SONIC MASALA: Guided By Voices Make A Lunch Out Of Bears (And Everything Else)

Sunday, 11 November 2012

Guided By Voices Make A Lunch Out Of Bears (And Everything Else)

So Guided By Voices have another record, The Bears At Lunch, coming out tomorrow. Surprise surprise. I haven’t heard it, yet as always I am curious. Will it be brilliance from start to finish, will it hold curveballs, will it be top heavy and die away at the end, will I have to mine deep for the gems? Because there ARE gems in every GBV and Pollard-related release – he is incapable of not crafting at least one gold riff or stellar throwaway line. Which is nothing to take away from Sprout and Mitchell either… But 2012 has been unseasonably good – their previous two albums Let’s Go Eat The Factory and Class Clown Spots A UFO were a resurgence to form, Pollard’s two solo records were solid to good, and you can’t knock a Boston Spaceships Best Of ever. ‘She Lives In An Airport’ will be on The Bears At Lunch, and it is pretty damn good. Not brilliant, but if this is a reasonable indicator of what is to come, then we could have something special on our hands. It refuses to fit the pop mould – there isn’t even a chorus! Yet it is addictive as hell.

Preorder The Bears At Lunch here. Or, grab one of the special limited edition series of 7" singles that Fire Records commissioned (or all three as a bundle), all of which features a track from the album as well as previously unreleased, brand new b-sides spanning the band's varied writing styles. "Hangover Child" includes non-LP b-side "Urchin Promise" written by Tobin Sprout; "Everywhere Is Miles From Everywhere" includes non-LP b-side "The World's Getting Smaller" written by Mitch Mitchell; and "White Flag" includes non-LP b-sides "Casino Model" & "Zebra Film Negative" written by Robert Pollard.

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About

It was early on a Sunday morning at ATP - A Nightmare Before Christmas 2009. After downing a fair few, at 4am we decided to cook a curry. It was during the consumption of this drunkenly delicious breakfast treat that we decided to actually do something about the music we talk about all the time.

So we started a blog – and Sonic Masala was born. Now into its seventh year, the blog has spread out to call both Australia and the UK its home (and the rest of the world), and has expanded to include gigs, festivals and a record label under its black umbrella. Come on, eat the noize.

If an mp3 is up here, it's because we have been talking about it, and think the whole world needs to know more. It's there to give you a little taste. Then, if you like, check out the band live and spend all your hard earned cash on their records. If we've posted up an mp3 of your stuff and you're not too keen on the idea, let us know and we'll happily take it down pronto.