For some reason I always equate this incorrectly with beer. When I see the letters “I.B.C.” I think instead of “IPA,” which is short for “India Pale Ale,” a brew made by a number of craft brewers. I can be forgiven the error, I think, given the person behind the song in question. Robert Pollard [...]
Archive of posts filed under the Speedtraps for the Bee Kingdom category.
You Learn Something Old Every Day
“You Learn Something Old Every Day” is one in a long line of lead-off tracks that in no way prepare the listener for the music that will follow. The song is as musically minimal as they come, built on the sound of a drumstick bounced on a snare drum with heavy echo. As this fades [...]
Is It Mostly? (It Is Mostly)
There are few instrumentals in the Guided by Voices catalog, and rightly so. The band is centered on the vocal melodies of Robert Pollard. Everything else aside, that is the hook. So a track like “Is It Mostly? (It Is Mostly)” is rightly relegated to a side project. It would be one thing if it [...]
Where is Out There?
Speedtraps for the Bee Kingdom is an odd little record, even for Robert Pollard’s catalog. It was released in the waning days of 2000, a year that saw no official Guided by Voices album, but which did see release of the sprawling, awe-inspiring first Suitcase boxed set. Coming just two months after that 100-song set [...]
I’m Dirty
Puzzle pieces can click into place in the strangest places. While listening to Crickets during a long drive this weekend, “I’m Dirty” from the Howling Wolf Orchestra EP Speedtraps for the Bee Kingdom came on. As the song began, I remarked how much the song sounded like vintage Clean with it’s clean, quickly strummed guitar [...]