The Releases: Suitcase 2: American Superdream Wow (Compilation—The Fading Captain Series, 2005) / Briefcase 2: The Return of Milko Waif (Compilation—The Fading Captain Series, 2005)
I’m not going to lie to you. I did not want to write a piece for The GBV Project this week; especially one that required me to spend time with one-hundred songs that I was only faintly familiar with this time last week. First off, this was my last week of work for the next two months. And next week, I’m leaving on a road trip for which I have zero specific plans laid out. But really, the main reason why I didn’t want to work on this project this week: my hero died. However, aside from Wednesday afternoon/evening, I’ve spent most of my listening time this week sifting through one-hundred outtakes: tracks that largely seem to confirm the theory that anything, no matter how good, will eventually yield diminishing returns.
But truth be told, my Wednesday evening listens to Friends, Pet Sounds, Love You, Today, and Sunflower were mostly pretty sad. And, while there’s always some degree of awkwardness in mourning the loss of someone that you’ve never met—who you only knew through their art—in this particular case, there was a certain sense of ‘relief’ in the knowledge that their suffering is over. And honestly, there are many people that I’ve spent plenty of time around in my life, that I feel like I know far less than the man whose life’s work I hold so dearly. So yeah, like a lot of things in this world, my week was ‘complicated.’ But what ultimately kept me at this project was a simple mantra: we should celebrate our heroes—our rare geniuses—as much as we possibly can, and especially while they’re still with us.
And with that, this week’s piece is a follow-up to my feature on 2000’s Suitcase box set, and its Briefcase counterpart. In that article, I took the time to craft my own version of Briefcase, as I felt that Bob Pollard might’ve dropped the ball on his. Interestingly enough, while 2005’s Suitcase 2 undoubtedly pales in comparison to its predecessor, Pollard’s Briefcase sequel stands as a better representation of its source material than the original. Where Briefcase made a number of odd inclusions, and merely put its selections in the same order that they had appeared in on the box set, Briefcase 2 feels like a deliberate attempt at creating a cohesive listening experience.
And while the sum total of Briefcase is superior, Briefcase 2 is arguably more satisfying, as it takes advantage of Pollard’s not-so-secret knack for sequencing. Sure, there are still some baffling choices—I definitely wouldn’t have spent almost seven minutes on the phone message/instrumental “What About the Rock?”—but those oddities serve a similar function to the strange departures and welcomingly-jarring transitions on GBV classics like Bee Thousand and Alien Lanes.
But for my own Briefcase 2, I decided to take a different path. At the time of Suitcase 2‘s release, much was made of the lack of a clear delineation between what makes a Robert Pollard song different from a Guided by Voices song. This was not only due to the then-recent disbandment of GBV, but also the fact that Suitcase 2 houses a significant number of Pollard-only tracks. So, in the spirit of great albums like Bringing It All Back Home and Rust Never Sleeps, I decided to create a ‘Both Sides of Bob’ version of Briefcase 2 (Matt’s Version). The first side are songs that (almost) only feature Robert Pollard, while the second half is comprised of full band recordings. The same parameters that applied to my version of Briefcase were adhered to for this sequel.
Here it is:
SIDE A (22:23)
A1. “It’s Only Up to You” (1987) — A Devil Between My Toes/Sandbox era outtake, “It’s Only Up to You” does a bit of a fake-out ending, before returning (with slightly better fidelity), for a rather lovely reprise.
A2. “Stingy Queens” (1996) — Between the recording of the first two songs on this playlist, Guided by Voices went from a completely unknown entity—one effectively ignored even in their hometown—to the most buzzed-about independent band in America. The fact that you could never tell in either the sound or spirit of these two tracks is only a small part of what makes GBV so singular.
A3. “How Can You?” (1982) — Going way back to a pre-GBV era, “How Can You?” finds Robert Pollard in a rare allegorical mode. It’s vaguely Dylanesque, but all Pollardian—and yes, both of those should be adjectives that don’t turn up in a spell check.
A4. “Two Or Three Songs” (1998) — My placement of this song in this spot might’ve been a little ‘clever’ for its own good, but it fits here. As too does the minimalist bass part, provided by Mitch Mitchell.
A5. “Sinister Infrared Halo” (1998) — Here’s another one with a little bit of outside help—former “Manager for Life” Pete Jamison is credited with ‘effects’ in the liner notes. This is a surprisingly atmospheric track for GBV, and I’m totally here for it.
A6. “Happy at the Drag Strip” (1980) — Back into GBV prehistory for this sinister little Velvets homage. There’s something reassuring in hearing that Pollard’s idiosyncrasies were there from the outset.
A7. “Are You Faster?” (1996) — No, this isn’t the song of the same name that appeared on 1997’s Mag Earwhig, but rather, a demo from the abandoned The Power of Suck LP. Weirdly enough, this is a more fleshed-out song than the one that eventually bore the title.
A8. “Drugs and Eggs” (1993) — A charming little track from early in GBV’s unstoppable 1992-1996 run. Pollard had so much killer material at this point, that it was wholly understandable how a promising sketch like this one could fall through the cracks.
SIDE B (21:45)
B1. “Mannequin’s Complaint” (1997) — We ease into the full band part of the program with this Mag Earwhig era track—an alternate version of a song from the “Bulldog Skin” single. The music box segment is a nice touch.
B2. “I Am Decided” (1996) — Generally viewed as a/the highlight of Suitcase 2, this one easily could have found a home on Under the Bushes, Under the Stars.
B3. “Perch Warble” (1993) — A version of this one had appeared on the original Suitcase set, but the power pop charms of this take win out.
B4. “A Proud and Booming Industry” (1987) — While a handful of the songs from this side are alternate takes of tracks found elsewhere, this is merely a repurposed title of a Devil Between My Toes instrumental, attached to a far more fleshed out song.
B5. “Your Charming Proposal” (1996) — As the title suggests, it’s definitely charming—although frustratingly brief.
B6. “Telephone Town” (1987) — There are some definite melodic similarities between this one and the Suitcase highlight “Where I Come From.” That’s a superior song, but this one is plenty worthwhile too.
B7. “Cox Municipal Airport Song” (1988) — From roughly the same era—the one that frequently found GBV heavily channeling R.E.M.—this is another low-key gem, complete with harmonica punctuations.
B8. “Paper Girl” (1988) — Yes, the version from Self-Inflicted Aerial Nostalgia is also excellent—and features those great wordless vocals—but this earlier take is equally appealing.
B9. “Home by Ten” (1992) — The liner notes seem to be at a loss for the personnel on this Propeller-era track—which isn’t all that surprising, given the revolving-door of GBV collaborators at that particular time. Sounds like a decent contingent of the “classic era” lineup might be present here.
B10. “Lonely Town” (1987) — As I did with my first Briefcase re-imagination, I’m ending this one with an outtake from the Sandbox era. And, as was the case with that installment’s closer (“Where I Come From”), this is another track that easily outclasses anything that made the actual record. Although it’s anachronistic to suggest it, the outro of this one feels pretty damned Pavement-esque.
Ratings: Suitcase 2 (7.0) / Briefcase 2 (7.5)*
*Singles are star-rated by their A-side; albums and EPs use the “Russman Reviews” scale.
Bob-ism of the Week: “Now when the Jesus told the apostles that this will be that / Even the unholy could smell a rat / Most of them would rather throw parties than stones / Surely they rather break virgins than bones” (“How Can You?”)
Next Week: Another week, another Suitcase. However, I’ll be on the road, so the next two installments of The GBV Project will likely be delayed.
