BIBJ Playlist of the 2000s entry #62: Chasing Heather Crazy by Guided By Voices

Full Details of the BIBJ Millennial Playlist Hullabaloo are available here. Today's entry is #62: Chasing Heather Crazy by Guided By Voices(2001)


Guided By Voices - Chasing Heather Crazy (mp3)

Two points to be made here:

1. I'm not sure why, but I find it bothersome that "Glad Girls" (also off Isolation Drills) has somehow, through TV and commercial use, become the most popular GBV song. I find it to be one of the laziest efforts of the band's career.

2. My senior year in college, my roommates and I spent every Monday night bringing a local band into the UD television studio, and recording them live for a television/radio simulcast. Week after week, this proved to be a complete clusterfuck, as we were literally setting up all cables, connections and feeds with no more than 5 people (and usually my roommate Asp was the only one who had any troubleshooting know-how.) Somehow the show always made it on-air on time, and always sounded and looked decent (even as I was learning live direction on the fly.) After booking Swearing at Motorists, we were satisfied we had reached the creative and commercial peak of the show. But while chatting up S@M singer Dave after their performance, he offered a suggestion.

(Image via Terri Nelles)

"You should ask Bob Pollard to be on."
"How would be go about doing that?" I asked, not expecting an answer.
"He's in the phone book."
"I'm sorry?"
"Yeah, he's in there. He's easy to recognize. The guy actually lives on Titus Avenue."

My roommate Asp quickly grabbed a White Pages, and found it to be true! This was insane. Instead of going through TVT Records like a respectable professional, he called Bob's home number, got an answering machine and left a message, which in retrospect was pretty delusional in nature. Clearly the story was going to end there.

The next day, during my office hours I got a phone call.
"This is Bob's wife. I got the message somebody left for him yesterday"
[I stammered in a semi-coherent manner, simultaneously apologizing for calling the guy's home, while still extending the invitation.]
"Well he's out of town right now, but I'll make sure he calls you back when he gets home next week."

Clearly this could not actually be his wife. I suspected a friend was messing with us. Who would call BACK a couple idiots from a college radio station, JUST to tell them that you got their message and would relay it on? No, none of this was adding up! It didn't make sense. A week went by and we had dropped it. Until...

I walked into the office. The back door was closed. The news director smiled at me.
"Asp is on the phone with Bob Pollard."

We sat in the other room for about 5 minutes, waiting for the red light on line 3 to go out. When it finally went blank, Asp emerged from the back room.

No dice. Pollard's current rhythm section lived in Cleveland, so getting them to drive down for a show that they wouldn't be paid for, and would only extend to the airwaves of Dayton proper wasn't exactly feasible. When the possibility of a solo performance was brought up, Pollard said that he never performs by himself, due to extreme stage fright that can only be fought with copious amounts of alcohol (a claim I find shocking!)

So in the end, we didn't score the big get. It wasn't meant to be. But the man himself called us back! And was far nicer than he needed to be! In reality, he probably did us a favor. We were due to completely screw up the broadcast at some point down the line; luckily when it all went to shit, it wouldn't happen in front of Uncle Bob.