Various Artists - Sing For Your Meat: A Tribute to Guided by Voices (No More Fake Labels)

Does the world need another tribute record, especially a tribute to one of the most prolific bands of our era, Guided by Voices? Well…in this case…yes! Sing For Your Meat, released on Record Store Day, is a two-vinyl slab of greasy, lo-fi, low-down good ol’ rock music, covered by a number of lesser-known indie rockers, mixed together with an impressive number of legends as well. Thankfully, the bands also do a good job of mixing the better-known GBV numbers with lesser, more obscure tracks. Of course, when talking about Bob Pollard, that’s a rather relative distinction to make! Still, it’s really cool to hear the recently reunited Sorry About Dresden offer up a jaunty “Echoes Myron,” or to hear the fuzzy lo-fi Crooked Fingers take of “Tractor Rape Chain,” which sounds less like GBV and more like a Bruce Springsteen outtake. Not all bands go the straight cover route; the sleepy-time Flaming Lips take on “Smothered in Hugs” takes the raw raunchiness of the original and turns it into a lullaby, while the Lou Barlow cover of “Game of Pricks” is an amazing experiment in overdubbing, and Blitzen Trapper makes “Hot Freaks” the 70s Southerm boogie-rock song it was always meant to be. What Sing For Your Meat gets right is that it’s not all Pollard songs; it was great to hear Tobin Sprout get the recognition he deserved, with Cymbals Eat Guitars‘s take on “Gleemer,” and the cover of Doug Gillard‘s “I Am A Tree” by the Pneurotics wasn’t bad, either. Not everything works, of course; La Sera‘s slowing-down of “Watch Me Jumpstart” sucks the life out of it, and Mass Solo Revolt‘s turning of “Gold Star for Robot Boy” into a weird dance song just doesn’t quite work. Still, those are only a few blemishes on an otherwise excellent collection; for fun, you should pair this one up with the 1990s Blatant Doom Trip-an equally wonderful tribute record-and then hit the road to the liquor store!

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