The ever-prolific and always active Guided By Voices is back at it again with their second release of 2023, a brand new full-length record entitled Welshpool Frillies (GBV Inc.), out July 21, 2023. To introduce the record alongside its announcement, today, the group additionally shares its first single, “Seedling.”

Guided By Voices previously kicked off the year with the release of an LP entitled La La Land, described by bandleader Robert Pollard as “a companion piece to Tremblers and Goggles By Rank [that] continues to explore a path of diversity in styles and in longer, more adventurous song structures.” In 2022, GBV shared three other records: the aforementioned Tremblers and Goggles By Rank,Crystal Nuns Cathedral, and  Scalping The Guru. 

Welshpool Frillies finds the gang back together, in a Brooklyn basement with producer Travis Harrison. Much of it was recorded live to tape. The catchy earworms in these new songs are undeniable, as the kinetic energy of the band is captured in its most raw and pure form. The album is brash, no-frills, and punky, inspired by the wiliness of 90s-era GBV, specifically the Scalping the Guru compilation that Pollard put together in 2022.

2023 marks the 40th anniversary of GBV’s start in Dayton, Ohio. Robert Pollard was an elementary school teacher with no formal music training, and his unlikely success has been an odds-defying adventure. It’s never too late to discover this vital rock band and join the GBV cult.