‘Despite his own solo successes, Tobin Sprout will probably always be known as the one-time four-track wizard and songwriting side kick to Robert Pollard in Ohio’s lo-fi pop kings Guided By Voices. Though less prolific than his boss, fans of the group were quick to take note of Sprout’s irresistible song craft. Relegated to a handful of appearances on each release, the singer/guitarist penned GBV favorites like “Awful Bliss,” “Atom Eyes,” and “It’s Like Soul Man.” Sprout left the GBV camp in 1997, pursuing the solo career he launched a year earlier with Carnival Boy.
‘Tobin Sprout began playing guitar at age eight, teaching himself on the Silvertone his parents purchased for 25 dollars. In his late twenties, Sprout began making his first appearances on a Dayton, OH, scene dominated by metal acts, cover bands, and the occasional coalition of fiery punk youth, with his band Fig.4. Formed in 1983 with bassist Dan Toohey and drummer Jon Peterson, the group only released one 7″ during its existence, breaking up before completing their full-length debut. After the split, Sprout enlisted the help of Dayton resident Robert Pollard to finish the album.
‘A frequent attendee at Fig.4 shows, Pollard’s early offer to join the group was (rather ironically) rejected. Needing an outlet for his own growing backlog of compositions, Pollard formed Guided By Voices shortly after. The band’s Forever Since Breakfast EP was released in 1986, followed by the full-length Devil Between My Toes a year later. Sprout continued to stay in touch, adding his guitar to a couple of tracks on Devil, but eventually moved to Florida, taking a job as a designer and illustrator for See magazine.
‘Upon returning to Dayton in the early ’90s, Sprout found Guided By Voices hard at work on their fifth album Propeller (1992). Impressed with Pollard’s songwriting talents, Sprout joined the group mid-way through the recording, making his GBV songwriting debut with “14 Cheerleader Coldfront.” The band began using Sprout’s home studio, pleased with the intimacy of four-track fidelity. Eventually a recording reached Scat Records who signed the band for the Propeller follow-up, Vampire on Titus. The group’s home until their 1995 signing to Matador, the Scat-era saw GBV honing their home-studio skills, culminating on Bee Thousand. One of the group’s best-loved releases, the album was cut entirely on Sprout’s four-track.
‘Token Sprout appearances followed on each subsequent album, peaking with his four contributions to 1996’s Under the Bushes, Under the Stars. Shortly after, weary of the band’s increased touring, Sprout moved with his family to Michigan. Though much of his spare time was dedicated to painting, he continued to write, releasing the occasional 7″ and two full-length collections, Moonflower Plastic (1997) and Let’s Welcome the Circus People (1999). He also wrote a number of songs for his Eyesinweasel project, 14 of which were collected on 2000’s Wrinkled Thoughts. Demos and Outtakes appeared in 2001, but Sprout was uncharacteristically quiet after its release, only popping up here and there on hard-to-find 7″ singles. During this time he also cut a full-length studio effort in his Leland, MI home studio. The finished touches were collected as Lost Planets & Phantom Voices, which appeared in February 2003.’ — collaged
______________
To My Beloved Martha
‘That one was mostly done on an Alesis ADAT and a Studio 32 board so I can go up to 16 tracks, which is what I’d like to do eventually. The stuff that I did on Moonflower Plastic, outside of the studio stuff, was done on an 8-track cassette and a 4-track cassette and there’s a big difference in the sound quality of the ADAT.’ — TS
_______________
Martin’s Mounted Head
‘My ultimate goal is to get a 24-track analog machine, but it’s just expensive. You’ve got to have somebody that can work on it, and you’ve got to find one to begin with. They’re expensive and a problem to maintain and there aren’t really a lot of people up here who could even work on it. So eventually I’d like to do that, but for the time being I’m just going to be using the ADAT because it seems to be working out pretty well and it’s easy to use and there’s not a lot of problems like with a tape machine.’ — TS
______________
It’s Like Soul Man
‘I’m drawn to the analogue sound mostly just for the saturation point that you can get with tape and you can’t get it on the ADAT. They are getting better to where you can get a nice sound on them but they still don’t have the warmth that you get from tape, I don’t think. A lot of people say they can’t tell the difference, but I can hear the difference in a lot of the stuff.’ — TS
____________________
The Last Man Well Known to Kingpin
‘There’s a couple of microphones that I still use. There’s an Electro-Voice that’s more of a stage mic that I still use just because it has more of a crisp sound to it. And then I’ve got a CAD E-100 vocal mic that I’ve been using – I was using that with the 8-track too. That’s got a nice large diaphragm so it really picks up the vocals really well. Aside from that I still use the Memory Man [analog delay pedal] occasionally on some vocal sounds because that was really the only thing that we had on the 4-track for effects. It was just an echo and a chorus on it.’ — TS
_______________
Get Out of My Throat
‘I studied graphic design and illustration. When I finally got into it I did graphic design. I was painting at night and eventually started showing my work and that just sort of took off. So I was able to get out of graphic design and just paint. It all sort of wrapped around the Guided By Voices stuff that was going on. I was able to do that at the same time.’ — TS
____________
All Used Up (live)
‘I would say I made a living as an artist before I made a living as a musician. I was always into both. I had a guitar when I was in fifth or sixth grade, and we had bands in the garage and stuff, but nothing ever really took off. Drawing and art were things that just came really easy to me. It always seemed like that’s what I wanted to do and that’s what I ended up doing. It was always easy for me and I couldn’t figure out why other people can’t do that. But you get into other things, and I can barely balance my checkbook.’ — TS
_________
Curious Things
‘One of the biggest things that I notice is little kids are getting into GBV. We’ve been doing these all-ages shows and there are these five and six-year-old kids that are there with their parents. And they’re right up front and they’re singing. They know all the words. It’s like we’ve got this whole new generation coming up, and that’s pretty exciting. We were in Chicago, and about four or five rows out there was this mother holding her daughter, who was singing every word to every song. It’s incredible. So we have a new generation to write for.’ — TS
__________________
Water on the Boater’s Back
‘Sometimes when writing songs they come out right away if I have the lyrics already written. Other times I’ll spend all day on it. It just depends on the song. It doesn’t matter the length of it, it’s just a matter of how long it takes to get all the pieces together. A lot of times I’ll start with just the instruments and them maybe throw a vocal at it and see what happens. If it doesn’t work, the next day I’ll go back in and hopefully you forget about what you did and things will happen. Some days just fly by because you’re just involved with the song, but it varies. It’s usually done within the day.’ — TS
_______
Liquor Bag
‘The wires, the set up, the machines that don’t work when I need them to.’ — TS
____________
Indian Ink (live)
‘When I was in Fig.4 we played an arena and were booked to play after the Ohio Players. The place was packed, but as soon as the Ohio Players were finished it emptyed out. We played to about 10 people in the largest venue I had ever played in at that time. It was very intimidating but we just went with it. It looked good on the poster, as if the Ohio Players opened for us.’ — TS
___________
Courage the Tack
‘I don’t know that it matters, I use to think it did but I think It just comes down to staying excited about writing. And that comes from inside.’ — TS
_______
Earth Links
‘I just wrote a song on the piano. I like it , it has rolling notes that flow from one chord to the next. Its very beautiful. The words are nice too. I’m thinking of trying it with drums.’ — TS
____________
As Lovely as You
‘I’ve been hearing some music from the 40s that my Dad has, big band, Frank Sinatra. It really is amazing, the pure sounds of the recordings, just one vocal, no overdubs or effects. The songs are all well written, every note and word means something. It has changed me.’ — TS
_______________
The Crawling Backwards Man
‘Harry Nilsson, I wish I could sing like him. He had a great voice. The Moonbeam song is one of my favorite. “First of May” by the BEE GEE”S It is the most beautiful song I’ve ever heard. It makes me feel good to feel sad.’ — TS
______________
Sentimental Stations
‘I enjoy reading about American history; right now I’m reading The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara, about the Battle of Gettysburg. The Illusion of Life by Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston is a great book—all about the creation of Disney and about the development of the art and the artists behind the scenes.’ — TS
______
Popstram
‘I’m sure I picked up the style of the 60s singers because that is what I grew up listening to. My grandmother gave me the first three Byrds albums for Christmas, and I would listen to the radio at night—The Ronnettes, Left Bank, The Bee Gees, The Hollies—and I’d pick out all the parts and add some of my own. So I think it’s a cross between American and British psychedelic.’ — TS
*
p.s. RIP: Claude Ollier. A great loss. And now there’s only one Nouveau Roman writer still alive: Michel Butor. ** Tosh Berman, Hi, Tosh. It was my great pleasure, thank you! You’re already nearing the end of your trip? Wow, that seems fast for some reason. That hotel: we stayed there the first time because we really liked its profile, and we didn’t really know where it was vis-à-vis central Tokyo. But we kind of fell in love with it, and we ended up enjoying the traveling to and from the center. There’s a subway stop about 10-15 minutes walk from the hotel, which isn’t bad. The rooms there are beautiful. We always stay in a Tatami room, which you can see if you click this and scroll down. The prices aren’t so bad for Tokyo, from what I can tell. And we like Meguro itself, so, yeah, that hotel has become our Tokyo home away from home. Well, naturally I think moving there is a dreamy idea. I love Tokyo so much. I miss it all the time. ** David Ehrenstein, Hi. He sure didn’t seem very appealing in bed in the YSL film with his pencil mustache and greasy, smirking, cartoonily grease-ball demeanor. Oh, thank you so much for the post! It’ll go up here on this coming Friday! Thank you, thank you! There are posters for ‘Horns’ all over Paris at the moment, and, man, is it a bad poster. ** Nick, Wow, hi, Nick! How the heck are you? Yeah, ‘300,000,000’ is a really, really amazing novel. Take care. Yeah, what’s up? ** Tomkendall, Hi, Tom! Hi, buddy! How are you? What’s going on, man? ** Marilyn Roxie, Well, it’s very nice to see you, Marilyn, my pal. You good? Please fill me in on your goings on, if you like and don’t mind. ** Kier! It’s righteous: the book. That’s funny because I just watched part of the film of ‘Destroy, She Said’ the other day while I was putting together a post on Duras’ films. ‘Honored Guest’, ooh. Joy Williams is so, so great! I’m reading a bunch of stuff, I guess, yeah. I guess I’ll do a ‘loved books’ post about some of them soon. The sculpture just disappeared early in the morning the next day. I think the janitor did something with it. But it was so spectacular, I’m sure they didn’t throw it away. It’s probably in the dungeon. Cool about the letter from the clinic! My last two days … hm, okay, I guess quickly, err, … The day before yesterday, … oh, I think I mentioned that my friends the artists Scott Treleaven and Paul P are in residency here right now, and I wanted them to meet Zac and vice versa, so we all had a coffee, and that was really nice. Zac and I went to see this concert by the guy who did that phenomenal Hatsune Miku vocaloid opera The End’ last year, but his music was drab and really not very interesting when just played on the piano with lame video projections, so we left at the intermission. And I worked and stuff. Yesterday, my agent was in town so I had a coffee with her and caught her up on my progress on my novel and heard about the biz re: my books. Then I met up with Zac for a coffee and brief hang out near the Pompidou. Then I worked some more. Then in the evening Zac and I went to Gisele’s to see her before she splits for the ‘Kindertotenlieder’ shows Montreal today. So, they were nice, mildly eventful days, I guess. I can’t remember what else happened. I’m doing a long interview for the Spanish version of Esquire Magazine that I need to finish today. I think other than those outings, I was just home trying to catch up on my projects basically. What did Wednesday do to and for you? ** Damien Ark, Hi, Damien. The new Blake novel is phenomenal, his best I think. Well, when your writing fails you, it’s always the right idea to stop and recharge. The ‘I miss writing’ thing when you abandon it for a while is pretty good fuel, so, yeah, probably a good move, and probably a positive move and not apocalyptic or anything like that. ** Bill, Hi. I was pretty way into Nick Cave from the Birthday Party up through ‘Funeral, Trial’, and then I kind of drifted away. Do they know why this hoarseness thing is so lingery? (Ha ha, Blogger’s spellcheck really, really wanted to change lingery into lingerie. We had a protracted little war over the word there for a minute.) ** Paul Curran, Hi, Paul. I think it’s my favorite of Blake’s too. It’s a wowzer. No problem on the slackness. I get a little greedy re: Halloween, I’m sorry. I read about that street thing the other day, and I want to see that one of these years. Looks awesome. ** Thomas Moronic, Hi, T. Oh, man, that’s cool. Nice of you to come in. Hope you’re sufficiently de-tired by now. ** Sypha, Yeah, I think that’s where I got the retirement idea. Nice about the horror movies. I should be doing that. ** Etc etc etc, Hi, man. Oh, Ira, yeah, I just saw him the other week. If he’s in a good mood, I’m sure he’ll be happy to regale you with stories. Tell him you’re my pal. That should add some perk to whatever mood he’s in, I think. Thanks about the LHotB line-up. I’m proud of it, yeah. Every book was tops, and I plan to keep it that way when I restart it. Oops about the Matisse show. Did you see the Gober retro and that sculpture group show whatever it’s called? I’m curious to see those. ** Steevee, Hi. That’s funny, Etc etc etc just mentioned seeing that film the other day. I think he wasn’t completely wild about it? How was it? ** Chris Cochrane, Mr. Cochrane! Chris! Hey, hey, man! I’d love to see you too, but all in-person bets are off at the moment until I see how much I’ll actually be in NYC and how busy. We’ll connect through some medium one way or the other for sure. ‘Soused’ is so good! ** Misanthrope, You must have a swanky 7-11. The 7-11’s coffee near my LA pad is misery incarnate. Mm, yeah, that joke, hm, I don’t know, man, ha ha. ** Postitbreakup, Hi, Josh. I understand. Well, I’m rotten with emails almost across the board. Also, in that recent one, you showed me something that was not intended for my eyes, and I didn’t read it for that reason, so that’s probably one reason why I didn’t respond, not that the words ’email response’ and I are ever trusty friends under the best of circumstances. I’m sorry, and take care, man. ** Keaton, Man, how do you keep unveiling all these awesome posts at such a high rate? I don’t how you do it. I guess I’m just really slow on the upswing. Well, I know I am. Another great beauty! Everyone, a day without a Halloween themed post is a sad day, but, luckily, today is not a sad day, or it won’t be, if you go over to Keaton’s. Hint, hint. ** Rewritedept, Hi. Oh, I liked ‘King of the Hill’ a lot. That sounds good. Rattling people’s need for pleasantness inspires questions and not necessarily interesting ones. Part and parcel. Goes with the turf. Okay cool, about the taco place. I’ll be game if I’m there. Thanks! I wouldn’t anticipate a friend acceptance from Zac because he only friends real friends and sometimes artists he likes, and I don’t think he knows your stuff, but, hey, you never know with him. I am happy about the S-K reunion, you bet, duh. ** Schlix, Hi, Uli! I’ll let you know. I asked Gisele about that last night, and she said there are gigs in the works but nothing firm at all yet. Have a lovely day! ** End. Tobin Sprout usually gets overlooked due to being the second songwriter in a band beside the genius Robert Pollard, but he’s great, and he’s a maker of many really exquisite songs, and he’s one of my great favorites, so I hope you like the gig. See you tomorrow.
Now available in North America 
d, to me, that message being deliberately delivered via a public link on twitter and viewed by 200 people means it lost that "intended recipient" status, and that was part of the point i was trying to make, but i do get what you're saying. and like i said, after looking at all the psychotic things i've sent you, i'm sure this just seems like another one, even though it's a lot more based in reality. but they all feel like they are reality-based at the time, i suppose. it's irrelevant now anyway, the matter is settled, thank you for everything….
Claude Ollier was not only a great nouveau romancier he was a peerless film critic for CdC in its glory days. I have a collection of his articles. One of the best was about King Kong entitled "A King in New York." He also did a combine review of Godard's Contemptand Gregory Markopoulous' Twice a Man as both films reference Greek gods.
Vincent Kartheiser as Billy Wilder?
Hello Dennis! I am still lurking the blog as always, but I am out here. I am doing quite well. I've just started San Francisco State doing photography. Kind of busy and overwhelmed but interesting things are happening all the time. You remember Dan Wreck from our Rowland S. Howard piece? Him and I are entangled romantically now and I'll be visiting him in England in January. It is quite incredible, considering he first found me a couple of years ago via my music blog and contacted me on the basis of our similar interests (including in your books).
hi coop, tobin sprout day! despite my love for gbv i've been pretty unaware of sprout's solo stuff, but happily no more. there's a recollet's dungeon? ooh. how'd the interview go? was it an email thing? today i watched a bunch of tv, went for a walk looking for a halloween-decorated house i heard rumours about but didn't find, and thaaat's it. i'll try to do more interesting things the next few days. tell me about yours.
Well, LISTEN UP PHILIP is very similar in style to THE COLOR WHEEL, except that it's in color. It owes a big debt to Cassavetes (in the direction) and Philip Roth (upon whom the character of Ike Zimmerman, played by Jonathan Pryce, seems to be based.) Alex Ross Perry seems to be a major misanthrope, and the bile that was so refreshing in THE COLOR WHEEL is less appealing here. The film is as honest about what a dick its protagonist, a novelist played by Jason Schwartzmann, is, but he's a bit one-dimensional and the film is insistent on slamming the door on the possibility that he could ever grow or achieve a moment of happiness. However, the structure, which shifts perspective from character to character, is really interesting, and I think Perry writes women better than Roth.
I'm currently hunkered down in Leeds against the weather, which from the point of view of this here window looks exceedingly foul. I'm inside reading Sotos – Desistance and no surprise, it's another masterpiece. Although I wasn't familiar with any of Antoine D’Agata’s work previously, his artist's statements are massively illuminating and I really ought to seek some of his photography out.
Hey, I don't know if you got my messages, but I didn't get anything back on my end. Wish we could have met up, but oh well, such is life. I'm in the Netherlands now, London next. No idea when I'll be back to Paris. Hope everything is okay with you! Keep in touch! Sending my love as always! Hope to hear from you soon!
Here's my review of REVENGE OF THE MEKONS.
Hello Dennis, just popped up to say hello before you travel. Hope you will enjoy it. I'm crushed with work as expected but it's ok. I see your blog everyday though because your blog is the only site that reconnects my device to the internet when I lose it. Strange wifi here. Great posts lately.
Dennis–
Yeah, saw the Gober–really intense, full-scale installations which I'd never seen when viewing his stuf in a museum before. Highly worth it. Plus the Christopher Williams is great if you don't mind the theory-heavy cerebral thing. Yeah, I'd say nix on the matisse unless you want to feel unbearably light.
Also, I just bought tix for the Kindertotenlieder on your "discussion" night! Totally understandable if you're jetting around but I'll shoot you some supportive glances from the back row. I'm super interested in seeing what the actual production entails. seeing pina bausch this friday too so my aesthetic meter is set to 'overload'
xx
c
Thanks, Dennis! It is good to know that The Pyre has not yet reached the end. Cool.
I always click on some stuff from Tobin Sprout when I see it on Facebook or somewhere else. I like his music but I didn`t explore deeper. I did today! He is really in the shadow of Robert Pollard and all his projects. By the way I also like to listen to Teenage Guitar at the moment.
Disconnection is the only book I know from Claude Ollier. A great book. It is not easy to get his other books in Germany.
Hi Dennis – you've been characteristically kind, generous and helpful about my ghost book – just to let you know it's now published in the US and the New York Times is reviewing on Sunday – Patrick McGrath no less.
A poem by Mary – It's Halloween, I want to suck your Hallowpeen and then you can…
D.,
Thanks! You rock! Deleted FB. Reading and writing is all I wanna do. Hope you like the new post. Don't know much GBV. I like Tobin Sprout's paintings. Much love
Dennis, I like the name Tobin. And the Sprout adds something cool to it too.
Man, I'm still having problems getting a lot of YouTube vids to play. Don't know why. Everything else plays. Fuck, if porn stops playing…eek.
Actually, in taste tests, 7-11 coffee is usually near the top. Well, I mean, it's against other similar stores. Though I'm pretty sure they've beaten out Starbucks in some of those taste tests too. And Dunkin' Donuts. I get their Brazilian Roast when I get coffee there. It's doable.
But my preference is my homemade Gevalia Espresso Roast. Good shit right there. Stop by for a coffee some day. Let my little espresso maker wow you.
Oh, okay, now I'm gonna ask something you may have already answered because my head's in the clouds and tend not to keep up with anything any more: Did Gisele ever get it sorted with that intro thing that was supposed to be handed out at KTL, the thing that that dick who doesn't like you wrote?
I need a traveling companion myself. Like NYC next week…don't know what I'm gonna do, even if I'm gonna go. It depends on things. Okay, I'm pretty sure I'm going, but hell…ah, fuck it, I'm not gonna complain about shit. And no, nothing to do with my leave at work -I have more than enough. And really, I need a fucking break from the grind. We'll see, maybe everything will work out.
Sorry for being cryptic. I told you my head's in the clouds. I'm all over the place. But you know what? I don't mind it. It's kind of fun.
You know what I like? I like it when my mom sees some movie star on TV who she hasn't seen in 50 years and she goes, "She looks so old." Duh. She's 50 years older than the last time you saw her, mom! Which made me come up with brilliant, deep shit: the longer you live, the older you get.
hey dennis,
GBV actually played at a record shop in the city over from my hometown. I didnt see them play tho, I'd heard of them but hadnt heard them at the time so i didnt go.
Belated thanks for your advice about my novel, it was very helpful! Also a belated well done on the Blake Butler post, I've been looking forward to his newest book (Im actually just about to order it); I've been meaning to stalk butler for a while now.
sorry for my late late comments. I check your blog everyday but whenever I have something to say on it something gets in the way.
How are things? How's your novel coming? gotten laid lately?
sincerely,
cal
Hi Dennis!
I'm probably in the minority, but I actually prefer Tobin's voice to Robert Pollard's. I was sad when he "left" GbV in 1997, after UTBUTS. I continued following the band until Do the Collapse, then I kinda lost interest. But Alien Lanes and UTBUTS are two of my favorite albums of all time… I even own them on vinyl! Thank you for the Tobin day..
Dennis, is the blog going to be rerun city whilst you are on vacation?
Much love,
James
You know, I was lucky enough to see GBV recently, when they last played in LA, at the Fonda! A venue I feel ambivalently about, since a beer is like $11, but at least they have good seating in the balcony. The Kings had just won the Stanley Cup as Robert Pollard announced in his inimitable style.
Tobin Sprout is great. That first song, To My Beloved Martha, really indicates what I love about his whole style and his contribution to GBV. I could listen to that riff forever! Reminds me of that first track off Tonics and Twisted Chasers, what's it called, something 19 something and 5…
That was the first time I've seen GBV live!!
Hello Keaton, your blog is great. I love every post I've seen.
Dennis, well, one thing that makes this album different from previous SN albums is that a few songs will have vocals. I don't "sing" very often because my throat strains very easily (partly due to acid reflux, partly because I probably damaged my vocal chords doing voice experiments years ago during my more experimental phase). But I felt the time was right with this one because I wanted to set it apart from my other albums. Interestingly, this one also utilizes way more samples as well, mostly from horror films. It's very much inspired by Joy Division, NIN's "Pretty Hate Machine," various 80's synth-pop bands, even a bit of death metal, and so on. I'm very excited about it though because I do think it's my most cohesive work yet… but we'll see.
Got Mark Gluth's new book in the mail today. Already over 70 pages into it. Greatly enjoying it so far.
I deactivated FB today too. Fuck it.
D–
We're donating the weaklings drawings to Fales. They'll be part of your collection.
Thanks about Jarrod. He can use a boost from someone he loves.
Love,
Joey. Ps, thanks for the info about your dad. I will do more research on his MS when I get into Fales.
Hi Zarina,I and 2 of my friends will be traveling to Seoul in early April. So we are searching for a tour guide. Can you help us find one? Is it OK if we've already hv plans where to go.. We just need a tour guide since the language barriers n food difficulties.. Please help me.. 🙂
är det din hand?isf har vi likadana handskar med.gud va galet..våren kom igår här, fågelsång redan klockan 5..såå härligt.
Yeah, it’s a real shame too. That Google home page is such a great idea. But such a mess. And I really think it’s a design issue. Here’s hoping they agree and work to make it better.-systemsboy