11.15.2005
The not-so fading captain
Billboard, of all places, seems to be the best repository for information about the ever-prolific Robert Pollard. The trade paper -- with a nice new, easier-to-read web site, by the way -- has a nice little feature about the erstwhile Guided by Voices leader and his plans for 2006. He'll make his post-band, non-self-released solo debut with From a Compound Eye on Merge Records on Jan. 26, followed by a tour. The band lineup for that is exciting news for power pop fans, as Tommy Keene will be Pollard's guitarist. Keene is a fantastic songwriter and performer in his own right, but anyone who has seen him live -- either with his own band or as Paul Westerberg's hired gun -- can attest to the fact that he's also a hell of a guitarslinger. Jon Wurster, Superchunk's drummer, will be behind the kit.
Pollard tells Billboard that he'll play mostly solo material in the shows, as well as some tracks from recent collaborations like the Moping Swans and Circus Devils.
As for upcoming releases, he says he already has the follow-up to that Merge debut recorded. Tentatively titled Normal Happiness, the disc is "a pop album expected in October. Pollard tells Billboard "it has 16 two-minute pop songs. I wanted to make a record like that." He also has collaborations coming with late-era GBV bass player Chris Slusarenko as the Takeovers, and Keene as the Keene Brothers which, like similar works with ex-GBVer Tobin Sprout (as Airport Five) and Superchunk leader Mac McCaughan (as Go Back Snowball) involved his partner recording music tracks and Pollard writing and singing lyrics to go over top.
As this promo poster from the start of 2005 can attest, Pollard makes big plans and usually makes good on them. Of the 12 projects promised on this poster, he planned 12 releases, and save for the pushed back solo album due in January and a still planned Acid Ranch LP, he made good on all of them. The only variations came in project titles, which should be no surprise to longtime fans who expected Broadcaster House and got Isolation Drills, for example.
Pollard tells Billboard that he'll play mostly solo material in the shows, as well as some tracks from recent collaborations like the Moping Swans and Circus Devils.
As for upcoming releases, he says he already has the follow-up to that Merge debut recorded. Tentatively titled Normal Happiness, the disc is "a pop album expected in October. Pollard tells Billboard "it has 16 two-minute pop songs. I wanted to make a record like that." He also has collaborations coming with late-era GBV bass player Chris Slusarenko as the Takeovers, and Keene as the Keene Brothers which, like similar works with ex-GBVer Tobin Sprout (as Airport Five) and Superchunk leader Mac McCaughan (as Go Back Snowball) involved his partner recording music tracks and Pollard writing and singing lyrics to go over top.
As this promo poster from the start of 2005 can attest, Pollard makes big plans and usually makes good on them. Of the 12 projects promised on this poster, he planned 12 releases, and save for the pushed back solo album due in January and a still planned Acid Ranch LP, he made good on all of them. The only variations came in project titles, which should be no surprise to longtime fans who expected Broadcaster House and got Isolation Drills, for example.
