Pitchfork

[Updated Wednesday, September 17th, 2003 10:40:00 Pitchfork Central Time]

Matador Records have set a release date of November 4th for two Guided By Voices career retrospectives, according to the band's and label's official websites. The Best of Guided By Voices: Human Amusements At Hourly Rates promises to be the definitive best-of, with 32 songs from 1987-2003 on a single CD, selected and sequenced (per normal) by Robert Pollard. Interestingly, a full five tracks are from the TVT releases Do The Collapse and Isolation Drills. Almost all of the band's single a-sides are represented ("Hold on Hope"? Nope!), yet the band's voluminous output of short-players is represented only by The Grand Hour's "Shocker In Gloomtown." "Game of Pricks" and "My Valuable Hunting Knife" are represented in alternate single versions here, and "Teenage FBI" is an early version originally found on the independently released "Wish In One Hand" seven-inch. Ready? Let's roll:

01 A Salty Salute
02 Things I Will Keep
03 Everywhere With Helicopter
04 I Am A Tree
05 My Kind Of Soldier
06 14 Cheerleader Coldfront
07 Twilight Campfighter
08 Echos Myron
09 Learning To Hunt
10 Bulldog Skin
11 Captain's Dead
12 Tractor Rape Chain
13 Game Of Pricks [Tigerbomb version]
14 To Remake The Young Flyer
15 Hit
16 Glad Girls
17 Drinker's Peace
18 Surgical Focus
19 Cut-Out Witch
20 The Best Of Jill Hives
21 Hot Freaks
22 Shocker In Gloomtown
23 Chasing Heather Crazy
24 My Valuable Hunting Knife
25 The Official Ironmen Rally Song
26 Non-Absorbing
27 Motor Away [single version]
28 Teenage FBI ["Wish In One Hand" 7" version]
29 Watch Me Jumpstart
30 Exit Flagger
31 Back To The Lake
32 I Am A Scientist [Bee Thousand version]

But you've got to be shitting us with that cover, guys... there is nothing definitive about that. Is that a Gandalf robe? Yikes! Paging Ohe?

November 4th will also bring Hardcore UFO's, a 129-track, six-CD/DVD retrospective now freshly subtitled Revelations, Epiphanies and Fast Food in the Western Hemisphere. Here are the full tracklists as reported by GbV.com and Matador:

Disc one: Human Amusements at Hourly Rates: same content as commercial release but in chronological sequence, with different artwork (prayer answered) and "slight differences in versions [on] two or three songs" (those being the single version of "I Am A Scientist," and the original Alien Lanes versions of "Game Of Pricks" and "Motor Away").

Disc two: Demons and Painkillers: a 35-track compilation of all of GbV's out-of-print singles, b-sides, and compilation tracks (on Matador, anyway). Some of the material has never been released on CD before, including the "Motor Away"/"Color Of My Blade" seven-inch (1995) and the Plantations of Pale Pink EP (1996). 1995's Tigerbomb EP, which was only available on CD in a very limited run back in 1996, is included, as well as the b-sides for "The Official Ironmen Rally Song," "Bulldog Skin," and "I Am A Tree." Other surprises include three Under The Bushes-era outtakes from a limited-run split EP with Superchunk, a pair of live cuts from a UK-only picture disc, and all of the Japanese bonus tracks for both Under The Bushes and Mag Earwhig! Tracklist:

01 Motor Away ["Motor Away" 7"]
02 Color Of My Blade ["Motor Away" 7"]
03 My Valuable Hunting Knife *
04 Game Of Pricks *
05 Mice Feel Nice (In My Room) *
06 Not Good For The Mechanism *
07 Kiss Only The Important Ones *
08 Dodging Invisible Rays *
09 Deaf Ears +
10 Why Did You Land? +
11 June Salutes You! +
12 Delayed Reaction Brats $
13 He's The Uncle $
14 The Key Losers $
15 Postal Blowfish [alternate version from Brain Candy soundtrack]
16 Unleashed! The Large Hearted Boy [live version from "Cut-Out Witch" picture 7"]
17 Some Drilling Implied [live version from "Cut-Out Witch" picture 7"]
18 Systems Crash #
19 Catfood On The Earwig #
20 The Who Vs. Porky Pig #
21 A Life In Finer Clothing #
22 The Worryin' Song #
23 Subtle Gear Shifting #
24 Finks [Under The Bushes Japan bonus track]
25 The Finest Joke Is Upon Us [Under The Bushes Japan bonus track]
26 The Singing Razorblade @
27 Now To War [electric version] @
28 Mannequin's Complaint (Wax Dummy Meltdown) @
29 Do They Teach You The Chase? %
30 (I'll Name You) The Flame That Cries %
31 The Ascended Master's Grogshop %
32 My Thoughts Are A Gas [alternate version from What's Up, Matador? compilation]
33 Running Off With The Fun City Girls [Mag Earwhig! Japan bonus track]
34 None Of Them Any Good [Mag Earwhig! Japan bonus track]
35 Choking Tara (Creamy Version) [from Everything Is Nice compilation]

* from Tigerbomb EP (1995)
+ from "The Official Ironmen Rally Song" single (1996)
$ from split EP with Superchunk/ Matador Europe Under The Bushes (1996)
# from Plantations of Pale Pink EP (1996)
@ from "Bulldog Skin" single (1997)
% from "I Am A Tree" single (1997)

Disc three: Delicious Pie and Thank You For Calling: a 23-track CD of previously unreleased studio material from the Pollard vaults. The disc will, as rumored, include the legendary original version of "Back To Saturn X," excerpted in part on the Propeller album and thought destroyed by a flood in Pollard's basement. Tracklist:

01 I
02 Back To Saturn X
03 H-O-M-E (Matador)
04 You're The Special
05 Perhaps We Were Swinging
06 Mother & Son
07 7 Strokes To Heaven's Edge
08 Fire 'Em Up, Abner
09 Harboring Exiles
10 Still Worth Nothing
11 Never
12 Slave Your Beetle Brain
13 It Is Divine
14 They
15 I Invented The Moonwalk (And The Pencil Sharpener)
16 Fly Into Ashes
17 The Various Vaults Of Convenience
18 Thrashed Aircraft
19 Running Off With The Fun City Girls [alternate version]
20 Bulldog Skin [demo]
21 Portable Men's Society [demo]
22 Choking Tara [demo]
23 Man Called Aerodynamics [Concert For Todd version]

Disc four: Live at the Wheelchair Races: Unreleased Live Recordings 1995-2002: a disc of unreleased live material from various line-ups throughout the GbV canon, as selected by Pollard and GbV webmaster Rich Turiel from "hundreds of tapes" (but 18 in particular). The tapes include full-band renditions of solo Pollard gems like "Quicksilver," "Make Use," "Far Out Crops," and "Town Of Mirrors" as well as rarely-played tunes like "James Riot," "Key Losers," and "Shrine To The Dynamic Years." Tracklist:

01 Randy Campbell band intro [Boston, MA 6/20/95]
02 I Am Produced [Cincinnati, OH 7/25/97]
03 Why Did You Land? [Denver, CO 4/10/95]
04 Zap [Carrboro, NC 4/16/02]
05 Little Lines [Cincinnati, OH 7/25/97]
06 14 Cheerleader Coldfront [Boston, MA 6/20/95]
07 Everywhere With Helicopter [Carrboro, NC 4/16/02]
08 Quicksilver [Cincinnati, OH 7/25/97]
09 James Riot [Columbus, OH 3/28/98]
10 Pretty Bombs [Carrboro, NC 4/16/02]
11 Far Out Crops [unknown]
12 My Impression Now [Cleveland, OH 4/26/97]
13 Look At Them [Chicago, IL 2/24/96]
14 A Salty Salute [unknown]
15 Melted Pat [Chicago, IL 2/24/96]
16 How Loft Am I? [Chicago, IL 7/11/98]
17 King And Caroline/Motor Away [Minneapolis, MN 2/22/96]
18 Trap Soul Door [unknown]
19 Cheyenne [Carrboro, NC 4/16/02]
20 Make Use [Chicago, IL 7/11/98]
21 Burning Flag Birthday Suit [Chicago, IL 2/24/96]
22 Weed King [Chicago, IL 2/24/96]
23 Town Of Mirrors [San Francisco, CA 2/27/99]
24 Over The Neptune/Mesh Gear Fox [Boston, MA 6/20/95]
25 Dragons Awake [Athens, GA 1/22/00]
26 Shrine To The Dynamic Years [Columbus, OH 3/28/98]
27 Game Of Pricks [unknown]
28 Tractor Rape Chain [Amsterdam, Holland 7/10/97]
29 Key Losers [Denver, CO 4/10/95]
30 Now To War [Amsterdam, Holland 7/10/97]
31 Johnny Appleseed [Seattle, WA 4/17/95]
32 Drinkers Peace [unknown]

Disc five: Forever Since Breakfast, the first-ever CD release of GbV's debut EP, originally on the I Wanna label in 1986. Pollard has repeatedly dismissed this material as substandard in comparison to the band's later output, but it's actually very good. Definitely written and recorded under the influence of R.E.M., but on "Like I Do" you can almost hear Pollard inventing the lo-fi sound that would define the group for much of the '90s, and the stuttered pop of "She Wants To Know" premonitions GbV's new-millenium formula of big hooks and big sound. Tracklist:

01 Land Of Danger
02 Let's Ride
03 Like I Do
04 Sometimes I Cry
05 She Wants To Know
06 Fountain Of Youth
07 The Other Place

Disc six: Watch Me Jumpstart, a freshly expanded DVD version of the 1996 Banks Tarver documentary which, similar to Pavement's Slow Century collection, will now include multi-angle live material as well as all of the band's videos. The live clips of "Hot Freaks," "Superwhore," "Goldheart Mountaintop Queen Directory," "Shocker In Gloomtown," "Postal Blowfish," "Weed King," "Exit Flagger," and "I Am A Scientist" that graced the original release are now augmented by 2002 performances of "Echos Myron," "Tight Globes," and "Cut-Out Witch." The disc will also include "Beautiful Plastic," an eight-minute follow-up documentary shot by Banks Tarver earlier this year, and the group's seven videos to date:

I Am A Scientist
Auditorium/Motor Away
My Valuable Hunting Knife
The Official Ironmen Rally Song
Bulldog Skin
Glad Girls
My Kind Of Soldier

The expanded Watch Me Jumpstart DVD will also be available separately on November 4th.

In other GbV news, we are told to expect a third release from Pollard side project Circus Devils this Halloween. The tracklist and recording details for Pinball Mars are expected from Fading Captain sometime next week. As previously reported, GbV bassist and Circus Devil Todd Tobias reportedly left GbV earlier this week, to be replaced on the current tour by Chris Slusarenko (Sprinkler) and Sam Powers (Superdrag). No reason has yet been announced for the sudden split.