Yeah, right. I mean, I could do that, but that would sort of be unweaving the rainbow, and everybody (and Keats) knows better.
And now, something from the archives:
I was so much older then. We went and played Maxwell’s in Hoboken after this taping, and ran through the entire list of songs [...]
Yeah, right. I mean, I could do that, but that would sort of be unweaving the rainbow, and everybody (and Keats) knows better.
And now, something from the archives:
I was so much older then. We went and played Maxwell’s in Hoboken after this taping, and ran through the entire list of songs we had learned at that point, somewhere around fifty (I know because I was in charge of the list). But the set-up at Maxwell’s was (and probably still is?) such that you had to go through the crowd to get offstage, and that seemed difficult even after two hours of playing, so we tried making a song up on the spot, which didn’t turn out very well (it had, to be fair, been a long day’s journey into New Jersey), so we did the logical thing: we started the set over again, from the beginning.
Final GBV Show, Hopscotch Music Festival, Raleigh NC 9/9/11, Photo: Daniel Coston
I apologize if the air of secrecy around what some people are given to call “Greer’s blog deal” has caused anyone breathing problems, but certain things are worth waiting for. I hope you’ll agree. According to MOJO magazine, [...]
Final GBV Show, Hopscotch Music Festival, Raleigh NC 9/9/11, Photo: Daniel Coston
I apologize if the air of secrecy around what some people are given to call “Greer’s blog deal” has caused anyone breathing problems, but certain things are worth waiting for. I hope you’ll agree. According to MOJO magazine, Guided By Voices has recorded a new album of 21 songs called Let’s Go Eat The Factory. I’m sure the announcement will appear in several other outlets, too, in the next several days, but it will be more or less the same announcement. It will say nothing about plans for future touring because there are no plans for future touring. As with all things Pollard-related, that could of course change. But it’s not the likeliest outcome, frankly.
I’m not going to add much to what you can read in the announcement on the MOJO site, but I can say that I’ve had the honor and privilege of listening to the album for a few weeks now, and that it can best be described as… uh… hold on… let me think… okay: flipping genius. I understand that January 2012 seems like a long time from now (partly because it is), but it will arrive, and sooner than you think, so you should probably pre-order the thing as soon as it’s available for pre-order from Rockathon. I don’t know when that happy day will arrive but I presume soon.
Further details will be revealed in due course, but for now, if you’re any kind of fan of Guided By Voices in any of its many incarnations, I’d say this is cause for celebration.
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Guided by Voices: A Brief History: Twenty-One Years of Hunting Accidents in the Forests of Rock and Rollreviews: 24
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"James Greer, one of the nimblest and most multilayered American fiction writers, has, with his latest novel The Failure, pulled off a sublime and shivery-smooth literary hat-trick-cum-emotional-gotcha. I defy anyone to come up with an equation to explain how this book's first impression as a ridiculously clever, funny crime story can gradually disclose a metanovel built from far more encyclopedic scratch only to reveal upon its conclusion a central, overriding thought so heartfelt literally it trembles your lower lip. This is one stunning piece of work."—Dennis Cooper"James Greer's The Failure is such an unqualified success, both in conception and execution, that I have grave doubts he actually wrote it."—Steven Soderbergh"Greer has done it again: a big-city, techno-jargon-filled thrill-ride with slick medium-brow drop references to our (once-shared) mythological hometown. What could be more poignant?"—Robert Pollard"How do you assess if your life has been a success? For starters, take time and turn it on its head. You'll first need to find its head. Luckily, James Greer's novel The Failure will help--it's a brainy, boisterous, unsettling, and unsettled look at a group of people thrust into the most confounding of existences, complete with petty crime, high science, love, sex, and cars. The narrative winds and darts, gleefully uncooperative. The characters have funny names and sometimes funny existences. Still, you will recognize them. They are us."—Ben GreenmanUnreservedly Recommended
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Pygmalion Lit Festival
I’m going to be reading, probably from my forthcoming collection of […]






