Guided By Voices

This live recording doesn’t just include the songs, no, it includes nuggets of knowledge from lead singer Robert Pollard. Though they’ve been broken up for over a year now, people still love GBV (even more so than Pollard’s recent solo stuff) and Pollard puts it brilliantly when he notes, "We suck and still rule.” Indeed, GBV are still loved due to their damn near invention of lo-fi, their ragged edges and their idiot savant way with melody. All that frustrates and entrances about GBV is present on this double-disc set recorded for Austin City Limits. Much has been made of their live show, usually just stories of Pollard’s incredible drunkenness and witty repartee, which you can experience on innumerable DVDs, but this has the feeling of a greatest hits package. "Game of Pricks” is here, as well as a particularly awesome "Cut Out Witch” and even more recent stuff like "Teenage FBI” and "Glad Girls.” For those pining for one last GBV show and the inevitable disappointment of them not playing "Bulldog Skin,” this is pretty good. It sometimes sucks but, man, it also rules.