Back in 1995, I was living in Tucson, AZ and working in a record store. The “senior” staff there had control of what music was played over the sound system and, aside from a number of industrial dance beat shifts a week, it was a great place to be forcibly introduced to new music. One of the things I picked up while working there was Guided By Voices – Bee Thousand.
I loved it instantly. I’m not sure what spoke to me about it. There are a few things in my music collection that stand [FAR] out; beginning to end masterpieces. This is definitely on the short list. Unfortunately (I guess that is relative), the recording quality of this album is not great. I never really processed how bad the quality was until years later, after repeatedly trying to play it for new friends. No one would ever give it a chance. That, and I, too, had been making recordings that sounded similar to those for several years. Sure, it’s hard to listen to if it doesn’t catch you immediately. There’s definitely some magic there, though, and lots of those in the know continue to give it accolades, putting it in all sorts of top 100 lists:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bee_Thousand#Accolades
Anyway, a few years ago, I started talking about recording my interpretation of the whole album, as a salute, or a tribute, I guess, to the handful of people responsible for making it in the first place. Maybe my old friends would hear what I was on about all those years if the songs were a little more produced. I have talked about things like that before and talk is cheap. Usually, I just record one or two covers of songs that stand out to me (plug) and leave it at that.
This time, though, I meant it, and now, six or seven years later, I’ve actually done it. Of course, I did have a little help from my friends. I started working on these tracks nearly a year ago with my old drumming buddy and a fantastic grower of beards, Chad Hildebran (website || facebook). We knocked out a bunch of them fairly quickly, then a few months went by, we recorded a couple more, then a few months went by… You get the pattern.
Around the same time, I handed off lyrics sheets and chord charts to my longest running collaborator and partner in crime, Dan Taylor (website, website || facebook), who had agreed to play bass on it if we could ever actually get it together. Almost a year went by with no news. Granted, we hadn’t actually gotten it together, and granted, he’s a busy guy, being a total rock star (Metroid Metal, Yes Mayhem), as well as a great dad and coincidentally, also a fantastic grower of beards… Now that I have gotten it together and knocked the rest of the recordings out, Dan came through in smashing fashion, recording all his tracks over the course of three or four days. They’re ridiculous AND came out better and more on point than I ever imagined.
So, here we are and now it’s done and I love it. Hopefully, you will love it, too. If you do, go buy the original in a record store or online somewhere. This is still pure indie rock; everything here is free to all and was recorded in one bedroom or another by one person or another.
We’ve decided to call this project Guided By Guided By Voices – Bee Two Thousand Eleven.
Enjoy!
James
Here’s the full album download (ZIP, ~85MB) or stream/download individual tracks below.
02. Buzzards and Dreadful Crows
