Guided by Voices
w/the Go, DJ Child of the Moon
Tues Oct 21, Graceland, 9:30 pm, $17 adv.

If Isolation Drills was meant to be Guided by Voices' Who's Next (and frontman Bob Pollard has said it is), their latest release, Earthquake Glue, is the band's attempt at Quadrophenia. You could come to that conclusion yourself just by listening to the record, but to make it obvious, the accompanying publicity photo casts the band members as scooter-riding mods, grown-up style.

Like Pete Townshend's second attempt at opera, Earthquake Glue sounds best when heard from start to finish. Break up the tracks and the album fails to engage the listener. That said, Pollard's leap lacks the flight of Quadrophenia, and even fails to surmount the beauty and personal growth made evident by 2001's Isolation Drills or the reassurance provided by 2002's Uni- versal Truths and Cycles, a fragmented and comparatively abra- sive album that sounded like Pollard communicating to his long- time fans that "the kid's still got it."

Inspiring as it was musically, Quadrophenia would signal the Who's impending "solo period," although the band members managed to pull together long enough to release The Who by Numbers before going their own ways. Now, I hate to even think it, let alone say it in print, but Earthquake Glue has me spooked. A few gems shine on the oversized track list, including "My Kind of Soldier" and "The Best of Jill Hives," but the overall transition the album makes from pop to a more weighty, near prog aesthetic is unsettling, and hearing that Tim Tobias is out of the band fills me with worry that goes far deeper than just wondering how the bassist's (now-former) onstage lovebird--guitarist Nate Farley--will survive when his mate is gone.

I know I started it, but let's not dwell, shall we? The epic live shows provided by Guided by Voices are corkers that no other band can match and I'm satisfied with that. I'd bet my last dollar that Pollard packs more songs into an hour than Springsteen does in four, and for that alone I feel blessed. If a stall is approaching, Pollard's unflagging tenacity will get him back in gear. Of that I'm sure.

kathleen@thestranger.com