Release of Bee Thousand

In 1994, after culling both new songs and reams of archival recordings from GBV’s history, Pollard delivered the indie landmark Bee Thousand via Scat Records , with a distribution deal through indie label Matador Records . Soon, the band officially signed with Matador, concurrent with Pollard and his bandmates finally retiring from their day jobs to work in music full-time. The band surprised early audiences accustomed to the generally shambling, lo-fi and collage-like quality of the records with their energetic live show, featuring Pollard’s homegrown rock theatrics (consisting of karate-kicks, leaps, Roger Daltrey -inspired mic-twirling, later beer can throwing at rival bands ), Mitch Mitchell’s windmilling and chain smoking , sometime bassist Greg Demos ‘ striped pants, a never-ending barrage of tunes that all seemed to clock in under 90 seconds, and prodigious alcohol consumption all around.