Re: Guided by Voices/Robert Pollard
Posted: Tue May 03, 2022 11:58 pm
The place for all things HeAthens
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http://www.threedimesdown.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=8763
This record was recorded both at Tobin’s home studio and Goon Lagoon Studio in Lansing, MI and released by the U.K.-based Fire Records. The Vermillion brothers return on bass and drums and Tommy Schichtel plays guitar. Tobin also enlisted Drew Howard to play pedal steel on a couple tracks. Needless to say, this is not your typical Tobin Sprout album. The cover art is an oil-on-canvas painting of an old Red Cross pin done by Tobin. With themes of The Civil War and God playing a central role on Empty Horses, there is a continuation of that awareness of one’s own mortality which surfaced of 2017’s The Universe and Me. In reflecting on the writing and recording of Empty Horses, Tobin has the following to say, “It took about two years to get it finished. I actually wrote two albums at the same time, and when I went to the record company and talked to the guys in the band, they all thought that this sounded like two albums. So, we kind of stripped it down. I really liked the Americana style of it. I had written “Antietam” about 10 years ago. There was a single that I just sold out of the house, but I didn’t really give it the attention that it needed. It was the last one that I put on the album. It fit perfectly with what the album had become. “On Golden River,” there’s a lot of history, a lot of Civil War references and just a lot of American history. It was an album I’d always wanted to make. I always admired other people that did that sort of work. I don’t think I intended to go this way, but it just became this album, this sort of warped into this album, Empty Horses. So, I’m really happy with it. I want to keep going in that direction, maybe a little more to the rock side, but it opened a lot of new doors for me as far as writing.”Artist, illustrator, writer and lo-fi innovator, Tobin Sprout was the super-productive partner of Robert Pollard in the legendary Guided By Voices. The gifted songwriter returns with a pensive, expansive part autobiographical new album 'Empty Horses'. Here he's part Townes Van Zandt, part John Prine, part Robbie Robertson at his retrospective best.
The album is a meticulously observed study of America and Americana (not the music, but the state of mind). An alternative American Songbook, if you will, a collection of laments to simpler times and the struggle for what's right, peppered with an examination of faith and the search for a sense of justice. Close up and personal, 'Empty Horses' is a poignant carefully etched experience, a rolling journey in modern times, nodding back to tradition, a personal snapshot filled with honesty.
Parts of Turn to Red feel like an extension of the Suitcase series Pollard began in 2000, while some of the tracks are more fleshed out and typical of what you could expect on a proper Guided By Voices or solo Pollard record. Whether you are drawn to stuff like “Wig Stomper” and “The Public Dance” or not, what is undeniable is the pair sound like they had a lot of fun collaborating on this project. The album is worth having just for the monster tracks “Fairly Blacking Out” and “Be It Not for the Serpentine Rain Dodger” alone. Plus, the seeds of Boston Spaceships are sown.Instant classic! Robert enlisted Chris Slusarenko (former man of the Bass in Guided By Voices) to lay down a bed of instrumentals for a collaboration project called The Takeovers. Chris took the challenge head-on and turned in a stunning set of tracks... Robert then took these tracks into the studio and gave them life with amazing consistency and color. Robert also sprinkled the album with home recorded tidbits and cell phone voice-mails. The results are somewhere in between 'Speak Kindly' and 'Static Airplane Jive' - at least to these ears of mine. There is a stunning array of guests on this album, but my notes are not here right now... Trust me though -- Don't sleep.
Do Something Surreal
This lyrical element of human thought, the source of all authentic poetry, common to all men did they but realise it, is manifested in the plays of Shakespeare and in the ravings of lunatics in Kubla Khan and in Walt Disney’s Silly Symphonies; in the paintings of Picasso and in popular picture-postcards.
— David Gascoyne, A Short Survey of Surrealism (1935)
As EuroHEEDFEST congregates for a milestone tenth edition of irresponsible rock and roll, it’s worth pausing to ask about the sustained nature of GBV fandom on our side of the Atlantic—why is it that Robert Pollard’s songs encourage such an obsessive following over here, given that they are cut from a very particular Midwestern cloth? After all, most of us know very little about baseball, the Wright Brothers, the freeway, or whatever.
The hooks help, but there is surely something else going on. A good tune will only get you so far. What is it that resonates so profoundly about songs like ‘Subspace Biographies’ or ‘Wondering Boy Poet’ or ‘My Zodiac Companion’, with their apparently tossed-off, ‘nonsense’ lyrics?
That which Pitchfork takes as half-arsed and meaningless prose is in fact determined by a surrealist sensibility whereby poetry announces itself in misheard conversation, surprising juxtapositions, and inebriated high jinks, such that the whole world is one big collage. Wonky shop signs and old tobacco commercials are raised to the level of the marvellous, imbued with universal meaning and very real emotional power.
One thing about this surrealism is that it’s wildly contagious. Under Bob’s tutelage, we have all become fast-tracked into a surrealist way of thinking. An odd turn of phrase sounds like the title of a new GBV album; a wrecked billboard its cover. We are guided by voices, attuned to chance, alert to what David Gascoyne called the lyrical element of human thought.
I would add that the surreal has long found popular expression in Britain. Take the Beatles, their music informed not just by working-class culture, as in music hall and R&B, but also the undoubted surrealism of The Goon Show and Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Perhaps affinity with the Fab Four and their influences warms one up to Robert Pollard’s own blue collar modernism.
Of course, the latter also comes with its own long list of sources, none more obvious than the Beatles. Strange as it may seem, Spike Milligan courses through Bob’s veins, too—the point being that the surreal flows around the world in a frenzy of reciprocity. It is in this spirit that EuroHEEDFEST operates: as a letter from London to Dayton, at a distance of 4,000 miles, in celebration of the very human need to create art. Or else it’s a piss-up.
Bad Football does not contain any songs that hit those heights like “Fairly Blacking Out” or “Be It Not for the Serpentine Rain Dodger” from Turn to Red. However, it may be a more even album, overall. And with John Moen behind the kit for the majority of the songs, this record really set the tone for the upcoming emergence of the excellent Boston Spaceships, which I devoured before I got into Guided By Voices. After a pair of Takeovers records, Pollard was inspired and eager to start a new band.Welcome to the 2nd dose of The Takeovers. Following up their 1st album, Turn to Red, the world famous ROBERT POLLARD (of GUIDED BY VOICES) and the less so CHRIS SLUSARENKO (also of GBV) continue their musical mission of bombastic post-punk, fragile acoustic beauty and pop quirk. The new album, Bad Football, finds the boys with another drink in their hand but also with a perversely more catchy and anthem oriented album.
Cheap Trick whore action like "Pretty Not Bad" rub shoulders with the Verlaines aloofness of "I Can See My Dog" while the bass player from Wire looks down from heaven. Calling on likeminded bedfellows such as Stephen Malkmus (PAVEMENT), Tad Doyle (TAD), John Moen (THE DECEMBERISTS) and Dan Peters (MUDHONEY) to help follow their tuneful and psychedelic hearts the Takeovers waste no time pushing aside the sophomore curse. In fact, if you like Plastic Ono John, Wistful Paul, the fore mentioned bass player from Wire and/or Guided By Voices you’re in good hands with Bad Football.
As the release notes state, one aspect of Bob’s 4 Ps is front and center on this album – Pop. Overall, the record has a strong 80s feel/vibe, with many of the tracks possessing a soundtrack quality. This is a great summer album that pairs well with cookouts, road trips to the beach/lake or just having beers on your porch. With Tommy’s tragic passing in 2017, it is a shame these two never made a follow-up to Blues and Boogie Shoes.Robert's current guitar and keyboard player for his live band is none other than Tommy Keene - a talented songwriter who has enjoyed success over the years as a solo artist. Mastering the genre of power pop (I although I read somewhere that Tommy hates using the P - P term), Tommy has been making seminal classics for as long as Mr. Pollard. Here, on the first Keene Brothers record, the two connect for a creamy set of pop/rock songs just in time for the summer. These tracks sound large and full and dynamic and catchy. It really is a perfect blend of a Tommy Keene record and your favorite Pollard recording.
As is the case with all listening experiences, context is crucial. If one comes into this album expecting a fully-realized, produced album like Universal Truths and Cycles or Earthquake Glue, then I imagine they will be disappointed. This album is essentially a collection of demos that is more in line with the Suitcase compilations. A number of GBV fans made Vampire on Titus comparisons when the album was first released. None of the tracks reach the three-minute mark and Bob’s vocals are buried deep in the mix, often times impossible to make out. From the spartan brown-wrapper style cover to the “File Under: Hard-On Listener” note that appears on the album, it is clear that this is not the album for those fans looking to dip their toe into the Robert Pollard pool for the first time. You have to work harder to find the hooks and nuggets, but there are some to be mined.Non-stop. This would be the easiest way to describe Robert Pollard's work ethic. When he sits down to write a song or two, odds are he will just go ahead and bang out a full album. At least that is what happened here with 'All That Is Holy.' Sitting in front of his little tape deck, Robert wrote all of these songs in one sitting. He sent the boom box recordings to Todd Tobias, Producer For Life, who then took them and molded them into tiny psych masterpieces. The vocals are slightly buried beneath the instrumentation, but the warmth of the tracks and the melodies still shine through. I would say these are all sketches of what someday may become classics. With the nature of this release being what it is, we are keeping it pretty limited and special for the fans. Get in early. The vinyl version will be limited to 1000 copies.
Reflecting back on the album, Todd Tobias offers the following:The third time’s a charm. That's the story behind the third Psycho And The Birds release, We've Moved. The concept surrounding Psycho and The Birds is that Bob will write songs and record them on his infamous boombox, (every song he has written since the early 90s has been sung into that boombox) and will then send them off to producer/multi-instrumentalist/visionary, Todd Tobias, who will lay a band's worth of music over the songs. This time around they totally nail the process, and if the music world actually allowed artists like Bob a chance to have a hit, this album would actually be chock full of them. Songs like I Love a Revolution and Enon Beach are filled with undeniable likeability and pop goodness. Bob even pulls out some lyrics that he said he first wrote as a kid in the song She Tears Out. In some ways, Psycho and The Birds are becoming to Robert Pollard's solo albums what Robert Pollard solo albums were to Guided By Voices releases. It's a more user friendly Psycho And The Birds, more charming.
We’ve Moved sounds a little less like a collection of demos than All That Is Holy does. I think much of that has to do with the fact that you can actually make out more of Bob’s lyrics, which are far less buried in the mix. The record comes out firing on all cylinders before getting stuck in gear a bit. And just like that, after two LPs and an EP (Check Your Zoo) in two years, Psycho and the Birds vanished into the ether.These are songs that can be enjoyed as pure expressions of the id. As such it’s fun to hold on to the illusion that the songs sprang up fully formed directly from out of the depths. Musically, everything you hear on We’ve Moved is very coherent and locked into place. But at the same time the songs seem to follow some offstage logic or dream logic that’s difficult to pin down.
For me as a listener, this tension between what seems composed and what seems improvised all happening at the same time is the source of the album’s charm. And along with Bob’s vocals, it’s a source of the album’s humor. Once the songs sink in, the album becomes a joyful experience. For me as a musician, making We’ve Moved was the most fun I’ve had. Listening to it now, it seems to have the vibe of a backyard party on a Saturday night (or a Sunday night), only this is a party with a very strange band performing on the deck – a band with a shitty PA system that makes it hard to understand the singer. But there is an infectious exuberance to the songs that overrides any fear of weirdness, allowing the party to carry on and even escalate.
Bob would probably describe We’ve Moved as “ridiculous” – this being a term of endearment. On a few of these songs, the unhinged musical accompaniment makes it sound more like “Bird and the Psychos.” There are moments of pure delirium on We’ve Moved, especially if you blast the volume and/or enjoy a smoke before putting it on. But hiding behind the weirdness is a friendly soul born of pure fun. Even casual listeners can enjoy songs like ‘I Love A Revolution,’ and ‘Enon Beach’.
i have never heard of this record.cortez the killer wrote: ↑Tue Jun 07, 2022 2:06 pm
We’ve Moved (2008)
With The Fading Captain Series put to rest in 2007, Pollard started a new record label, Happy Jack Records. After a series of single releases, a Circus Devils album (Sgt. Disco), a Takeovers EP (Little Green Onion Man) and a solo record (Superman Was a Rocker) on the new label, Bob and Todd Tobias released a second full length album under the alias that combines two Alfred Hitchcock movies, Psycho and the Birds. As was the case with All That Is Holy, We’ve Moved was created with Bob recording songs onto his boom box and then sending them to Todd for some minor buffing and shading. Again, these are not quite demos and decidedly not fully fleshed out studio productions. The official release notes for the project are as follows:Reflecting back on the album, Todd Tobias offers the following:The third time’s a charm. That's the story behind the third Psycho And The Birds release, We've Moved. The concept surrounding Psycho and The Birds is that Bob will write songs and record them on his infamous boombox, (every song he has written since the early 90s has been sung into that boombox) and will then send them off to producer/multi-instrumentalist/visionary, Todd Tobias, who will lay a band's worth of music over the songs. This time around they totally nail the process, and if the music world actually allowed artists like Bob a chance to have a hit, this album would actually be chock full of them. Songs like I Love a Revolution and Enon Beach are filled with undeniable likeability and pop goodness. Bob even pulls out some lyrics that he said he first wrote as a kid in the song She Tears Out. In some ways, Psycho and The Birds are becoming to Robert Pollard's solo albums what Robert Pollard solo albums were to Guided By Voices releases. It's a more user friendly Psycho And The Birds, more charming.We’ve Moved sounds a little less like a collection of demos than All That Is Holy does. I think much of that has to do with the fact that you can actually make out more of Bob’s lyrics, which are far less buried in the mix. The record comes out firing on all cylinders before getting stuck in gear a bit. And just like that, after two LPs and an EP (Check Your Zoo) in two years, Psycho and the Birds vanished into the ether.These are songs that can be enjoyed as pure expressions of the id. As such it’s fun to hold on to the illusion that the songs sprang up fully formed directly from out of the depths. Musically, everything you hear on We’ve Moved is very coherent and locked into place. But at the same time the songs seem to follow some offstage logic or dream logic that’s difficult to pin down.
For me as a listener, this tension between what seems composed and what seems improvised all happening at the same time is the source of the album’s charm. And along with Bob’s vocals, it’s a source of the album’s humor. Once the songs sink in, the album becomes a joyful experience. For me as a musician, making We’ve Moved was the most fun I’ve had. Listening to it now, it seems to have the vibe of a backyard party on a Saturday night (or a Sunday night), only this is a party with a very strange band performing on the deck – a band with a shitty PA system that makes it hard to understand the singer. But there is an infectious exuberance to the songs that overrides any fear of weirdness, allowing the party to carry on and even escalate.
Bob would probably describe We’ve Moved as “ridiculous” – this being a term of endearment. On a few of these songs, the unhinged musical accompaniment makes it sound more like “Bird and the Psychos.” There are moments of pure delirium on We’ve Moved, especially if you blast the volume and/or enjoy a smoke before putting it on. But hiding behind the weirdness is a friendly soul born of pure fun. Even casual listeners can enjoy songs like ‘I Love A Revolution,’ and ‘Enon Beach’.
1. Person Who Lives in a Thundercloud – Another fantastic song title to get things started. Right away, you notice Bob’s vocals are more discernable than they were on the previous Psycho and the Birds record. Todd putting a little extra thump and bounce to this track. “Person who lives in a timebomb will take me down like lightning.” (7.5)
2. Rains Remain – Bob singing in something like an inebriated falsetto with an arrangement that wouldn’t be out of place on a Circus Devils album. “I would be old in a goldmine.” (6)
3. I Love a Revolution – Starts out as a crude demo before Todd’s additions pick it up. Love the various vocal stylings Bob utilizes in a song that just clears the 1:30 mark. Given a proper full band, studio treatment, this has the potential to be an upper-tier, GBV ass shaker. “I love a revolution!” (7)
4. Enon Beach – Sounds a lot like the stronger material one would get on a Robert Pollard solo album. Some excellent percussion provided by Todd. Has a layer or two of dust on it, but this is a shiny pop nugget. “And now we know there is no time to hate.” (8)
5. Franklin’s Famous Graham Cracker Crust – A title that can only come from Robert Ellsworth Pollard. On the Robert Pollard/Guided By Voices message board, someone commented that this sounds like Wire meets early, Syd Barrett-era Pink Floyd. I can’t come up with a better description of the song, so I’ll leave it at that. Some really cool slide guitar addition by Todd at the conclusion of the track. “This is why she tells me she must go home.” (7.5)
6. Tomorrow Man – This one is really out there. Huge Circus Devils/David Lynch vibe. “Hey you burned out piece of shit.” (3)
7. Corona Grande – Another track that would be perfectly at home on one of the Circus Devils albums. Bob with some over-the-top nonsensical vocals. Todd adds a beautiful musical bridge to breakup some of the twisted vibe of the track. “Make me happy, Corona Grande.” (5)
8. She Tears Out – Side two opens with one of the first songs Pollard ever wrote as a young child. After back-to-back strangeness, the record lightens up again. “She tears out in her new Jaguar – outta sight – out of this life.” (6)
9. Love Theory – Hard-charging, aggressive rocker snippet to kick the party into a higher gear. “You can make it happen.” (6)
10. Hound Has the Advantage – Another up-tempo track that features some excellent mouth trumpet. Bob and Todd really let loose on this one. “The hound has come today.” (6)
11. Poor Old Pine – This is a beautiful, peaceful instrumental that has a soundtrack quality to it. (5)
12. I’m Never Gonna Leave, You’re Never Gonna Win – The Circus Devils have returned as this song builds and builds some menacing tension with Bob uttering gibberish. (5)
13. Hybertech Green – Straightforward rock arrangement with some absurdist Pollard musings. “It’s a holy time bomb mixed with meteors.” (5.5)
14. Sharp Apples – Todd brings some serious thump, punch and menace to Bob’s Dadaist ramblings. “I was drawn on into the light.” (6)
15. We’ve Moved – Closing track possesses a weary, melancholic feel. Bob’s guitar is rickety and slightly out of tune. Todd puts some somber strings on it to further emphasize the mood. “I went down that path, but I’m not coming back too soon.” (7)
How much you want for it?tinnitus photography wrote: ↑Tue Jun 07, 2022 2:25 pmthe worst part?
I just looked it up on Discogs and yes - i own a copy of it.
I think there were only 500 (or 1000) pressed. Only one for sale on Discogs (but unavailable in the United States). It fetches a decent haul.
If you include your original Propeller, you will hit 5 figures.tinnitus photography wrote: ↑Wed Jun 08, 2022 11:37 ami just saw someone had a listing for this record, $500:
https://www.discogs.com/release/1042132 ... -1984-1993
man i wonder what i would clear if i liquidated my gbv collection.
Overall, this is a decent album. I find myself drawn more to the full-band rockers, but can appreciate what Pollard and Davies were aiming for with the more subdued tracks. There are several tracks worth mining for those that enjoy putting together those endless Pollard playlists.The latest collaboration project from Robert Pollard comes with a bit of a twist. Pollard hooks up with another indie rock icon Richard Davies (THE MOLES, CARDINAL) to bring you the band Cosmos. On Jar Of Jam Ton Of Bricks, vocal duties are split between the two heavyweights. Pollard takes lead vocals on eight songs, Davies on four. Davies enlists some of his Massachusetts merry men to assist with the music including David Minehan (THE NEIGHBORHOODS) and Malcom Travis (HUMAN SEXUAL RESPONSE, SUGAR). Jar Of Jam Ton Of Bricks flows back and forth between the atmospheric acoustic sounds with great Pollard melodies on top (Sudden Storms Are Normal, Just By Pushing A Button) to the all out pop rockers (Nude Metropolis, Westward Ho). The album concludes with a bang with the emotionally charged Davies sung tune Hail Mary.
yeah i think he got rid of most of it. i really want to hang out w/ David soon. great guy, and a testament to how the internet, while sometimes a piece of flaming herpes-ridden diarrhea, is also an agent for good. would never have met a random guy from Brussels otherwise.cortez the killer wrote: ↑Wed Jun 08, 2022 12:18 pmIf you include your original Propeller, you will hit 5 figures.tinnitus photography wrote: ↑Wed Jun 08, 2022 11:37 ami just saw someone had a listing for this record, $500:
https://www.discogs.com/release/1042132 ... -1984-1993
man i wonder what i would clear if i liquidated my gbv collection.
Didn’t that Crunch guy recently auction off all his GBV vinyl? You should ask him.
Collaborations can be tricky. Sometimes they spark some magical creativity, while other times they can be haphazard affairs that work much better in theory than in practice. Beginning with The Fading Captain series and into the creation of Happy Jack Records, Pollard has embarked on a number of side projects and collaborations. Mars Classroom is one of those moments where everything came together and that magic happened. New Theory of Everything is a great pop record filled with the quirky touches of its two celebrated indie rock heroes, Robert Pollard and Gary Waliek. I’d also be remiss to not give props to drummer Robert Beerman who might be the second best drummer to ever work with Bob. The top dog is current GBV drummer, Kevin March. The album contains great melodies, is loaded with hooks and is a well-mixed record, especially when you consider its postal nature. I believe this album is up there with the upper-tier Guided-By Voices releases. If you are a fan of the poppier side of Pollard’s musical equation, New Theory of Everything is an essential record.Robert Pollard is no stranger to Mars. As a precocious earthling, he wrote one of his first songs about the red planet, and even though Bob’s a peaceful man, the God of War’s favorite celestial body keeps orbiting through his deep-space consciousness (see Pinball Mars, “Queen of Mars”). Is the constellation Ursa Major even in the same quadrant of the sky as Mars? Ask an amateur astronomer like Gary Waleik, stellar singer / guitarist of Boston’s inimitable purveyors of experimental pop, Big Dipper. How these two astral music-makers wound up together in a classroom on the fabled planet of little green men and came up with The New Theory of Everything is anyone’s guess. Oxygen tanks? Solaris-era spacesuits? Floating in a tin can far above the earth? However their minds melded, one wonders what they left on the blackboard as they worked out their hypothesis. Given the scope and beauty of the resulting music, it’s surely a formula for perfect song-craft.
The eleven tracks Pollard and Waleik beamed down to our humble blue planet for Mars Classroom’s debut LP range from the irrepressibly hooky, guitar-driven “New Theory” to the trippy moodiness of “Paint the Rocks” and the Brit-chime riffing and dirty-sweet harmonies of “It Had to Come From Somewhere.” The last track, an achingly languorous and slow-burning masterpiece called “Wish You Were Young,” features Pollard’s uncanny ability to put words together that can break your heart without plying a single sentimental cliché. The Hindi name for Mars comes from the Sanskrit word mangalam, meaning auspicious. It’s clear that this music from a distant planet came together under a very good sign.