Guided By Voices: Suitcase 3 (Up We Go Now)

Guided By Voices
Suitcase 3 (Up We Go Now)
GBV Inc. [2009]









Fire Note Says: Acoustic disc alone is worth your attention!

Album Review:
Suitcase 3 (Up We Go Now) opens back up the GBV club for another installment (and supposedly last) of the Suitcase series that once again supplies 100 tracks on a four disc set with mostly fictional band names like Aerial Poop Show and East Dayton Rock Company getting the credit. The material spans from the mid-90s to the present, with the fourth disc, and probably most special, being filled with impromptu acoustic GBV jam sessions recorded by Robert Pollard, Tobin Sprout, and Greg Demos between the band's most critically hailed albums Bee Thousand (2004) and Alien Lanes (1995).

For the casual fan wading through 3 hours and 33 minutes of material may be a little overwhelming but for the legion of followers out there - it is a must. There really is something for every fan and every era here, as expected there are plenty of lo-fi songs included, but there are also a multitude of amped up studio tracks like "Tired Of Knocking".

There are tracks that have the framework of other GBV songs, such as "Coastal Town" that has several lyrics and musically is a much slower version of "Closer You Are", which was on Alien Lanes and more personal songs to the band, like a tribute song to longtime GBV supporter and Simple Solution Records founder Trader Vic. Then there is the fourth disc that is credited to Guided By Voices and is basically an acoustic brainstorm flurry of songs. Not that any of these tracks will be your favorite but this pure look into the prolific GBV writing process is priceless, as you can hear the group laughing at certain points in the recordings and it just highlights, that it was always about the music for them and having a good time came naturally!

Overall, Suitcase 3 is well worth the price of admission, as each disc has its own hidden gems but the final take on its mass output, is that it will most certainly give you even more respect for the band and man, that literally wrote a bazillion songs.

*Collector's Note: The "best" of Suitcase 3 or simply called Briefcase 3, is also now available and it contains one bonus track (Tropical Robots Long Version) not found anywhere else. You also might want to hurry because only 500 copies were pressed of this one and it is on cool red vinyl!

Key Tracks: "Trader Vic", "The Annex", "100 Colors"

Bands With Similar Fire:
The Gifted Children
Chavez
The Capstan Shafts

Guided By Voices: Live From Austin TX: Austin City Limits [Fire Note Review 7/5/07]

Official Guided By Voices Website
Official Robert Pollard Website
Guided By Voices MySpace
Guided By Voices Database
Guided By Voices Info [Allmusic]
GBV Inc.

-Reviewed by Reece Michael