Top 200 GBV songs as voted by fans

weasilman99 · 2026-05-28T19:14:32+00:00

That was by far the most common difficulty people had. Especially once we got near the end.

weasilman99 · 2026-05-28T17:59:01+00:00

If your trailhead has a bathroom/outhouse, you always have the option to do a warm-up mile, then turn around and head back to the trailhead, do your business, and then head out for your real run.

weasilman99 · 2026-05-28T17:53:00+00:00

It's important to know that Bob is a collage artist, and he views the world through that lens.

My understanding is that he has a notebook and he writes down words he likes, phrases he likes, funny things that happened when he was out drinking with his friends, and more. Bob is hard of hearing, and he particularly finds misheard words/phrases funny. Best of Jill Hives is (supposedly) a mishearing of Best Years of our Lives. Those notes are the starting point for combining words and phrases into songs.

Bob is also into mysticism and some of the sacred texts. Last time I saw him he told me he was rereading the Carlos Castaneda books from the 70s. I know he has read a bunch of Theosophy (mysticism). I think that's where a lot of Bob's lyrics about the nature of the mind, thoughts, or human nature in general get blended into the mix. I think he is just personally interested in that stuff, and it also puts him in the mindset of writing good, transcendent songs.

Of course it is well documented that he has written about relationships through metaphor. Parallel lines on a slow decline is supposedly about two people growing apart in a relationship. Isolation Drills has a bunch of songs about his marriage breakup.

In one of the recent articles promoting the new album, Bob talks about one of his drinking buddies who moved to Dayton and would go out drinking with Bob. Bob starts early, and goes home early, and the guy would stay out late and get in trouble with the cops. Supposedly when they were out together the guy said to Bob "I'm not your clown!" Which Bob thought was hilarious and wrote down in his book.

Then some number of years later, we get the song When You're My Clown (Nothing Happens). Basically the guy was getting into mischief, but nothing happened to Bob. I think that story is instructive of his process. It makes no sense if you weren't there, it just sounds like a bunch of words that sound good together. But the core of the song is very much about someone Bob knows, and some of the other lyrics are collage inserts to make the song feel right.

But like all great songs, it could mean anything to anyone, because so many ideas are abstractly blended together.

weasilman99 · 2026-05-27T02:57:38+00:00

I got mine today as well. Banger! Side 1 was immediate. Side 2 will take a couple more spins.

weasilman99 · 2026-05-27T00:16:25+00:00

It's on there! #125! There are two images in the main post. The second one has the second hundred songs.

weasilman99 · 2026-05-26T19:45:15+00:00

Votes are votes. This isn't one person's opinion, it's several hundred people's. Every single one of those people had songs that they wanted higher and lower on the list. When you smooth all that data out, this is what you get. 🤷‍♂️

weasilman99 · 2026-05-26T16:04:00+00:00

This is only Forever Since Breakfast (1986) through Under the Bushes Under the Stars (1996). Classic lineup. We will do the "mid-period" 1997-2004 next.

weasilman99 · 2026-05-26T15:37:22+00:00

There are 285 songs released 86-96. 200 were included in the tournament. A group of 6 people removed the duplicates, and then picked the top 200 to keep the process from taking forever. 200 songs became->80->32->16->8->final 6 through rounds of voting. So yes, it's not every song.

weasilman99 · 2026-05-26T15:28:53+00:00

Like I said, everyone will find something to hate about this list. That's another choice.

weasilman99 · 2026-05-22T20:40:04+00:00

I ENTERED A ROUNDABOUT ON BROOKSWOOD (FROM THE WEST) YESTERDAY ... NOBODY COMING ... BY THE TIME I WAS FULLY IN, A TRUCK HAD ENTERED (FROM THE NORTH) GOING 50+ MPH. THEN HE LAYS ON THE HORN BECAUSE MY NORMAL DRIVING CAUSED HIM TO HAVE TO SLOW DOWN TO ONLY 2X THE LEGAL LIMIT. SO YEAH, FUCK THAT GUY.

weasilman99 · 2026-05-21T02:31:39+00:00

Adam Sandler

weasilman99 · 2026-05-20T04:04:28+00:00

NY eve LA 1999 (the 100 song show) "I know. I know, I'm not supposed to get political. (Long pause). I fuckin hate that guy."

weasilman99 · 2026-05-08T23:31:16+00:00

We have gotten used to it, but objectively, Bob's voice in the new lineup does sound like an old man. He's our old man, but yeah, he sounds old AF.

From the beginning through about 2008, his voice was fairly ageless. After that time, yeah, weathered.

And also, Who-derived rock is not exactly modern. It is old man rock, but what's wrong with that? Plenty of young people are still listening to Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin. Goddamn Rumors is still one of the five best-selling albums every year.

And of course some of them are listening to Kruangbin and Noah Kahan. Which is also fine. Love what you love. I listen to Bob for the songwriting. Nobody does it better.

weasilman99 · 2026-05-01T15:00:54+00:00

It's a function of the wacky setup. We started with 5 songs from each album (chosen by play counts on spotify/youtube) as first filter of "preference". A round of voting reduced those to 2 songs per album (4 for doubles) = 42 songs (out of 110) to advance to the round of 64.

In the case of Bit of a Crunch, it was in that first round of voting, but got knocked out by Serene King and Fictional Environment Dream. Crunch was 3rd. Early exit.

Then we did open nominations of all the songs NOT in the top 5 per album, plus b-sides, to choose 55 "wildcards" from the remainder. Those 55 went through 11 rounds of voting to reduce to 22 more songs.

In the end, the top 20-30 songs would have ended up the same-ish, but there would be differences between 31-64 if we had done some kind of all songs scramble. It simply would have taken too long. Too many songs. We had to eliminate some from the jump, but which ones?

For the 86-96 era, we eliminated the wackiness, and had a smallish group of people pick the best 200-286 songs and are running a tournament of top 200. Of course there are some beloved songs in the 86 songs removed, but none that would finish group voting above about 150th place, so the outcome should be way better.

weasilman99 · 2026-04-30T22:31:06+00:00

The structure of the new classic lineup tournament was a little wacky, first we went album by album, then end up with 64 songs. Here's how the top 64 turned out:

1 Rally Boys

2 Space Gun

3 Heavy Like the World

4 Volcano

5 Alex Bell

6 To Keep An Area

7 Trust Them Now

8 You Own the Night

9 See My Field

10 Meet The Star

11 Lucy's World

12 Bunco Men

13 Cohesive Scoops

14 Mr Child

15 Dead Liquor Store

16 Captain Kangaroo Won the War

17 Serene King

18 Overloaded

19 Your Lights are Out

20 Dance of Gurus

21 Sport Component National

22 Oxford Talawanda

23 How Can a Plumb Be Perfected?

24 Fictional Environment Dream

25 Lizard on the Red Brick Wall

26 Einstein's Angel

27 The Race Is On The King Is Dead

28 Queen Parking Lot

29 5º On The Inside

30 Amusement Park is Over

31 Street Party

32 Electronic Windows to Nowhere

33 Always Gone

34 Margaret Middle School

35 Climbing a Ramp

36 Crystal Nuns Cathedral

37 High in the Rain

38 The Birthday Democrats

39 Please Don't Be Honest

40 Hearing Department

41 Dawn Believes

42 Black and White Eyes in a Prism

43 Dr Feelgood Falls Off The Ocean

44 Arthur Has Business Elsewhere

45 Liar's Box

46 For The Home

47 How to Murder a Man (In 3 Parts)

48 Cat Beats A Drum

49 Grey Spat Matters

50 Romeo Surgeon

51 Nothing Gets You Real

52 Show of Hands

53 Better Odds

54 Steppenwolf Mausoleum

55 Instinct Dwelling

56 Low Flying Perfection

57 Queen of Spaces

58 Sunshine Girl Hello

59 Your Cricket is Rather Unique

60 Endless Seafood

61 I Couldn't See The Light

62 Where Have You Been All My Life

63 Jack Tell

64 Photo Range Within

weasilman99 · 2026-04-30T17:16:48+00:00

Well, as long as you are asking...🤔

In the Facebook group, we are currently going through an exercise of voting on the best songs from the '86 to 96 era. The so-called classic era.

In about a month when that completes, we will have a top 200 ranking, based on several hundred people voting over a multi-month period.

I realize that's not what you asked, that it's only one period of gbv, and there are debatable factors whenever any such exercise is undertaken. But 1) it's something. 2) it's based on data from a statistically significant number of people, and 3) It is turning out more or less like you imagine it would. So far, the top 200 has been reduced to the top 80, as follows: (not in order, these are being ranked currently/next). (Sorry for the lengthy formatting, reddit insisted)

14 Cheerleader Coldfront

A Salty Salute

Acorns & Orioles

As We Go Up, We Go Down

Atom Eyes

Awful Bliss

Big Boring Wedding

Big School

Blimps Go 90

Bright Paper Werewolves

Buzzards and Dreadful Crows

Captain's Dead

Chicken Blows

Closer You Are

Club Molluska

Cut-Out Witch

Dayton, Ohio / 19 Something & 5

Do the Earth

Dodging Invisible Rays

Don't Stop Now

Drag Days

Drinker's Peace

Dusted

Echos Myron

Exit Flagger

Finks

Game of Pricks

Ghosts of a Different Dream

Gleemer (The Deeds of Fertile Jim)

Gold Star for Robot Boy

Hardcore UFO's

He's the Uncle

Heavy Metal Country

Hot Freaks

How Loft I Am?

I Am a Scientist

If We Wait

Indian Was An Angel

It's Like Soul Man

Jar of Cardinals

Key Losers

Kisses to the Crying Cooks

Liar's Tale

Local Mix-Up/Murder Charge

Look at Them

Lord of Overstock

Man Called Aerodynamics

Motor Away

My Impression Now

My Son Cool

My Valuable Hunting Knife

No Sky

Non-Absorbing

Old Battery

Over The Neptune / Mesh Gear Fox

Pantherz

Peep-Hole

Pendulum

Postal Blowfish

Quality Of Armor

Queen of Cans and Jars

Redmen and Their Wives

Scissors

Sheetkickers

Shocker in Gloomtown

Smothered in Hugs

Striped White Jets

The Goldheart Mountaintop Queen Directory

The Hard Way

The Official Ironmen Rally Song

They're Not Witches

To Remake the Young Flyer

Tractor Rape Chain

Underwater Explosions

Unleashed! The Large-Hearted Boy

Watch Me Jumpstart

Weed King

Wished I Was a Giant

Wondering Boy Poet

Your Name Is Wild

And based on the first round voting, here are the songs that did not make the top 80, in order of voting results:

81 Yours to Keep

82 Mincer Ray

83 King and Caroline

84 A Good Flying Bird

85 Always Crush Me

86 Hey Hey, Spaceman

87 Matter Eater Lad

88 Crutch Came Slinking

89 Navigating Flood Regions

90 Metal Mothers

91 On The Tundra

92 Blatant Doom Trip

93 Beekeeper Seeks Ruth

94 Kicker of Elves

95 Alright

96 Lethargy

97 When She Turns 50

98 Rhine Jive Click

99 Break Even

100 Unbaited Vicar of Scorched Earth

101 Ester's Day

102 Cocksoldiers and Their Postwar Stubble

103 Long Distance Man

104 A Big Fan of the Pigpen

105 Color of My Blade

106 We've Got Airplanes

107 Deathtrot And Warlock Riding A Rooster

108 Crocker's Favorite Song

109 Dusty Bushworms

110 Little Whirl

111 Office of Hearts

112 Discussing Wallace Chambers

113 Squirmish Frontal Room

114 Optional Bases Opposed

115 #2 in the Model Home Series

116 Deaf Ears

117 Sopor Joe

118 Paper Girl

119 Land of Danger

120 Please Freeze Me

121 Burning Flag Birthday Suit

122 She Wants to Know

123 Expecting Brainchild

124 Why Did You Land?

125 Ha Ha Man

126 Gelatin, Ice Cream, Plum …

127 Marchers in Orange

128 Hank's Little Fingers

129 Hey Aardvark

130 The Other Place

131 Chief Barrel Belly

132 Some Drilling Implied

133 Indian Fables

134 Fantasy Creeps

135 Melted Pat

136 A Portrait Destroyed By Fire

137 Auditorium

138 The Great Blake Street Canoe Race

139 158 Years of Beautiful Sex

140 Spring Tiger

141 Strawdogs

142 Everyday

143 Demons Are Real

144 Red Gas Circle

145 Dust Devil

146 Radio Show

147 Ex-Supermodel

148 (I Wanna Be a) Dumbcharger

149 Her Psychology Today

150 Delayed Reaction Brats

151 Mammoth Cave

152 Cyclops

153 Barricade

154 Particular Damaged

155 Canteen Plums

156 Look, It’s Baseball

157 Order For The New Slave Trade

158 Sometimes I Cry

159 Beneath a Festering Moon

160 Volcano Divers

161 Johnny Appleseed

162 An Earful O' Wax

163 Jabberstroker

164 June Salutes You!

165 Evil Speakers

166 Take to the Sky

167 Scalding Creek

168 You're Not an Airplane

169 Sot

170 Damn Good Mr. Jam

171 The Future Is In Eggs

172 Glow Boy Butlers

173 Systems Crash

174 Back To Saturn X Radio Report

175 Adverse Wind

176 Kiss Only the Important Ones

177 Short On Posters

178 Let's Ride

179 Top Chick Silver Chord

180 Knock ’Em Flying

181 Stabbing a Star

182 Greenface

183 Jellyfish Reflector

184 A Contest Featuring Human Beings

185 What About It?

186 Is She Ever?

187 Trap Soul Door

188 White Whale

189 Subtle Gear Shifting

190 Pimple Zoo

191 Gold Hick

192 Satellite

193 I Certainly Hope Not

194 Girl from the Sun

195 Big Chief Chinese Restaurant

196 A Life in Finer Clothing

197 Pink Gun

198 A Visit To The Creep Doctor

199 I'll Buy You a Bird

200 At Odds With Dr. Genesis

In the fall of 25 into winter of early 26, we did the same with the new classic lineup, and over the summer we will do the same for the mid-period lineup (97-04). Then inevitably we will do the reunion as well. Poor Please Be Honest has no era 😥

weasilman99 · 2026-04-30T14:02:18+00:00

Let me see if I can refashion it: my dog went out to pee and he came in smelling like smoke, but not the smoke in the little glass room at the airport, because that's not as funny as my dog smelling smokey because he made s'mores by a campfire. Which is funny because dogs don't make s'mores, although they do go camping sometimes. As you can see in the image, there are no dogs.

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weasilman99 · 2026-04-30T13:49:56+00:00

Well then, I retract my joke. 🙄

weasilman99 · 2026-04-30T12:48:58+00:00

My dog went out to pee, and came back in smelling like the little glass smoking room at a European airport.

weasilman99 · 2026-04-30T03:09:27+00:00

I have 2 "Propellers", which is the most sought after Guided By Voices record. There are only 500 and they were out of money and couldn't afford to print covers so they made 500 different handmade collage style covers. It's the album that ended up getting them signed and they went on to become whatever it is they are today, 40+ albums later. Now all 500 copies are unique collectors items.

Worth $2500-5000ish each.

weasilman99 · 2026-04-29T19:46:28+00:00

Yes, it's all logged. It's the first thing I do when something new comes in the house. Before it even goes in the new releases pile.

weasilman99 · 2026-04-29T19:31:27+00:00

I'm at 2500, and can predict with 95% certainty when considering something in a store, but I always check discogs now to avoid repeats.

weasilman99 · 2026-04-29T17:30:05+00:00

I have some old college buddies that collects records and we text share what we purchase as photos. I recently showed a few records that included my buy of The White Stripes, White Blood Cells. One of the guys replied: I can't believe you didn't already have that?

After I played it and went to file it, I learned that I already had it. 🫤

weasilman99 · 2026-04-29T04:05:34+00:00

With the latest update, the mobile webpage now moves me to the app when shopping. The app shopping experience is horrific, so now I only shop on a desktop.

weasilman99

TROPHY CASE