asked for the truth but you owe that to me. They put together albums called “Do the Collapse” and “Isolation Drills” and a compilation called “Human Amusements at Hourly Rates.” You get the sense Pollard sings about himself. You get the sense they fell apart because they had to.

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Clean by Tawnysha Greene

Amelia Gray talks with furniture, saying, “My writing always comes from some kernel of life — I imagine it’s like that with everyone. I’m usually trying to figure something out. I notice that when I spend too much time with people I tend to annoy the crap out of them by bringing up the same ideas over and over. My brain is an obsession factory.”

From the archives: Onstar, What is Your Emergency? by xTx

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During the summer I work at a place where a lot of music passes through. Some have it and some don’t. Most of them don’t. But the ones that do are trying to go places. One time a group of young guys passed through and I recognized the bassist from a show he had played in Boston. He was splitting his time between two bands. During their set break I went up to him and told him I loved his stuff. He was happy to hear his music was spreading. He didn’t wear shoes or socks when he played because he liked to feel the floor on his feet.

Michael Stipe said in an interview that Tongue is the best song he’s written. He likes it because he becomes a woman. Later in the interview he talks about how much he hates his voice.