''Mag Earwhig!'' is the 10th studio album by American

indie rock Indie rock is a Music subgenre, subgenre of rock music that originated in the United States, United Kingdom and New Zealand from the 1970s to the 1980s. Originally used to describe independent record labels, the term became associated with the mu ...

band Guided by Voices. Following the dissolution of the group's "classic" lineup, band-leader

Robert Pollard Robert Ellsworth Pollard Jr. (born October 31, 1957) is an American singer and songwriter who is the leader and creative force behind indie rock group Guided by Voices. In addition to his work with Guided by Voices, he continues to have a prol ...

recruited

Cleveland Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U ...

group

Cobra Verde ''Cobra Verde'' (also known as ''Slave Coast'') is a 1987 German drama film directed by Werner Herzog and starring Klaus Kinski, in their fifth and final collaboration. Based upon Bruce Chatwin's 1980 novel '' The Viceroy of Ouidah'', the film d ...

as his backing band, while retaining the Guided by Voices name. It was the second release to feature future long-term collaborator

Doug Gillard Douglas Scott Gillard (born December 23, 1965) is an American guitarist and songwriter. He has been a member of major indie pop and punk bands, most notably Guided by Voices, Nada Surf, Bambi Kino, Death of Samantha, and Cobra Verde. Early l ...

. Gillard had previously played on and co-wrote the song "Mice Feel Nice (In My Room)" on the ''Tigerbomb'' EP. Most of ''Mag Earwhig!'' was recorded in a professional studio in Cleveland by the new lineup and marked a departure from band's trademark

lo-fi Lo-fi (also typeset as lofi or low-fi; short for low fidelity) is a music or production quality in which elements usually regarded as imperfections in the context of a recording or performance are present, sometimes as a deliberate choice. The ...

sound; additional songs were also recorded in

Dayton, Ohio Dayton () is the sixth-largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Montgomery County. A small part of the city extends into Greene County. The 2020 U.S. census estimate put the city population at 137,644, while Greater ...

Track listing

All songs written by

unless otherwise noted. # "Can't Hear the Revolution" – 1:36 # "Sad If I Lost It" – 3:10 # "I Am a Tree" (

) – 4:40 # "The Old Grunt" – 1:28 # "Bulldog Skin" – 2:59 # "Are You Faster?" (Jim Pollard, R. Pollard,

Tobin Sprout Tobin Sprout (born April 28, 1955) is an American visual artist, musician, songwriter, and children's author. He is best known as a former member of the indie rock band Guided by Voices. He served as a secondary major songwriter and guitarist o ...

) – 1:13 # "I Am Produced" (R. Pollard, Sprout) – 1:06 # "Knock 'Em Flyin'" – 1:52 # "Not Behind the Fighter Jet" – 2:13 # "Choking Tara" – 1:24 # "Hollow Cheek" – :32 # "Portable Men's Society" – 4:16 # "Little Lines" – 2:02 # "Learning to Hunt" – 2:24 # "The Finest Joke Is Upon Us" – 3:08 # "Mag Earwhig!" – :39 # "Now to War" – 2:44 # "Jane of the Waking Universe" – 2:25 # "The Colossus Crawls West" – 2:13 # "Mute Superstar" – 1:24 # "Bomb in the Bee-Hive" – 2:03

Personnel

Guided by Voices

–

vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or witho ...

electric guitar An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar (however combinations of the two - a semi-acoustic guitar and an electric acoustic gu ...

acoustic guitar An acoustic guitar is a musical instrument in the string family. When a string is plucked its vibration is transmitted from the bridge, resonating throughout the top of the guitar. It is also transmitted to the side and back of the instrument, ...

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a musica ...

lead guitar Lead guitar (also known as solo guitar) is a musical part for a guitar in which the guitarist plays melody lines, instrumental fill passages, guitar solos, and occasionally, some riffs and chords within a song structure. The lead is the feature ...

(tracks 6, 15),

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair of matching drumsticks ...

(track 1),

casio is a Japanese multinational electronics manufacturing corporation headquartered in Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan. Its products include calculators, mobile phones, digital cameras, electronic musical instruments, and analogue and digital watches. I ...

(tracks 1, 2) *

– electric guitar, acoustic guitar, nylon-string guitar,

backing vocals A backing vocalist is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists. A backing vocalist may also sing alone as a lead-in to the main vocalist's entry or to sing a counter-melody. Backing vocalists are u ...

bass Bass or Basses may refer to: Fish * Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in the bass range: ** Bass (instrument), including: ** Acoustic bass gu ...

, lead guitar (tracks 3, 5, 12, 17, 20, 21) * John Petkovic – electric guitar,

synthesizer A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis ...

, backing vocals, lead guitar (track 13) *Don Depew – electric guitar, bass, synthesizer, organ, backing vocals *Dave Swanson – drums,

maracas A maraca (), sometimes called shaker or chac-chac, is a rattle which appears in many genres of Caribbean and Latin music. It is shaken by a handle and usually played as part of a pair. Maracas (from Guaraní ), also known as tamaracas, were ...

, backing vocals

Additional musicians

– bass, slide guitar (track 18); backing vocals (tracks 1, 18), lead guitar (track 6), acoustic guitar, Casio (track 7); drums (track 6) *Jim Pollard – bass, guitar (track 6); casio (tracks 1, 4) *

Mitch Mitchell John Graham "Mitch" Mitchell (9 July 194612 November 2008)In his book about the Experience, Mitchell states he celebrated his 21st birthday while on tour on 9 July 1967, which makes his birth year 1946.Mitchell's obituaries in '' Billboard' '' ...

– bass (tracks 9, 12, 13, 20), guitar (track 18) *

Kevin Fennell Kevin Fennell (born March 13, 1959) is an American musician from Dayton, Ohio best known as the original drummer for the indie rock band Guided by Voices. Career Fennell joined the original trio composition of the group, He performed with th ...

– drums (tracks 8, 15, 18) *Joe Buben – drums (tracks 2) *John Shough a.k.a. Johnny Strange – bass (tracks 2, 14, 15), programming (tracks 2, 14) *Chad Stanisic – organ (track 5)

References

{{Authority control 1997 albums Guided by Voices albums Matador Records albums