What defined the classic era of Guided by Voices—the stretch from 1990 to ’96 when the lo-fi indie rock kings produced their undisputed best work—was the push and pull between the band’s figurehead, Robert Pollard, and its guitarist and co-front man, Tobin Sprout. The notoriously prolific and scatterbrained Pollard brought countless fractured, loose-limbered ideas to the table, and Sprout injected them with a melodic sense and whimsy inspired by the British Invasion, eventually transforming damaged bedroom recordings into pop majesty.…
What defined the classic era of Guided by Voices—the stretch from 1990 to ’96 when the lo-fi indie rock kings produced their undisputed best work—was the push and pull between the band’s figurehead, Robert Pollard, and its guitarist and co-front man, Tobin Sprout. The notoriously prolific and scatterbrained Pollard brought countless fractured, loose-limbered ideas to the table, and Sprout injected them with a melodic sense and whimsy inspired by the British Invasion, eventually transforming damaged bedroom recordings into pop majesty.…