Iāve been hounding him, donāt worry
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Sir Garlic Breath- 2 Oh Jesus Christ.
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I think we might have Tobes to thank for the change of heart.
It sounds like Bob had indeed informed the band of his intention to end the reunion stuff in 2013, but Tobes felt otherwise - as evidenced by this pic he sent Bob to try and convince him to change his mind (and which ended up as the cover to the Vote For Me Dummy 7āā the following year):
And thus, Bob gave us Motivational Jumpsuit and Cool Planet the following year 
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How have I never seen that before, excellent
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Have seen this as the single cover but never knew the story behind it!
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As another throwback to the 90s, there was also a new 6 track EP released in early 2013, between Bears for Lunch and ELL
And in keeping with the 90s EPs, itās mostly rubbish!
The last 2 tracks are nice enough, particularly the title track, but the first 4, not so much.
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Going slightly off-topic here, but do we know if Bob and Tobes are even speaking to one another nowadays?
I did read somewhere (the FB group at a guess?) that Tobes had a bit of a flirtation with MAGA/Trump in 2016, which pissed Bob off - not sure how true that was, or whether itās just internet BS.
Iāve got this and, yeah, itās rubbish. I seemed to have a disposable income at the time so bought this, ELL and MJ as soon as each were released.
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I do remember hearing something like this and I donāt remember where, have always hoped it might not be true but not sure where it would have come from if it wasnāt. Hope it was only a flirtation!
Weirdly Tim Allen is a huge fan of his artwork
No idea if Tobe and Bob are still friends, I know they popped up to play a set together at a tribute show shortly after the 2014 breakup, but havenāt really heard of anything since
Find it surprising to hear it was Bob looking to end GBV and Tobin looking to keep things going as it feels like a reversal of the 90s split. Wonder if Bob was just getting a bit sick of playing with amateur mates when he could go back to playing with much more professional musicians?
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lalala not listening
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Nah mate, La La Land isnāt due for another seventeen weeks!
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I guess one of the reasons could simply be that the reunion-era shows were worth some decent money to the rest of the band, Tobes included. They played quite a few festival slots around that time IIRC, probably not all that lucrative tbh but enough to pay the bills for a few years perhaps.
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So, as with Class Clown Spots a UFO, the English Little League-era b-sides contained one or two hidden gems. To these ears the following tunes are worth your time, both of them Tobes contributions:
Firstly we have āBuild a Bigger Icebergā, the solitary b-side to the āTrash Can Full of Nailsā single. A stately folky number awash with the usual trademark Tobes harmonies:
And secondly there is āWaves of Grayā, one of two b-sides to the āNoble Insectā single (the other was a holy-fuck-please-make-it-stop attempt at an improvised ballad from Bob), a brief-but-gorgeous slice of piano pop which sounds like Abbey Road-era Beatles:
Of the rest, I quite liked the nightmarish dream-psych of āJellypop Smilesā, whilst āLittle Jimmy the Giantā was an interesting bit of ancient history (the Xeno Pariah version was reportedly recorded in 1983 
)
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First timer on ELL. It was mostly ok. Thankfully most of the tracks were played in time, which is more than can be said for the subsequent first reunion albums.
The issue from Factory to present day is that the recordings feel very slapdash in a way they never did before.
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Thatās what I like about them (and GBV generally), unless Iāve completely misunderstood you!
I think you have! Something like propeller is clearly done with a lot of effort and a lot of attention paid to the sound. I think some tracks even do varispeed stuff like the Beatles would have. Itās cool.
The first reunion albums start to get sloppy in an unappealing way where the drums are out of time and thereās just a load of noodling on every track.
I prefer the more recent albums but they do have a tendency to sound very similar. I think theyāre mostly made with the same producer, and Bob isnāt there with the band a lot of the time. Iād just prefer a bit more time to be taken. I can live with one album a year!
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I think these albums are quite slapdash in a way that works and suits them imo! But I think Cool Planet is the point where for me things start to get slapdash in a more unappealing way.
I think most of these first reunion albums have a very homemade DIY sound (even though other than Factory theyāre largely studio recorded) so it all sort of works/fits for me. Later it starts to sound like theyāve made the effort to book a studio but not to spend enough time working on the songs (or in some cases like Cool Planet, not enough time working on the performances, guitar tone or even tuning the thing properly). I think that works when itās more lo-fi but being half arsed in a proper studio just really comes across.
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Yes im probably being very uncharitable to some of the earlier first reunion albums because I just listened to Motivational Jumpsuit which is properly half arsed at points
Yeah, I see what you mean actually
donāt mind this though
think for me with the later stuff itās the difficulty distinguishing the mid-paced rock songs over the course of a whole album that gets to me (if I listen to one track on its own Iāll think āthatās actually pretty decent, why donāt I bother with these albums?ā, but more than a few is just too much)
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