Re: Guided by Voices/Robert Pollard
Posted: Wed May 20, 2020 3:59 am
I really enjoyed the Boston Spaceships records. They were all pretty strong & the band was good.
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Yeah, I don't know if it was Bob getting back to playing guitar or not, but Elephant Jokes is a strong solo record that comes charging out of the gate. As I mentioned in my write-up, it was originally envisioned as a thirty-two track double album before getting paired down to what it is. Here's the tracklist for what it would've been:artdent wrote:I'm a little late to comment, but Elephant Jokes might have the best 1-2-3 punch of any Pollard solo album. I'm actually (comparably) kinda new to the the GBV thing, having owned and liked the best-of CD in the 90s, but never really getting into them until seeing the "classic lineup" live a few years back. And then it was on. After digesting GBV proper, I dipped my toes into Pollard solo, and was initially underwhelmed. I don't recall in what order I listened, it certainly wasn't chronologically. But just when I was about to write the whole thing off, I popped Elephant Jokes on, and was blown away. So it holds a special place, etc, etc.
And then I heard Honey Locust Honey Tonk! But more on that later I assume.
Keep it up please cotez the K!
It is hard to believe the songwriting process comes that easily for Pollard. Is he being coy? Fellow musician and fan, Eddie Vedder, whose band Pollard once opened for, seems to think so. From Vedder:Moses on a Snail contains a dozen amazingly strong Pollard compositions. Even for this ridiculously prolific songwriter, this was a notable writing session as 10 of the 12 songs were written in one sitting.
As Pollard describes the process, he started with a notebook of working song titles, and penned 22 songs in a single afternoon's creative burst. He discarded 12, and ten songs were picked to later revise and flesh out. He made demos to send to frequent producer / collaborator Todd Tobias, who recorded the instruments before Pollard recorded his final vocals.
Creative process aside, Moses on a Snail is unlike any of its predecessors. The overall mood here is a bit more solemn and introspective. This is not an album loaded with quirky pop songs, big hooks and soaring choruses. It is not packed with fist-pumping anthems. Absent are the miniature snippets and alterations of fidelity. This is a great record to pull out on a rainy day or when the leaves start to change color, the nights start getting nippier and the days shorter. There is a bit of unevenness overall, but when Pollard makes contact, he crushes it. It took me a little bit to warm up to this album, but I’ve come to really appreciate it."It sounds to me like Robert Pollard uncharacteristically took ten years to make this one. He will tell you otherwise, but I don't believe him. It's too fucking good. If it were any other group this would be seen as their masterpiece. I think for Bob it's just another good day of weaving words into a kaleidoscope of one of a kind, thought-provoking perspectives.”
Known for his eccentric song titles, Bob takes that a step further here. All the songs on Space City Kicks are the result of scrambled classic song titles. For example, “Woman to Fly” might be taken from “Elderly Woman Behind the Corner” and “Given to Fly” and “Something Strawberry” could be the result of “Something” and “Strawberry Fields Forever.” The creative process on Space City Kicks follows the tried and true formula the pair have used for almost a decade - Pollard demos w/ guitar parts --> Tobias instrumentation --> Pollard vocals --> Tobias mixing/mastering. This is an eccentric record with a very disjointed flow, making it a challenging listen. Some fans have described it as a hybrid Circus Devils/solo Pollard record that reatures abrupt stylistic transitions from one track to the next. It took me a little time to completely warm up to this album, but I do like it quite a bit. One minute you are listening to a smooth, creamy pop song and seconds later an avant-garde, discordant Pollard/Tobias noise stew. Not surprisingly, this was one of the lower-rated Pollard solo album among the critics.Space City Kicks, an 18 song compendium of Bee Thousand-sized sonic chunks that range from noisy pop to poppy noise but mostly just R-O-C-K. Except the ballads, which are melancholy in a way Dwight Twilley never was, making it a mystery why Pollard posed for a recent promo picture with what is clearly Twilley's guitar (and Rod Stewart's Vans, but that makes perfect sense).
cortez the killer wrote:
Alien Lanes Turns 25 - Gets Limited Vinyl Reissue
This!!cortez the killer wrote:
1. Over the Neptune/Mesh Gear Fox – “G-B-V! G-B-V! G-BV-!” Love the irony of a band that’s been largely relegated to the studio kicking off the album with recorded snippets of what sounds like a frenzied audience chanting out the band’s letters. I say sounds like, because the band hadn't played a true live show in years and was forced to create the moment themselves (with friends) in the studio. We get our second “slash song” and what a fuckin’ slash song it is. It isn’t my #1 GBV song, but if you asked me to name the quintessential Guided By Voices track, I’d be hard-pressed not to answer “Over the Neptune/Mesh Gear Fox”. To this day, and forever, I will lose my shit when those guitars kick into high gear at the 1:25 mark. (10)
Whenever I put together GBV or Pollard playlist, it's always a challenge to decide which song is the opener, "Over the Neptune/Mesh Gear Fox" or "A Salty Salute." The latter tends to get the nod, but you can make as strong a case for the former. The sound of a band just beginning to realize their creative powers.RolanK wrote:This!!cortez the killer wrote:
1. Over the Neptune/Mesh Gear Fox – “G-B-V! G-B-V! G-BV-!” Love the irony of a band that’s been largely relegated to the studio kicking off the album with recorded snippets of what sounds like a frenzied audience chanting out the band’s letters. I say sounds like, because the band hadn't played a true live show in years and was forced to create the moment themselves (with friends) in the studio. We get our second “slash song” and what a fuckin’ slash song it is. It isn’t my #1 GBV song, but if you asked me to name the quintessential Guided By Voices track, I’d be hard-pressed not to answer “Over the Neptune/Mesh Gear Fox”. To this day, and forever, I will lose my shit when those guitars kick into high gear at the 1:25 mark. (10)
Both great songs. The definition of garage/underground rock anthems (or something).cortez the killer wrote:Whenever I put together GBV or Pollard playlist, it's always a challenge to decide which song is the opener, "Over the Neptune/Mesh Gear Fox" or "A Salty Salute." The latter tends to get the nod, but you can make as strong a case for the former. The sound of a band just beginning to realize their creative powers.RolanK wrote:This!!cortez the killer wrote:
1. Over the Neptune/Mesh Gear Fox – “G-B-V! G-B-V! G-BV-!” Love the irony of a band that’s been largely relegated to the studio kicking off the album with recorded snippets of what sounds like a frenzied audience chanting out the band’s letters. I say sounds like, because the band hadn't played a true live show in years and was forced to create the moment themselves (with friends) in the studio. We get our second “slash song” and what a fuckin’ slash song it is. It isn’t my #1 GBV song, but if you asked me to name the quintessential Guided By Voices track, I’d be hard-pressed not to answer “Over the Neptune/Mesh Gear Fox”. To this day, and forever, I will lose my shit when those guitars kick into high gear at the 1:25 mark. (10)
Another factor that foolishly gave me pause to dive into this one sooner is the critical reception. It is one of the lowest-rated Pollard releases of all time. I certainly don’t hear it, but again, I think the sheer volume of material Bob releases negatively affects the manner some of his projects are received. The album’s release notes certainly seem to have seen the lukewarm reception coming:I think of this one as the bar band album because of the sparse arrangements. It has an elegant simplicity that sets it apart from Bob’s other solo albums that I produced. To my ears there are touches of Americana here and there. My job was not to put my foot in where it didn’t belong by keeping things stark and focused. The thing was to allow Bob’s vocal and main guitar to carry the songs. For the most part my musical expressiveness was limited to the bass guitar. Apart from “Red Rubber Army” and “Who’s Running My Ranch,” the songs did not ask for any special treatment.
1. Heaven Is a Gated Community – Opening song rumbles out of the gate sounding like a companion piece to the mighty closing title track on Moses on a Snail. Again, those guitar tones rival the power and snarl of those on the Neil Young & Crazy Horse classic, Zuma. Really love how Bob and Todd have embraced this kind of sound on the last few projects. This song would SMOKE live. Nice touch by Tobias with the ambient noises during the outro. “Run for aloof and twisted observations, supernatural airports and obstacle courses.” (10)The superabundance of melody and densely packed stylistic swerves and flourishes on Jack rival anything Pollard’s recorded recently, and while five albums in a year might strike some as overkill, you have to imagine his relentless output is a less-than-calculated move—a smarter businessman would hold back product so as to build demand, but Robert Pollard has never been a businessman. He’s an artist, full stop, at a time when it seems that every artist / musician is expected to have an MBA. He’s scrapped enough proposed albums to fill many another group’s entire discography; he puts out records because he likes the records. And he hopes you’ll like them too.