right time for a bit of an experiment with CLASS CLOWN SPOTS A UFO
no streaming options available anywhere, but with thanks to @Icarus-Smicarus I managed to put together a YT playlist of the album. So if you have a proper physical copy then enjoy, and if not then join us in the janky solution
was considering skipping it, but since itās part of that reunion trio itās too interesting to leave out
Bears for Lunch then
much better than I remember! got itās hooks in me pretty well over the week - think this and Class Clown really did just come too quickly after Factory, so like other comments have said they didnāt leave the impact on me (even as a superfan) that they should have. Feels like with the reunion stuff i properly pay attention every 5 albums or so, and the ones in between have kinda just sunk without leaving a trace
couple big Bob bangers, White Flag as one of their very best tracks of the last decade, Tobin with another very solid set of songs (especially love the blissful wah outro on Corners Are Glowing), cool basslines all over the place, and it just sounds good - punchy and cleaned up compared to Factory but still with some grit
Only one bad song in the trash Tree Fly Jet, and lots of changes in tone and style from song to song - so it doesnāt get the mid-pace trudge that some of their modern stuff can settle into. Enjoy having the throwaway sub-1 minute tracks back too, as long as they arenāt actively annoying they always add to the vibe.
I agree with others that it feels like it could have come from the 96 period, but more as a collection of good b-sides than peak āclassicā GBV. Any of these tracks would sound good on King Shit or as the second best track on a classic EP, which is meant as a compliment this far into a bandās career - just that the album wonāt be approaching my overall top 5 anytime soon. Overall better than Factory too because of the consistency, but think the 3-5 best songs on Factory beat pretty much everything on here (but then the worst 5 songs on Factory kinda stink!). Think I was overly negative on Tobinās stuff compared to how much I loved what he did on Factory, these ones are still great. Maybe itās on Class Clown that heās a little sickly-sweet ā¦ guess weāll find out soon!
I grabbed it from Soulseek, bit naughty but if anything this thread will encourage me to buy more GBV vinyl when I see it so I donāt feel too bad 
Enjoyed Bears For Lunch a lot more than Factory, need to go through it again to pick my favourite tracks for the playlist though despite listening to it twice over the past week.
I always tend to think of these reunion-era albums as pairs, i.e.
Bears for Lunch / Class Clown = very good to excellent
Motivational Jumpsuit / Cool Planet = patchy but plenty of fun songs
Factory / English Little League = poor to below average
Can only think when Bob was penning the 2012 stuff he decided to keep the best songs up his sleeve, because Bears and Class Clown are sooo much better than Factory (IMO).
Will listen to this and Bears today in the order God / Bob intended
Fixed
Bears for Lunch / Class Clown = very good to excellent
Motivational Jumpsuit / Factory / English Little League = patchy but plenty of fun songs
Cool Planet = poor to below average
when Sprout contributes he ups the ante in comparison to his fairly stale showing in the first reunion LP
I can remember how this album was originally announced - they cancelled a tour that was meant to follow the release of Factory and lots of rumours went around that they were breaking up again. They released a statement saying āweāre not breaking up and weāve just recorded another album and itās coming out in a couple of monthsā.
probably the one including the date at the first Primavera I went to, could have caught the OG lineup just a few years after discovering them 
Iāve always loved the cover art on this one.
I mean, Iāve no idea whatsoever what is being depicted, but itās cool to look at. Including that random curl of sellotape right across the middle.
Same, the colours work really well
this was really quite tricky to limit it to three this time.
Thought about going back to 4 choices for these since theyāre longer albums but ā¦ the playlist will be big enough as it is!
The evolution of the title track:
Early 90s acoustic demo on King Shit and the Golden Boys:
More fleshed out demo from Suitcase 3:
Full band reunion version:
On googling it looks like this all happened in December 2011 before Factory had even come out, lol
News of the Afghan Whigsā performance at Iāll Be Your Mirror follows the announcement that Guided By Voices have cancelled their headline slot. ā[GBV] are breaking up due to personal reasons and have cancelled all 2012 live appearances,ā ATP said. But the band ā whose original lineup reunited last year ā deny they are dissolving. ā[We] have not split up and continue to work on new material together,ā Guided By Voices said. āIn addition to the [January] album release of Letās Go Eat the Factory ā¦ the band are at work on another album, Class Clown Spots a UFO. [Frontman] Robert Pollard will also be releasing a solo record in March called Mouseman Cloud.ā
Mad that Bob released these 3 albums AND 2 solo albums all in 2012
