Matador, 1996
Acquired: Love Garden, New, 2007
Price: $16
So, I wrote a big long piece about this record and how it's kind of my favorite GBV record and then it got deleted. I know way too much about this record and it's history, and you should read about it on Wikipedia. It involves this rising from the ashes of a Kim Deal produced concept album called The Power of Suck, which was intended to be an autobiographical record about the rise of GBV, closing with “Don't Stop Now,” in which the band has reached the top, changed their name to King Shit and the Golden Boys. That whole record (a lot of the tracks ended up on this album) is a piece of work and wouldn't have worked half as well as this one does. It's the last act of the trilogy, and the really, it's the last great GBV record. Though others detract, I think this is just as good as Bee Thousand and Alien Lanes, or at least in the same league. It's got slicker production but it still sounds like it could have been recorded in a basement. The six pseudo-bonus tracks are what make this mostly my favorite GBV record. “Big Boring Wedding,” “Redmen and Their Wives,” “It's Like Soul Man,” “Drag Days,” they're all jams. Actually, maybe Bee Thousand is my favorite because it's the most perfect, but this is the first GBV record I listened to all the way through and that gives me a special connection. “Don't Stop Now” was the first GBV track I ever heard and it was on a mix CD that I woke up to for an entire semester of High School. Waking up once a week to that thumping cello and the lines “Woke up one morning,” which only became ultra-relevant years later.
Note: This new photo format is bugging me. However, it's less of a pain in the ass than my broken digital camera, which makes Photo Booth the new photo taking method...although the photos have to be FLIPPED, which makes taking them really weird. Although, to get enough light I have to light the whole thing like I'm in a film noir movie, which is really fun.
flawless. that tour they did before this record even came out, was incredible. it was the first time i saw the band live, first time they came to canada, and they were trying out the songs from under the bushes. i remember hearing big boring wedding at their in house at much music and being blown away. i love this record very very much.
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