Earthquake Glue [Digipak] [Limited]

Performer: Guided by Voices
Engineer: Chad Smith; Greg Norman; John Shough; Todd Tobias
Producer: Guided By Voices; Todd Tobias
Distributor: Alternative Dis. Alliance

Notes: The first 25,000 copies are packaged in a numbered limited-edition digipak with a sticker. Guided By Voices: Robert Pollard, Doug Gillard, Nate Farley, Tim Tobias, Kevin March. Additional personnel includes: The Esther Dennis Middle School 8th Grade Band. Recorded at Cro Magnon Enterprises, Dayton, Ohio. Personnel: Todd Tobias (keyboards). Introduction by: Esther Dennis Middle School 8th Grade Band. Photographer: Ana Luisa Morales. Over the course of so many albums that all but the most rabid fans have lost track, Robert Pollard has fashioned himself an unlikely niche as the Grand Old Man of lo-fi alternative rock. With an uncanny ability to channel every '60s pop act from Chad & Jeremy to the Music Machine, Guided By Voices continues to spit out one ragged collection of Brian Wilson-class gems after another. Though Pollard is as legendary for his inconsistency as he is for his melodic genius, with EARTHQUAKE GLUE his band delivers one the most consistent efforts in its catalog. Kicking off with what sounds like a lost "A Quick One, While He's Away"-style Who mini-rock-opera, the album proceeds to display shining examples of all the patented GBV styles. There's straight-outta-'95 Merge Records-esque indie rock ("Useless Inventions") alongside Roky Erikson-approved acid-casualty fare, complete with druggy, melancholy vocals and inscrutable lyrics ("The Best Of Jill Hives"). The big surprise here, though, is that the band actually sounds "professional." Luckily, EARTHQUAKE GLUE is still a GBV record, so the boys never let pesky proficiency get in the way of the songs' immediacy or seemingly effortless emotional resonance.

Uncut (9/03, p.102) - 3 stars out of 5 - "...Crafted, completed stadium anthems..." Magnet (9/03, p.102) - "...Opener 'My Kind of Soldier' and album centerpiece 'The Best of Jill Hives' are products of a newfound less-is-more aesthetic..." Mojo (Publisher) (9/03, pp.98-9) - 4 stars out of 5 - "...A nuggety fusion of classic rock and surrealistic pop....EARTHQUAKE GLUE exudes an unshakeable ring of confidence..."

Led by former school teacher Robert Pollard, Dayton, OH's Guided By Voices pursued an aesthetic marked by structural brevity, lo-fi sound, bizarre lyrics, and a preference for early to mid-period Who and other primal pop-rock. Pollard continually shifted the group's lineup, with a new outfit backing him on nearly every record. On 1999's DO THE COLLAPSE, GBV polished its sound considerably, bringing in Ric Ocasek as a producer. GBV played their final show on New Year's Eve 2004, however Pollard continues to write and record as a solo artist and with various collaborators.

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