Reissue of live double-CD and DVD
This tri-fold, slipcased set combines the previously released 2-CD and DVD editions, remixed and remastered (in 5.1 surround for the DVD), with new liner notes by Austin City Limits producer Terry Lickona. For fans, this is a nice souvenir of the original band’s end days. Recorded on November 9, 2004, the set captures GBV on their farewell tour, seven weeks before their final show, which was documented on the DVD release The Electrifying Conclusion. The set list includes five songs from their then-latest LP, Half Smiles of the Decomposed, and twenty-five more going all the way back to 1989’s “Navigating Flood Regions.†This date encapsulates everything that was both exhilarating and frustrating about Guided By Voices. The material remained inspired and the performances provocative, even as the band descended from tight and powerful to drunk and sloppy, but they were very drunk and sloppy by the time they got to the end of the set. This is familiar territory for GBV fans, and perhaps the most fitting epitaph the band could have recorded. It doesn’t reveal the band’s full musical glory, but it does tell their story. [©2017 Hyperbolium] 