In the Brain

Robert Pollard's collaborative songs often leave me wondering what the song would sound like if the person providing the backing music had simply finished the song with vocals. "In the Brain," a bonus track that rounds out the singles collected on the Selective Service EP, is a great example.

The song, credited to Airport 5, finds Tobin Sprout offering a mildly psychedelic bit of acoustic jangle over which Pollard sings a fairly standard verse and chorus. Standard, that is, by Pollard standards. It's not terribly odd or unique, but simply something sung with his typical phrasing and inflection. It's a decent song, and almost assuredly different from what Sprout would have done on his own. Whereas Pollard is more forceful, looking for ways to ham an extra syllable in here or to subvert the obvious beat there, Sprout seems more conventional. I can hear his melody in my mind, shadowing Pollard's, and in this case, it makes me want to hear how he would have finished this.

If he had, however, I doubt it would have been as interesting. While Sprout would have taken advantage of the obvious hooks, his reedy voice rising and falling in the right spots, Pollard's challenge to the song's patterns creates points of friction that actually make things more compelling. I don't mean to make this out to be more than it is; "In the Brain" is where it is -- as the tossed-off extra that compels completists to buy the other 10 songs on the disc for a second time -- because it's decent but not great. Still, it's a good example of the ways Pollard has found to keep things interesting after 1,200 songs and counting.

Dayton, Ohio-19 Something And 5

"This is a song about smokin' dope, havin' cookouts and hanging on the west side." That's how Robert Pollard introduces the song "Dayton, Ohio-19 Something And 5" to the crowd at the 40 Watt in Athens, Ga., Jan. 22, 2000. A live recording of the song appeared on a Guided by Voices single just three months later, and was released digitally as part of the Selective Service EP that gathered this, two Airport 5 singles and another track.

Pollard makes this sound like a fun time, but it's really a melancholy bit of fun as he looks back on his home town with mix of fondness and disappointment. He begins with a couplet that sets the mood for what seems to be a bit of a fond over-the-shoulder glance at Dayton: "Isn't it great to exist at this point in time?" But he quickly turns things with the next line, "where the produce is rotten, but no one is forgotten, on strawberry Philadelphia Drive." Here, the nostalgia takes on a melancholic tone, and the opening lines are rendered more sarcastic than declarative.

The next verse does the same thing, but with even more of a whiplash feel. Pollard takes us from the pleasant image of "children in the sprinkler" to the depressing idea of "junkies on the corner" (in Dayton?), from the folksy "smell of fried foods" to the urban oppression of "pure hot tar." He definitely sounds conflicted, and that opening line defining the song now seems misguided at best. But as the song comes to a close, he somehow manages to bring it back around to that notion of lazing about and enjoying the day. "Man, you needn't travel far to feel completely alive, on strawberry Philadelphia Drive, on a hazy day in 19 something and 5."

Most people look back at the good times through a filter that reveals only the positive aspects of the event. The concert was great, and no, I don't really remember when the drunk guy fell on me or the long line for the bathroom. Perhaps Pollard is simply more honest. Sure, kids running through sprinklers and the smell of fried food are the things most of us would remember about a great summer day, but Pollard acknowledges that the smell of rotting food and hot tar come with the package, and all of it, good and bad, is what make that hazy day worth remembering. As he himself admits as the song ends, "That's kind of a sad song a little bit."