In two days, Guided By Voices will subject Thick Wealthy And Scrumptious, its second album of the yr and 42rd total. October 31 additionally occurs to be frontman Robert Pollard’s birthday. Whereas we’re certain Uncle Bob will obtain lot of good presents for his 68th, GBV followers might be getting fairly the Halloween deal with as properly, since Thick Wealthy And Scrumptious is the band’s greatest album in additional than 20 years.
The 15-track LP is a power-pop masterpiece, one insanely catchy quantity after one other, most working within the neighborhood of two to 3 minutes, similar to GBV devotees like ’em. The ultimate single earlier than Thick Wealthy And Scrumptious is launched is “Our Man Syracuse.”
“It’s really a composite of a bunch of various songs from the final 40 years which will or might not have appeared on varied information like Suitcase or Acid Ranch or one thing,” says Pollard of “Syracuse.” “I assembled it to its present type within the van headed out to our final exhibits on the West Coast … I used to be lastly capable of put it collectively coupled with a lyric that I felt suited its construction completely, and so I made a decision it was able to go.”
“Syracuse” is one in all many songs on Thick Wealthy And Scrumptious that showcases simply how tight and completely suited guitarist Doug Gillard, drummer Kevin March and bassist Mark Shue are to Pollard’s poppier productions. (Guitarist Bobby Naked Jr. offers backing vocals on the LP.)
“They actually clicked on the whole album,” says Pollard.
However one query stays: Who, then, is “Our Man Syracuse”? Is it Jim Brown? Lou Reed? Carmelo Anthony? Jerry Stiller? Larry Csonka? Pete Yorn? Joe Biden? Peter Falk?
“Your guesses are glorious, and any of these high-quality people might match the outline,” says Pollard. “Nevertheless it’s really primarily based on a man I knew throughout my faculty years at Wright State. He was a giant, considerably heavyset, however very athletic dude with lengthy hair. I feel he might have really performed on the varsity volleyball crew. He was cool, and so they known as him ‘Syracuse’ as a result of that’s the place he was from. I believed he would make a high-quality topic for an upbeat pop tune a few extremely popular man with the women.”
We’re proud to premiere Guided By Voices’ “Our Man Syracuse.”
