Guided by Voices (often abbreviated as GBV) was an extremely prolific lo-fi/ indie-rock band from Dayton, Ohio. Guided by Voices were an integral part of the American independent rock scene from 1986 until 2004, turning out many albums of short, catchy indie tunes.
Over the years the band saw many personnel changes, but always maintained the presence of principal singer/songwriter Robert Pollard, a former schoolteacher. Pollard was an avid rock fan, and Guided by Voices' work always reflected his steadfast devotion to the Beatles, post- British Invasion garage rock, psychedelic, prog-rock, as well as punk and post-punk.
Guided by Voices also garnered much attention for its prolificacy, with a seemingly endless stream of releases. Most songs are in the two-minute range, but many are even shorter; often they end abruptly or are intertwined with odd and homemade sound effects. While Guided by Voices progressed over time from an aspiring bar band, to willfully scuzzy basement obscurantists, to a relatively professional riff-pop machine in the latter half of the 90's, the constants throughout were Pollard's seemingly instinctual grasp of the pop form, his digestion of reams of rock history, and his gift for melodic invention.
Formed in Dayton, Ohio in the early 1980s, Guided by Voices began their career as a bar band working the local scene. As lineups and day-jobs shifted, however, Pollard moved the band towards a studio-only orientation. Guided by Voices' recording career began with a stream of self-financed, independent releases such as Sandbox and Same Place the Fly Got Smashed. With only a few hundred copies of each album being pressed, these tended to circulate only among the band members' family and friends.
