On a whim, I decided to find as many Guided By Voices covers as I could on Audiogalaxy. Overall, it’s a competant bunch of covers (unlike the Pavement covers which I found, most of which verged on outright blasphemy – I’ll talk about them later), but nothing that really knocked me out.

One of the best of the bunch is Jon Auer‘s rendition of “Gold Star For Robot Boy”, which essentially answers the question “What if Elliot Smith wrote and recorded “Gold Star For Robot Boy”?” It’s a pleasant, melancholy version of the song; Auer’s voice sounds really lovely. You can tell that Auer must really love the song just by hearing it. Nicely done.

Local H‘s version of “Smothered In Hugs” is a lot cleaner than the GBV original, which I think is to it’s credit. I’ve always felt the Bee Thousand version was noisey/sloppy to the point that it obscured the loveliness of the melody. Still, the singer’s voice is kind of unpleasant, I much prefer Sparklehorse‘s version, if just because the melody of the song sounds a lot better when a guy who sounds like a half-asleep Michael Stipe sings it.

I’m pretty fond of Kitty Badass‘ cover of “Game of Pricks”, for a few reasons – one, because they just do a competant girl-punk version of the Alien Lanes original; two, because the lead singer’s voice has a really nice snarl to it; and three, because I appreciate the gender reversal of the lyrics. Kitty Badass do a nice job of picking up on the punk aspects of the tune, while Jim Adkins‘ solo acoustic version captures the early Beatles-ishness of the song. His version is pleasant, but a bit forgettable. Jimmy Eat World‘s cover is a version of the Tigerbomb/live arrangement, which earns them big GBV geek points even though I don’t really care for the unnecessary intro on that version. It’s such a faithful cover that it really does just sound like current line-up GBV with some other guy singing lead instead of Bob. My Vitriol‘s version is also the Tigerbomb arrangement, but they play it with a more ethereal intro, and heavier Nirvana-esque soft/load dynamics. I imagine that if Kurt Cobain wrote the song, this is how he would have played it.

Deus‘ “Motor Away” is a nice acoustic version with some pleasantly warbling vocals – it captures the sadness of the lyrics more than the original GBV version, but still doesn’t do much for me. Superdrag‘s version is a lot like Jimmy Eat World’s “Game of Pricks” – just like the original, but with a lesser singer. They do project a genuine love for the song in the recording, though. The Salteens, on the other hand, do a distinctive twee indie pop version that is cute, but maybe a little too cute for its own good.

Unquestionably the most amusing and unique GBV cover that I found is Kompressor‘s vaguely disturbing faux-German electro version. The synth arrangement is cute, and the angry-mad-scientist vocals are really funny. I like it a lot more than Join’R‘s straight-ahead garage band version, even though it’s nice and earnest enough. Join’R certainly embrace the big-giant-anthem nature of the song, which is much to their credit.

I give The Fastbacks a lot of credit for covering one of my personal favorites “Teenage FBI”, but I wish they’d done a better job. Their version is very fast and bratty, emphasizing the “someone tell me why” parts of the song. I also wish Chore had done a better job of playing “Subspace Biographies” – another big personal favorite, and also a lot more obscure than most of the other covers that I found, which gives Chore some bonus points. The problem with Chore’s version is not that it’s too sloppy; but that it’s far too polished and clean, it sounds too ordinary for my liking. They play the song a bit heavier than GBV too – I’m pretty sure the rhythm guitarist is playing in drop D tuning, making the song a lot beefier-sounding than it should be.

New Radiant Storm King‘s version of “I Am A Scientist” from a split single with GBV is an odd one – on one hand, the music is very faithful, and on the other the singer butchers the song with his mush-mouthed vocals which make it sound as though he is actually mocking the song. The pointless sloppy backing vocals they added to the arrangement at the end doesn’t help, either.

The Grifters‘ drunken live version of “Postal Blowfish” is very true to the spirit of live GBV, and is pretty fun, but doesn’t quite gel. Real Lulu’s version is a lot better – the girl who is singing sounds kinda creepy and possessed, almost like that girl who sings on all of the best A Certain Ratio songs. It’s got a really nice “we are members of an evil rock cult, the Branch Pollardians” vibe to it.

Finally, The Breeders‘ version of “Shocker In Gloomtown” is nice and smooth, and nails the song without surpassing the original. Just plain pleasant, really.

Again, this is pretty decent bunch of covers. I’ll get to the Great Pavement Song Massacre later on, or tomorrow…