[The Past Presents] Guided By Voices – “Bee Thousand”

Editor’s Note: We’re proud to announce a new feature here on Knox Road, titled “The Past Presents”. Author Jesse Croom will be a regular contributor to KR with this column and a column about cassette culture (coming soon!). Essentially, The Past Presents explores the importance of context. It revisits revered albums from the past 20-25 years to ask the question, “Is this album still a classic, or has it lost its edge over the years?”. Was it a great record for that particular time and place, or is it something we’ll be passing on to our kids? It will also look at the “lost classics” – countless albums that should have earned more attention but for one reason or another fell through the cracks. Enjoy.

Halloween night, 1994 was an ugly scene. I was packed into a club called Tattoos in State College, PA waiting anxiously for Superchunk to take the stage. Butterglory and Guided By Voices opened the show and from the moment Guided By Voices hit the stage I hated them. I knew them only by name, not by reputation. I had yet to hear their new album, Bee Thousand, but the buzz surrounding it was deafening. When they stumbled to the stage all I could see were a bunch of wasted 30-somethings standing in the way of what was sure to be an amazing Superchunk set. As the band launched into their first song, Robert Pollard, dressed in his captains jacket and button-down oxford shirt, started cutting loose with some high kicks and inspired jumps. The set continued and I remember being stunned by the brevity of the songs and by Pollard’s energy on stage. It was about that point that Pollard fell backward over the drum riser, slid off the back of the stage, landing on his back with his legs reaching into the sky. Naturally, he never missed a beat. I was disgusted with their antics, but I was secretly smitten.

Released over 15 years ago, Bee Thousand is still wrapped in hype and surrounded by legend. In short, Bee Thousand is considered a classic. The question now, is Bee Thousand still an important record? Is it still a classic?

In 1994, the year of Bee Thousand’s release, there was a strong punk and indie-rock scene all over the country. People starting bands in the early 90’s grew up with punk rock and were taking the DIY philosophy of punk and applying it to their own music. Guided By Voices had been recording and releasing their own music for years leading up to Bee Thousand and had nearly given up on the band several times. Luckily, they held it together long enough to release their masterpiece. There are not many albums in the last 25 years that “changed things”, but Bee Thousand definitely did.

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Phenomenal Video Saturday: A band covers Guided By Voices

Hey, anyone out there a fan of Guided By Voices? They’re pretty cool. They have a cool song, too, called “The Goldheart Mountaintop Queen Directory” from 1994’s Bee Thousand. You should listen to it sometime.

Aaaaand how about now? For this week’s PVS we have a surprisingly decent quality video of a band called […]