Clang Clang Ho (2021)

 Clang Clang Ho

(2021, Guided by Voices Inc.)

It’s July 4^th weekend 2021, and Guided by Voices have returned less than 3 months removed from Earth Man Blues! They cannot be stopped!!! The full roster is here. 20 jammed packed songs from the likes of Pollard, Gillard, March, Shue, and Bare Jr. Soundman/producer Travis Harrison is on back on board, fiddling with knobs and taking on full instrumental responsibilities as well! Except, this isn't GBV at all. It's the full length debut of the somewhat "mysterious" Cub Scout Bowling Pins!

 

Following the release of the highly lauded Heaven Beats Iowa (an EP that swooped into the pre-order world without warning, and was delivered to doorsteps in one of the fastest turn around surprises in a while), expectations were set. The 6 song EP featured a mix of styles (lo-fi rock, power pop, new wave inspired pieces) that blended together and satisfied like a heat-and-serve lunch on the run. It was a quick shock of creativity from a group of guys already churning out an unfathomable amount of material since reforming in 2016.

 

Perhaps the bar then was set just a little too high for the debut LP Clang Clang Ho, one of the more uneven offerings in the Pollard catalog in a while. The LP in hindsight almost feels doomed after the one-two punch of its predecessors creative offerings. In its place, the LP feels at times lacking the urgency, creativity, brevity set forth earlier in the calendar year. The LP in turn tends to fall somewhere in between a Cash Rivers album (without the blue humor) and dated adult contemporary. Add a few dashes of psychedelia and muddled mid-fi pop for good measure, and you’re left to make sense of this as a whole.

One of the more polarizing issues with the LP, nearly every track runs the risk of feeling mucked up with dated synths, tropical themed percussion,  and a smattering of electronic bleeps and bloops that add up to a bit of a sonic head-scratcher. On top of that, there’s almost no predicting when Pollard will drop in with some further muffled scatting vocal tracks.  

 

 

It's a record brimming with collective ideas, each member writing and recording backing tracks that does bring a few merits to the table. It’s a grab bag for sure, one that sometimes maddens more than delights, bringing new sonic layers to the Pollard pre-recorded vocal boombox demos universe.

 

Strap in and take the ride in the...

 

SIDE A:

Magic Taxi- 3 We begin our ride through the fun house with a solid attempt at '60s melodic pop, glazed in a dreamlike fog. Feels reminiscent of a fairly balanced combo of The Monkees meets The Who. However, the whole track is so bloated with lush acoustics and sweeping synths that it winds up overshadowing much of the simplistic beauty going on here. Memorably hooky in a children’s song kind of way.

 

Flip Flop World- 1 Ho' boy. Who let Cash Rivers crash his dune buggy into the second track of this album? Uncle Bob shows up to basically scat over dinner table Luau music full of bongos and subtle surf rock palm muting. Humorous if little else.

 

Casino Hair Wife- 3 Mid-tempo tune for gray skies, but one that slowly wins you over in bleary eyed monotony. Pollard sings in a drawl as the song limps along with undertones of postpunk malaise, sneaking into the back of your brain to stay.

 

Ride My Earthmobile- 2 Pollard repeats the title of the song a million times in a goofball voice as kaleidoscopic carnival rock spins around, toms pounding, slowly building in an anxious repetition of jilted psychosis. A slight glimmer of hope musically, built around a limited Pollard vocal sketch.

 

Schoolmaster Bones- 3 Bounce-tastic easy listening, as Pollard croons, and sometimes plods his way through. A mini Who-esque number in places that rewards with revisits. 

 

Eggs, Mother?- 4 Pollard, a man haunted by eggs, continued obsession with finding ways to sing about them in his art. One of the more upwardly mobile songs in the set, the track is an obtusely catch track that sinks in. The piano adds an extra bounce in the songs already carefree step. At just over a minute, it's a bizarre ray of sunshine in a somewhat murky record.

 

Strange Walk Home- 2 FM '90s college rock radio friendly, "Strange Walk Home" feels like a hazy dream. Pollard's vocals wonder about complete with tremelo effect and the donning of odd accents. Unfortunately, it's all mostly forgettable. 

Nova Mona- 3 Another one that falls instrumentally in pop-bop spectrum. The Pollard vocals on the verses leave little to be desired, causing it to all fall in the pocket of blandly average. 

 

The Telegraph Hill Gazette- 3 Opens with promising jangled acoustic guitar lead before heading slowly down a darker, more mysterious path. By songs end, this one feels like we're deep in the woods, buried in another dream. Almost forgettable if not for it's incredible execution as moods transition before our ears. Seamlessly bleeds into... 

 

Everybody Loves a Baboon- 1 A song that lives up to its poor title. More scatting from Uncle Bob as this song leads us out in under a minute. 

 

 

SIDE B:

© 1-2-3- 4 The bonafide pop single of the LP, Side B’s opener is vintage melancholy pop, complete with call and response melodic gold. A steadfast winner that warrants plenty of quick, satisfying visits.

 

Sister Slam Dance- 3 Perhaps the most “metal” track on the LP, this song also lyrically tips its hat to the Clang Clang Ho title. Somewhat grim, with a dash of industrial, “Sister Slam Dance,” is the kind of prog-light sludge you find yourself eventually reveling in.

 

It's Marbles!- 1 A mixed bag of guitar bending, harmonious backing vocals, Uncle Bob drunken accent bending. Also feels like a Cash Rivers song that got away and stuck here. Not sure who this song is for? 

 

Space Invader- 4 A mini-prog pop passage that is easy on the ears as it is on the heart. Sounds like a paisley-shirt era '60s demo. One of the best of the tracks on the record that gets better with each listen. 

 

Human Car- 1 At 1:30, "Human Car" is more filler for the mix, unfortunately clogging up the Side B with odd choices. No real vocal melody to speak of. Feels like Pollard was trying to figure a few things out as he went along. Musically, the song also feels like a skeletal work in progress that never found its footing. 

 

Competitor- 2 A mostly frenetic wild guitar strumming journey complete with staccato scatting interrupted by moments of ho-hum, breathable moments of reflection. 

 

She Cannot Know- 3 Downer rock complete with haunting pan flute, evoking some sort of brown sweater wearing folk performance on a gloomy fall day in the college quad circa 1967. 

 

We- 4 After a minute instrumental buildup, Pollard appears in another mini-prog display. The song leads out in a group chant and moment of sheer triumph! A nice bright spot toward the end of the record. 

 

Roll Up Your Nose- 4  Perhaps the best Pollard vocals performance on the record, complete with melancholy, melodious bravado. The song leads us out with a wonderfully repetitive group vocal of longing and victory. Yes, this certainly is one hell of a closing track to bring this long record to a fitting close!

 

What Crawls Also Flies Over- 2 Oh wait, what a perfectly missed opportunity at a closer with that last one! In perhaps fitting fashion, this 2 minute mid-tempo tune actually sends us off with out of tune vocals, paper thin drumming, and lifeless acoustics. Clang clang ho!