Way Too Many Records

So I'm going through the boxes of seven inches and I get up to Guided by Voices.
There's a metric shit ton of singles and records there. I believe that Robert Pollard is the kind of guy who doesn't believe in outtakes or demos for the most part and he releases virtually anything he records.
There are also legions of folks who will lap up every bit and lick the plate.

I'm not quite there, but close enough. He lost me towards the turn of the century when I was poorer and found that I couldn't quite keep up with his prolific catalog of releases to the point that I kind of gave up and moved on.

It was kind of a sad day.

Chunk Split w/ New Radiant Storm King (1995)

So rather than flood this thing for a month and a half with GBV singles, I'm just going to throw you all a bone with some oddities.Nothing impossibly rare and unobtainable, but something less likely to be heard.

I think I picked this one up at a show in the Mainroom at First Avenue for the "Under the Bushes, Under the Stars" tour which was the last hurrah for the "classic" lineup.

Holy shit, was that a good show.

Anyway, it's a split with each band playing a song by the other band.
Enjoy.

Split w/Cobra Verde (1997)

After Pollard disbanded the "classic" lineup he snagged Cleveland's Cobra Verde to be Guided by Voices for a little while. It was a big change from previous versions of GBV and one that didn't really click for me. I would have picked this up at another Mainroom, First Avenue show in 1997.

I wasn't too impressed with this version of the band live. Kind of a lackluster show for me and "Mag Earwhig!" just wasn't doing it for me at the time.

I have since come around with a reassessment of the Lp. It's pretty fucking great.

About all I remember about Cobra Verde's opening set before Bob came on and they became GBV was that they had the same theremin I do.

And that is, as they say, that.

Band names again

Hire High School Girls (1979)

Not a lot to be found about this Nu Wave/Ska-ish band from (presumably) Rutherford, NJ assuming that the production company on the stamp is somebody's mom's house.

I had posted this to a previous incarnation of the Swinging Singles Club and gotten a very nice comment from a member of the band with some history, but I've long since forgotten the details.

But this shit's tight and catchy with just the faintest whiff of a weirdness from influences that aren't so obvious.

I dunno. I'm still kinda groggy.

Are You Here (1980)





The Nu Wave/Ska-ishness continues with some dub styling touches and lots of echoey bits on the a-side.

B-side is more of the same being applied to the bloated and overdone corpse of the Beatles that has inspired a cult that persists to this day. Perhaps you are a member. (I'm not and I don't need converting. I've heard it all. I'm still not that impressed.)

I don't listen to that side.

The End.

The last of the singles by the Grifters that I currently have.

Wicked Thing (1997)



It exists. It's the Grifters. It's on Sub Pop. I'd say that's about as descriptive as I really need to get if I was keep a running tally of the talking points I might make in regards to this particular seven inch slap of vinyl.

Don't you think?

Gutterball (1993)


Gutterball were an indie super group or some such nonsense formed around former Dream Syndicate head honcho Steve Wynn in the early 90s. This is one of their singles. There are two songs on it. One on each side. I am done typing now.

The Movie

There was a movie made of the Grifters based on the original novel by pulp crime novelist Jim Thompson

Stream (1995)


The film adaptation of The Grifters starred Anjelica Huston, Annette Bening and John Cusack and was directed by Stephen Frears who has made some really quality cinema over the years including My Beautiful Launderette & High Fidelity. You'd be well advised to give his body of work the once over and watch a few of the lesser known ones. He does quality work.

Slipknot (1996)

The beauty of the modern world is that if you really want to watch the entire movie it is currently up on Youtube in its entirety. There are worse things you could do with a couple of hours. If you need somebody else's opinion it has a pretty credible score on Rotten Tomatoes and I suspect that following doing all this posting I may in fact revisit this one because I really don't remember much about it besides that I really rather enjoyed it quite a bit.

You may too.

The Book

 Bronze Cast (1994)

The Grifters is a novel by Jim Thompson.

He wrote a lot of really good pulp crime novels. I read as many of them back in the day as I could find. This was one of the best of them.

Queen of the Table Waters (1994)

I'd also recommend "Killer Inside Me" and "Pop. 1280" as among his best novels and worth spending the time to devour in a single sitting. You'll be glad you did.