Here’s the lead single off Waving at Astronauts, from Lifeguards, Robert Pollard’s occasional collaboration with ex-GBV guitarist Doug Gillard…it’s quite good, maybe not as good as Boston Spaceships, but eminently worth listening to.
I reviewed it for Blurt. Read the review here.
Showing posts with label Robert Pollard. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Robert Pollard. Show all posts
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Pollard again…give this man a medal
Robert Pollard’s new band, The Boston Spaceships, is at it again, with its second full-length in just under a year. There were two Pollard solo albums during the same span of time, so he is definitely not fading out easy. But quantity seems to have very little impact on quality, except maybe a positive one, because The Planets Are Blasted is maybe even slightly better than Brown Submarine, which is to say very, very good.
My Blurt review enthused, “Beery romantic that he is, though, Pollard saves his loveliest tunes for the ladies. ‘Dorothy's a Planet’ is flat out gorgeous, its folk melody unspooling languidly over bristling thickets of distorted guitar, while ‘Catherine in Mid October,’ is pure gentle bliss, as inevitable and tuneful as Big Dipper's ‘She's Fetching,’ though twice as odd.” More.
Here’s Bob performing “Dorothy’s a Planet”
And “You Satisfy Me”
My Blurt review enthused, “Beery romantic that he is, though, Pollard saves his loveliest tunes for the ladies. ‘Dorothy's a Planet’ is flat out gorgeous, its folk melody unspooling languidly over bristling thickets of distorted guitar, while ‘Catherine in Mid October,’ is pure gentle bliss, as inevitable and tuneful as Big Dipper's ‘She's Fetching,’ though twice as odd.” More.
Here’s Bob performing “Dorothy’s a Planet”
And “You Satisfy Me”
Monday, November 3, 2008
Robert Pollard's latest
PureMusic has been on hiatus for a while, and maybe will be for a while longer after this, but meanwhile, there's a new issue up , and I've got three reviews in it.
The one I like the best covers Robert Pollard's new project Boston Spaceships. I wrote it last summer about the first Boston Spaceships album Brown Submarine and Pollard being Pollard (and in my view a national treasure), there is already another one in the wings.
Here's the review.
BROWN SUBMARINE • Boston Spaceships
Robert Pollard is said to have 1000 songs registered to his name at BMI. He has released two multi-disc Suitcase box sets, named after the bulging valise in which he carries his demo recordings. People who want to trace his discography must master not just Guided by Voices and solo material, but dozens of semi-fictitious alter egos and hypothetical band names. You wonder how, in all the years and all the projects, he has managed not to write the same song twice...and, if you keep thinking about it, you also wonder whether he would realize it if he did.
Boston Spaceships is Pollard's newest project, a real life, flesh and blood band, whose members include ex-Decemberists drummer John Moen and frequent GBV collaborator Chris Slusarenko. It is quite good--and quite reminiscent of the great GBV records, Bee Thousand in particular. (See if you can listen to "You Satisfy Me" without hearing echoes of "Gold Star Robot Boy".) These are short, absurdly hooky songs, as casually ear-wormy as advertising jingles, but as surreal as Magritte's head-scarfed kiss. From the first slanting, sly guitars of "Winston's Atomic Bird" through the jangly, lo-fi "Go for the Exit," Brown Submarine is all fizzy pleasure.
More
"Go for the Exit"
If you back the site up to the reviews section you can read my other reviews, of Noa Babayof (an Israeli freak folkie) and Mudhoney.
Also, I'm reviewing this soon, but thought I would share this video by a Scottish band called The Magnificents. Their record, Year of Explorers, has apparently been out for a while in the UK, but I am just getting to it. It's really good.
The song is called "Ring Ring Oo Oo"
The one I like the best covers Robert Pollard's new project Boston Spaceships. I wrote it last summer about the first Boston Spaceships album Brown Submarine and Pollard being Pollard (and in my view a national treasure), there is already another one in the wings.
Here's the review.
BROWN SUBMARINE • Boston Spaceships
Robert Pollard is said to have 1000 songs registered to his name at BMI. He has released two multi-disc Suitcase box sets, named after the bulging valise in which he carries his demo recordings. People who want to trace his discography must master not just Guided by Voices and solo material, but dozens of semi-fictitious alter egos and hypothetical band names. You wonder how, in all the years and all the projects, he has managed not to write the same song twice...and, if you keep thinking about it, you also wonder whether he would realize it if he did.
Boston Spaceships is Pollard's newest project, a real life, flesh and blood band, whose members include ex-Decemberists drummer John Moen and frequent GBV collaborator Chris Slusarenko. It is quite good--and quite reminiscent of the great GBV records, Bee Thousand in particular. (See if you can listen to "You Satisfy Me" without hearing echoes of "Gold Star Robot Boy".) These are short, absurdly hooky songs, as casually ear-wormy as advertising jingles, but as surreal as Magritte's head-scarfed kiss. From the first slanting, sly guitars of "Winston's Atomic Bird" through the jangly, lo-fi "Go for the Exit," Brown Submarine is all fizzy pleasure.
More
"Go for the Exit"
If you back the site up to the reviews section you can read my other reviews, of Noa Babayof (an Israeli freak folkie) and Mudhoney.
Also, I'm reviewing this soon, but thought I would share this video by a Scottish band called The Magnificents. Their record, Year of Explorers, has apparently been out for a while in the UK, but I am just getting to it. It's really good.
The song is called "Ring Ring Oo Oo"
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