Bee Thousand
Studio album by Guided by Voices
Released	June 21, 1994 (1994-06-21)
Recorded	1984–1993
Studio	Various places inDayton, Ohio, with recordings pulled from as far back as the early 1980s
Genre	Indie rock[1] lo-fi[2][3] avant-pop[4] progressive pop[4]
Length	36:35
Label	Scat
Guided by Voices chronology
Vampire on Titus (1993) Bee Thousand (1994) Alien Lanes (1995)
Alternative cover
Bee Thousand was reissued in 2004 asBee Thousand: The Director's Cut.

Bee Thousand is the seventh album by Americanindie rock bandGuided by Voices, released on June 21, 1994, onScat Records. After its release the band became one of the more prominent groups associated with the "lo-fi" genre, a movement defined by the relatively lowfidelity of audio releases. Musically, the album draws inspiration fromBritish Invasion-erarock music andpunk rock. Following the release ofBee Thousand, the band began to attract interest from other record labels, eventually signing withMatador for their next album.

Guided by Voices is a Dayton, Ohio-based band formed in 1983. Although by 1992 the band had released five full-length albums (not including their 1986 debut EP,Forever Since Breakfast), Guided by Voices was not a band in a conventional sense; its line-up was extremely loose, consisting of whoever of a group of friends showed up to short notice recording sessions.Robert Pollard thought of Guided by Voices as more of a "songwriter's guild" than a band, and also said that "Whoever could come over would play. [...] It was just a bunch of friends who could occasionally get together so it didn't really feel like a band."^[5]

Bee Thousand was to be the original band's final album. Pollard was close to disbanding Guided by Voices by 1993, due to financial constraints and pressure to focus more on his family and teaching career;^[6] Pollard has also stated that the band was nearly broken up as early as 1991, during the creation ofPropeller.^[7] Pollard was also struggling with writing for a follow-up record toVampire on Titus andPropeller, which had been the band's two most noticed records yet. However, it occurred to him to "deconstruct" and "reconstruct" the band's older, unused material into new songs.^[5]

Unlike some of the band's earlier releases,Bee Thousand was not recorded in astudio, but rather onfour-track machines or other primitive home recording devices in the garages and basements of various band members. Moreover, many of thedemo takes of the songs were the ones that were used for the album. Due in part to both of these factors, several unusual errors are present in the album's recording and mixing; for example, the guitar track drops out at one point in both "Hardcore UFO's" and “Mincer Ray”.^[8] The band's choice to use inexpensive recording devices was initially a matter of economics, but eventually the band grew to prefer the sound. Pollard said that:

...For our first [EP],Forever Since Breakfast, we went into a studio and created a very mediocre recording out of a very sterile environment. I thought, "Fuck that. If we're paying for it and no one's listening to these records anyway, if we're only making them for ourselves, then I'm going to put exactly what I want on them."^[9]

Kevin Fennell similarly said, "WhenBee Thousand came out we sounded much less professional than we did in 1982. The music was much more spontaneous."^[10] Pollard also said that, at the time, the band's recording style was intended to sound likeBeatles bootlegs.^[8] Furthermore, songs were usually completed in a minimum number of takes with norehearsal beforehand.^[11] In all, recording for the album was extremely brief, taking only three days,^[12] with Pollard estimating that each song took roughly half an hour.^[11]

The music ofBee Thousand is influenced byBritish Invasion rock music, as well as what Pollard calls the "four P's" of rock:pop,punk rock,progressive rock, andpsychedelia.^[13] Only a few new songs were written for the album, among them "I Am a Scientist" and "Gold Star for Robot Boy", with the rest of the album mostly beingoverdubbed, rerecorded, or edited versions of the band's older, unused material.

While typical rock instruments, such asguitar,bass, anddrums, are dominant, a variety of instruments and sounds are used.Recorders are used in "The Goldheart Mountaintop Queen Directory", and apiano is used in the closing track "You're Not an Airplane".^[14]

Pollard's surreal lyrical style has been compared to thecut-up technique ofBeat writerWilliam S. Burroughs.^[15] Many of the album's lyrics reflect childish or fantastical themes and were heavily influenced by the statements and actions of Pollard'sfourth grade class, exemplified by "Gold Star for Robot Boy". Pollard was inspired to write "The Goldheart Mountaintop Queen Directory" after having anLSD-triggeredpsychedelic experience in which he perceived his own face in a mirror changing into his son's face; however, the song's lyrics are not about this event.^[8] According to Pollard, "I Am a Scientist" is "the first song that showed some maturity in my ability as a songwriter."^[16] The lyrics for "Tractor Rape Chain" are taken from three other songs: "Still Worth Nothing", "Tractor Rape Chain (Clean It Up)", and "Tell Me".

The titleBee Thousand was inspired by a group brainstorming session, during which band members smokedcannabis. Pollard's brother, Jim, thought of "zoo thousand", allegedly inspired by amile marker reading "Z1000." This phrase coalesced with a misspelling of a movie title at adrive-in theater, with "Beethoven" spelled as "Beethouen", which Pollard liked because the misspelling sounded like the name ofThe Who guitaristPete Townshend. Other considered titles includedAll That Glue andInstructions for the Rusty Time Machine, both of which were used in the lyrics of other Guided by Voices songs.^[17]

The caped person on the front of the album is from an image in an article byNational Geographic documenting the festival ofMardi Gras inAcadiana, Louisiana.^[18]

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[19]
Chicago Tribune	[20]
Entertainment Weekly	B+[21]
Mojo	[22]
NME	7/10[23]
Rolling Stone	[24]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide	[25]
Spin	[26]
Spin Alternative Record Guide	8/10[27]
The Village Voice	B−[28]

In July 2014,Guitar World rankedBee Thousand at number 6 in their "Superunknown: 50 Iconic Albums That Defined 1994" list.^[31]

Guided by Voices^[39]

• Robert Pollard –vocals(tracks 1–9, 12–15, 17–19);guitar(tracks 1–4, 6–9, 12, 13, 15, 17–19); other instruments(tracks 4, 9, 15, 19)
• Jim Pollard –bass guitar(track 12); guitar,feedback(track 17)
• Tobin Sprout – vocals(tracks 10, 11, 16, 20); bass guitar(tracks 1, 8, 14); guitar(tracks 1, 5, 10, 11, 16);piano(track 20); other instruments(tracks 5, 10, 11, 16, 20)
• Mitch Mitchell – guitar(tracks 6, 14)
• Don Thrasher –drums,percussion(tracks 9, 18)
• Dan Toohey – bass guitar(tracks 2, 6, 13)
• Kevin Fennell – drums, percussion(tracks 1–3, 6, 8, 13–15, 17)
• Greg Demos – bass guitar(track 3)

Additional musicians

• Randy Campbell –backing vocals(track 12)

• Greer, James (2005).Guided by Voices: A Brief History: Twenty-One Years of Hunting Accidents in the Forests of Rock. New York: Black Cat/Grove.ISBN 0-8021-7013-7.
• Woodworth, Marc (2006).Bee Thousand.33⅓. New York:Continuum International Publishing Group.ISBN 0-8264-1748-5.
• Warren, Jeff."Guided By Voices Database". GBVDB. RetrievedAugust 22, 2007.

• Bee Thousand atLast.fm
• Bee Thousand atGoogle Music

• 1994 albums
• Guided by Voices albums
• Scat Records albums
• Progressive pop albums
• Albums recorded in a home studio
• Avant-pop albums

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