Bee Thousand
Twenty songs from Portastudios and basements, cut down from a planned double album: the record that made them.
Guided by Voices, 1994
- Released
- 21 June 1994
- Recorded
- 1984-1993
- Studio
- Home recordings in garages and basements, mostly in Dayton, Ohio
- Label
- Scat
- Producer
- Guided by Voices
Play on hypersongs (1)Play on hypersongs (2)
In September 1993 Pollard described a 33-song double album for early the next year. A working sequence was titled Instructions to the Rusty Time Machine, and some 65 songs were considered at one time or another before the album was edited down. The title came from a group brainstorm that combined a brother's idea, a mile marker and a misspelled drive-in movie title, and the cover figure comes from a National Geographic article on Mardi Gras in Acadiana. Most songs are by Robert Pollard, with others credited to Tobin Sprout, Jim Pollard, Mitch Mitchell and Randy Campbell.
Spin gave it five out of five, and Stereogum's Michael Nelson ranked it first among the band's albums. Rolling Stone placed it among the best albums of the 1990s, and Amazon named it the greatest indie rock album. Scat issued Bee Thousand: The Director's Cut in 2004, a three-LP set built around the early Rusty Time Machine sequence with outtakes and unreleased songs. Marc Woodworth wrote a 33 1/3 book about the album in 2006.
Track listing
- Hardcore UFO's1:54
- Buzzards and Dreadful Crows1:43
- Tractor Rape Chain3:04
- The Goldheart Mountaintop Queen Directory1:45
- Hot Freaks1:42
- Smothered in Hugs3:00
- Yours to Keep1:15
- Echos Myron2:42
- Gold Star for Robot Boy1:39
- Awful Bliss1:12
- Mincer Ray2:21
- A Big Fan of the Pigpen2:09
- Queen of Cans and Jars1:55
- Her Psychology Today2:04
- Kicker of Elves1:04
- Ester's Day1:51
- Demons Are Real0:48
- I Am a Scientist2:24
- Peep-Hole1:25
- You're Not an Airplane0:33
Personnel
- Robert Pollard vocals, guitar, other instruments
- Tobin Sprout vocals, bass, guitar, piano
- Jim Pollard bass, guitar, feedback
- Mitch Mitchell guitar
- Kevin Fennell drums, percussion
- Don Thrasher drums, percussion
- Dan Toohey bass
- Greg Demos bass
- Randy Campbell additional backing vocals
More from Guided by Voices
Alien Lanes (1995), Isolation Drills (2001), I Am a Scientist / Tractor Rape Chain (30th Anniversary Versions) (2024)
Sources
- Bee Thousand, Wikipedia
- Bee Thousand, GBVDB
- Bee Thousand: The Director's Cut, GBVDB
- The Robert Pollard interview, Ptolemaic Terrascope (1993-09)
- Bee Thousand: The Director's Cut, Pitchfork (2004)