He Tells You of the Dreamers
When Guided by Voices recorded Bee Thousand, they could see the writing on the wall. Although born in the early 1980s as a Dayton, Ohio bar-band, GBV had soon evolved into a recording project; a kind of communal 'drop-in' where elementary-school teacher Bob Pollard —an exuberant music fan and prolific songwriting savant— would invite his brother Jim and pals Tobin Sprout and Mitch Mitchell around. They'd drink beer and play music.
Pressing the results into limited-edition LPs out of his own funds, Pollard found his hobby operating at a loss. And, with the band resembling a 'band' in no way, there was no sense of one-for-all collectivism bonding them. It plainly seemed that Guided by Voices' days were done.
So, Pollard planned a send-off. To those few fervent fans who'd warmed to the home-recorded, lo-fidelity pop of 1992's Propellor and 1993's Vampire on Titus, he'd deliver a veritable GBV best-of: re-recording, reworking, and re-editing old, unused songs from their unheard of, unknown past. Recording direct to rudimentary four-track cassette-recorder in Sprout's garage, Guided by Voices worked in spontaneous, half-fumbling fashion, knocking out 30 songs in three days, the culmination of their lo-fi aesthetic.
The resulting record, Bee Thousand, proved to be their crowning glory: the definitive GBV LP, a veritable classic, the album that, for many, would define the entire lo-fi movement. As far as endings go, it was quite a beginning.
No Need for Further Questioning
In the years since, Pollard would release many more Guided by Voices records; would, in fact, go on to record one of the most expansive, tangled-up, and confusing catalogues in music history, becoming a one-man industry churning out countless recordings under various handles. He'd release more popular albums, more expensive albums, albums that he was probably prouder of. But he'd never preside over a better record than Bee Thousand.
In many ways, it's hard to pinpoint why this rag-tag collection of thrown-together tunes stands transcendent; to articulate exactly why it's Bee Thousand —not Vampire on Titus, not 1995's Under the Bushes, Under the Stars— that stands as Guided by Voices' most celebrated work.
There's the songs, of course: amazing, two-minute pop ditties like "I Am a Scientist" and "Echos Myron" and "The Goldheart Mountaintop Queen Directory" and "Ester's Day," songs steeped in murky mystery. Then there's the way these songs roll out: commencing abruptly and ending rudely, they ricochet from one to the next, pinballing a sense of exponential momentum as they skip with rudimentary edits. And, given it's, perhaps, lo-fi's defining album, we can't discount the audio fidelity (or lack thereof); the way it renders ordinary rock'n'roll instruments extraordinary, the way it creates an otherworldly atmosphere, an opaque out-pop realm into which listeners can escape.
Whatever the secrets to its success, Bee Thousand is an album that was impossibly timely and inspiring in 1994, but that still sounds amazing to this day.
Record Label: Scat
Release Date: 21 June 1994
