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Robert Pollard, Etc.


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I am totally digging lurking in this thread. I am a relatively new GBV convert, which is to say that I've got Bee Thousand, Alien Lanes, Under the Bushes..., and Earthquake Glue. I guess I've got a lot to look forward to.

 

that's a great start ... three absolute classics and one record that a lot of people are lukewarm on but i love (earthquake glue)

 

if i were you, i'd move next to isolation drills, universal truths and cycles, half smiles of the decomposed by GBV, and then ask them (lexo and the leapers), choreographed man of war (robert pollard and his soft rock renegades [it AIN'T soft rock though, trust me]), not in my air force (bob solo), from a compound eye (bob solo) and zero to 99 (boston spaceships)

 

after that, you can start exploring the early GBV records (sandbox, same place the fly got smashed, devil between my toes, forever since breakfast, self-inflicted aerial nostalgia), the early classics (vampire on titus and propeller), and then the rest of the GBV catalogue (do the collapse, mag earwhig), then start on the rest of the solo stuff (motel of fools, waved out, kid marine, etc.), then start working on the side projects (airport 5, moping swans, psycho & the birds, takeovers, lifeguards, etc.) and the EPs (sunfish holy breakfast, get out of my stations, wish in one hand, crown prince of the menthol trailer, static airplane jive, i am a scientist, pipe dreams of instant prince whippet, etc.) ... then you can start digesting the mighty 100-track suitcase box sets (#3 comes out soon) ... then it's on to the uneven but occasionally great post-GBV solo stuff ... and then there are literally hundreds or unreleased tracks, fan comps, demos, live shows ... tobin's stuff .. gillard's stuff ...

 

it never ends

 

robert pollard is the greatest songwriter who ever lived

 

 

 

 

 

Wow. That's quite the impressive gig list. The Electrifying Conclusion ?? Sweet.

 

Yep, that's the guy. I believe my source was the Jim Greer book, Hunting Accidents...

 

On a completely unrelated note and not to compare -

Have you heard -

 

The Capstan Shafts

The Broadfield Marchers

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that's a great start ... three absolute classics and one record that a lot of people are lukewarm on but i love (earthquake glue)

 

if i were you, i'd move next to isolation drills, universal truths and cycles, half smiles of the decomposed by GBV, and then ask them (lexo and the leapers), choreographed man of war (robert pollard and his soft rock renegades [it AIN'T soft rock though, trust me]), not in my air force (bob solo), from a compound eye (bob solo) and zero to 99 (boston spaceships)

 

after that, you can start exploring the early GBV records (sandbox, same place the fly got smashed, devil between my toes, forever since breakfast, self-inflicted aerial nostalgia), the early classics (vampire on titus and propeller), and then the rest of the GBV catalogue (do the collapse, mag earwhig), then start on the rest of the solo stuff (motel of fools, waved out, kid marine, etc.), then start working on the side projects (airport 5, moping swans, psycho & the birds, takeovers, lifeguards, etc.) and the EPs (sunfish holy breakfast, get out of my stations, wish in one hand, crown prince of the menthol trailer, static airplane jive, i am a scientist, pipe dreams of instant prince whippet, etc.) ... then you can start digesting the mighty 100-track suitcase box sets (#3 comes out soon) ... then it's on to the uneven but occasionally great post-GBV solo stuff ... and then there are literally hundreds or unreleased tracks, fan comps, demos, live shows ... tobin's stuff .. gillard's stuff ...

 

it never ends

 

robert pollard is the greatest songwriter who ever lived

 

 

He certainly has a right to the throne with upwards of 1200 songs published with BMI.

 

YIKES

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that's a great start ... three absolute classics and one record that a lot of people are lukewarm on but i love (earthquake glue)

 

if i were you, i'd move next to ...

 

it never ends

 

:lol

This post cracked me up. For the record, I have moved on to Half Smiles and From a Compound Eye. Thanks for the advice. I feel a violent obsession coming on....

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:lol

This post cracked me up. For the record, I have moved on to Half Smiles and From a Compound Eye. Thanks for the advice. I feel a violent obsession coming on....

 

To me, if you don't like FACE then you don't like Pollard. It's everything that's great about his music.

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:lol

This post cracked me up. For the record, I have moved on to Half Smiles and From a Compound Eye. Thanks for the advice. I feel a violent obsession coming on....

 

ya know, i started out trying to be concise, but it just got away from me

 

the man's catalogue is astonishing. he literally has 500 songs that are better than virtually every band's best song. just random unknown B sides from obscure fanzine 45s and stuff. you check it out and it's freaking Titus & Strident Wet Nurse or something and it rules. it's just endless

 

bob is the jesus of my religion

 

 

To me, if you don't like FACE then you don't like Pollard. It's everything that's great about his music.

 

there are days i think From a Compound Eye is the best thing he's ever done

 

just a mighty mighty piece of work. i get overwhelmed just trying to comprehend how great it is.

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And it has not even made a single best of decade list (except my list of course)...

 

yeah, that's just ridiculous

 

it's every bit as good as alien lanes, bee thousand and under the bushes

 

i mean ... recovering.

 

hope magnet does a best of the decade list, because it'll be well stocked with bob product

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I just picked up the Isolation Drills CD used at the local independent store. It's clearly a copy from the local college radio station KCSU. I managed to deduce this by the fact that KCSU is written all over the disk. The interesting part is there is a page of notes attached to the inside that describes each song in a sentence, for example:

 

Fair Touching - "good mellow pop rock sound"

Skills like these - "upbeat pop-rock, smooth vocals"

Chasing Heather Crazy - "Cool, medium beat, guitar, pop"

 

Man I love this CD, probably their most accessible?

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Fair Touching - "good mellow pop rock sound"

Skills like these - "upbeat pop-rock, smooth vocals"

Chasing Heather Crazy - "Cool, medium beat, guitar, pop"

 

takes me back to my college radio days ... yeah, you'd get little blurbs on the jacket about a handful of supposedly radio-friendly tracks

 

btw, it's "skills like this," not "these" ... and don't think i'd call fair touching mellow! check out the lexo & the leapers version sometime, definitely more raw and nasty

 

Man I love this CD, probably their most accessible?

 

yeah, definitely their most accessible ... lot of hardcore classic era GBV fans see this as a negative, but i love isolation drills

 

nothing better than the enemy live with tim & nate

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I love Isolation Drills, one of my top 5 GBV records and one of the first GBV albums I owned. I think that when you put it in the perspective of that the album before it was Do the Collapse, which is heavily cited as their worst, then ID sounds great in comparison. It's actually an album that I have suggested to several people who aren't into GBV to get. Many of them like it and say it's their best...

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I love Isolation Drills, one of my top 5 GBV records and one of the first GBV albums I owned. I think that when you put it in the perspective of that the album before it was Do the Collapse, which is heavily cited as their worst, then ID sounds great in comparison. It's actually an album that I have suggested to several people who aren't into GBV to get. Many of them like it and say it's their best...

 

i love do the collapse! liquid fucking INDIAN!

 

for me isolation drills is #3 of the five late-period releases, behind Universal Truths & Cycles and Half Smiles

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i love do the collapse! liquid fucking INDIAN!

 

for me isolation drills is #3 of the five late-period releases, behind Universal Truths & Cycles and Half Smiles

 

 

I'm not afraid to say how great Do The Collapse is. Lo-fi, hi-fi, I don't care. It's all about Bob's songs.

I've been playing the hell out of 'Half Smiles' of late. Its greatness keeps rising.

 

The chorus in Liquid Indian is a goose-bumper, complete with "oohs"

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most GBV fans seem united in their opinion that not only is Pollard the greatest songwriter of all time, but that, eventually, he will be regarded as such.

 

I'd be interested in hearing your thoughts on what it is about his music, his songs, etc., that make him ahead of his time, so to speak?

 

I am a big fan. I am just really fascinated by not only the stunning songs themselves, but how far under the radar he is.

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takes me back to my college radio days ... yeah, you'd get little blurbs on the jacket about a handful of supposedly radio-friendly tracks

 

 

Since you have some college radio experience, there are 2 columns on the list I mentioned where they are describing each song in one sentence. One Column says "Ratio In" and typically has a value of 0.15 seconds. The other column is "ratio out" and is mostly blank with a few exceptions. Any idea what these columns are used for?

 

 

To answer Matt's question, for myself it's Pollard's melodic sense that sets him apart. He is up there with McCartney in his ability to create melodic hooks that are just so catchy. Why he is not huge is a mystery to me, just like Big Star not being huge is a mystery. His songs can be challenging for people and I'm not sure why. TO me it's a bit like Husker Du as well. Some of the melodies are so amazing but they are sped up and surrounded by noise and it scares people off. If you slowed them down and surrounded them with some "Coldplay" like music they may get played on the radio. I don't know.

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most GBV fans seem united in their opinion that not only is Pollard the greatest songwriter of all time, but that, eventually, he will be regarded as such.

 

I'd be interested in hearing your thoughts on what it is about his music, his songs, etc., that make him ahead of his time, so to speak?

 

I am a big fan. I am just really fascinated by not only the stunning songs themselves, but how far under the radar he is.

 

An excerpt from an interview with Bob in Sept. '07

 

JH:

What about the people who compare you to all the great American songwriters and try to figure out where you stand? Are you in the top 10?

 

RP:

It’s too complicated. It’s all out there, and it’s hard to distinguish what’s good and what’s not good, what’s supposed to be good and what my intentions are. It’s harder to judge whether I’m one of the great songwriters because there’s just too much stuff. My point is that I just don’t care. People have pointed out to me before that I dilute my brilliance, or whatever you want to call it, by putting out too much shit. I don’t care. That’s my modus operandi and how I work. I’ve been in top hundred, top 50 songwriters of the last 20 years, 40 years. I’ve been in those things, which is very flattering, but it’s hard to tell whether I’m a better songwriter than Ray Davies. Or as good, or comparable. Or Pete Townshend. Because those guys are great songwriters. I’m sure I have some songs that stand up to some of their best songs, but like I said, my stuff is just so spread out, there’s so much that it’s hard to compare me with anyone else. I guess I’d have to be the most prolific songwriter, I would think. A lot of people say prolific’s just another word for just putting out a bunch of shit, but whatever. I’ve probably put out 2,000 songs on records. There’s probably another 5,000 that haven’t been out. I put out records and I release records that I like. If some people say that compare to some of the great songwriters, then that’s great. I’ve got so many songs, everyone has their favorites. I’m sure because I have so many, that makes it easier for the percentage of good songs that I do have to be up there with other people that have written a lot of good songs. I would say a lot of people would agree that I’ve at least written 15 or 20 really really good songs, and I would say that that’s probably good. The rest of it, depends on who you talk to. Depends on if you’re talking to me. There’s a lot of songs I’ve written that I think are good, and other people disagree. It depends on what you think a good song is.

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most GBV fans seem united in their opinion that not only is Pollard the greatest songwriter of all time, but that, eventually, he will be regarded as such.

 

I'd be interested in hearing your thoughts on what it is about his music, his songs, etc., that make him ahead of his time, so to speak?

 

I am a big fan. I am just really fascinated by not only the stunning songs themselves, but how far under the radar he is.

 

I think it would take a really good documentary about Pollard for him to get more exposure or at least some of what he deserves.

 

I think he's great song writer but I always think back to batting average when I think of Pollard's body of work. He hits a home run every so often, gets on base a few times, but man does he ever strike out and often.

 

And Suitcase 3 is out on Nov. 3. Get you pre-orders here. Get your two previews here.

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I think it would take a really good documentary about Pollard for him to get more exposure or at least some of what he deserves.

 

I think he's great song writer but I always think back to batting average when I think of Pollard's body of work. He hits a home run every so often, gets on base a few times, but man does he ever strike out and often.

 

And Suitcase 3 is out on Nov. 3. Get you pre-orders here. Get your two previews here.

 

200+ (A) rated songs still gets him into the hall of fame.

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his batting average wasn't great after FaCE and before Zero to 99, but you could still put together an amazing few records just from the best tracks on all those records

 

but his batting average from sandbox through FaCE was like, what, .987?

 

i don't think there's any question he's the greatest songwriter who's ever lived. why isn't he more popular ... he does weird things -- broke up GBV at the height of its popularity, didn't tour for a couple years, puts some of his best songs on obscure EPs and vinyl b-sides, opened for pearl jam a couple nights and other than game of pricks only played stuff from the amazing but dense and difficult FaCE (plus dolphins of color? wtf) ... i just think he hasn't really helped himself out as much as he could have over the years

 

that said, i've been to packed GBV shows where they would play something like i am a scientist > game of pricks > tractor rape chain > motor away and to everybody in that place, they were the biggest and greatest band in the world

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I believe his batting average was a lot higher but he has done a lot to diminish that record in recent years. I agree, the man is a solid songwriter and has made more than his fair share of classic songs and his GBV years are nearly great. However, currently out of the 2000 songs to his credit, I think that objectively speaking, there's a lot of crap you have have to wade through to find those diamonds. I seriously believe, as I've stated before, we the fans should urge the man to edit! A petition or something...a drunken dare may be more appropriate.

 

I went through the Pollard mega-fan stage and got so burnt out on the man and his music. I feel that I can, with a great deal of objective thought and critically inquiry, listen to his music and take what is good and glean it from the mostly bad that shows no end for the immediate future. True, there are albums that are truly wonderful and awesome beyond words. But when the man releases so much music, it's pretty easy to feel that some of his music is just tossed off and easily forgettable. Just by sheer volume, not even 50% of this stuff is memorable. I think once his music is objectively listened to, much of it doesn't hold up. I guess the mysticism of GBV and the magic discovery of his music has lost it's appeal.

 

Just this year alone, the man has released 2 solo albums, 2 Spaceship albums, 1 Circus Devils, 1 side band (Cosmos) and 1 Box Set (of 100 songs, no less). I am going out on a limb and say that only 1/3 of this stuff is even good. The other 2/3 will never register ever again on my radar. Really, when will I pick the Cosmos record up and listen to it again? The Crawling Distance? Gringo?

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brian -- i agree with a lot of what you're saying. i'll never listen to anything after FaCE and before 0 to 99 again (although crawling distance did have no island, which is great) ... i think bob's thing is that there's a certain group of a couple thousand hard-core fans who will buy anything, no matter how unlistenable or inconsistent or thrown together, so the more stuff he releases, the more money he makes. i listen to pinball mars and hear shit, but if he puts out 10 records a year and the same few thousand people buy 'em all, i guess it's a good year for him

 

and you know he'll never edit himself. he enjoys putting out everything he thinks of. for whatever reason, that's more important to him than releasing fewer & more consistent records.

 

that said, where we differ is that i think the GBV stuff holds up exceptionally well. i listened to UTaC today on the way home from work & it's just as brilliant as when i first heard it.

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I don't know if I'm ready to call Bob the greatest songwriter of all time or if he's way ahead of his time. I don't think of him in those terms. I do think he's one the greatest melodicists of our time. He's certainly prolific, and out of his vast catalogue there are 200-300 songs that are as good as just about anything ever released. So, if the amount of good songs equates greatest ever, then so be it.

 

I understand and agree with both of you up to a point that Bob could "perhaps' benefit from an editor-in-chief. One to keep him in check and oversee that brain of his that contains 'The Book of Rock' Volumes 1-100. Truth be told, I'm somewhat ambivalent of this notion. Really, how many bands, songwriters, etc, that are actually good, can you compare to Bob. Not many. One of a kind. While it does affect my pocketbook, I say, F- it, let him do want he wants. It's like 'learning how to hunt' (no pun intended), to pick and choose and find the gems within.

 

The promise is always better than the real thing.

 

For the record :

Crawling Distance - 2-3 good songs, One great song in No Island.

Gringo - actually has 5-6 good songs to add to the Pollard (Semi) Acoustic Songlist.

Cosmos - Go play Zeppelin Commander 3 times and tell me what you think.

 

 

The GbV catalogue is unfuckwithable

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