85: Guided By Voices’ Bee Thousand (1994)
Dayton, Ohio’s favorite ex-school teacher turned uber-prolific recording artist, Robert Pollard, churned out plenty of albums that sounded a bit like this one before this one appeared, but Bee Thousand actually caught the attention of other music geeks, not just the ones in Pollard’s basement. “Hot Freaks” aside, I’ll always argue that Bee is the most cohesive and worthwhile GBV effort, worthy of all the attention, and well worth the attention it takes to appreciate their sound.
Guided By Voices “Echos Myron” (mp3)
lol I don’t like “Hot Freaks” either, but they would play it live every time I ever saw them to huge roars of approval.