Guided By Voices

About me:

Guided by Voices (often abbreviated as GBV) was an extremely prolific lo-fi/indie-rock band from Dayton, Ohio. Guided by Voices were an integral part of the American independent rock scene from 1986 until 2004, turning out many albums of short, catchy indie tunes.

Over the years the band saw many personnel changes, but always maintained the presence of principal singer/songwriter Robert Pollard, a former schoolteacher. Pollard was an avid rock fan, and Guided by Voices' work always reflected his steadfast devotion to the Beatles, post-British Invasion garage rock, psychedelic, prog-rock, as well as punk and post-punk.

Guided By Voices also garnered much attention for its prolificacy, with a seemingly endless stream of releases. Many songs are 30 seconds long; often they end abruptly or are intertwined with odd and homemade sound effects. While Guided by Voices progressed over time from an aspiring bar band, to willfully scuzzy basement obscurantists, to a relatively professional riff-pop machine in the latter half of the 90's, the constants throughout were Pollard's seemingly instinctual grasp of the pop form, his digestion of reams of rock history, and his gift for melodic invention.