Guided by voices live Continue American indie rock band Guided by VoicesLead singer-songwriter Robert Pollard performing OriginnDeton, Ohio, U.S.GenresIndie rockindie poplo-fiYears active1983-20042010-20142016-presentLabelsScatadorTVTGuided by Voices, Inc.FireAssociated ActsAirport 5Riked WickyThe BreedersCobra VerdeCircus DevilsDeath of SamanthaShudder thinkGriftersBoston Space Vehicles OhioWebsitegbv.com (website)gbvdb.com (database) MembersRobert PollardDug GillardKewin MarchMark ShueBobby Bare. Past membersMitch MitchellTobin SproutJim PollardTimothy Peyton Eric Kevin FennellDon ThrasherGreg DemosDave SwansonJim MacphersonNate Farley Tim Tobiasdan TooheyJames GreerJaris SlusarenkoJon McCannPaul ComstockNick Mitchell Guided By The Voices (GBV) is an American Rock Band formed in 1983 in Dayton. He made frequent personnel changes, but always supported the presence of lead songwriter Robert Pollard. The most famous line-up consisted of Pollard (vocals), his brother Jim (guitar, bass), Mitch Mitchell (guitar), Tobin Rostka (vocals, rhythm guitars), Kevin Fennell (drums) and bassist Greg Demos. Known at first for its aesthetic and typically port studio, four tracks to cassette production methods, Guided by Voices music was influenced by early garage rock after British invasion, psychedelic rock, progressive rock, punk rock and post-punk. Because of their prolific release, releasing 30 full-length albums along with many other releases, they got a dedicated cult following with songs that are in the two-minute range, with many that are even shorter. Their songs are also known for suddenly ending or intertwining with strange and homely sound effects. In 2004, The Voice was disbanded. In 2010, the classic line-up reunited to perform at matador Records' 21st Anniversary Party, after which it toured and released six new albums. GBV broke up for the second time in 2014, but Pollard rebooted the band with a new album and a new line-up in 2016. History Early Years (1983-1991) Formed in Dayton, Ohio, in the early 1980s, Guided by Voices began her career as a bar group working on the local stage. However, as the line-ups and day jobs shifted, Pollard moved the group toward studio orientation. Guided by The Voices' record career began with a torrent of self-funded, independent releases ranging from R.E.M.-inspired E.P. Forever Since Breakfast, followed by albums The Devil Between My Legs, Sandbox, Self-Inflicted Air Nostalgia, and the same place Got Fly Smashed. With only a few hundred copies of each album pressed, they tend to circulate only among family and friends of band members. Lo-fi (1992-1996) With the release of the ultra-limited propeller album 1992 (of which only 500 copies were pressed, each with unique, handmade work Guided by The Voice for the first time received some recognition outside his hometown. This was partly due to the conquest of fans in the college rock circuit and bands such as Sonic Youth, R.E.M. and The Breeders. In 1993, New York and Philadelphia hosted a live Voice Return Guide concert (and the first shows outside Ohio). At this time, the always fluid line-up of Guided by Voices merged around the core of Pollard, guitarists Tobin Sprout and Mitch Mitchell (not to be confused with drummer Jimi Hendrix), bassist Greg Demos and drummer Kevin Fennell. Sprout, which was briefly featured in the early 80s version of the band, rejoined around Propeller and soon became Pollard's main music foil, in addition to promoting several of their own songs in the band's catalog. 1993 also saw the release of the vampire on Titus, as well as The Fast Japanese Spin Cycle and the Jive EPs Static Airplane. Over the next year, the group began receiving information about national media from sources such as Spin magazine. In 1994, after culling both new songs and bim archival records from GBV history, Pollard delivered indie-orientated Bee Thousand through Scat Records, with a distribution deal through indie label Matador Records. Soon the band officially signed with Matador, along with Pollard and his band, finally quiting work on the day to work in music full time. The band surprised early viewers, accustomed to the generally shambling, lo-fi and collage-like quality entries with their energetic shows, featuring Pollard's homegrown rock theater (composed of karate-punches, jumps, Roger Daltrey-inspired microphone-swirls, later beer-throws on rival bands, Mitch Mitchell's windmill and chain-smoking, once bassist Greg Demos' striped pants, and the huge consumption of alcohol all around. that, despite the five-digit entry allowance, was built from house recorded fragments on the cheap. The underground following of the band continued to grow, with notifications coming from major sources such as MTV and Rolling Stone. Guided Voices is often mentioned by the writer and poet, Dennis Cooper, in his series George Miles and the lyrics of the group appear in The Guide, the fourth of five novels that make up the cycle. The first chapter of the manual is called Vote Management. After sessions for a concept album called The Power of Suck were interrupted, the band gathered under the bushes Under the Stars from their first 24-track studio sessions, recorded with Kim Mil and Steve Albini among others, in 1996. However, the strain of heavy touring will eventually lead to the demise of the classic line-up, with Rostock determined to retire from the road in order to focus on raising his first child, painting, and his solo musical career. Sprout and Pollard celebrated the occasion by releasing simultaneous solo albums on the same day in 1996: Sprout's Carnival Boy and Pollard's Not in My Airforce, each of which appeared as a guest on the other's album. Pollard maintained an active, parallel solo and lateral career, along with GBV releases for the remainder of the band's existence. These records were first released on their own. Because GBV alumni performed regularly and songs from these albums were often included in GBV set lists, they are informally considered part of the GBV canon. In addition, in 1995, the band included the song Sensational Gravity Boy on the charity album Red Hot Bothered, produced by the organization Red Hot. Major label (1997-2001) Pollard created a new incarnation of Guided by Voices with Cleveland glam rockers Cobra Verde in 1997. The next album is Mag Earwhig!, which combines a new hard rock swagger with classic lo-fi fragments and one track, Jane of the Waking Universe, which last featured a classic line-up. However, after another year of rigorous touring, the Guided by Verde line-up disbanded in late 1997 after Pollard announced in an interview that he intended to work with other musicians on the next Guided by Voices project. Cobra Verde's Doug Gillard was used for another new Guided Voices lineup in 1998, which also included classic-era bassist Greg Demos, former Breeders drummer Jim McPherson, and eventually, former Amps/Breeders guitarist Nate Farley. Leaving Matador, this lineup (without Farley) worked with producer Rick Ocasek to create what was to be guided by the voices' main debut label. Originally produced for Capitol Records, Do the Collapse was repeatedly postponed and finally released in mid- 1999 on the pseudo-indie label TVT. (In the UK it was released on Creation Records). Featuring the slick, heavily processed sound of previously foreign albums GBV, Do the Collapse failed to garner radio airwaves, and was for the most part welcomed with mixed reviews. Through touring largely throughout 1999 and 2000, the guided Voices' live act became legendary, with the show often stretching past the three-hour mark, and populated by an endless stream of new and classic songs, Pollard solo tracks, improvised covers of The Who, David Bowie and The Rolling Stones, all accompanied by a continuous consumption of alcohol. In addition to numerous fluctuations in the U.S. and Europe, in 2000 the group visited only Australia and Japan. 2000 was limited to the release of a massive Suitcase, a four-disc, 100-song trawl through three decades of a huge supply of unreleased Pollard material. (Three sets of unreleased songs, Suitcase 2, 3 and Suitcase 4, released in October 2005, November 2009 and November 2015, respectively.) 2001 The drills were recorded with Rob Schnapf, who sought to capture the band's live sound more closely than Ocasek. Although the album debuted in the top 200 of Billboard and received higher critical notices than its predecessor, it did not achieve the sought-after breakthrough on the radio. Later years (2002-2004) Robert Pollard performed with Guided By Voices in 2014 after leaving TVT in 2002, Guided by Voices returned to Matador and released Universal Truths and Cycles, a departure from two previous radio albums, and a return to the mid-90s, aesthetics of the mid. Universal Truths producer Todd Tobias also recorded the band's last two albums for Matador. 2003 saw the release of the Prog-style Earthquake Glue, followed by an anthology box set of Hardcore UFOs: Revelations, Epiphany and Fast Food in the Western Hemisphere and the greatest hits compiling Best of The Guided Voices: Entertainment Man on the Hourly Stakes. In 2004, Pollard announced that he had disbanded Guided by Voices following the release of Half-Smiles of the Decomposed LP and the final farewell tour. Pollard stated: This is similar to the last album for Guided by Voices. I've always said that when I make a record that I'm completely satisfied, as befits the final album, then it will be it. And here it is. Driven by The Voice will continue to release at least 15 more studio albums (with surrender Your Poppy Field). On November 9, 2004, they performed on the Austin City Limits stage on PBS on January 22, 2005.