Superman Was a Rocker
(2008, Happy Jack Rock Records)
Welcome to the official, unofficial, officially NEW Pollard solo LP. Superman Was A Rocker is both inspiring and completely barf-worthy. For this one, Pollard went back into his dusty suitcase of basement tapes and found old instrumentals that he'd made over the past 20-25 years. Who knows? Maybe they were just 10 years old? On paper, this seems like a somewhat of promising idea, and a wonderfully blank canvas on which to paint. On the other hand, the LP is a complete lo, or NO-fi effort of instrumental wanking around, with present-day studio Pollard vocals recorded over the grab-bag. The record, should go without saying, is an incomplete and difficult listen to get through. FOR THE FANS ONLY! However, "Love Your Spaceman" is worth of any Pollard mix-tape waiting to be made. Unrelated, for the history buffs, the LP contains contributions from such GBV alums as Tobin Sprout, Kevin March, Kevin Fennell, and Mitch Mitchell. Make no mistake.... this doesn't make it good.
SIDE
A:
Another
Man’s Blood- 1 Lo-fi, used up basement jam with
additional nonsensical Pollard vocals laid on top of it. Plodding,
moody guitar rock with a dumb snarl. Almost 4 minutes long?
Disjointed. And just when you think it’s over... NO! never over.
Go
Down First- 3 Lo-fi guitar strums over Casio keyboard
beat. Some potential in the charm. On an album like this, it stands
as a reluctant highlight. Falls apart at times, but works. Sounds
like a late night drunk tape.
Back
to the Farm-1 Fake radio interview at the beginning
with Pollard doing an impersonation, slandering GBV? Ok, it’s
humorous if you know the guy I’m sure. Then to take up track space,
the instrumental version of what is later revealed to be the BEST
song on the album is played. This is still such a great riff,
and time change, but why THIS had to be on the album with a radio
interview gets the hammer-down of disapproval.
Substitute
Hevean- 1 Out of tune, basement tape of drum and
guitar recorded sometime in a the past, probably at Pollard's house.
Nothing to write home about, even though I just wrote about Pollard's
home. I enjoy alcohol too, but come on. And this is over 2 minutes
long? Beware the drum solo.
Prince
Alphabet- 1 Hypnotic tick-tock guitar plucking with Uncle
Bob sounding like creepy, keep-your-kids-away-from-this Uncle Bob.
SIDE
B:
You
Drove the Snake Crazy- 2 Acoustic kitchen-tapes with
handclaps. Freewheeling song where Pollard overdubs vocals trying to
spruce up the original tapes' melodic flaws, but instead hurts it
most of the time. I actually wouldn’t mind hearing this as is, but
nope. It’s all mucked up.
Surveillance-1
Pollard
sings over what sounds like “Man Called Areodynamics” (from
UTBUTS)
played backwards. And does a piss poor job singing over it to boot.
Fascination
Attempt- 1 Flubbed radio intro-thing followed by a
twittering noise. Not a song.
Love
Your Spaceman- 5 Okay. Here we have a weird turn of
events. After a barf fest of unearthed turds, the instrumental
section of “Back to the Farm” gets a Pollard vocal-overhaul, and
in turn it sounds like a vintage GBV song. The most refreshing thing
on the album, suitable for relistens, and among the coolest of the
Pollard solo cannon. Thanks for writing the music, Kevin March!
Jumping-
2
Manic
acoustic strums with lo-fi Pollard vocals. Lifted from a tape
somewhere, and some squealing added to lengthen the song. But the
song itself sounds like an outtake from Same
Place the Fly Got Smashed.
St.
Leroy-
2
Jaunted, folky, acoustic picking strumming pop up. If taken as a
moody, sloppy lo-fi track, it’d be one of the more intriguing ones
off Suitcase.
Peacock-
2 Electric, out of tune track starts off sounding a bit
Jandek-like before breaking into a drunk ramble. A couple overdubbed
yelps from Pollard to add to the chaos and you got yourself a pile of
crap about a peacock. But it’s kind of fun in a shitty “Deathtrot
and Warlock Riding a Rooster,” way.
More
Hot Dogs Please- 2 Radio-voice over again. "Classic"
GBV line-up recorded this stoner paced rocker. Pollard drones some
nonsense in the background. Next time, keep most of these songs
locked-up. (Next time will hopefully be Suitcase 4, and
Pollard fans and I can't fucking wait for more shit like this to see
the light of day.... all the time).
The radio interview was not fake. I know because It was my radio show when I was working at WYSO-FM in the ‘90s. During this time I wrote for and help put out the local Dayton zine Mutant Renegade. I was (an still am) a fan of local music and the various shows I hosted always included a healthy dose of local music. My show on Friday evenings I invited any band that wanted to come into the studio to visit. Kevin and Mitch just took me up on the offer. I’m not sure why it was included on this release and just recently discovered that it was. I thought I had the only copy of the interview since I always recorded when I had guest in. Bob must have recorded it off the radio. I cant remember which one it was, but Kevin or Mitch didn’t know it was Bob who actually called in. You can hear the interview in its entirety here. https://soundcloud.com/michael-kilbourne/guided-by-voices-interview-wyso
ReplyDelete'Go Down First' is vocals put to The Happy Song (AKA Hello Song), a two minute instrumental which is only out there on bootlegs. The instrumental was actually on the proposed / aborted 1992 LP ‘The Corpse Like Sleep Of Stupidity’ and the 1993 one All That Glue’, which was the first working version of Bee Thousand. I think it was entirely recorded at the time by a chap named John Dodson. I guess that may be why Bob didn’t use it back then, or perhaps he just couldn’t think of what lyrics to put to it. I like the vocal version. Other than that, Love Your Spaceman and More Hot Dogs Please are the only songs worth listening to. Hot Dogs isn't even that good, its just interesting for being a bona fide lost GBV song. Easily the worst solo album.
ReplyDelete