ROBERT POLLARD

Not in My Airforce

Not In My Airforce is Robert Pollard's first solo album after ten years fronting Guided By Voices, a rougher, more relaxed counterpart to the spiffed-up GBV glimpsed on last spring's Under The Bushes, Under The Stars. For those of you who miss the handmade, play-as-you-go GBV treatment of old, here's all the messy thrill of an accomplished songwriter working out his songs in front of the tape machine and the world.

Pollard's friends recruited for backup duty include a gallery of GBV members past and present: Jim Pollard (Robert's brother and co-songwriter), Matt Sweeney (Chavez, fill-in bassist for GBV on their spring tour), Tobin Sprout (GBV guitarist), Steve Wilbur (owner of the garage where GBV first practiced in the early '80s; also appeared on the first three albums), Dan Toohey (former GBV bassist), Kevin Fennell (GBV drummer), Mitch Mitchell (GBV guitarist) and Jim Shepard (vocalist/ guitarist for V3, ex-Vertical Slit). Not In My Airforce is being released simultaneously with Tobin Sprout's own solo album, Carnival Boy.

See also: Guided By Voices and Tobin Sprout bios

Waved Out

Okay. As Dayton, OHıs Guided by Voices moves ever-closer to Head Voice Bob Pollardıs dream of re-making the first Cheap Trick record, he releases a (second) solo album showcasing the more eclectic side of his songwriting. Fine. Itıs all here, too: Wire, early Genesis, Nilsson Schmilsson, Beatlesı White Album (Lennon only), Blue Oyster Cult (mainly Eric Bloomıs haircut and Meltzerıs song titles), XTC, Captain Beefheart, blah blah blah.

Waved Out (you know, like too many microwaves, radio waves, TV waves, New Wave) is a magnificent fucking record, maybe the best example yet of Bobıs ability to compress a bunch of ideas that should by no means work together--drawing from prog, psych, and postpunk, mostly--into a two minute pop song that blows past most of whatıs out there like one of his ninety-mile-an-hour fastballs (Bob was, after all, the first to throw a no-hitter in the history of Wright State University).

A lotıs been made of Pollardıs spontaneous and prolific songwriting methods, and most of thatıs true, though he works much harder on his songs than even he likes to admit. Judging from Waved Out, he's growing increasingly comfortable and ambitious in formal studio-type settings, so that anyone who carps about ³unfinished arrangements² and ³shitty production values² ought to be pretty happy with this record. This doesn't apply, of course, to ³Caught Waves Again,² where he sings into a boombox over a tape of GbV guitarist Doug Gillardıs noodling, or ³People Are Leaving,² (a really touching song, by the way, about a few recent Dayton tragedies) where he puts two separate melodies over an instrumental tape from LA-based songwriter Stephanie Sayers.

Let's see. A couple members of the latest Guided by Voices lineup (version 23, at least) played on the new record--Jim MacPherson (ex-Breeders drummer), the aforementioned Gillard. But the bulk of the record is pure Pollard, even a bunch of the drumming (his brother Jimmy helped out, too, as usual). Waved Out's extended musical reach is a much different matter than Pollard's first solo run, 1996's Not In My Airforce, which had a more spontaneous, DIY feel. The new one combines NIMA's self-indulgent bent with the better (i.e. more thoughtful) aspects of Bob's well-honed pop instincts.

What more to say? We're proud of the old coot, and despite his continued threats to move on to the ³porch rock² phase of his rock/drinking career, hope he continues to provide us with quality rock product of which Waved Out is the latest and one of the best.

Sound clips

"Wrinkled Ghost" RealAudio 3 version | .au version