This Time The World Did What It Told Me It Would

Poto & Cabengo “Life In San Diego” – In the context of the Poto & Cabengo LP, which mostly features electronic manipulations and approximations of acoustic folk music, this song is a bit of an oddball. But then again, this song would probably seem like an oddity in most any context. I’m not sure how to classify this track – it’s not quite loungey, it’s not quite disco, the vocals are slippery and hard to define, a little bit like David Byrne doing an impression of Damo Suzuki. Whatever this is, it is most certainly pop, in a dizzy, roundabout sort of way. (Click here to buy it from Ear-Rational.)

Experimental Dental School “Hideous Dance Attack” – Now this is peculiar. It’s like a garage band playing circus music, with a spazzy singer who manages to somehow combine the most irritating vocal tics of Anthony Kiedis, Julian Cassablancas, and R2-D2 without sucking. Baffling yet totally compelling. (Click here to buy it directly from the band.)

Guided By Voices @ Pier 54, NYC 8/19/2004

Sad If I Lost It / Everybody Thinks I’m A Raincloud (When I’m Not Looking) / Sleep Over Jack / Girls Of Wild Strawberries / Navigating Flood Regions / Things I Will Keep / Closets Of Henry / Asia Minor / Mascara Snakes / Run Son Run / Window Of My World / Christian Animation Torch Carriers / Back To The Lake / Chief Barrel Belly / Gonna Never Have To Die / Buzzards And Dreadful Crows / Red Ink Superman / My Kind Of Soldier / Queen Of Cans And Jars / Sons Of Apollo / Fair Touching / Beg For A Wheelbarrow / Tractor Rape Chain / Game Of Pricks / Secret Star / Watch Me Jumpstart / The Best Of Jill Hives / Cut-Out Witch / Alone, Stinking, And Unafraid / Glad Girls / Murder Charge

Though I’ve had more fun at other Guided By Voices shows (read: I’ve been in the front of the crowd with all the Postal Blowfish fanatics), this was probably the best GBV show that I’ve seen in terms of performance quality. Though the concert ended somewhat abruptly and without an encore (the venue apparently insisted that the show be over by 10 PM), this was a very strong and satisfying show, focusing mainly on material from Half Smiles Of The Decomposed and other recent releases. In my experience, GBV shows usually start somewhat weakly and build up to an ecstatic climax, but this show began with four consecutive highlights, including “Sad If I Lost It,” a major sentimental favorite of mine which I never thought I’d get to see played live. “Beg For A Wheelbarrow” and “Alone, Stinking, and Unafraid” were particularly memorable and spirited, though “Red Ink Superman” and “Mascara Snakes” were tedious duds which ought to be dropped from the setlist ASAP.

Note to Bob Pollard: just because it ends on the lyric “and that’s the electrifying conclusion” doesn’t make an obscure tune like “Murder Charge” an actual electrifying conclusion!