Track Listing
1. Salty Salute
2. Things I Will Keep
3. Everywhere With Helicopter
4. I Am a Tree
5. My King of Soldier
6. 14 Cheerleader Coldfront
7. Twilight Campfighter
8. Echos Myron
9. Learning to Hunt
10. Bulldog Skin
11. Captain's Dead
12. Tractor Rape Chain
13. Game of Pricks
14. To Remake the Young Flyer
15. Hit
16. Glad Girls
17. Drinker's Peace
18. Surgical Focus
19. Cut-Out Witch
20. Best of Jill Hives
21. Hot Freaks
22. Shocker in Gloomtown
23. Chasing Heather Crazy
24. Valuable Hunting Knife
25. Official Ironmen Rally Song
26. Non - Absorbing
27. Motor Away
28. Teenage FBI
29. Watch Me Jumpstart
30. Exit Flagger
31. Back to the Lake
32. I Am a Scientist
33. I Am Produced
| Details | | Distributor: | MSI Music Distribution | | Recording Type: | Studio | | Recording Mode: | Stereo | | SPAR Code: | n/a |
Album Notes
Guided By Voices: Robert Pollard, Tobin Sprout, Jim Pollard, Mitch Mitchell, Dan Toohey, Kevin Fennell.
Japanese version features a bonus track.
Formed in the mid-1980s by Dayton, Ohio schoolteacher Robert Pollard, Guided By Voices was essentially a rock & roll hobby for the Who-loving frontman and his raucous, ever-changing band. With the success and acclaim surrounding 1994's gloriously lo-fi BEE THOUSAND, however, Pollard was able to quit his day job, sign with Matador Records, and take GBV on the road. Revered indie-rock status, as it turns out, suited Pollard just fine, since it allowed the singer/songwriter to delve further into his quirky aesthetic, marked by surreal lyrics and a deft combination of British Invasion bombast, gleeful pop, and fractured folk-rock.
Although this single-disc collection barely skims the surface of the extensive Guided By Voices catalogue, it does offer 32 gems from various albums and EPs that span from 1987 to 2003. While the tunes and tape hiss of early GBV are present ("Captain's Dead," "14 Cheerleader Coldfront"), the group's post-'94 golden era is the focus of HUMAN AMUSEMENTS AT HOURLY RATES. Of the many Pollard classics featured here, highlights include the gloriously absurd "Hot Freaks," the ridiculously catchy "My Valuable Hunting Knife," the majestic "I Am a Tree," and the air-guitar-inducing "Back to the Lake." A concise introduction to Guided By Voices, this compilation should inspire the curious to seek out even more Pollard-penned wonders.
Editorial Reviews
4 stars out of 5 - ...Skims thirty-two songs' worth of cream from GBV's mammoth catalog, mixing up sloppy marvels from the one-take/no-tuning early years, strutting mid-career singles...and slicker, punchier tracks...
Rolling Stone (11/13/2003)
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