Guided by Voices

**1/2 SUNFISH HOLY BREAKFAST

(Matador, EP) and

**** PLANTATIONS OF PALE PINK

(Matador, vinyl EP)

Guided by Voices suffered an undeserved backlash from their last album, Under the Bushes Under the Stars, which sported hi-fi production and normal song lengths. Disenchanted fans who thought it was too conventional will love these EPs, which return to the old GbV standards of homemade production and minute-long numbers. Taking a typically perverse approach to record-making, GbV have divided an album's worth of material between two EPs -- the first is a 10-song CD, the second a six-song seven-inch -- and put the best stuff on the more obscure, vinyl-only release.

Sunfish Holy Breakfast isn't bad, but some songs aren't quite finished and others are obviously leftovers -- notably one by Jim Greer, the rock critic who played bass until last year. The standout, the relatively epic "Cocksoldiers and their Post-War Stubble," comes from the abandoned 1995 sessions with Kim Deal producing. On the other hand, Plantations of Pale Pink is probably all new and definitely prime GbV: hooks everywhere, brilliantly cryptic lyrics and titles ("Catfood on the Earwig," "Subtle Gear Shifting"), killer guitar sound, production that's just rough enough. Not bad for a band who've officially broken up and reunited at least twice since the last album.

-- Brett Milano