The Releases: Suitcase 4: Captain Kangaroo Won the War (Compilation—GBVi, 2015) / Briefcase 4: Captain Kangaroo Won the War (Compilation—GBVi, 2015)
When we last checked in on Guided by Voices, Robert Pollard had broken up the band for a second time. And, if you’re reading this, you almost certainly know that it wouldn’t last. Less than two years after the “classic lineup” reunion released Cool Planet and split up mid-tour, GBV would be rechristened with 2016’s Please Be Honest. We’ll get to that one in the next installment; because during what turned out to be a brief hiatus for Guided by Voices, Pollard once again dipped into his archives for the fourth—and final as of this point—release in the Suitcase/Briefcase series.
As noted the last time we covered a Suitcase project, Pollard’s seemingly-endless well of recordings wasn’t quite yielding the same caliber of material as it had in previous excavations. And unsurprisingly, Suitcase 4: Captain Kangaroo Won the War doesn’t represent a reversal of that downward trend. Over the three-plus hours of music spread across four CDs, there are plenty of meandering moments and obvious throwaways. And—as is the case for any entry in the Suitcase series—this stuff is neither for the GBV newcomer, the audiophile, or the faint of heart.
And true to form, Bob Pollard takes a less-than-obvious approach with the shorter LP companion piece, Briefcase 4. Rather than picking the most accessible standouts from the box set, Pollard grabs only a few choice cuts, and pads out the run-time out with some of Suitcase 4‘s most oblique material. To his credit, the use of crossfades and transitional pieces makes for a cohesive listen, even if it’s far from the most consistently impressive record in GBV’s massive catalog.
So yeah, even for the dyed-in-the-wool GBV fanatics, Suitcase/Briefcase 4 make for a pretty ho-hum pair of releases—if not an outright slog. However, there is one particularly interesting aspect of wading through the set. Throughout these one-hundred tracks, Pollard drops a surprising number of Easter eggs: lyrics, melodies, chord changes, and other ideas that would eventually be repurposed into some of his most-loved material. And in this piece, as I craft my final ‘idealized’ single-LP version of a Suitcase set, it’s those moments that I’m most keen to focus on.
The rules are the same as they were for the previous three playlists: twenty-two minutes max on either ‘side’; and only tracks that are currently available on streaming (eliminating only a few transitional pieces on Briefcase 4). At least half of these tracks contain clear references to later Guided by Voices classics; and though I could have, I didn’t include early incarnations of “Postal Blowfish,” “Glad Girls,” “Quality of Armor,” or “Dirty Water.” The remaining inclusions were tracks that I felt stood among the ‘best of the box.’
Here goes:
SIDE A (21:39)
A1. “Walls and Windows” (1984) — From the pre-GBV demo by Coyote Call (Pissing in the Canal), this one would eventually be repurposed as the opener to Robert Pollard’s masterpiece. And while it never quite reaches the level of “Hardcore UFO’s,” this jangly take proves that it was a great song from the outset.
A2. “Fall All Over Yourself” (2015) — Notes online indicate that this peppy seventy-six second jam was recorded by Bob Pollard and Nick Mitchell, specifically for Suitcase 4. It would have been nice for the recording dates to be included in the packaging, but like Suitcase 3, the liner notes here are lacking in that regard.
A3. “Lockets of the Empress” (1984) — Another one from the Coyote Call demo, this charming track features Mitch Mitchell (bass), Kevin Fennell (drums), and Mitch Swan (12-string guitar). Lovely stuff.
A4. “Less Active Railroad” (1979) — This is one of the earliest existing recordings from Pollard. It features a great verse melody that would be repurposed for 1993’s excellent “Wished I Was a Giant.”
A5. “Doctor Boyfriend” (2015) — Another 2015 Bob Pollard/Nick Mitchell recording. This one includes a classic sixties garage rock organ (Farfisa? Vox?), a sound that rarely features on GBV tracks, but that is certainly welcome. It also includes the first overt Tommy reference on this playlist.
A6. “Over and Over Again” — Not sure when this one was recorded; but it must have been pre-1993, as the chord progression, melody, and some of the lyrics would be purposed for the masterful single “If We Wait.” Fortunately the finished version didn’t have as much aimless tremolo guitar fuckery.
A7. “The Garden” — A song written by Tobin Sprout’s pre-GBV band, fig. 4. Sprout plays guitar on this version, but Pollard takes the vocals. While some have criticized Pollard’s early work for being too indebted to R.E.M., clearly he wasn’t the only member of GBV that loved the Georgia college rock titans.
A8. “Try Me On for Size” — Only Bob Pollard could effortlessly come up with a melody this good, toss it aside, sit on it for a decade, and then eventually repurpose it into one of the greatest indie rock songs ever recorded. Son of a bitch…
A9. “Deaf Dumb and Blind Girl” (2015) — Here’s another 2015 Pollard/Mitchell recording—and another one with an overt Tommy reference. Did you know that in his earliest dabbling with what eventually became Tommy, Pete Townshend envisioned the central character to be a girl? I’ll bet Bob Pollard does.
SIDE B (21:09)
B1. “Good to Look” (1985) — This might be blasphemous, but I think I might like this even more than the song that it eventually became. I don’t know though; I’ve said the same thing about that equally-jangly version of “And Your Bird Can Sing” that appears on Anthology 2, and that can’t possibly be true. Right?
B2. “Only Ghost in Town” — The opening second (and really, just one second) of this one reminds me of “Needle in the Hay.” There’s also a very Sonic Youth-y chord change at the thirty-five second mark. Right now I think I just need to name drop other artists, because for large portions of this year it feels like GBV is the only band that I listen to. I guess I need to remind myself that other ones exist.
B3. “Clean It Up” — The aforementioned 1984 Coyote Call demo included a track (“Tell Me”) whose verses would be repurposed a decade later. By the time of this early-nineties demo, Bob Pollard had written the lines that would become that song’s chorus. And somewhere in the intervening years, Greg Demos recorded a piece on an acoustic guitar that Pollard would eventually dig out of his mountain of cassettes, and affix to the beginning of the completed version of that song. Sometimes we fixate on Pollard’s ability to just pull a brilliant melody from out of nowhere—as I did a few tracks earlier—but let’s not forget that his art involves both vision and labor. The fact that the greatest song that he ever wrote was cobbled together from a series of disconnected inspirations—that took place several years apart—means that it is not the work of accidental genius. It is a testament to craftsmanship.
B4. “Ugly Day of Rain and Soccer” — One in a long line of great Bob Pollard titles, “Ugly Day of Rain and Soccer” is a low-key acoustic gem: a mode that I’ve already praised vigorously in covering earlier installments of the Suitcase series.
B5. “Hallway of Shatterproof Glass” (1992) — Recorded during the sessions for Propeller, the title lyrics to this one—as well as the chord changes—would eventually be reconfigured for the Bee Thousand standout, “The Goldheart Mountaintop Queen Directory.”
B6. “The House Always Looks So Nice” — Though the title might bring to mind “Peep-Hole,” this undated track bears little resemblance to that Bee Thousand fan favorite. It does have a similarly understated vibe though.
B7. “I Am Decided” (1996) — An alternate version of Suitcase 2‘s “I Am Decided”—which I’ve always felt bears a strong similarity to “Dusted”—this one might feel like a bit of a rip-off, since I already included the other mix on my own Briefcase 2. However, the pickings were somewhat slim here, and I never mind hearing this one again.
B8. “Excellent Extension” (2015) — Another one of the new songs recorded for Suitcase 4; although the airy, Mellotron-esque keyboards establish a connection to several of Tobin Sprout’s contributions to the reunion-era albums.
B9. “Motor Away” (1994) — No Easter egg here; just a straightforward demo of the Alien Lanes classic. It lacks the full-band throttle of the final version—not to mention a verse—but it’s still a great track regardless.
Ratings: Suitcase 4 (6.5) / Briefcase 4 (6.5)*
*Singles are star-rated by their A-side; albums and EPs use the “Russman Reviews” scale.
Bob-ism of the Week: “Walking down Mystery Walk / All you need is a piece of chalk / Walking down Mystery Walk / It takes balls to walk down Mystery Walk / Took ten years, get up the balls / Walk down Mystery Walk” (“Mystery Walk”)
Next Week: Bob Pollard records a solo album, and calls it a Guided by Voices record.
