Bee Thousand

Possibly the best indie rock record to emerge from the 90s

The back story of Guided By Voices is just as wonderful as the band itself. Bob Pollard was a jock in high school and college who became an elementary school teacher ("Screw you nerds, I'm gonna form a better indie rock band"). In his spare time, him and his drinking buddies recorded often brief pop rock songs which drew as much on the British Invasion as any of the indie rock bands around at the time. They'd been a band for at least ten years before they garnered any sort of national attention. All this would be well and good, but the fact remains the band deserved the critical acclaim and cult following for this album. While they had some good records before (particularly "Vampire on Titus"), this is where they got everything right. The songs are short yet memorable, running for the perfect length. The brevity of some of the tracks is what Guided By Voices is all about - get it done and move on. While the numbers over two minutes are easily the best on the album ("Tractor Rape Chain", "Echoes Myron", and espescially "I Am a Scientist"), the supposed throwaways are really essential to the band's sound. Oddly enough, when they started writing longer songs and cleaning up their productions later on, they lost a lot of their quirky appeal. GBV fans will debate for hours on what really is the group's best album, but "Bee Thousand" is the best starting place. Its arty without being pretentious or inaccessible, and if it isn't the best indie rock album of its time, its certainly the most fun. December 28, 2008

One of the best albums of the 1990s; possibly the best.

I've been familier with GBV since the mid 1990s. Back then it was impossible to come across a review or critique of this band without the word, 'lo-fi', being mentioned in the same sentence. But merely making a virtue of 'lo-fi' as being part of some kind of 'sonic revolutiion' is entirely missing the point. The fact is Guided By Voices (fronted by Robert Pollard - a genius musician/artist) made these types of albums - with that sound - because the only equipment they had was an old 4-track recorder. But it was their attitiude behind the making of this album that makes it such a classic, which iss basically this: "Whatever. Just press record. No one buys our music anyway. Let's have the best fun amongst ourselves."

Most of these songs are no more than a minute long. Some even shorter. But when listened too as a whole album, it makes for one brilliant, ground breaking piece of art. That, my fellow readers, is the essence of this classic album: Don't worry about what others are going to think. Or worry if they're going to 'get it'. It doesn't matter. Just play and record.

No plush recording studios here. No pro-tools, no digital consoles. This is the sound of the American Midwest suburbs (GBV were from Dayton, Ohio), plugging in and playing their hearts out. I mean, the entire album was recorded onto a cassette tape, for crying out loud! It's not that GBV didn't care about their music. They did, passionately. Rather it was that they just wanted/needed to get this music out there . . . using whatever they had. In this case a Tascam Portastudio 4-track . . . onto a cassette tape!

So, to all you aspiring musicians and songwriters out there reading this: Buy this record. Listen. Enjoy . . . and keep writing and recording your songs. Use whatever you have at your disposal. And don't worry about whether your music is 'fashionable' or 'chic'. Otherwise your art will be lesser for it. We can all learn a lot from this album.

I still am. Enjoy. July 20, 2008

Worth your hard-earned money

Complaints about the short tracks on this album are off the mark. Don't listen to the size queens... better short and sweet than some of the drawn out agonies I've been compelled to trash on Amazon (e.g., Boards of Canada...) Complaints about GBV's audio quality being poor are fair but would you rather have great production values with lousy music?

Not everything here works but when it does, as in tracks 5 and 10 among others, it's a great listen. It feels very sincere and they take a lot of risks -- well above average. June 16, 2008

The Definitive Lo-Fi Album

This is the definitive lo-fi album and the best place to start for someone new to GBV. Although this is not my favorite GBV album I couldn't disagree with anyone who thought that this one was their best.

It may take many listeners a while to adjust to this style of production but I strongly suggest that you go into it with an open mind and throw everything that you know about popular music out the window. Besides the low budget production there are also fragments of songs, songs that defy the normal structure of verse-chorus-verse, and what many may consider nonsensical lyrics. All these factors add to the charm of Bee Thousand.

If this album were buried in a time capsule and discovered hundreds of years later the assumption would be that this band was part of the British invasion with the likes of The Who and The Kinks. And Robert Pollard has taken those influences and put his own unique spin on them. The influences are obvious but this is as much a 90's alternative album as it is a throw back to the 60's British invasion.

The highlights of this album are Tractor Rape Chain, Hot Freaks, Echos Myron, Gold Star For Robot Boy and of course I Am a Scientist. The greatest song ever written about self discovery, in my humble opinion. Even the fragmented songs like Demons Are Real and Kicker of Elves will get stuck in your head for days.

Give it a chance and you may feel afterwards that this album is not only one of the greatest records of the 90's but of all time. I know that I do. May 8, 2008

lo-fi on purpose

Some great tunes here no doubt, Tractor Rape Chain in particular. GBV knack for melody is unquestionably great but their asthetic of creating a "lo-fi" album is absurd. I can understand doing so if you couldn't afford any better equipment but that's not the case here. I usually don't have a problem for underproduced albums however when it is done intentionally, I do. December 10, 2007

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