Matador Bash to Reunite Guided By Voices

Said to be the "classic era" lineup from the Matador salad years.

By Fred Mills

Matador Records dropped a bomb yesterday at the label's Matablog:

Matador will be celebrating the label's 21st anniversary this October and this much we can finally confirm : there will be 3 nights of shows starting Friday October 1, and concluding Sunday October 3 at the Palms Casino & Resort In Las Vegas, NV. We'll be dropping further hints about the amazing lineup in the days ahead, but a final announcement and information about how to purchase tickets will be made here at the trusty Matablog on July 5.

Fair enough. As you can see from the poster (below), it's a killer lineup, what with Pavement headlining, plus Sonic Youth, Belle & Sebastian, Spoon, Cat Power, Yo La Tengo, the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, the New Pornographers, Girls, Superchunk, Ted Leo & the Pharmacists, Guitar Wolf, Fucked Up, Shearwater, Harlem, Cold Cave, Kurt Vile, Jeffrey Joe Jenson and more.

But what's really getting the indie world all in a dither is the Guided By Voices notation - specifically the "classic '93 to '96 lineup." That would roughly mean the Robert Pollard, guitarists Tobin Sprout and Mitch Mitchell, bassist Greg Demos and drummer Kevin Fennell incarnation and the Bee Thousand - Under the Bushes Under the Stars era, prior to the arrival of John Petkovic and Doug Gillard (it's unlikely those two would be getting back with Pollard anytime soon).

And Pollard himself posted on his website the photo at the top of the page along - just 4 of the 5, but perhaps not tellingly so - with a notation that the classic lineup would be getting back together without specifically naming names.

So - start booking those Vegas plane tickets, folks. We already know of at least one west-of-the-Missisissippi-based BLURT editor who's making his reservations right now...

[Photo Credit: Michael Lavine]