When we last left Guided By Voices, they had either: 1) Been kicked

off the Urge Overkill tour; or 2) Left the tour because things were

going so bad for the group. Yesterday, we got the band's side of the

story from the one and only Deborah Orr, publicist for Matador

Records. "GBV has nothing against Urge Overkill," said Orr, insisting

that GBV was not kicked off the Urge tour. "It was completely their

own decision to leave the tour. The two bands got along together fine,

(Editor: Is that a euphemism?) and leaving the tour had to do with

[GBV singer Robert] Pollard's injuries. The most important injury

being to Pollard's voice." Being restrained in a choke hold tends

to do something nasty to the vocal chords. According to Orr, the whole

dispute in Toronto, in which a security guard got violent with the

singer, occurred after Pollard walked back out on stage to explain to

an insistent audience that, given time constraints, they would not be

able to deliver an encore. Pollard, who had been drinking (as usual)

believed that he needed to personally explain the circumstances to one

fan, but unfortunately the security guards didn't agree, and

overreacted.

Orr also informed us that GBV will be off the road until March, when

they go out to promote their next album, The World Series Of

Psychic Phenomena.