Pop Kulcher

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Member Since: 7/1/2002
Total Mixes: 376
Total Feedback: 895

Pop Zeus: The Compete Guided By Voices

Side A
Artist Song
Guided By Voices  A Salty Salute 
Robert Pollard  Pop Zeus 
Guided By Voices  The Best Of Jill Hives 
Guided By Voices  I Am A Scientist 
Guided By Voices  Postal Blowfish 
Guided By Voices  Underwater Explosions 
Guided By Voices  Captain's Dead 
Guided By Voices  Tractor Rape Chain 
Guided By Voices  Glad Girls 
Airport 5  Stifled Man Casino 
Guided By Voices  Surgical Focus 
Guided By Voices  Big School 
Guided By Voices  Gleemer (The Deeds Of Fertile Jim) 
Guided By Voices  I Am A Tree 
Robert Pollard  I'm A Strong Lion 
Guided By Voices  Quality Of Armor 
Guided By Voices  Things I Will Keep 
Guided By Voices  Shocker In Gloomtown 
Robert Pollard  Zoom (It Happens All Over The World) 
Guided By Voices  Motor Away 
Guided By Voices  Dodging Invisible Rays 
Circus Devils  Bull Spears 
Guided By Voices  Don't Stop Now 
Tobin Sprout  All Used Up 
Guided By Voices  Back To Saturn X 
Guided By Voices  Teenage FBI 
Guided By Voices  The Other Place 
Guided By Voices  Blimps Go 90 
Lexo & The Leapers  Alone, Stinking & Unafraid 
Guided By Voices  Wondering Boy Poet 
Side B
ArtistSongBuy
Guided By Voices  Over The Neptune 
Guided By Voices  Chasing Heather Crazy 
Guided By Voices  Echos Myron 
Tobin Sprout  E's Navy Blue 
Guided By Voices  Little Lines 
Guided By Voices  Game Of Pricks 
Guided By Voices  Jane Of The Waking Universe 
Guided By Voices  Radio Show (Trust The Wizard) 
Guided By Voices  Cheyenne 
Guided By Voices  A Good Flying Bird 
Robert Pollard  Frequent Weaver Who Burns 
Fig. 4 (Tobin Sprout)  Dig The Catacombs 
Guided By Voices  Bulldog Skin 
Guided By Voices  Jar Of Cardinals 
Guided By Voices  Huffman Prairie Flying Field 
Guided By Voices  Ha Ha Man 
Guided By Voices  Cut-Out Witch 
Guided By Voices  Goldheart Mountaintop Queen Directory 
Guided By Voices  Exit Flagger 
Guided By Voices  Hey Hey, Spaceman 
Robert Pollard  Subspace Biographies 
Guided By Voices  Mincer Ray 
Guided By Voices  Drag Days 
Guided By Voices  My Impression Now 
Robert Pollard  Supernatural Car Lover 
Guided By Voices  My Valuable Hunting Knife 
Guided By Voices  Avalanche Aminos 
Guided By Voices  Great Blake Street Canoe Race 
Guided By Voices  Choking Tara (Creamy Version) 
Guided By Voices  Marchers In Orange 

Comment:

DISC ONE, CONT:
31. Hot Freaks (GbV)
32. My Kind Of Soldier (GbV)
33. How Loft I Am? (GbV)
DISC TWO, CONT:
31. Conspiracy of Owls (Robert Pollard)
32. The Official Ironman Rally Song (GbV)
33. Gonna Never Have To Die (GbV)
34. Please Freeze Me

Let's face it: While I make a lot of them and post them here, single artist mixes are undoubtedly the least "artful" mixes on AOTM. For the most part, we're just taking our favorite songs from some artist and arranging them chronologically (or, at times, more imaginatively for sonic variation). Still, every now and then a single artist mix can turn out as varied and imaginative as any multi-artist mix. Naturally, having a particularly prolific or long-running artist helps, as does an artist with multiple configurations (i.e. band + solo members). But an additional factor in an atypically strong single artist mix is having an artist who is, shall we say, less than consistent. Or, to be even more frank, releases gobs and gobs of utter dreck. Pull one or two songs apiece from a dozen or two albums, and you end up with a work far better than anything the artist managed to cobble together on his/her/their own.
All a long wind up to saying that, for a long time, my all-time favorite single artist mix that I'd burned was my single-cd Guided By Voices disc. Because, let's face it, while Robert Pollard and his rotating gang of musicians may have had a few noteworthy works (primarily 1994's Bee Thousand and 1995's Alien Lanes), they've churned out more useless crap than probably any recording artist since the dawn of modern recording. I've been suckered into buying literally dozens of albums, ep's, singles, and box sets issued by GbV and his myriad solo and spin-off projects since the early 80's, most of which have a couple decent tunes and a whole lot of Pollard jerking off into a tape recorder. Yet at the same time, some of those standout tracks may very well be among the most painfully wonderful, catchy, brilliant pieces of askew post-punk pop ever crafted. Separate the wheat from the chaff and, holy shit, that's some amazing wheat. Anyway, I burned that one about 40 albums ago (albeit 40 largely lame albums), and felt a need to stretch things into a 2-cd set. It may not be as nonstop perfect as the original mix, but it's still 67 pieces of maddeningly delicious music. (Plus, the extra space gave me a little extra room for some stray tracks by one-time GbV tunesmith Tobin Sprout and a few more early GbV pieces.)
image for mix

Feedback:

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doowad
Date: 4/12/2008
I have been trying desperately to like GBV since I read the book from John Sellers.But your recommendation here speaks volumes more than Sellers' man-crush obsessiveness. I'll give them another go.
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Mixxer
Date: 4/12/2008
Excellent summary. Glad I'm not the only one who thinks they have a lot of chaff in with the wheat.
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g.a.b. l@bs
Date: 4/12/2008
I'd agree that the "Single Artist" mix is, in most cases, a substitute for
genuine creativity. But I'd also agree that GbV can be brilliant @ times (I own only one album, Alien Lanes. In any case...this looks terrific.
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anthony lombardi
Date: 4/12/2008
i would be more inclined to give them a fairer shot if pollard wasn't such a self-important twat who has the gross misconception that he's god's gift to music - their quantity far exceeds their quality in my eyes, i'm afraid - but hey that's just me, i still salute your endeavor
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Mesh
Date: 4/13/2008
Mainly because of the same reasons you offered, the only GBV disc I currently own is Human Amusements At Hourly Rates (which is in itself a distillation of their boxed set). Undoubtedly, there is a lot of crap on most of their studio albums, but I chalk it up the chutzpah of Robert Pollard to release half-baked songs as much as anything.
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Rob Conroy
Date: 4/13/2008
I'm with anthony 100%. For a short while in the early-to-mid-'90s, I had drunk the Pollard Kool-Aid and thought that he was some sort of Pop Genius. Now I just think he's written about one and a half discs' worth (granted, our two discs would be a bit different, although you've hit many of my top picks--"Game of Pricks," "Quality of Armor," "Motor Away," "Jar of Cardinals," "Exit Flagger" and "My Impression Now") of great material. One and a half out of 40+ releases (coupled with the attitude that anthony summarized), however, means that I'm not much of a fan at this point.
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lemonadesky
Date: 4/17/2008
I'm hardly a fan of this band but you've done a very thorough job.