Jun 022010
 

The continuing task of catching up on the big-ass batch of Robert Pollard-led releases Kpdexter sent me marches on with an early 2010 solo album, We All Got Out of the Army. In my overdue review of Boston Spaceships’ Brown Submarine I lamented that the musicians on that album rarely “dug in” and “created their own shot,” that is, pushed the arrangements to unexpected places. That’s not the case on this solo release, done with producer/frequent partner-in-crime Todd Tobias. Across 17 concise, mostly energetic songs, the arrangements are not afraid to take it to the hoop with the surgical focus of the Cobra Verde-influenced Guided By Voices albums. I dig!

Robert Pollard, “We All Got Out of the Army”

Robert Pollard, “I’ll Take the Cure”

Songs like “Post-Hydrate Update” and the title track don’t pussyfoot around. The strong opening rhythmic gestures and discordant touches work well to support Pollard’s UK psych/prog phrasing. Even songs with a lighter touch, like “I’ll Take the Cure,” have a whiff of the Canterbury scene. This is not to say that Pollard’s finally gone prog, but on this album, with the arrangements clanging around him, he once more fulfills his post-punk, art-rock side, sounding like 154-era Wire if those guys could have removed the 4″ x 4″ from their collective ass.

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May 212010
 

Crackin’ up.

Continuing with the prescribed listening order from Townsman Kpdexter, it’s time I catch up on my overdue record review of Boston Spaceships‘ third release of 2009, Zero to 99. The first few times I spun this album it was among my least-favorite of the batch of 2009 Pollard releases that my man sent me, but over time some of the things I initially perceived as impediments to my enjoyment of the album became points of entry.

Boston Spaceships, “Trashed Aircraft Baby”

Unlike the first two Ships (as hardcore fans call them) album, Brown Submarine and The Planets Are Blasted, Zero to 99 is less focused and a bit noisier, more like what I’d come to expect from a typical Guided By Voices album. The opening track, “Pluto the Skate,” is the kind of brief F-U that Pollard left behind on the first two Boston Spaceships albums. “Trashed Aircraft Baby” revives use of his beloved Radio Shack mic. What sounds like some cheap bobo bass straining the limits of an early ’80s model Peavy amp stomps all over “Psycho Is a Bad Boy.” As I got acquainted with this album after listening to the first two I found the tight-ass in me missing the Quality Control processes that helped those first two albums go down so easily.
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May 142010
 

The shameful, necessary task of catching up on my stack of 2009 Robert Pollard-associated record releases continues. Per Townsman Kpdexter‘s instructions my controls are set for Boston Spaceships‘ debut album, Brown Submarine.

Boston Spaceships, “Psyche Threat”

When news of this album first hit I was surprised that Pollard was starting a new band. After all, hadn’t he released 203 albums with Guided By Voices and another 144, since the waning days of GBV, as a solo artist? Why not continue on the solo route, I thought. If he was going to have a new band I was hoping it would be a full-blown prog-rock affair, a launching point from one aspect of his large body of work that would allow him to fully explore that side of his songwriting. Someone interesting needs to don the dashiki and tackle that beast before too long.

As it turns out, Boston Spaceships would present a streamlined take on a lot of what I liked best about GBV: the forearm-pumping rock anthems with a touch of Who Sell-Out-inspired psychedelia. A track entitled “Psyche Threat” particularly satisfies Pollard’s interest in that aspect of The Who’s sound with fast-moving chord intervals and a hint of what sounds like one of John Entwistle’s french horn parts. Quick-strummed, Diddley-esque acoustic guitar rhythms propel “Ate It Twice,” wrapping up with a little Yardbirds-style rave-up. As on the band’s later 2009 release, The Planets Are Blasted, drummer John Moen keeps spry, focused rhythms. In some ways this makes Pollard’s music sound more “normal,” but considering that he seems like he’s been trying to make a form of Classic Rock since the last few GBV albums, if not earlier, why shouldn’t the rhythms gel more consistently than they used to?

Boston Spaceships, “You Satisfy Me”

Another thing that strikes me about these Boston Spaceships albums is that Pollard’s voice doesn’t sound as if it’s running through a Radio Shack mic and cheap, ’80s digital delay, as I grew accustomed to hearing it on countless GBV releases and his first couple of solo records. Pollard doesn’t couch his voice in any new aural dressing, but his voice projects just fine without it on a poppy, straightforward song like “You Satisfy Me.” What I’d really like to hear one of these days, on one of these more-focused Pollard releases, is a lead guitar player (or other musician) who can dig in and “create his own shot,” to use a basketball analogy. The lack of a soloist is not missed on a Buzzcocks/Beulah tune like “Ready to Pop,” and Mick Ronsons aren’t falling off trees, but with all the power chording Pollard favors in his music I’d like to hear someone in his band grab the fretboard and go for the gusto more often. The album-closing “Go for the Exit,” for instance, hints at a steppin’-out guitar solo, but it’s buried. The rhythms are there, Bob, now let it rock!

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May 102010
 

In my 2009 year-end review with my managing editor, Mr. Moderator, one of my stated objectives for 2010 was to more aggressively pursue reviewing new releases. It’s now May 2010, and I have not kept up my end of the bargain. Mr. Mod has funneled me a stack of new releases, and what have I done with them?

Thanks, Mod, I should have my review ready by Wednesday!

Cool, I’ve got a couple of things cooking, and then I should be able to hop on this one on Thursday!

Busy weekend ahead, so I’ll try to knock this out for you on Friday!

Man, I can be full of shit! I’m sorry, Mod, and I’m sorry Townspeople. I’m way behind on my scheduled reviews. To get back on schedule I pledge to – finally – tackle a box full of 2009 releases from Robert Pollard, maybe the hardest-working man in rock ‘n roll and surely a man whose wealth of output puts my own scant contributions to the Halls of Rock to shame! In the coming weeks I’ll finally catch up with my thoughts on Pollard releases by Boston Spaceships, Cosmos, and under his own name. I will follow the order prescribed by Townsman Kpdexter, who graciously supplied us with these releases and went as far as suggesting where I sit in relationship to my speakers while listening to each album. Kpdexter, you are the man!

For all the ways I’ve procrastinated and kept Mr. Mod off my back, the one thing I’ve consistently told him that has been true is that I’ve been listening to these records. Unlike my typical Insta-Reviews, which I crank out under great pressure and shame seconds before my extended deadline is to expire, I have a good handle on these albums and am confident that I can provide insights nearly justifying my 3-month delay in providing my reviews.

Boston Spaceships, “Tattoo Mission”

We’re going to start with Boston Spaceships’ The Planets Are Blasted. Boston Spaceships is Pollard with our old interview subject and Friend of the Hall, Chris Slusarenko and John Moen from The Decemberists. In 2009, this core trio managed to release 3 – count ’em 3 – albums! Pollard’s managing editor doesn’t need to get in his grill about lack of output.
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May 292008
 

I really like the lo-fi studio magic of the opening of Guided By Voices‘ “Tractor Rape Chain”. I’ve never taken the time to read up on what exactly went into the song’s intro, but it sounds like they took a casual acoustic run-through or demo of the song’s opening, probably recorded on a boom box, and then cut in the full-band’s studio intro. It’s cool that the studio entrance is not quite in sync with the acoustic intro. It’s cool that the sound of the rooms in which each recording took place don’t come close to matching. It’s also cool that the studio portion of the song is not very polished, but let’s steer clear of a “What’s so cool about crappy sounding lo-fi stuff?” debate. I’ve been on both sides of that discussion, and I agree with all points of view.

If you’re not familiar with the song or haven’t heard it in some time, check it out:

Guided By Voices, “Tractor Rape Chain”

I find this lo-fi studio device much more effective than any one of Tom Petty‘s White Rabbit opening devices from his videos – at a fraction of the cost!

I’m not about to ask you for a full list, Townspeople, or entire albums, so let’s get that straight. What I seek are specific moments of studio magic in lo-fi records that you love.

Use your judgement to determine what constitutes “lo-fi,” but I’m thinking independently made records that sound obviously beneath the contemporary standards of commercially made records of their time. Don’t give me some record that an indie Tom Scholz made on his laptop that sounds as high-quality as the latest release from Madonna. It may be “indie” but it’s not lo-fi, it’s not primitive. And don’t judge primitive by any later, contemporary standards. For instance, although the studio magic on Sgt. Pepper’s is primitive by even 1972 standards, what The Beatles were doing in 1967 was pushing the boundaries of technology. I have used this GBV recording from the late-80s, I believe, because they made some magic using rudimentary tools, even for their DIY times.

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Nov 022007
 

It took me a long time to embrace a big chunk of Guided By Voices. Ranking high among a myriad of beefs I had to get over was my beef with their Look. I couldn’t get a handle on their Look, it was as if they didn’t care, and they weren’t blessed with the physical gifts that should allow rock musicians not to care. Last night I came across this video. Watch it and see, through my eyes, a cool version of GBV – complete with a Look – performing live on television!

What a difference a well-lit television set makes for live performances! The more I thought about this the more it became clear that my underlying lack of interest in the old late-night concert show, Midnight Special, ran deeper than the typically bloated ’70s rockers and that one-trick pony Wolfman Jack. Take a look at what I’m getting at.

OK, that wasn’t fair. Try these clips; they perfectly illustrate what I’m getting at. First, a band I briefly thought was great as a teenager, seconds after first hearing this, their greatest contribution to rock ‘n roll. Check it out! Continue reading »

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Oct 272007
 

You may recall our very cool interview with Phantom Tollbooth’s Gerard Smith on the making of Beard of Lightning, the highly unusual post-hoc collaboration between a defunct underground band and Guided By Voices mastermind Robert Pollard. At the time, we reached out to some other figures in the making of this album, and now, a few months later, Townsman Kpdexter has uncovered the following tale, as told by Off Records head Chris Slusarenko, buried in his Inbox. A mere months after Chris took the time to provide his take on this fantastic voyage, Rock Town Hall presents this exclusive! Take it away, Chris!

Chris under the guidance of voices

In the mid-80s the late great Homestead Records label (home of Death Of Samantha, Great Plains, Sebadoh) put out one of the greatest 7″s of all time–“Valley of the Gwangi”, by Phantom Tollbooth. Hard to find at the time and with a strange black and white drawing for a cover it blew my mind but probably not many others. The music sounded like three gentlemen fighting musically between each other, jumping from prog to rock to jazz, and then emotionally twisting you back to a hook you didn’t know was there at all. I was in music geek heaven (or in college rock heaven as it used to be called). Two more albums followed as well as an ep after the fact. Then like most bands they broke up.

In the mid-90s I meet Robert Pollard for my first time after a Guided By Voices show. Doug Gillard and Ron House were also backstage and we started talking about Homestead, since they both used to be on that label. I mentioned Phantom Tollbooth and Bob starts singing “Nobody knows what we’re saying” from Phantom Tollbooth’s last album Power Toy. I tell him they are one of my favorite bands and then the night progresses into a mess of us singing bits of their songs back and forth. At one point he mutters, “I wish I had sang for Phantom Tollbooth. We would have ruled the world.”

In the early-00s I put together a compliation that both Phantom Tollbooth guitar player Dave Rick (also of Bongwater) and Bob Pollard performed on. Dave does a song about “Dr. Mom” with Ann Magnuson. Bob and GBV do two suites about the “Strident Wet Nurse”. I’m in heaven. I start self-releasing records on my label, Off Records. I set it up so that it’s only for bands and projects that don’t really exist–or more simply, just albums I want to hear badly. Tollbooth is a comin’. Bob decides that the album should be him writing new lyrics and vocal melodies for Power Toy plus the song “Valley of the Gwangi” from the first 45. The new album title was one that Bob had been kicking around for a while–Beard Of Lightning.
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