Suffering Jukebox
Nick
Monday
6:00 AM - 9:00 AM
Soundtracking your Monday morning with an eclectic mix of new music and old favourites, reviews, interviews and more. Email: sufferingjukebox@outlook.com / Instagram: @sufferingjukebox4zzz
10 February, 2025
This morning's episode features a pre-recorded interview with Thalia Zedek who currently performs with Come, Thalia Zedek Band and E. A veteran of 80s and 90s noise rock, Thalia has also played in Live Skull, Uzi and many others. Come are about to play their first ever Australian shows, catch them at Crowbar Brisbane on Friday 14th February, alongside Alan Sparhawk and Circuit Des Yeux. Find out more about Come -and purchase their music- via https://come.bandcamp.com/music
Nick's Pick of the Week is Guided By Voices' Universe Room. You can hear the full album here https://guidedbyvoices.bandcamp.com/album/universe-room and my review can be read below.
Guided By Voices: Universe Room (Rockathon Records/Guided By Voices Inc.)
Released February 7th 2025
Robert Pollard is incredibly and dauntingly prolific. As the founding member and principal songwriter in Guided By Voices, he has a work ethic unmatched in modern rock. Universe Room is Guided By Voice’s 41st album since forming in 1983 and the 19th since Pollard reformed the group, for the second time, in 2016. There are a further 19 EPs, a plethora of splits and singles, plus solo recordings and work with other bands, resulting in a back-catalogue of more than 1600 songs.
Guided By Voices’ music is almost instantly recognisable, not just for Pollard’s unmistakable voice, but for the anthemic quality of their songs. Catchy and simple, they have made a career out of the kind of economy that most bands dream of, channelling the greatest hits of classic 60s pop and reinterpreting it through a slightly skewed, alternative rock lens.
Album opener, Driving Time, with its faraway, filtered vocals, sounds like a nod to the band’s lo-fi past, whilst I Couldn’t See The Light, the second track and an early album highlight, contains a guitar riff to rival Peter Buck’s best work. Later standouts include the sludgy stomp of Elfin Flower With Knees, the swirling, droning guitar of Aluminum Stingray Girl and the elegiac closer Everybody’s A Star.
After an unparalleled streak of two albums, minimum, per year since 2019, 2024 saw Guided By Voices release only one, the excellent Serene King. Perhaps, at the age of 67, Pollard is finally slowing down. Recent interviews, however, indicate no desire to hang up his hat and only last year he debuted a new band called Rip Van Winkle. Only time will tell how much more material Guided By Voices fans will be treated to, but, if the songs on Universe Room are anything to go by, it would appear the man has plenty of gas in the tank yet.
Nick Stephan
Sad Song of the Week
Cover Me (Originally by Dolly Parton)
Nick's Pick