meta-scriptEvery Moment Flame On: A Guide To The Expanded Universe Of Robert Pollard & Guided By Voices | GRAMMY.com
Every Moment Flame On: A Guide To The Expanded Universe Of Robert Pollard & Guided By Voices

Robert Pollard

Photo: Terri Nelles

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Every Moment Flame On: A Guide To The Expanded Universe Of Robert Pollard & Guided By Voices

To better understand the long-running, ultra-prolific and emotionally impactful rock band Guided by Voices, dig deeper and check out Robert Pollard's other projects

GRAMMYs/Jul 28, 2021 - 08:34 pm

The punk singer and drummer Ian Shelton was early in his Guided by Voices fandom when an unfamiliar song hit him like a ton of bricks. "I was watching the HBO 'Reverb' set," the leader of Regional Justice Center and Militarie Gun recalls to GRAMMY.com. "I was like, 'What is this amazing song, "Alone, Stinking and Unafraid"? I'm going through all the records, like, 'Which record is this on?'"

It turned out to be by one of GBV leader Robert Pollard's side projects, Lexo and the Leapers, who made one EP in 1999. "So, wait: This guy, who has a successful band, also does other bands that are intentionally less successful and harder to find?" Shelton thought. "That was kind of a revolutionary moment — the idea that the way you release music is that different things have different intentions as far as your audience reach."

<iframe style="border: 0; width: 100%; height: 120px;" src="https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=2433765679/size=large/bgcol=ffffff/linkcol=0687f5/tracklist=false/artwork=small/transparent=true/" seamless><a href="https://cubscoutbowlingpinsofficial.bandcamp.com/album/clang-clang-ho">Clang Clang Ho by Cub Scout Bowling Pins</a></iframe>

Read More: "A Joyful Burden": How Ian Shelton Of Militarie Gun & Regional Justice Center Makes Art Out Of Negativity

To Shelton and the rest of Pollard's disciples, his lifetime outpouring is like an entire record store. As the prolific, prodigious and overlooked songwriter once sang, "This place has everything." Want to hear '60s-style pop? Make a beeline for Cub Scout Bowling Pins. Stadium rock? Check out Ricked Wicky. Unclassifiable noise experiments? Go with Circus Devils. Country and western? Cash Rivers and the Sinners.

And if you just want to hear one of the most idiosyncratic, emotionally impactful bands of the past several decades, go with his main vehicle, Guided by Voices, who have been running on and off since 1983 with members in and out. (If you're unfamiliar, start with their three indisputable classics — 1994's Bee Thousand, 1995's Alien Lanes and 1996's Under the Bushes Under the Stars — and report back.)

However, even their 33 full-length albums and counting don't tell the entire story. At the peak of their popularity, when their record label asked Pollard to stop releasing so much music under the name Guided by Voices, such was the Big Bang of his expanded universe. And the latest stop on this runaway locomotive is Clang Clang Ho!, the first LP by his latest project, Cub Scout Bowling Pins, which was released July 2. (Surprise! It's GBV under a different name.)

While Pollard's canon is catnip for collectors and completists, it's the music's quality — not quantity — that makes it resonate. The melancholic sway of Ricked Wicky's "Jargon of Clones, Robert Pollard's and Doug Gillard's creative call-to-arms "Do Something Real" and Boston Spaceships' jaw-droppingly melodic "Come On Baby Grace" have nothing to do with poring over Discogs minutia. This is purely ascendant rock music.

"Each album could be its own universe, and each song its own planet to explore, but instead he's created multiple universes and alternate universes within universes," Andrew W.K. once opined. "You could definitely only listen to Robert Pollard music and be super well-stocked with tunes for a long time."

Why does Pollard engender this distinction? With the help of the official Guided by Voices database, let's dig deeper into his songbook.

Acid Ranch

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If you wish the hallucinogenic ballad "The Goldheart Mountaintop Queen Directory" from Bee Thousand was an entire project, go with this pre-GBV project from the early 1980s.

In Matthew Cutter's 2018 biography Closer You Are, Pollard described it as "The most interesting, spontaneously creative, and psychotic, moronic thing we did... Acid Ranch was fearless and ridiculous, because we knew no one would ever hear any of it."

As Cutter explains in the book, the ensemble consisted of acoustic guitar, bass, squeeze toys and plastic buckets. It's a trying listen, to be sure, but if Daniel Johnston or Beat Happening is your thing, check out The Great Houdini Wasn't So Great.

Airport 5

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Airport 5 was a project between Pollard and ex-GBV co-songwriter Tobin Sprout, who's arguably the second most important figure in the band's story. Sprout took music he had lying around and mailed it to Pollard, who added lyrics and melodies.

The results were 2001's Tower in the Fountain of Sparks and 2002's Life Starts Here. While maintaining a raw, homespun edge, both are far more pop-oriented and accessible than Acid Ranch.

"A lot of times, Bob would show up with just a cassette, throw it on my four-track and flesh it out," Sprout recalls to GRAMMY.com. "He would just have an acoustic or something, and a vocal, and they we just kind of put that together."

It must be said that some of GBV's most famous works, like "A Salty Salute" and "Motor Away," were recorded by only Pollard and Sprout — as well as later oddities like "Noble Insect" from 2013's English Little League.

Boston Spaceships. Photo courtesy of Guided by Voices.

Boston Spaceships

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A fruitful collaboration between Pollard, bassist Chris Slusarenko and the Decemberists' drummer, John Moen, Boston Spaceships were a satellite band to GBV and nothing less.

"Bob always firmly stated that [we were] a band and not a side project," Slusarenko tells GRAMMY.com. "There's no waste in those Boston Spaceships records. That was the goal. All top-shelf material and a run of classic records in our minds."

Boston Spaceships' entire discography, from 2008's Brown Submarine to 2011's Let it Beard, is worth seeking out for its high-velocity melodicism. Still, Slusarenko points to 2009's Zero to 99 as the crown jewel.

"I felt like it had the most mania to it that matched an early GBV record," he says. "Short songs and scrappy inspirations."

Carbon Whales

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In what would become a ramp-up to Boston Spaceships, Pollard enlisted Slusarenko — who played in the final lineup of GBV before their first breakup in 2004 — for Carbon Whales. 

"I have a soft spot for the Carbon Whales 7" [South]," Slusarenko says. "I think we totally captured the spirit of post-punk England '78 in a real way."

Cash Rivers and the Sinners

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Back to the metaphor of Pollard as a human record store: Cash Rivers and the Sinners belongs in the novelty section. What began as jokey country songs on 2018's Blue Balls Lincoln eventually spun out into Do Not Adjust Your Set, I Am The Horizontal and Vertical, that year's 69-track smorgasbord of genre explorations and inebriated ramblings.

Circus Devils. Photo: Rich Turiel

Circus Devils

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When asked what satellite band a GBV listener should start with, Pollard responds confidently. "Circus Devils probably first," he tells GRAMMY.com. "That's a complete study unto itself. 14 albums."

Listen to the Circus Devils' discography from 2001's Ringworm Interiors to 2017's Laughs Last, and you'll hear a progression from avant-garde meanderings to more song-based material. "I felt I had the freedom to shape sounds in an adventurous way," their co-pilot, the producer and multi-instrumentalist Todd Tobias, tells GRAMMY.com. 

Circus Devils are such a point of study, in fact, that Tobias once wrote a book about the darkly psychedelic band called See You Inside. (Tobias's brother Tim, who played bass in Guided by Voices in the early 2000s, rounded out the trio.)

"Part of the magic of a Circus Devils record is that it cannot be pinned down and dissected without falling back on your own set of subjective reactions," he wrote in the preface. "Doorways will appear, leading to small adventures, each belonging only to you."

Cosmos

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This collaboration with the Moles' leader, Richard Davies, produced one album, 2009's Jar of Jam Ton of Bricks. Despite falling behind the stove somewhat in ensuing years, the strength of Pollard's vocal performances and Davies' touch as an instrumentalist makes Jar of Jam a hidden gem.

Cub Scout Bowling Pins

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After putting Cash Rivers and the Sinners to bed, Pollard sought another lighthearted outlet for the current GBV lineup. "I wanted something to kind of creatively take its place," he says. "Something not 'joke country,' but still goofy with everyone equally involved." The canvas, Pollard decided, would be '60s pop, with the potential to spiderweb into different eras and styles. 

Like a GBV song, a Cub Scout Bowling Pins tune begins life as a boombox demo — albeit a capella rather than with acoustic guitar. From there, "We only have Bob's voice to guide us and we have to come up with all the music under his melody," guitarist Bobby Bare, Jr. tells GRAMMY.com. "He is singing along to music in his head and we had to figure out what those chords were in his imagination."

Featuring tender sunshine-pop songs like " © 123" and outlandish detours like "Everybody Love a Baboon," Clang Clang Ho! sounds like GBV in a blender — in the best possible way. "We basically have fun being creative," guitarist Doug Gillard tells GRAMMY.com, "bringing some nice or heavy or crazy sounds and ideas to the project."

ESP Ohio. Photo: Derek Asher

ESP Ohio

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ESP Ohio was bassist Mark Shue's first recording project with Pollard, a musician he'd revered for what seemed like forever. When Shue first heard the songs, he was in tears.

"I remember getting the raw boombox demos and just poring over them," Shue tells GRAMMY.com. "The creative journey going from Bob's original demos to the final album is a beautiful process to be a part of — one I'm grateful to still be experiencing years later."

Pollard is more matter-of-fact about ESP Ohio's genesis: "I just wanted to get Travis [Harrison] involved in a recording project that he wasn't just engineering or producing," he says. "I wanted him to be an actual functioning member — the drummer."

While mostly setting the stage for the current incarnation of GBV, ESP Ohio's lone album, Starting Point of the Royal Cyclopean, is a heady and satisfying slab of tunes.

Freedom Cruise

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From Stingy Queens to Magic Toe to Huge On Pluto, Pollard has dreamt up a thousand band names and applied them to songs. Freedom Cruise makes this list because it actually led to a few released tracks, including a 1994 split 7" with Nightwalker.

Go Back Snowball

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A match made in power-pop heaven: Pollard meets Superchunk's Mac McCaughan. The results are as sumptuous as similar team-ups with Beatlesque contemporaries, from the Moles' Richard Davies to the extremely missed jangle-pop maestro Tommy Keene.

Hazzard Hotrods

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Pollard, Sprout, Mitchell and their friend Larry Keller recorded these soused-sounding tunes at an after-hours video store. Note the song titles plucked from cinema, like "A Farewell to Arms," "Clue" and "A Star is Born."

Howling Wolf Orchestra

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This brief collaboration between Pollard, his brother Jim and then-GBV guitarist Nate Farley led to a single EP, Speedtraps for the Bee Kingdom. Quick yet surprisingly diverse, it's full of jangly, trippy gems, like "You Learn Something Old Every Day," "I'm Dirty" and "Where is Out There?"

Keene Brothers

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To GBV and their associates, the Keene Brothers were lightning in a bottle. "Tommy's great power pop musicality and Bob's genius melodies and lyrical sense work so beautifully together," Shue says. To their manager, David Newgarden, their only studio album, Blues and Boogie Shoes, is a "gem."

While generally overlooked, the album's influence has spilled out beyond their circle. "How can you go wrong with two indie-rock legends going head-to-head?" Shelton asks GRAMMY.com. "It's the ultimate soft-rock record."

Kim Deal & Bob Pollard

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The Pixies' and Breeders' Kim Deal looms large in the GBV story: In James Greer's 2005 book Guided by Voices: A Brief History, he calls her "one of the few Daytonians Bob regarded as an equal." Their only collaboration was a cover of the Everly Brothers' wounded ballad "Love Hurts."

"My wife hates that," Pollard told Magnet in 2014. "She thinks we were in love. We kind of were."

Kuda Labranche

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Another one-and-done between the Pollard brothers for an obscure compilation, Tractor Tunes, Vol. 2. On the flip was Mitchell's own band, the Terrifying Experience.

Lexo and the Leapers

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The band that blew Shelton's mind with "Alone, Stinking and Unafraid" was a short-lived collaboration between Pollard and the Dayton band Tasties. Despite its obscurity, each of its six tunes are essentials.

"There are so many great side projects, but I really love Lexo and the Leapers," GBV's drummer, Kevin March, tells GRAMMY.com, "[Especially with] songs like 'Alone, Stinking and Unafraid,' 'Fair Touching' and one of my favorites, 'Circling Motorhead Mountain.'"

Lifeguards

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Whether heard in or out of GBV, Doug Gillard's aerodynamic guitar style has long proved the single most effective instrumental foil to Pollard. After first teaming up for 1999's Speak Kindly of Your Volunteer Fire Department, they made two excellent albums under this moniker.

When asked what his favorite side project is, Bare replies without reservation. "LIFEGUARDS," he replies over email in all caps. "The more Gillard, the better!"

Mars Classroom

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This team-up with Gary Waleik, the leader of the Boston experimental pop band Big Dipper, is brighter, shinier and more Cars-like than most of the other entries.

The Moping Swans

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Pollard is a decades-long Wire afficianado, and the Moping Swans are one of his most inspired testaments to this obsession. File 2005's Lightninghead to Coffeepot in the post-punk section of his figurative record shop.

Phantom Tollbooth

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As the story goes, Pollard was a vocal fan of the obscure experimental rock band Phantom Tollbooth. Noticing this, the band erased the vocals from their 1988 Power Toy album and allowed Pollard to do his thing over the music. The result was Beard of Lightning, whose outlandish premise alone makes this entry stand out.

Psycho and the Birds

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One thrilling, vaguely disturbing detail about Pollard: He has the ability to write entire albums in one sitting. He did so with his 2010 solo album Moses on a Snail and he did it for Psycho and the Birds, a project with Todd Tobias. Both their LPs are worth hearing, especially 2008's We've Moved.

Ricked Wicky

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In 2014, Pollard suddenly broke up Guided by Voices, ending the latest run of — his words — the "so-called classic lineup." Before they fired up again with (mostly) new members, he took Ricked Wicky — himself, March, Tobias, and guitarist Nick Mitchell — for a three-album ride.

Pollard found Mitchell performing at the Dayton sports bar Wings, and his contributions are of the beery, Rod Stewart variety. On their debut, 2015's I Sell the Circus, Mitchell made a case as a new sidekick, slugging out the witty rocker "Intellectual Types" alongside Pollard's originals.

The band got deeper and headier with that year's King Heavy Metal and Swimmer to a Liquid Armchair before GBV fired back up with Mitchell on guitar.

That configuration didn't go well, and Gillard flew in to replace Mitchell at a moment's notice. But even with the band back at full bore, Ricked Wicky's triage of LPs stands tall on its own.

Robert Pollard

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All through Guided by Voices' development, Pollard has released solo albums that (usually) showcase his most sophisticated side.

"I do consider Guided by Voices to be sort of 'ageless' and feel free to include any type of song whether it's 'mature,' or not," he told Rolling Stone in 2013. "In other words, Guided by Voices has no age. We're not really in our 50s emotionally. But Robert Pollard is 56 years old and I attempt to write and record songs accordingly."

While this list can't contain the arc of Pollard's solo albums, it can offer advice: Start with 2006's scrappy masterpiece From a Compound Eye then skip forward to 2010's stormy Moses on a Snail, 2013's pastoral Honey Locust Honky Tonk and 2015's muscular Faulty Superheroes

Then, after that, check out his output under his own name with the Soft Rock Renegades and Ascended Masters.

Robert Pollard With Doug Gillard

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Recently shone up with a 2019 remaster, Speak Kindly of Your Volunteer Fire Department is a GBV fan favorite with a handful of Pollard's most powerful songs on it.

"I think Do The Collapse had just come out, and we were starting to tour on it," Gillard recalls. "Bob gave me a cassette of demos for 9 songs he wrote with acoustic guitar and vocals, and said he'd like me to record the music, playing everything."

There's nary a bad song in the bunch, but two of them are transcendent: "Pop Zeus" climbs and climbs until its zigzag melody becomes hair-raising, and "Do Something Real" is a fist-pumping clarion call to cut the nonsense and live an authentic, creative life.

Teenage Guitar

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Call it the artist alone in his chambers: Teenage Guitar is an outlet for some of Pollard's most bizarre, amoebic completely-solo works, like 2014's More Lies from the Gooseberry Bush.

"A lot of it is spontaneous. Building on top of an idea," Pollard explains. "The first one was recorded in my house. The second one in a big studio. I called it Teenage Guitar because it sounds like it."

The Sunflower Logic

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Or, Pollard making blown-out fuzz epics with some of the usual suspects: his brother Jim, GBV ex-bassist Greg Demos and his art director, Jim Patterson. They made one album, 2013's Clouds on the Polar Landscape.

Within the morass, at the top of "I Wanna Marry Your Sister," is an answering-machine message with a catsmeowing in the background: "Call me back, please. Here, like, like sittin' by myself. Nobody...like, like eleven o' clock, ten o' clock, whatever. Sad ass. Sittin' on my own ass. Sad ass."

The Takeovers

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"That was my music with Bob doing all the lyrics and vocals," Slusarenko says. Which sounds interchangeable with the Carbon Whales, right? Or secondary to Boston Spaceships? 

It's not: Turn up 2007's fuzz-rocking Bad Football and think about how this could be a peak for a thousand other bands. It speaks to the reason why this extended songbook endures: It's fun to listen to. 

Every Pollard release is a joy — or at least a curiosity — in its own way. It's universes within universes, as Andrew W.K. described. Or, as the wizard himself once decreed in song, imbuing minutia with magical significance: "Every moment, flame on."

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GRAMMY Rewind: Kendrick Lamar Honors Hip-Hop's Greats While Accepting Best Rap Album GRAMMY For 'To Pimp a Butterfly' In 2016
Kendrick Lamar

Photo: Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic

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GRAMMY Rewind: Kendrick Lamar Honors Hip-Hop's Greats While Accepting Best Rap Album GRAMMY For 'To Pimp a Butterfly' In 2016

Upon winning the GRAMMY for Best Rap Album for 'To Pimp a Butterfly,' Kendrick Lamar thanked those that helped him get to the stage, and the artists that blazed the trail for him.

GRAMMYs/Oct 13, 2023 - 06:01 pm

Updated Friday Oct. 13, 2023 to include info about Kendrick Lamar's most recent GRAMMY wins, as of the 2023 GRAMMYs.

A GRAMMY veteran these days, Kendrick Lamar has won 17 GRAMMYs and has received 47 GRAMMY nominations overall. A sizable chunk of his trophies came from the 58th annual GRAMMY Awards in 2016, when he walked away with five — including his first-ever win in the Best Rap Album category.

This installment of GRAMMY Rewind turns back the clock to 2016, revisiting Lamar's acceptance speech upon winning Best Rap Album for To Pimp A Butterfly. Though Lamar was alone on stage, he made it clear that he wouldn't be at the top of his game without the help of a broad support system. 

"First off, all glory to God, that's for sure," he said, kicking off a speech that went on to thank his parents, who he described as his "those who gave me the responsibility of knowing, of accepting the good with the bad."

Looking for more GRAMMYs news? The 2024 GRAMMY nominations are here!

He also extended his love and gratitude to his fiancée, Whitney Alford, and shouted out his Top Dawg Entertainment labelmates. Lamar specifically praised Top Dawg's CEO, Anthony Tiffith, for finding and developing raw talent that might not otherwise get the chance to pursue their musical dreams.

"We'd never forget that: Taking these kids out of the projects, out of Compton, and putting them right here on this stage, to be the best that they can be," Lamar — a Compton native himself — continued, leading into an impassioned conclusion spotlighting some of the cornerstone rap albums that came before To Pimp a Butterfly.

"Hip-hop. Ice Cube. This is for hip-hop," he said. "This is for Snoop Dogg, Doggystyle. This is for Illmatic, this is for Nas. We will live forever. Believe that."

To Pimp a Butterfly singles "Alright" and "These Walls" earned Lamar three more GRAMMYs that night, the former winning Best Rap Performance and Best Rap Song and the latter taking Best Rap/Sung Collaboration (the song features Bilal, Anna Wise and Thundercat). He also won Best Music Video for the remix of Taylor Swift's "Bad Blood." 

Lamar has since won Best Rap Album two more times, taking home the golden gramophone in 2018 for his blockbuster LP DAMN., and in 2023 for his bold fifth album, Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers.

Watch Lamar's full acceptance speech above, and check back at GRAMMY.com every Friday for more GRAMMY Rewind episodes. 

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10 Guided By Voices Songs You Need To Hear, From "Over The Neptune" To "Alex Bell"
Guided by Voices (L-R: Robert Pollard, Doug Gillard, Mark Shue, Kevin March, Bobby Bare Jr.)

Photo: Trevor Naud

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10 Guided By Voices Songs You Need To Hear, From "Over The Neptune" To "Alex Bell"

Parsing Guided by Voices' voluminous discography can be daunting. To mark the release of their new album, 'Welshpool Frillies,' here are 10 can't-miss tracks that distill their essence into glorious indie rock.

GRAMMYs/Jul 21, 2023 - 02:24 pm

In a sense, making a Guided by Voices essential tracks list is redundant: the band's mastermind, Robert Pollard, already made one for you.

It came in the form of 2003's The Best of Guided By Voices: Human Amusements at Hourly Rates — a mixtape-style program where Pollard seamlessly toggles between the band's eras.

Lo-fi, hi-fi, mid-fi: it's all Pollard, and it all flows together. "14 Cheerleader Coldfront," his crackly, acoustic 1992 duet with his old foil, Tobin Sprout, segues seamlessly into the gripping, aerodynamic "Twilight Campfighter" — from the slickly produced Isolation Drills.

There's just one unavoidable problem: it stops at 2003, because that's when it came out. The idiosyncratic, touching, wacko, and feverishly productive Ohio rock band would release one more album, 2004's Half Smiles of the Decomposed, before temporarily pulling the plug.

Since then, there have been two additional, distinct eras. At the top of the 2010s, Pollard brought back some classic-era members; across six albums, they produced a number of solid songs, like "Class Clown Spots a UFO" and "Flunky Minnows."

Arguably more consequential has been their current lineup — a mix of old and new faces, in guitarists Bobby Bare Jr. and Doug Gillard, bassist Mark Shue and drummer Kevin March. From this run of albums has come cuts that stand up to the classics, like "My Future in Barcelona" and "Mr. Child."

Guided by Voices continue to forge ahead with their 38th album, Whirlpool Frillies, released July 21. A return to live-to-tape recording after at least half a dozen executed remotely, the new album features numerous sluggers worth diehards' and neophytes' time, like "Meet the Star," "Awake Man," "Seedling," and "Radioactive Pigeons."

Safe to say, there are a lot more coming. Before (or after) you digest Whirlpool Frillies, take a quick run through 10 of Guided by Voices' most powerful songs — solo and side projects notwithstanding.

"Over The Neptune / Mesh Gear Fox" (Propeller, 1992)

If you're new to Guided by Voices, perhaps this is a helpful digest: Imagine the rock pantheon from the Beatles to post-punk, boiled into one amalgam. Then, strip away the canonization and glitz and mystique; place the music at eye level.

That's sort of what Propeller, the album that began their '90s ascent, sounds like. The triumphal "Over the Neptune / Mesh Gear Fox" sounds like the Who recorded a couple of Tommy tunes in your garden shed.

The scrappy two-parter crescendos with an underdog call to arms, outlining emotional territory the band would soon plumb to astonishing effect: "I'm much greater than you think!"

"Tractor Rape Chain" (Bee Thousand, 1994)

Most with even a cursory interest in Guided by Voices will point you toward three mid-'90s albums as go-tos: Bee Thousand, Alien Lanes and Under the Bushes Under the Stars.

Over the years, Bee Thousand has become increasingly agreed upon as the one, and there's a certain amount of truth to that. While it's less consistent than the other two, a handful of songs slice as deep as a Guided by Voices song possibly can.

One is "Peep Hole," a brief, heartrending bash on an acoustic guitar about loving someone with a screw loose: another is "Tractor Rape Chain." Don't let the bizarre, quasi-offensive title throw you: think of the trails the titular machinery leaves in a field.

But "Tractor Rape Chain" isn't simply about one path through life, but two in parallel — and how they eventually deviate and depart from each other. That makes "Tractor Rape Chain" universal: everyone with a pulse can raise a glass to this stone classic, and believe every word.

"Game of Pricks" (Alien Lanes, 1995)

While Bee Thousand seems to be the desert island disc for many fans, "Game of Pricks" is arguably GBV's signature song. (Pollard seems to think so, too: over the course of at least one concert, they've played it twice.)

The most popular version of "Game of Pricks" tends to be the one from their Tigerbomb EP, which features two oldies recorded anew in a professional studio. With due respect to that one, seek out the rawer, more concise Alien Lanes version.

Either way, though, Pollard’s lyrics are fantastic — full of mistrust and self-flagellation and catharsis. ("I'll climb up on your house/ Weep to water the trees" is one of Pollard's most moving images.) But it's their connection to the melody that will truly make your head spin.

Through the tape-recorder hiss, "Game of Pricks" is like every song on Meet the Beatles rolled into one, and shot out of a cannon into your solar plexus. Pollard has written many more developed songs, but never one this degree of distilled impact

"Motor Away" (Alien Lanes, 1995)

Like "Game of Pricks," a more refined version of "Motor Away" is floating around: again, go for the Alien Lanes version.

Ever barreling forward, this GBV staple is best communed with when you're young and on the precipice of a fresh start — but its philosophical ambiguity remains potent at any age.

In "Motor Away," you're not hurtling toward the "chance of a lifetime"; "you can free yourself from the chance of a lifetime." Furthermore, "You can lie to yourself that it's the chance of a lifetime." 

By considering the life left behind and the life pursued on the same moral plane, Pollard renders "Motor Away" totally bracing and moving. Anytime you find yourself in a situation that seems intractable, let the kicker pop to mind: "Why don't you just drive away?"

"The Official Ironmen Rally Song" (Under the Bushes Under the Stars, 1996)

We are all the ironmen. Much like "A Salty Salute," the opener on Alien Lanes, "The Official Ironmen Rally Song" feels like a chest-beating anthem for the GBV devout. (In this regard, "Don't Stop Now," a summation of their message of tenacity and courage, deserves a mention too; it's left off this list solely for space.)

Like so many other songs on this list, "The Official Ironmen Rally Song" must be experienced live for the full effect — Pollard's octave jump on the chorus maintains the ability to project Miller Lite out of cans and all over your clothing.

But even on record, "The Official Ironmen Rally Song" is indestructible — it's like a reliable old car whose engine always turns over. Whenever you feel out of sorts, let it offer a perennial, life-affirming reminder: "You are free: champions officially."

"Twilight Campfighter" (Isolation Drills, 2001)

After 1999's Do the Collapse — lumpy yet slick, produced by Ric Ocasek, reputationally still up in the air — GBV eased into high fidelity more naturally with 2001's Isolation Drills.

Fleet and aerodynamic, Isolation Drills was GBV's second album with crucial guitarist Doug Gillard, who's back with the band today — numerous lineup reshufflings later.

Who is the Twilight Campfighter? Who knows, but it seems to be an imposing, godlike, healing figure: "You build your fires into an open wound/ You want us to feel better/ On these darker trails/ With light revealing holy grails."

But the primeval mystery's the point — as with so many Pollard compositions. As "Twilight Campfighter" swells and swells, and light increasingly pierces its blanket of melancholy, the effect is spellbinding — especially during the final chorus, when Gillard and fellow guitarist Nate Farley absolutely lay into those chords.

"The Best of Jill Hives" (Earthquake Glue, 2003)

Here's to Pollard, the vocal melodist: could he have come up with a more clever, creative part over such a simple chord change?

And here's to Pollard, the lyricist: "Paid up, weathered and type/ Clad in gladstone watch him go/ Swimming 'neath the microscope/ Hello lonely bless the nation" is an mind-bending and evocative opening line.

By his telling, Pollard got the idea for "The Best of Jill Hives" while getting his muffler fixed. 

"Jill Hives is not a real person," he told an interviewer in 2004. "I was sitting in the waiting room with some people watching television so I played this game I play sometimes when I can't quite hear what people are saying, I'll start writing what I think they're saying."

The soap opera "Days of Our Lives" came onscreen. And with that, a song was born.

"Kid on a Ladder" (Please Be Honest, 2016)

After six solid albums with the "so-called classic lineup" that played on Bee Thousand, Alien Lanes and the like, Pollard again dissolved the band, then brought the project back two years later with a necessary reset: Please Be Honest.

On that album, Pollard didn't just write every song, as usual; he also played every instrument. After the arena-rocking opener "My Zodiac Companion" comes "Kid on a Ladder," perhaps his most dazzling one-or-two-minute wonder since "Game of Pricks."

Over a scratchy guitar and 4/4 pump-and-slam, Pollard casually tosses ribbons of gorgeous melody in the air: in 1 minute and 47 seconds, it's all over. He's on to 13 more strange, beguiling songs from there, but you'll want to hear "Kid on a Ladder" over and over again.

"My Future in Barcelona" (Zeppelin Over China, 2019)

Like Paul McCartney conceiving the epochal "Yesterday" and "Let it Be" in his dreams, some of Pollard's greatest songs have arisen from intentional mishearings and decontextualizations.

And "The Best of Jill Hives" wasn't the only one: "My Future in Barcelona" came from "the future of Barcelona," vis-à-vis one televised soccer team or another.

Part of the essence of Guided by Voices is that magic is everywhere, in the most quotidian of places. And from that random snippet of commentary, Pollard wrote a masterpiece — one that marries the wonder of "Jill Hives" to the heft and majesty of "Twilight Campfighter."

From Pollard's pen — and lungs — a city known for sunbathing and sight-seeing seems like a fantastical, awesome realm. "Tested, invested waters/ Move local as you know," he sings in the pre-chorus. "When the idea of fast can be/ Excruciatingly slow/ Excruciatingly so." 

That's what he sang about in "Motor Away," and returns to here: when your surroundings aren't cutting it, forge fearlessly ahead.

"Alex Bell" (Tremblers and Goggles By Rank, 2022)

In five minutes, Pollard and company breeze through more ideas on "Alex Bell" than some bands come up with in their entire careers. The seesaw between drumless breaks and charging verses compounds the drama, and the the track builds to a gonzo, unpredictable climax.

This tune from Tremblers and Goggles by Rank — which at press time, was three albums ago, despite being released last year — was named after the last names of Big Star members: Alex Chilton and Chris Bell.

But despite news outlets' characterization of "Alex Bell" as a "tribute to Big Star," it's not really that. It's a poignant meditation on time, memory and loss that spiritually dovetails with those power pop heroes' rocky run, and both men's tragic passing.

"I see you around every time there's a ghost in town," Pollard sings during the galumphing outro. Then it slams to a halt. Which turns out to be a fake-out. There's another. Finally, a skyward power chord concludes this spectacular song.

With Guided by Voices, something unexpectedly moving and galvanizing is always around the corner — and even after any number of masterpieces, it always feels like Pollard's finest hour remains ahead of him.

Songbook: A Guide To Every Album By Guided By Voices' Current Lineup — So Far

On Militarie Gun's 'Life Under The Gun,' Ian Shelton Invites You Inside His Hornet's Nest Of A Mind
Militarie Gun (L-R): Waylon Trim, Ian Shelton, Will Acuña, Vince Nguyen, Nick Cogan

Photo: Noah Kentis

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On Militarie Gun's 'Life Under The Gun,' Ian Shelton Invites You Inside His Hornet's Nest Of A Mind

Reared on influences from the Beatles to indie rock, Ian Shelton crafted his band Militarie Gun's debut album as a missile against his enemies, both internal and external. The result is like no punk album you've ever heard.

GRAMMYs/Jun 23, 2023 - 05:41 pm

There's a part near the end of Militarie Gun's debut album that Ian Shelton wishes he could fix. But he can't.

The band's lead singer and songwriter didn't notice it until long after said album, Life Under the Gun, went to print. It's in the penultimate track, "See You Around" — a keys-and-vocals breather reminiscent of '67 Beatles.

"He doesn't sing/ He doesn't sing to me/ When it used to be/ Something I'd like to see," croons Shelton — who in Militarie Gun and his grind band Regional Justice Center, has mostly screamed and barked until his melodic breakthroughs on Life Under the Gun.

"The very last line, I keep doing the same resolve on," he tells GRAMMY.com. "I did the same resolve on every line on that verse, and I hate it. I've listened to this a thousand times. I can't believe I'm just now realizing this sucks." Right then Shelton's voice shifts; it's like his inner critic has seized the controls. 

"You f—ing idiot," he tells himself out loud, his breath quickening behind a black Zoom screen. "You thought that was good?"

Such is an interview with Shelton that clocks in at nearly two hours, with a full-band follow-up and many intense texts before and after. Talking to him at length is exactly like listening to his music — it's a hilarious, unvarnished, galvanizing, occasionally harrowing experience. But one that never feels like a put-on.

One minute, he's chewing on his wounds. "One of my main desires in life is to escape the embarrassment that I feel all the time," he says five minutes in. "For some reason, I feel like there's an invisible enemy on my heels at all times."

Another minute, he's scheming and enterprising like a young rapper — which makes a certain amount of sense, as Militarie Gun just signed with Jay-Z's Roc Nation for management, on top of landing a record deal with Loma Vista.

All this self-flagellation and slightly deranged ambition — and a whole lot more — made it into Life Under the Gun. But it's far from bluster and noise: Shelton, whose background is in face-punching hardcore, has blossomed as a singer, composer, lyricist, and performer in an incredibly short time.

On Life Under the Gun — out June 23 — Militarie Gun is filled out by guitarists Nick Cogan (also of Drug Church fame) and Will Acuña, bassist Max Epstein and drummer Vince Nguyen; the live lineup has shifted to include bassist Waylon Trim. In the co-producer's chair, alongside Shelton, was Taylor Young.

Militarie Gun is named after an inside joke that Shelton says "I'm unfortunately stuck with for the rest of my goddamn life." Their first three EPs, 2020's My Life is Over and 2021's All Roads to the Gun I and II, put them on the map as a band nominally in hardcore, but that bristled at its conventions and wore its orthodoxy like a bunchy suit.

In that sense, they're not dissimilar to Turnstile, the GRAMMY-nominated hardcore crew who augmented their sound with genre traversals and block-rocking beats.

But Militarie Gun have expanded beyond hardcore's boundaries in a much different way — via their sheer melodic, harmonic, rhythmic, and emotional content. (The album that broke Turnstile into the mainstream, 2021's Glow On, didn't even exist by the time Militarie Gun completed the final demos for Life Under the Gun.)

From chord voicings to lyrics to performances and sheer attitude, advance singles "Do it Faster," "Very High," "Will Logic," and "Never F—ed Up Once" — along with inspired album tracks like "Think Less," "Big Disappointment" and "Sway Too" — are lightyears past their already appealing early material.

How did Shelton evolve so quickly, so profoundly? It happened while delivering weed.

For a solid year, Shelton — a Washington state native — drove around his adopted home of Los Angeles for eight to 12 hours a day, dropping off buds. "I was trying to put 10,000 hours into studying the blade," he says. "I was delivering weed, but the full-time job was studying music."

The artists doing spiritual work on Shelton: the Beatles, the Strokes, Gorillaz, Guided by Voices, Built to Spill… the list goes on. Between it all, he absorbed more than clever hooks or catchy melodies — he developed a knack for compositions that breathe and hold together with integrity.

"That's all just about observing the sonic real estate and going, 'Oh, that's empty,'" he says. "And then putting something there, because the instrumentals are completed before I even write a vocal part."

All this led Shelton to explore the neck of the guitar, unpacking melodies in an open and untutored manner. This jump between instruments puts Shelton in league with any number of drummers turned successful singer/songwriters, from Iggy Pop to Panda Bear to J Mascis — Brendan Yates from Turnstile, too.

One early morning — upon hitting the practice space before weed delivery — Shelton stumbled on what would become the galumphing "Will Logic." For "My Friends Are Having a Hard Time," he identified the essence of Built to Spill's "Carry the Zero" and wrote his own white-knuckled, mid-tempo ballad in response.

"A strange occurrence/ This train is on the rails," Shelton sings in his pained, raspy, yet incisive tenor. "How long until it f—s up and fails?"

In conversation, Shelton's train of thought leads to "Think Less," which happens to follow "My Friends Are Having a Hard Time" in the tracklisting. He'd cited that song earlier, in the same breath as his evocation of his "invisible enemy."

"I'm on some old-school beef," Shelton announces. "The people that I wrote [early Militarie Gun song] 'Ain't No Flowers' and 'Think Less' about, they talked s— about me to one of my friends a couple days ago and I just heard about it yesterday."

Said people are in a band Shelton won't name, but he'll allow this: "The song I wrote about them got 600,000 streams as of yesterday. More than triple anything they've ever done in their life. So, I'm like, 'We're good.'"

Despite being the most out-and-out hardcore moment on Life Under the Gun, "Think Less" is a musical marvel — from the fake-out guitar intro reminiscent of Doug Gillard-era Guided by Voices to the radiant chorus, where he's augmented with harmonies via James Goodson from the fuzz-pop band Dazy. (Mat Morand, a.k.a. Pretty Matty, also contributes backing vocals to the album.)

In stark juxtaposition, Shelton's vocal performance in the final verse sounds like he's peeling off his own skin: "List of people I f—ed over/ Do they think the same of me?" he howls. "List of people I've f—ed over/ Think less of me/ And I agree!"

"For some reason, I will believe whatever they say," Shelton says of those dispensing the haterade. "I wish that I had a really hardened ego to be like, Uh-uh. Instead, I find the kernel of truth and I stick on it."

"Seizure of Assets" is about when Shelton's car was towed by the city of Los Angeles. "I had too many parking tickets, and I literally didn't have the money to get my car back, so I just had to let them keep my car," he relates, deadpan.

With that in mind, it's clear who the "biting bastard leeches/ [that] keep suckin' on me" are. But in Life Under the Gun, those leeches are everywhere. They're most definitely in the sadistic cancel mob in "Never F—ed Up Once."

"Never F—ed Up Once" is about someone in the punk community who committed an indiscretion that went public; once the social-media bear was poked, he was summarily thrown out of his livelihood and craft.

This led to a shamelessly hooky song permeated with empathy, extending a hand to someone past the point of drowning: "When you wish you could stay, but you've been vilified/ When the bloodthirsty mob, it expects a life."

"I grew up going to AA meetings with my mom, and that fundamentally shapes the way that I see the world," Shelton says. "Which is through a lens, ultimately, of forgiveness. I've grown up around nothing but terribly flawed people. You are going to make terrible mistakes, no matter how you carry yourself."

With the album's centerpiece, "Sway Too," Shelton reached new heights of emotional and compositional complexity. What's more, he evades the binary between poppiness and extremity that tends to box in critical perception of Militarie Gun.

"I just couldn't be more proud of that song," Shelton glows, connecting it to the concept of trauma bonding. "What do you trust when your brain flips in trauma and lust?" he ponders at song's end. "What do you trust when it's love as smut?"

Accordingly, "I've never been more proud of a lyric," he says. "Sometimes, you don't even know that you're lying about things. My own brain, at least, is one that gets obsessed and tapped in on something, and then for a period of time, I feel a way and then all of a sudden it just dissipates, and it's one of my biggest flaws. And that song was really trying to take myself to task for that tendency."

If all of this sounds irreducibly heavy and ponderous, it doesn't come off that way; Life Under the Gun's sparkling melodies and production help all these bad feelings go down easy, and the first two singles distill these corrosive emotions into friendly doses.

In the power-popping "Do it Faster," Shelton drives himself up a wall waiting for word about the band being signed; in the equally sticky "Very High," he escapes a depressive spiral by getting absolutely ripped.

"Honestly I think there's something instinctual about writing truly catchy music, and whatever that is. Ian just has it," James Goodson, who sang backing vocals on the album, tells GRAMMY.com. "I also think the thing that really makes Militarie Gun click is that he's got this knack for combining the sweet with the sour. If one element is super melodic, he'll add another element that's really raw."

Life Under the Gun concludes with the triumphal, Who-like closer, "Life Under the Gun." "A life of pursuit," he summarizes, "Ends up pursuing you." After that ouroboros of a line, the song, and record, cut out right then, as if there's nothing more to add: Shelton's laid it all at your feet.

Militarie Gun - Ian Shelton - Embed Image

*Militarie Gun. (L-R) Vince Nguyen, Nick Cogan, Ian Shelton, Waylon Trim, Will Acuña. Photo: Noah Kentis*

Life Under the Gun can be enjoyed in two concurrent ways: it works as a voyage into Shelton's fractured emotions, maniacal aspirations and fever-pitch personality, and as a document of four or five men playing music.

"He definitely knows exactly what he wants the outcome to be," Cogan tells GRAMMY.com of Shelton. "I think he is a really good tell of people, and people being genuine, and people being honest. I'm not sure that matters to a lot of people. I think it matters a lot to Ian, which I think is the coolest thing in the world. He's just an incredibly real person."

Life Under the Gun's press cycle is Shelton's first heavy go-round in the music industry. It's been occasionally hairy, but on the main, he's happy and intact. He promises a few people are "getting destroyed" when this is all over.

It remains to be seen what will befall Shelton's adversaries — as he warned in "Will Logic," "You're standing on my neck/ For something you'll never get."

But most of Life Under the Gun deals with that disparaging voice inside — the one that underlines your unworthiness, and promises everything you love will fall apart, and soon. Each of Shelton's professional and artistic leaps and bounds seem to be in the service of proving it wrong.

"It took me a long time to shake my fear of this cool-guy sense and being jaded. And instead, being really open creatively and saying things that I might find embarrassing, and I try to stick to that," he says. "Every lyric I'm embarrassed of is the lyric people love."

All of this boils down to the grand artistic tradition of getting away with something — which is half the fun of all great rock music. "I literally walk around rubbing my hands together like a villain because it's how I feel," Shelton says.

From their stoner joke of a name to Shelton's second-to-none drunk tweeting to a Taco Bell ad to their promotional "Ooh Ooh" emoji — a play on Shelton's pet vocalization — so much of Militarie Gun's rise has been about gleefully stirring the pot.

But that's all window dressing; it'll fade, and soon, just as all press cycles do. The real impact of Militarie Gun is this: a creative, insecure, enterprising young man with a couple of screws loose took inventory of his life under the gun, opened his mouth and told the truth.

"A Joyful Burden": How Ian Shelton Of Militarie Gun & Regional Justice Center Makes Art Out Of Negativity

A Guide To Modern Funk For The Dance Floor: L'Imperatrice, Shiro Schwarz, Franc Moody, Say She She & Moniquea
Franc Moody

Photo: Rachel Kupfer 

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A Guide To Modern Funk For The Dance Floor: L'Imperatrice, Shiro Schwarz, Franc Moody, Say She She & Moniquea

James Brown changed the sound of popular music when he found the power of the one and unleashed the funk with "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag." Today, funk lives on in many forms, including these exciting bands from across the world.

GRAMMYs/Nov 25, 2022 - 04:23 pm

It's rare that a genre can be traced back to a single artist or group, but for funk, that was James Brown. The Godfather of Soul coined the phrase and style of playing known as "on the one," where the first downbeat is emphasized, instead of the typical second and fourth beats in pop, soul and other styles. As David Cheal eloquently explains, playing on the one "left space for phrases and riffs, often syncopated around the beat, creating an intricate, interlocking grid which could go on and on." You know a funky bassline when you hear it; its fat chords beg your body to get up and groove.

Brown's 1965 classic, "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag," became one of the first funk hits, and has been endlessly sampled and covered over the years, along with his other groovy tracks. Of course, many other funk acts followed in the '60s, and the genre thrived in the '70s and '80s as the disco craze came and went, and the originators of hip-hop and house music created new music from funk and disco's strong, flexible bones built for dancing.

Legendary funk bassist Bootsy Collins learned the power of the one from playing in Brown's band, and brought it to George Clinton, who created P-funk, an expansive, Afrofuturistic, psychedelic exploration of funk with his various bands and projects, including Parliament-Funkadelic. Both Collins and Clinton remain active and funkin', and have offered their timeless grooves to collabs with younger artists, including Kali Uchis, Silk Sonic, and Omar Apollo; and Kendrick Lamar, Flying Lotus, and Thundercat, respectively.

In the 1980s, electro-funk was born when artists like Afrika Bambaataa, Man Parrish, and Egyptian Lover began making futuristic beats with the Roland TR-808 drum machine — often with robotic vocals distorted through a talk box. A key distinguishing factor of electro-funk is a de-emphasis on vocals, with more phrases than choruses and verses. The sound influenced contemporaneous hip-hop, funk and electronica, along with acts around the globe, while current acts like Chromeo, DJ Stingray, and even Egyptian Lover himself keep electro-funk alive and well.

Today, funk lives in many places, with its heavy bass and syncopated grooves finding way into many nooks and crannies of music. There's nu-disco and boogie funk, nodding back to disco bands with soaring vocals and dance floor-designed instrumentation. G-funk continues to influence Los Angeles hip-hop, with innovative artists like Dam-Funk and Channel Tres bringing the funk and G-funk, into electro territory. Funk and disco-centered '70s revival is definitely having a moment, with acts like Ghost Funk Orchestra and Parcels, while its sparkly sprinklings can be heard in pop from Dua Lipa, Doja Cat, and, in full "Soul Train" character, Silk Sonic. There are also acts making dreamy, atmospheric music with a solid dose of funk, such as Khruangbin’s global sonic collage.

There are many bands that play heavily with funk, creating lush grooves designed to get you moving. Read on for a taste of five current modern funk and nu-disco artists making band-led uptempo funk built for the dance floor. Be sure to press play on the Spotify playlist above, and check out GRAMMY.com's playlist on Apple Music, Amazon Music and Pandora.

Say She She

Aptly self-described as "discodelic soul," Brooklyn-based seven-piece Say She She make dreamy, operatic funk, led by singer-songwriters Nya Gazelle Brown, Piya Malik and Sabrina Mileo Cunningham. Their '70s girl group-inspired vocal harmonies echo, sooth and enchant as they cover poignant topics with feminist flair.

While they’ve been active in the New York scene for a few years, they’ve gained wider acclaim for the irresistible music they began releasing this year, including their debut album, Prism. Their 2022 debut single "Forget Me Not" is an ode to ground-breaking New York art collective Guerilla Girls, and "Norma" is their protest anthem in response to the news that Roe vs. Wade could be (and was) overturned. The band name is a nod to funk legend Nile Rodgers, from the "Le freak, c'est chi" exclamation in Chic's legendary tune "Le Freak."

Moniquea

Moniquea's unique voice oozes confidence, yet invites you in to dance with her to the super funky boogie rhythms. The Pasadena, California artist was raised on funk music; her mom was in a cover band that would play classics like Aretha Franklin’s "Get It Right" and Gladys Knight’s "Love Overboard." Moniquea released her first boogie funk track at 20 and, in 2011, met local producer XL Middelton — a bonafide purveyor of funk. She's been a star artist on his MoFunk Records ever since, and they've collabed on countless tracks, channeling West Coast energy with a heavy dose of G-funk, sunny lyrics and upbeat, roller disco-ready rhythms.

Her latest release is an upbeat nod to classic West Coast funk, produced by Middleton, and follows her February 2022 groovy, collab-filled album, On Repeat.

Shiro Schwarz

Shiro Schwarz is a Mexico City-based duo, consisting of Pammela Rojas and Rafael Marfil, who helped establish a modern funk scene in the richly creative Mexican metropolis. On "Electrify" — originally released in 2016 on Fat Beats Records and reissued in 2021 by MoFunk — Shiro Schwarz's vocals playfully contrast each other, floating over an insistent, upbeat bassline and an '80s throwback electro-funk rhythm with synth flourishes.

Their music manages to be both nostalgic and futuristic — and impossible to sit still to. 2021 single "Be Kind" is sweet, mellow and groovy, perfect chic lounge funk. Shiro Schwarz’s latest track, the joyfully nostalgic "Hey DJ," is a collab with funkstress Saucy Lady and U-Key.

L'Impératrice

L'Impératrice (the empress in French) are a six-piece Parisian group serving an infectiously joyful blend of French pop, nu-disco, funk and psychedelia. Flore Benguigui's vocals are light and dreamy, yet commanding of your attention, while lyrics have a feminist touch.

During their energetic live sets, L'Impératrice members Charles de Boisseguin and Hagni Gwon (keys), David Gaugué (bass), Achille Trocellier (guitar), and Tom Daveau (drums) deliver extended instrumental jam sessions to expand and connect their music. Gaugué emphasizes the thick funky bass, and Benguigui jumps around the stage while sounding like an angel. L’Impératrice’s latest album, 2021’s Tako Tsubo, is a sunny, playful French disco journey.

Franc Moody

Franc Moody's bio fittingly describes their music as "a soul funk and cosmic disco sound." The London outfit was birthed by friends Ned Franc and Jon Moody in the early 2010s, when they were living together and throwing parties in North London's warehouse scene. In 2017, the group grew to six members, including singer and multi-instrumentalist Amber-Simone.

Their music feels at home with other electro-pop bands like fellow Londoners Jungle and Aussie act Parcels. While much of it is upbeat and euphoric, Franc Moody also dips into the more chilled, dreamy realm, such as the vibey, sultry title track from their recently released Into the Ether.

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