From the Vaults Friday: Guided by Voices, Bee Thousand (1994)

The Year: 1994
The Album: Guided by Voices, Bee Thousand
Who It Influenced: Jay Reatard, The Thermals, The Strokes, Titus Andronicus, Times New Viking, Deerhunter

Once upon a time there was an elementary school-teacher from Dayton, Ohio, named Robert Pollard. Pollard had been playing in a bar-band named Guided by Voices for the early-'80s, but as members changed and others dropped away, he decided to make his outlet a recording project. Working at home on a rudimentary four-track cassette-recorder, Pollard wrote dozens upon dozens of short, fast, hyper-melodic songs, copping riffs from his favorite British Invasion bands —The Who and The Kinks— and topping them off with cryptic lyrics.

When feeling more social, Pollard would invite around his brother Jim, and pals Tobin Sprout and Mitch Mitchell. They'd drink beer, play songs, and record the results. Making up 'albums' in limited pressings of, usually, a few hundred copies, Pollard was a pure hobbyist; his in-built audience friends and family and a few local diehards. Guided by Voices never played live and ran at a financial loss. With 1992's Propellor that changed: all of a sudden people outside of Dayton twigged to Pollard's incredible songwriting.

After Vampire on Titus, Pollard was struggling. Struggling to write better songs, to pay the bills, to keep his 'social club' together as some sort of ad-hoc, pick-up band. So, he decided to send Guided by Voices out with a bang: re-recording and re-working the best songs from the decade's worth of unheard cassettes he owned. After that, he was sure they'd end.

Only, the recordings turned out to be Bee Thousand, and it turned out to be an instant lo-fi classic, an incredibly influential album, and one of the landmark albums in alternative music. As far as endings go, it was a great beginning.

• Full review: Guided by Voices, Bee Thousand
• Top 10 Lo-Fi Albums