New West Records
2007
Live From Austin Tx
About This Album
Given Robert Pollard's skewed but enthusiastic embrace of rock classicism (evidenced by his shared obsession with the Beatles and the Who), it's surprising that Guided by Voices never got around to releasing that staple of rock & roll traditionalists, the double live album (beyond giving their blessings to a couple of authorized semi-bootlegs, Jellyfish Reflector and Crying Your Knife Away). But two years after Pollard retired Guided by Voices, the band finally gets the twin-disc concert document treatment with Live from Austin, TX, which preserves the 30-song set GBV played during a November 2004 taping of the PBS series Austin City Limits on their farewell tour. While the DVD Guided by Voices: The Electrifying Conclusion offers a writ-large record of GBV's last days (taped during the band's marathon final gig), this more compact offering serves a similar function -- while not the definitive word on a live Guided by Voices gig, it captures their many strengths and occasional weaknesses very well indeed. While Guided by Voices lost a bit of their semi-pro charm in their last years, as a live act they were near the peak of their abilities when they set out on their final road trip, and the band sounds little short of remarkable during this set; Doug Gillard and Nate Farley's guitars channel the melodic glory of Pollard's songs through the thunder of a stack of amps as bassist Chris Slusarenko and drummer Kevin March drive these songs like Mario Andretti.
Track List

Disc 1 (try tracks 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10 and 11)

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Disc 2 (try tracks 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10 and 11)

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