I searched around a bit and only saw a few isolated references to GBV on here, which really surprised me given that exploring GBV's discography has at times felt like discovering a treasure trove of lost golden-era pillows music. Mind you, it'd do the sheer variety of their music a massive disservice to pidgeonhole all of it like that, but I've always felt like this is a band that pillows fans ought to know about.

For the uninitiated, GBV have been recording in some form or another since the late 70s and are still releasing mass quantities of music today. Their style tends to be a scattershot mixture of instantly memorable "hits" and intentionally obtuse oddities that take a few listens before they start making any sense. They share some major influences with the pillows, and it shows in some of their music. They were also good friends with Kim Deal and the Breeders in the mid-90s, and shared or worked together on several songs.

While they're primarily associated with their lo-fi home-recorded albums of the early 90s like [i]Bee Thousand[/i], Robert Pollard and company have released a massive amount of music as GBV and as numerous sideprojects, covering a wide spread from [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MTzCxFlT8g]Bivouac-esque rock[/url], [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9xj2hiojGk]lo-fi power pop[/url], [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ZIi97N5sFM]progressive rock[/url], [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=is9HX-yZYIo]pretty acoustic tunes[/url], [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWmUhfk8RBI]post-punk[/url], and more. (And when I say "a massive amount of music", I do mean massive -- Pollard released five albums in the last year alone, and that's not even slightly atypical.)

Their 2001 album [i]Isolation Drills[/i] is probably the easiest starting place for a pillows fan. It's consciously more homogenous in its sound than would often be expected from a Robert Pollard release, but it's easily accessible, full of great tunes, and to my ears it often sounds like it could've been a pillows album released circa 1999. [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mV4b9SNZkU4]Fair Touching[/url], [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oev6552Oujc]Pivotal Film[/url]

[i]Universal Truths and Cycles[/i] and [i]Class Clown Spots a UFO[/i] are good album picks for digging a bit deeper; they cover much larger stylistic grounds, but get further away from the pillows comparison (and might be less immediately accessible in general). [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSDgmRaI7qQ]Billy Wire[/url], [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nsHBi9RUppY]Storm Vibrations[/url], [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ek2z012TX-g]Tyson's High School[/url]

I linked all the style mentions above to songs, btw.

A few other picks: [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_okvPiIeOI]The Main Street Wizards[/url], [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IlZlst4NBVw]Game of Pricks[/url], [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u30i19DhXxc]Don't Stop Now[/url], [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKsPHJNjnBU]My Thoughts Are A Gas[/url], [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HtBlkNh32UA]Perfect This Time[/url], [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvSJlLOGR40]There Are Other Worlds[/url]

Despite the fact that I've barely scratched the surface, I ought to quit now before I've linked all of the remaining 1500+ songs in Pollard's discography, though it is very tempting.

Anybody else here a fan of them?

I've always liked Bee Thousand, but I've never listened to anything else by them. I'll have to check out some of these links.

I'm really liking Isolation Drills, especially Chasing Heather Crazy. Thanks for posting this, bro!

Nice

Chasing Heather Crazy was actually written at nearly the last minute, when TVT Records asked for another single after most everything else was done.

GBV broke up but there's still no end to the Pollard train. New album "Escape" just came out from Circus Devils, and a bunch of other Pollard solo/sideproject albums coming out in 2015. Pay attention to this man.

Here's a couple songs.

[url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chPKV0503SM]Alex And The Omegas[/url]
[url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3taP429rFg]The Best of Jill Hives[/url]
[url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAJt7f54OWY]Dancing Girls and Dancing Men[/url]
[url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KEhOPoCuc9k]Bats Flew Up[/url]
[url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MbwvZ8LPdY8]You're Gonna Need A Mountain[/url]
[url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdDO5VvGktY]No Steamboats[/url]

Huh. I also recently just discovered GBV. Some really good shit they've got going on. I'd definitely recommend em to a pirrows fan.

[quote="Blank"]Huh. I also recently just discovered GBV. Some really good shit they've got going on. I'd definitely recommend em to a pirrows fan.[/quote]
Nice. What have you explored so far? Any favorites?

[quote="sl4"][quote="Blank"]Huh. I also recently just discovered GBV. Some really good shit they've got going on. I'd definitely recommend em to a pirrows fan.[/quote]
Nice. What have you explored so far? Any favorites?[/quote]
Honestly, it's just been from youtube's new "music" feature. I haven't had a lot of free time to go looking for music so I haven't had time to delve into their discography. I've only listened to maybe five or six songs by them, but they were all pretty solid and at least two were really good.

Also: should I be scared that youtube put "Rock Lobster" into "My mix?" Technology's scary, man. Actually, the really scary thing is that they had an orchestrated medley of Back to the Future's soundtrack on my list. I suppose the good news is Google hasn't gotten me completely figured out...YET.

I went to sl4 to get some album recommendations as starting points and checked out Half Smiles of the Decomposed, Earthquake Glue, and Propeller. Gotta listen to Propeller a few more times, but I really dug both Half Smiles and Earthquake Glue. A couple standout tracks to my ears after a couple listens on those two:

[url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGYvY2unqVo]Huffman Prairie Flying Field[/url]
Album closer from Half Smiles, amazing outro.

[url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xtnWNIcx2Os]Sing for Your Meat[/url]
This song is about as jam-band as I'm willing to go, it's a slightly psychedelic slow build kind of song. Really dig it despite the simplicity, lyrics have some very good points throughout.

[url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJdiBIruHUc]Useless Inventions[/url]
I have trouble thinking anybody on this board won't like this one.