Tobin Sprout of Guided By Voices Never Looked Back

For over thirty years, Guided By Voices have been the hands-down "kings of lo-fi." Tobin Sprout has been with the guys, with varying amounts of input, for the whole ride.

What started as simply a little weekend project for Dayton, Ohio school teacher Robert Pollard, is now an alt-rock institution.

After the guys found out that their homemade tapes had been sent around the country, to wide acclaim, the GBV guys decided to take this rock thing seriously. They have never looked back.

Along the way, Robert Pollard and company found their niche to be prolific songwriting (with Pollard banking thousands of original, published songs and nearly one hundred albums!) Also, rarely taking their band to fancy studios, they have always been most comfortable recording direct to 4-track, analog tape.

Add to this marathon-long live shows, often fueled by massive beer consumption and hilarious on-stage banter, and you have a band that is easy to root for.

Tobin Sprout has always been a kind-of "George Harrison" of Guided By Voices, meaning he gets a handful of songs to write and sing per album while Pollard has always done the lion's share of the writing/singing. Sprout is the guest on my show this weekend and we discuss how the frigid Polar Vortex of 2014 affected the writing and recording of their new album "Cool Planet" out this week.

If you are a fan of the sound that Matador Records gave the world in the 1990's (Liz Phair, Pavement, Yo La Tengo, Jon Spencer Blues Explosion) you definitely need to familiarize yourself to the massive body of work that Guided By Voices has birthed throughout the years.

Mr. Sprout is my guest Saturday May 17th only at http://theandyderershow.com.

For more on Guided By Voices: http://gbv.com