Guided by Voices is an independent American rock band from Dayton, Ohio. It revolves around the person of Robert Pollard. The group experienced a number of personnel changes, with Pollard alone remaining in place from 1986 until the separation of Guided by Voices on December 31, 2004, after a farewell concert of more than four hours, during which GBV played 63 pieces, at the Metro Club of Chicago, Illinois. The album Bee Thousand is ranked 10> by Pitchfork in her selection of the top 100 albums of the 1990s. The Teenage FBI song is used in Buffy vs. Vampires.
The group is reforming in 2010, and publishes no less than six albums including the last two dated Motivational Jumpsuit and Cool Planet, both published in 2014>. But in mid-September of that same year, the group announces that it is separating again>. They are coming back again in 2016.
Formed in Dayton, Ohio in the early 1980s, Guided by Voices is originally bar group. Now working by day, Pollard decides to make a studio band. This self-financed Guided by Voices tour features independent releases like Devil Between My Toes, Sandbox, Self-Inflicted Aerial Nostalgia, and Same Place the Fly Got Smashed. Only a few hundred copies of each album are pressed, and pass from friends to families.
With the release of the ultra-limited Propeller album in 1992 (with only 500 pressed copies that all have a homemade cover), Guided by Voices gains interest outside their hometown. This is partly thanks to college rock fans and bands like Sonic Youth, R.E.M. and The Breeders. New York and Philadelphia witness the return of Guided by Voices on stage (and the first concerts outside of Ohio) in 1993. In 1994, Pollard released the album Bee Thousand to Scat Records, distributed by independent label Matador Records. . Later, the group signs at Matador.
