Beaten by the Target

"Beaten by the Target" seems to be another of Robert Pollard's songs about his failed stab at the big time with Guided by Voices. "From the long shots and commands, I got beaten by the target," he sings, admitting that rather than conquer the mainstream, the mainstream conquered him. But by the end of the song, as he did on the similarly themed "Second Spurt of Growth" from Half Smiles of the Decomposed, he offers a rallying cry, a sign that he's far from done: "Almost beaten by the target," he sings.

It's interesting that he does so as part of a one-off group, the Moping Swans. The group, with former GBVers Jim Macpherson and Greg Demos on drums and bass, respectively, could pass for an abbreviated version of his former band. Only the presence of guitarist Tony Conley, who played with Pollard two decades prior in their metal band, Anacrusis, marks this as slightly different from his earliest solo output that often paired him with players from the GBV family tree. All of this seems to be his way of saying to the masses, "I'll release even more music, not less, and it'll be as good as anything I offered up to you ingrates."

The EP offers just six songs, but it is one of the strongest entries in Pollard's Fading Captain Series. The songs are simple, none more than this opener, which feels like a quickly composed three-chord rocker. Despite the sunny nature of the tune, there is some bitterness here. Lines like "Hurry hop, where do I smile?" and, most cleverly, "To limp across your highway for love with a white flag in my hand," indicate that while Pollard saw his brush with the big time as a "what don't kill you makes you stronger" experience -- at one point he proclaims himself "almost better for the bargain" -- he does view it with a jaundiced eye. Lucky for us, he conveys his sentiments with a strong melody and a backbeat.