Anyone could do it!

One of the eternal attractions of indie music (it is Route1's "Indie Week," of course) is the vague sense that virtually anyone could grab a guitar and start a band.
Today's case in point is the (now late and lamented) Guided by Voices.
Now don't get me wrong: GBV's leader, singer-songwriter Robert Pollard, is almost assuredly a musical genius. Songs such as "Chasing Heather Crazy," "Game of Pricks" and "My Valuable Hunting Knife" are more effortlessly and insistently catchy than what 100 other bands produce in their entire careers.
Apart from Pollard's genius, however, there is something resolutely ordinary about Guided by Voices. Their sound has always been determinedly lo-fi (an indie term basically signifying the opposite of high-tech) and Pollard's bandmates appear to be nothing more than a collection of regular guys. Before their late 2004 demise, GBV seemed to be a band comprised of ONE GENIUS and FOUR BOWLING BUDDIES.
To me, one of the greatest aspects of GBV had been the sense that if the bassist were to quit, Pollard could call me up and say: "Come play bass!"
I don't know how to play bass, but the beauty of indie is that my lack of ability might not matter. Even with me, GBV would have ruled.
(Check the time of this post: 6:42 a.m. Yep, that's right. Neighboring trains coupling and decoupling their boxcars last night were so loud, it sounded like the trains were wrestling. No one got any sleep. If you can't sleep, you might as well BLOG.)