Mag Earwhig!

by Guided by Voices

Overview

After Bee Thousand gave Guided By Voices a wider audience, it became evident that Robert Pollard saw himself as more than just the band's songwriter and frontman, and as his career ambitions grew, he became increasingly frustrated with the limitations of his band. Matters came to a head prior to the recording of Mag Earwhig! as Pollard broke ties with longtime guitarist and fellow songwriter Tobin Sprout and fired the rest of the group. While Pollard and Sprout soon buried the hatchet, Sprout opted not to stay on as a full-time member of the group, and Pollard was now Guided By Voices' uncontested leader. He hired Cleveland-based blues/garage rockers Cobra Verde as his backing band for the next GBV album, and Mag Earwhig! sounded a good bit different as a result; while there were a few stray four-track experiments with Sprout scattered about, most of the album had a solid, professional sheen, and Cobra Verde rock harder and sound tighter than any of the lineups Pollard had worked with in the past. Unfortunately, his songwriting wasn't quite up to his usual standards, which the new clarity of this album makes all the more evident. Pollard is incapable of making an album without a few fine songs, and "Bulldog Skin," "Sad If I Lost It," "Not Behind the Fighter Jet," and "Portable Men's Society" certainly fill the bill, but it may well be significant that Mag Earwhig!'s most exciting song, the joyous "I Am a Tree," was written by Cobra Verde's Doug Gillard. While there's plenty to enjoy here, Robert Pollard's next experiment in hi-fi record making, Do the Collapse, would prove to be much more successful. ~ Mark Deming

Product Details

Release Date:	01/26/2018
Label:	Matador
UPC:	0744861024118
Rank:	40794

Tracks

1. Can't Hear the Revolution
2. Sad If I Lost It
3. I Am a Tree
4. The Old Grunt
5. Bulldog Skin
6. Are You Faster?
7. I Am Produced
8. Knock 'Em Flyin'
9. Not Behind the Fighter Jet
10. Choking Tara
11. Hollow Cheek
12. Portable Men's Society
13. Little Lines
14. Learning to Hunt
15. The Finest Joke Is Upon Us
16. Mag Earwhig!
17. Now to War
18. Jane of the Waking Universe
19. The Colossus Crawls West
20. Mute Superstar
21. Bomb in the Bee-Hive

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Guided by Voices   Primary Artist
Kevin Fennell   Guest Artist,Drums
Mitch Mitchell   Guest Artist,Bass,Guitar
Tobin Sprout   Guest Artist,Bass,Casio,Drums,Guitar,Vocals,Slide Guitar,Guitar (Acoustic),Vocals (Background)
Don Depew   Bass,Organ,Synthesizer,Guitar (Electric),Vocals (Background)
Robert Pollard   Casio,Drums,Piano,Guitar,Vocals,Guitar (Acoustic),Guitar (Electric)
Jim Pollard   Bass,Guitar
Doug Gillard   Bass,Guitar,Guitar (Acoustic),Guitar (Electric),Vocals (Background)
Dave Swanson   Drums,Maracas,Vocals (Background)
Joe Buben   Drums
Johnny Strange   Bass
John Petkovic   Guitar,Synthesizer,Guitar (Electric),Vocals (Background)
Chedomir Stanisic   Organ

Technical Credits

Don Depew   Engineer
John Shough   Engineer,Programming
Robert Pollard   Composer
Jim Pollard   Composer
Gary King   Assistant Engineer
Doug Gillard   Composer
Tobin Sprout   Composer,Engineer
John Croslin   Engineer
Mark Ohe   Design
Bob Ohe   Design