All Men Are Freezing

It's fitting that "All Men Are Freezing" was chosen by Stephen Soderbergh for the soundtrack to "Bubble," for the song has a cinematic scope, in idea if not execution.

It begins with some slow guitar strumming over which Pollard sings, everything building to the chorus (which, of course, does not include the words "all men are freezing;" those appear in the song "The Vault of Moons" on Motel of Fools... go figure): "Dreaming of your eyes not your skin,
falling through the holes myriad..." That's my translation, anyway. Even if "myriad" isn't correct, I'll keep thinking it is, because it's a clever turn.

The song continues to escalate -- it must do so fairly quickly given it's sub-2:30 run time -- to a heavy riff that abruptly cuts off.

That's the "cinematic scope in idea" part. The "if not execution" part stems from the fact that, like nearly everything Pollard has recorded since Guided by Voices split, it has the feel of something not quite finished, something just shy of its potential. It's fine, accomplishes what it set out to do. But it isn't transcendent, and this song in the hands of his old band had a chance at that.

747 Ego

As a big fan of Robert Pollard who always felt as if he never got his shot, I hoped that his work with filmmaker Steven Soderbergh might be just the boost he needed to vault into public consciousness. So much for that. In true Pollard fashion, the Soderbergh project he worked on was as indie -- and thus under the radar -- as they come. "Bubble" was Soderbergh's first film for HDNet Films, a venture that sought to collapse the release window for movies by offering them in theaters, on DVD and on television at the same time. Soderbergh signed a six-picture deal with HDNet (owned by Mark Cuban and Todd Wagner) to make films like this to be distributed in this flattened fashion.

All of that meant a bit of press would come the way of "Bubble," but it also meant that all of the forces who made money from movies the old fashioned way would align against it, effectively sinking it before it got off the ground. Somewhere along the way, Pollard's music was mentioned and then casually tossed aside by all but the rabid throngs of Fading Captain completists. As one, I can tell you that it is a very satisfying EP, and one that makes me wish Pollard at least occasionally had someone like Soderbergh looking over his shoulder so the musician might concentrate a bit.

Though it was recorded in a similar way to all of his post-Guided by Voices work, Music for 'Bubble' has more muscle and focus than at least some of what has come out of Camp Pollard since GBV's split. Pollard handled guitar and vocals, while producer Todd Tobias handled everything else (Lately, Pollard hasn't played much of anything, relying on Tobias to build entire songbeds based on the singer's demos). "747 Ego" is the disc's best song, so good it appears twice. On the first go round, Pollard crunches his way through a lumbering slab of riff rock.

The lyrics are clever, Pollard inhabiting a character so completely full of himself that he cares not for what others think of him. "It doesn't matter much to me," he sings. "I'll take you 'round the world on my 747, Ego 747..." He's a man so full of ego it has manifested itself as a jetliner able to carry others around the world.

The second version of the song, this one titled "747 Ego (Oh Yeah)," is exactly the same track save for the fact that Pollard creates his own Greek chorus, echoing back some of his own vocals, sounding as if he multi-tracked himself shouting from across the room. It's a bit superfluous, but Soderbergh was paying the bills, so why not?