Good call! I’m not we’ll versed in the later circus devils stuff but that ones in my playlist. I love Smoke Machine
Honey Locust Honky Tonk is the closest Bob solo got to sounding like GBV proper thus far. I can't really explain it, but that's my impression. It reminds me of Universal Truths And Cycles specifically. There's something very similar about the pacing and bombast. There's lots of tracks that are under 2 minutes long and they serve as great transitions between the longer tracks; that is, the tracks over 2 minutes long. UTAC has quite a bit of that going on as well. And while it's not as expansive as UTAC is, all the tracks pack a similar punch. Also, no venturing into Circus Devils territory on this one, which is a very good thing! There are no clunkers on this one. Every song has its place on the album. He Requested Things is a great opener, with Circus Green Machine and Strange And Pretty Day setting us up for the short (too short) brilliance of Suit Minus The Middle. It's classic GBV sequencing. Her Eyes Plays Tricks On The Camera sounds like it could be a Black Rebel Motorcycle Club tune. There are no lulls on the album either, but I think Shielding Whatever Needs You until the end is the strongest group of tracks. Top 10 Bob solo, very easily. Speak Kindly Choreographed Kid Marine NIMA Waved Out Honey Locust Honky Tonk Robert Pollard Is Off The Business Coast To Coast Carpet Of Love The Crawling Distance Moses On A Snail FACE Mouseman Cloud Lord Of The Birdcage Normal Happiness Fiction Man We All Got Out Of The Army Space City Kicks Elephant Jokes Standard Gargoyle Decisions Motel Of Fools Superman Was A Rocker
Oops, must've copied from an older post. Speak Kindly Choreographed Kid Marine NIMA Waved Out Honey Locust Honky Tonk Robert Pollard Is Off The Business Coast To Coast Carpet Of Love The Crawling Distance Moses On A Snail Jack Sells The Cow FACE Mouseman Cloud Lord Of The Birdcage Normal Happiness Fiction Man We All Got Out Of The Army Space City Kicks Elephant Jokes Standard Gargoyle Decisions Motel Of Fools Superman Was A Rocker
Honey Locust Honky Tonk First album in a few weeks that didn't feel more like an assignment. I love this album, it flows really easy, even the songs that are just your normal album cut flow well for me, where the last few albums, the deeper cuts were more of a shrug "well they're not awful". I really like Bears for Lunch too, so 2013 was a pretty strong Bob year. A bunch of the Honky Tonk songs are in my permanent short playlist of "recent Bob favorites" I can't make myself purge. Love the picture of Bob and Sarah for the cover, the cowboy hat cracks me up. The back collage, the inner sleeve photo thing are both great too. Album starts off cool, nice moody keys and acoustic, when it kicks in, and backs off is a neat mood starter. I usually don't like these stop start songs, but I think the keys/acoustic in between really work. @Pop_Zeus good catch on Suit Minus the Middle, never would've caught that. I have that single somewhere, and never picked up on it, hadn't played it that much I guess, I bought the single more for the cool cover. Also good note on the two Teenage Guitar songs - I can hear it when pointed out, makes sense. I'm not a big fan of either of those LPs and never bought them, just the occasional stream, but having one or two dropped in mid album works much better for me than a full 40 minutes in that mode. I don't usually dig the Bob amateur piano thing, but Strange & Pretty Day is better than most. I really love the wobbly woozy feel of Drawing a Picture, love the feel of it, and it's catchy as hell, love the loping bassline and the downbeat effect, its like a drunk pop song. Maybe because of the album title, I picture swaying around a dive bar. The rest of the side are strong album cuts, maybe not hits, but make for a fun listen - Hides in Black feels a bit like Dancing Girls and Men. Love the production on Her Eyes Play Tricks, feels like a noir country thing somehow, I guess the keys do that. It's a pretty good song, but that little part elevates it for me, nice touch Todd! Side B kicks off with an all time great trademark Bob short killer. I Have to Drink I've used to kick off mix cds for friends ever since it came out. It's a perfect 40 second busch beer commercial, this Bud's for You, with sudsy cans opening in slow motion, friends around the cooler at the pool. It's like that Blue Oyster Cult intro they used on the reunion tour as a bookend "Raise your cans of beer on high!" Killed a Man is the obvious album highlight. Has Bob ever written anything like that? Maybe There Are Other Worlds comes close. But the production is perfect. Hats off to Bob and Todd to just let the song be, not make too much of it, not over do it, it easily stands on its own. We May Never Not Know picks up side two again strong, and into Airs. If there's a grower for me this week it's Airs. I always thought it was fine, but didn't quite get why others went nuts over it. I think it's a perfect closer for this album, it's catchier than I remember, and yet a little understated, a little effortless, let the outro play out without going over the top with too many new tricks. It's funny that Bob finally opened up to some country touches on this album. Nothing crazy or cheap jokes like Cash Rivers, but enough to give it it's own mood. Not on every song, but the cover photo and album title, Killed a Man, Eyes Play Trick, that twangy little riff at the end of Airs like riding into the sunset, really gives it a very cool feel overall. 17 songs but only 5 or 6 really stand out to me on their own, but the entire album holds together well. Essential - I Have to Drink, Drawing a Picture, I Killed a Man Who Looks Like You Highlights - We May Never Not Know, Her Eyes Play Tricks on the Camera The Grower that just Hit Me - Airs
Excellent spot on 'Fighting The Smoke' / 'Smoke Machine'. Both great songs. Still missing a few Circus Devils albums so for me its their later stuff I am more familiar with. 'Stomping Grounds' is such a great album. @jacethecrowl Has your copy of HLHT arrived yet?
Ha - thanks for asking. Yes, and picking up my turntable from the repair shop tomorrow, so will dig in then. I could stream HLHT, but kinda important to me that my first spin be on LP.
Well, I've been tearing my hair out trying to spot this Kid Marine reference. I must be going insane, it took me several plays to get it, then it dawned on me that its the Cakemaker from 'Who Buries The Undertaker?' (This Cakemaker also appears in 'Enjoy Jerusalem!' on Kid Marine). Despite the character being in a chorus, and me even mentioning it myself in the Kid Marine chat way back on page 5, it didn't register until after a few plays of the album! Oh well, 4 months is a long time in Bob land. Great point about the similarity with UTAC. I agree that HLHT packs a punch. UTAC for me is one that took more listens that other albums for it to click, but its one I really enjoy now. Loved reading your thoughts and those of @guidedbyvoices . I don't think there is a great deal I can add (but I will, or it will be a very short post!). I find Honey Locust Honky Tonk to be an excellent album from start to finish. There is no mid/late album lull, none of the dead spots that hamper some of the solo albums somewhat, and no songs that come off as absolute duds. Good point. 'Find A Word' and 'Igloo Hearts' are the kind of songs I may be tempted to call out as 'filler' if they were on other albums, but on here they still kind of work and don't have me reaching for the skip button. HLHT is well sequenced, consistent and just a very enjoyable album. Love the Bob & Sarah sleeve too. It seems like a very short 34 minutes and is an album I can easily put straight back on again when its finished. 'He Requested Things' is a decent enough opener with nice keys. Great shout on the 'She Hides in Black' / 'Dancing Girls and Dancing Men' similarity. I do find it mind boggling though that the full 'Astral City Slicker' didn't make it on, instead of the end snippet 'Suit Minus The Middle'. I guess it makes for a nice B-side and something of interest to 7" collectors, but for me the full song would have enhanced the album. I guess there was something in those first two minutes that Bob wasn't entirely happy with or didn't see being part of the album or whatever. I will make a playlist which swaps in the full version just to see how it fits in. I love the song though and can play it over and over. Some superb songs on this album. Highlights for me are 'Drawing a Picture', 'Who Buries The Undertaker?', 'She Hides in Black', 'Her Eyes Play Tricks on the Camera', 'I Have To Drink', 'Flash Gordon Style', 'I Killed a Man That Looks Like You', the lovely closer 'Airs' and the one that got away, 'Astral City Slicker.' 'Flash Gordon Style' is a cool 2 minute rocker with a similar feel to songs like 'Bull Spears' or 'Television Prison'. 'Drawing a Picture' is simply gorgeous, a real earworm. 'Who Buries The Undertaker?' is one of my very favourites here, super riff & killer chorus, and the end coalmine/canary lyric is great. 'I Have To Drink' is a classic over before its begun Bob drinking anthem. 'Shielding Whatever Needs You' is a little charmer, gotta love the opening line "You are practicing in the mirror to braver than you are." 'Circus Green Machine' has a short segment just after the minute mark which reminds of the chorus of 'Window of My World'. The inclusion of 'Strange and Pretty Day' is nice if you think it could easily have ended up on a Teenage Guitar album, and adds some variety to the album. 'Her Eyes Play Tricks on the Camera' has that 'familiar but somehow different' feel. Like the 'country noir' description, yes those keys & that bass really add to this one. 'Real Fun is No One's Monopoly' feels like a bit of a clunker early on, but the crazy multiple part chanting is pretty funny, I could see this live as a fun lighter waving beer swigging singalong. 'It Disappears In The Least Likely Hands (We May Never Not Know)' is probably one of Bob's better 'repeat the title over and over' songs. On paper it should be worse than the songs he did this on, for the likes of the Space City Kicks & Elephant Jokes albums, as it is literally the title repeated and nothing else at all. But on HLHT, it just works. 'Airs' is very nice closer, one of those addictive mid-tempo summer vibe numbers that I love. For some reason even seeing the short title written down makes me smile, coming as it does after a whole bunch of long song titles. Since the start of this, I have been working at some sort of ranking of the solo albums. I'd find it hard to rank them into an actual order like @Strummergas (even though I love reading such orders) as I am too indecisive for that. But some albums are clearly way ahead of others for me, so all along I've been trying to rank them in tiers similar to how @Mr. Fantastic has done. Problem is that the sheet of paper I started up for this last Summer is a mess, as some albums are still jumping from one tier to another, so I will post this further down the line once I am happy with it. Anyway, if HLHT isn't in my top tier, it will certainly be in the next batch down. From Monday: Blazing Gentlemen (in high definition!)
What I like most about HLHT are the occasional western touches, and the accompanying relaxed, almost pastoral and easy feel that seems to affect the flow of the whole album. It's like those few tracks infect those nearby since the sequencing and pacing are so spot on throughout. There's really a great variety stylistically, yet it all hangs together. I love how the sequencing pairs short tracks at either end of the side breaks. The presence of the few songs that show Bob really stretching beyond what is expected in a new, rather traditional way, is appreciated and successful. Performances and production are all very much on point, and the cover art really reflects what's inside. That said, this isn't my favorite batch of songs. "Airs" and "Her Eyes Play Tricks..." are my faves, while others I recognize as "good songs" - they just don't hit me in my sweet spot. Yet everything else about it is so of a piece that it's a really enjoyable listen, and I put it on more often than some records that are chock full of earworms. It's chill, but rarely boring or annoying. "Real Fun" comes close to that, but somehow fits being closer to the end, a Teenage Guitar-ish drinking song feels appropriate. Sometimes it's good to just have a well-paced album with decent songs and consistency. I don't know where to rank it in my list yet, but that's the fun of attempting such ridiculousness. When I first heard about Cash Rivers in a random conversation ("Hey, didja know Bob's got a country album out?"), I'd hoped it would be a more explicitly rootsy version of this sort of material. Boy was I wrong! Sure had some good belly laughs, though.
This week's album is Blazing Gentlemen After releasing 'Honey Locust Honky Tonk' and the Teenage Guitar album 'Force Fields At Home' on the same day, that fall Bob also put out a pair of Circus Devils albums on the same day: 'When Machines Attack' & 'My Mind Has Seen The White Trick.' Soon afterwards came the solo album 'Blazing Gentlemen'. Preceding the album were the following 7" singles: Tonight's The Rodeo Released: 15 Oct 2013 (Guided By Voices Inc.) A. Tonight's The Rodeo B. Astral City Slicker (full length 'Suit Minus The Middle') Return Of The Drums Released: 26 Nov (Guided By Voices Inc.) A. Return Of The Drums B. My Museum Needs An Elevator Blazing Gentlemen Released: 9 December 2013 (Guided By Voices Inc. / Fire Records) Lineup: Robert Pollard: Vocals and Guitar Todd Tobias: Bass, Drums, Guitar and Keyboards 1. Magic Man Hype 2. Blazing Gentlemen 3. Red Flag Down 4. Storm Center Level Seven 5. Return Of The Drums 6. Piccadilly Man 7. Professional Goose Trainer 8. Extra Fools Day 9. 1000 Royalty Street ------------------------------ 10. My Museum Needs An Elevator 11. Tonight's The Rodeo 12. Tea People 13. Faking The Boy Scouts 14. Triple Sec Venus 15. This Place Has Everything 16. Lips Of Joy The Release Info is not presented on GBVDB, which is a shame as they are always very entertaining, nor could I spot it anywhere else. All I could find was that Bob apparently said “I’ve finally figured out how to write a song after 55 years" around the album's release. It has been a while since a song from one of Bob's recent solo albums has been played live, but 'Tonight's The Rodeo' was played 6 times on GBV's 2018 'Space Gun' tour. This was the last solo album on which Todd Tobias drummed. Please share your thoughts on Blazing Gentlemen
I did find this here, not sure if this site wrote that or if it was copied from the old blurb? Robert Pollard - Blazing Gentlemen | Darkside Records | Independent since '11 Also at this time the classic lineup was still active, so man it was a busy year. I dig this album, hadnt played it in years since I bought the 7" singles for the cool covers and color vinyl, but bought the LP via itunes. Been meaning to pick it up for a while, Faking the Boy Scouts is a favorite.
Honey Locust Honky Tonk has been a tough one for me this week, and I really don’t know why. I thought it was great when it first came out, still do and I’ve even bought a copy for a forum friend. I’ve played it the usual 3-5 times. So, as usual, I’m hunkered down in my car at lunch, listening once more, and finally some thoughts are emerging. Maybe I just wasn’t in the mood for this album this week, I don’t know. First off, I really dig the Twin Peaks-style cover featuring Lynchian italics and our two stars; very unique for a Bob album. He Requested Things is a nice opener going back and forth between soothing mellow keys and acoustics and heavy alternative chug; great high backing vocals at the end too. Slight prog or Bob-prog abounds on this album, and Circus Green Machine is a fine example, going all over the place in a short while, but holding interest. Definitely a what-just-happened tune that bears repeated listening. Immediately we have Strange And Pretty Day, one of those elusive lo-fi Bob and piano numbers. I really dig this one, and it easily could’ve been on The Bears For Lunch. Another nice snippet comes along in the form of the busy rocker Suit Minus The Middle. It’s over before you know it, and up next is the glorious mutated ‘60s pop of Drawing A Picture. Some wacky calliope-style keys and other interesting stuff going on here, and it’s super catchy, and, of course, short. Who Buries the Undertaker sets us on familiar territory with a very strong could-only-be-Bob riff rocker. Really solid song here. Put on your boogie shoes for She Hides In Black. This song has some major bounce and groove, occasionally giving way to some sweet ‘60s-style sections. What a fun bopper of a tune. You can imagine a crazy pogoing crowd loving this one love. Cool noir vibe on the intro of Her Eyes Play Tricks On The Camera. This one stays fairly moody without being dirgey and at this point, you have to realize Bob is killing it with his chord progressions on this album. This continues on Find A Word, a short and bittersweet tune with a step-on-the-brakes riff. You start to wonder when there’s going to be some filler. None yet. Gotta be some on the second side, right? Let’s see. Side two starts off with a monster of a forty-four second song, I Have To Drink. Classic rock all the way, AC/DC could cover this one, except maybe for that slightly unique outro. Bob provides another welcome drinking tune, always a good time. The rocker Flash Gordon Style fits some between UTBUTS and UTAC, alternating between intense and longing, and Todd pulls a little more Keith Moon out of the bag to great effect. Igloo Hearts is the other non-Todd tune here, and although it doesn’t change or do much really, it’s got a feel and mood that’s hard to describe, in some pleasant nether region of weird laidback indie post-punk. Who else does a song like this besides Bob? I love the way he strings the vocal melody on top and it’s a cool bit of welcome weirdness. Shielding Whatever Needs You is a nice enough guitar and voice snippet that feels like it continues whatever story started with the boy who requested things. Throughout Bob’s massive catalog, it is hard to find as straightforward of a track as I Killed A Man, and it works. I feel like a lot of the ‘country’ feel of this album comes from Bob’s hat, the album title and the somewhat Johnny Cash-ness of the lyrics on this song. It’s a great dark pop-rock tune with a bit of jangle. I want to say Real Fun Is No One’s Monopoly is the meh song on the album, but that would be a lie. Lotsa weirdness here; tangly guitar leads, bellowed choir vocals, etc. The thing is, this song is a huge earworm with that singsongy chorus. We get another cool chord progression with In The Least Likely Hands, and a twisted title/chorus that only Bob could deliver. This album features amazing keyboard/synth arrangements from Todd, perhaps his finest on any Bob album, and they’re on display here too. They really fill some songs out and provide atmosphere on an otherwise rocking album. Speaking of atmosphere, we wrap things up with the majestic Airs. Again, great arrangement from Todd, great vocal form Bob, glorious way to finish this strong album. So, no duds on this one. I suppose if you don’t always enjoy the lo-fi snippets you might not love the two Toddless tracks, but these are two fairly solid ones in my book. A big winner of an album from Bob and Todd, very consistent and keeping a mood while still varying textures nicely.
Both Honey Locust Honky Tonk and Blazing Gentlemen are new to me, and I feel pretty dumb to be so late to the party. I think I was still mourning the demise of Boston Spaceships to fully embrace what was next, and while I've circled back to some of those GBV reunion records, none seem nearly as strong as these two. HLHT has been well-covered here, but I'd add that the main riff of "Flash Gordon Style" reminds me a bit of GBV's later "Cheap Buttons," the latter doing nothing to improve upon it. I had a similar frustration with "Suit Minus The Middle" especially since there was ample room on the LP for the full song. Still, there's something exciting about the in-progress fade in, and good to be left wanting more I suppose (hence found my suckered self into securing the 7" as well). Blazing Gentlemen is even more immediate – is there a more consistent and better-paced RP record? Again, I'm only two plays in and haven't developed firm impressions, other than being knocked out 16 times over. I noticed in the title track there's a mention of an "escape to Phoenix" and I don't know what the place means to Pollard, but of course we get that title again at the end of August By Cake. Maybe I'm just high on the novelty of these and as only a mid-level fan I look forward to hearing how BG ranks with more seasoned minds.
Congrats on getting new Bob to enjoy. I was relatively late to the solo stuff compared to some and so heard the albums in a very random order. One thing I'm enjoying here is not only revisiting them, but kind of imagining I am hearing them as they come out. Great spot on the 'escape to Phoenix' line, I too noticed that in the car driving to work not long ago. Blazing Gentlemen is another really enjoyable album that sounds great cranked up in the car, will post more after a few more plays. Cool that you also got the Rodeo 7" for 'Astral City Slicker'. Nice song, and I forgot to mention that the title line appears in the GBV song 'Finks' too. I love all the cross-referencing that happens in Bob songs @3Dman Love the writeup. Sounds like you were loving HLHT by the end of the week. Dig your honesty, sometimes an album either doesn't click or just takes a few new spins to sink in. Parts of Blazing Gentlemen are hitting hard this week.
Yeah, I definitely was loving it on last listen, but it was more of a rediscovering and consolidating. I knew I liked the album a lot, but just wasn’t hearing why early on this week. Sometimes I think it’s just a case of not being in the right frame of mind for a certain album, it happens a lot. No matter how much I like an album, I’m not always in the mood for it. So glad I’m giving myself the chance to listen to these albums multiple times, as Bob’s albums are usually growers and details are being revealed. For instance, take a song like Igloo Hearts, which seemed impenetrable basically. After five or so listens, I’m really looking forward to that song when I play this album. Time to give Blazing Gentlemen the treatment.
Yes! I was an iPod listener for so much of this era, pulling favorites into playlists and eventually ignoring the deeper cuts. I’d go back maybe once a year to full albums but not enough, so listening to each album thru 4-5 times each week in this thread has been great to see what jumps out new
May have been mentioned but it’s also the name of the collage used for the Mag Earwhig cover. The sun/card guy replaced the baby on the GBV Inc label for that song. One of my all time favorite Bob covers, that collage looks fantastic.
Given all the meta levels to this song and graphic design, does anyone know the story behind the inner sleeve of HLHT? The photo of the guitarist on a stool seems pretty straight and not particularly Pollardian.
Man, Blazing Gentlemen is strong. STRONG! So good! I remember loving it when it came out, and my opinion has not changed one bit. I tend to gravitate toward the more upbeat and rocking albums, and this one certainly fits that description. Bob must've thought highly of it too because he issued not one, but two singles from it. This is the 2nd album in a row with no duds, so there's not really much to criticize here. I'll just list my faves instead: Magic Man, Blazing Gentlemen, Return Of The Drums, My Museum Needs An Elevator, Tonight's The Rodeo, Tea People (love the mid-60s Who vibe on this one), Faking The Boyscouts, and Triple Sec Venus. **** it, I feel saucy. This is a Top 5 solo album. It's better than Waved Out. There, I said it. Speak Kindly Choreographed Kid Marine NIMA Blazing Gentlemen Waved Out Honey Locust Honky Tonk Robert Pollard Is Off The Business Coast To Coast Carpet Of Love The Crawling Distance Moses On A Snail Jack Sells The Cow FACE Mouseman Cloud Lord Of The Birdcage Normal Happiness Fiction Man We All Got Out Of The Army Space City Kicks Elephant Jokes Standard Gargoyle Decisions Motel Of Fools Superman Was A Rocker
Blazing Gentlemen Another really good, solid and consistent album with nothing that drags it down. Along with HLHT, that's 2 great solo albums in 2013 and a fine way for Bob to wind down his 2 solo albums a year run which began back in 2006 with FACE / Normal Happiness. Again, as with HLHT, the record flies by, with back to back spins taking up little over an hour of one's time. It's really obvious (!) that Todd is having a lot of fun on this record, the last solo album he would drum on, and the gentleman goes out in a blaze of glory. It's actually hard to pick favourites as it just feels like one good song after another, there's something to enjoy in every one. It's well sequenced, contains an excellent mix of hard rockers & poppier songs, and has a great vibe throughout, thus elevating it to amongst his best for me. On some of my lesser enjoyed solo albums, I've no doubt listed a few songs I felt were lazy and/or killed the momentum of those records, but I can't single out any one song that I dislike or feel brings the album down. It is full of well constructed songs with good lyrics. 'Magic Man Hype' & 'Blazing Gentleman' is a great one-two punch to kick off proceedings, both with cool opening lines in 'From the seeds of society come thousands of interesting characters' & 'The sun alarm sounded, we escaped to Phoenix, with ostrich feathers in our skullcaps'. In fact make that a great opening trio as 'Red Flag Down' is another fab rocker. 'Storm Center Level Seven' seems to pack a lot into its perfect fairly short running time, I love the chiming guitar & drum fills, man are Bob & Todd having fun here. Bob seems to like seventh levels. 'Return of the Drums' is another solid straight-up rocker, pretty good for a 'state the title' chorus. 'Piccadilly Man' works great in the sequence after a bunch of rockers. What a lovely minor key number, it's classic sub-1 minute Bob and I like the ice-cold keys in the second half. 'Professional Goose Trainer' is a hilarious title and another strong tune. 'Extra Fools Day' is one of those Bob songs where I can't exactly pinpoint why, but I just like it a lot. '1000' Royalty Street' is another fun rocker. 'My Museum Needs An Elevator' is another classic title along with the line 'My museum needs an elevator, help me Mr. Space Invader, are you an engineer?'. 'Tonight's The Rodeo' is just a great creamy pop number. I wondered what the hell 'Tea People' was when I first heard it, I mean it sounds like nothing at all on the album, but it's a funny 60's British Invasion meets Parklife / The Great Escape era Blur, unapologetically showing Bob's infleunces & the abrupt 'stop' is part of the fun. 'Faking The Boy Scouts' is a very enjoyable mid-tempo number, perfectly linking the comedic 'Tea People' to the rocking 'Triple Sec Venus'. I've no doubt said it before, but boy do I love these 2 minute punk pop stompers, and this one is a classic, with a great chorus and ending. 'This Place Has Everything' is an over-before-its-begun kinda stopgap song, but an example of how Bob can take the most basic chord sequence and melody and make something sweet out of it, probably in the time it took him to walk up the stairs. I was just thinking that 'Triple Sec Venus' would have made a great butt-kicking album closer, but 'Lips Of Joy' does a decent enough job of rounding off a most enjoyable album without any weak spots. I've played it a lot this week and rate it very highly. From Monday: Faulty Superheroes
This week's album is Faulty Superheroes So we’re into the home run, just one solo album remains after this week. I hope I haven’t bored you too much with the intros, I just find it interesting to take each solo album and look at it in the context of what else Bob was releasing around the time. Whilst for the first time in a calendar year since 2005, there was no solo album in 2014 (discounting Teenage Guitar though it was effectively solo in all but name and we’ll cover it in a few weeks time), the time period from Blazing Gentlemen to Faulty Superheroes was a rather eventful one. To start this off, rewind to October 2013: Drummer (and ex brother in law of Bob) Kevin Fennell attempted (and failed, no doubt mainly due to the colossal auction starting price of €55,000) to sell his GBV drum kit on eBay. He was fired from the band, though he claims that he left. Just weeks after Blazing Gentlemen, 2014 began with no fewer than 5 GBV 7” singles, all released on the same day: ‘Vote For Me Dummy’, ‘The Littlest League Possible’, ‘Save The Company’, ‘Planet Score’ & ‘Alex And The Omegas’, quickly followed by the ‘Motivational Jumpsuit’ album. Just 3 months later would follow another 4 GBV singles, again all released on the same day: ‘Table At Fool’s Tooth’, ‘Males Of Wormwood Mars’, ‘Authoritarian Zoo’ and ‘All American Boy’, followed a week later by the ‘Cool Planet’ album, which saw the return of Kevin March on drums. In September, Bob released the second Teenage Guitar album ‘More Lies From The Gooseberry Bush’ which was for all intents and purposes a solo album in all but name. That month, the reunion (with Kevin March drumming) had ran its course, Bob called time on the band again, and on 13 September 2014 they played their final date, not even finishing off the remaining tour dates. Bob rounded off 2014 with another Circus Devils album ‘Escape’ with Todd. 2015 kicked off with a new project named ‘Ricked Wicky’, a name Bob had kicking around for years, featuring himself on vocals and guitar, Todd on bass, Kevin March on drums and Nick Mitchell on guitar & vocals. They released 3 singles on the same day: ‘Piss Face’, ‘Mobility’ and ‘Death Metal Kid’, quickly followed by their debut album ‘I Sell The Circus.’ Bob also put out the third and final 'Best Of' promo CD (compiled by himself and David Newgarden): ‘Robert Pollard, The Best Of, 2012 - 2014’. The first one of these to feature GBV songs, it also included solo material alongside Circus Devils and Teenage Guitar songs. Tracklist here: GBVDB - Guided By Voices Database Then, according to An Earful Of Wax, a whopping 524 days on from previous solo album Blazing Gentlemen, came the follow up, which came with a sticker declaring ‘FIRST ALBUM IN OVER THREE MONTHS!’: Preceding the album was the following double 7" single: Take Me To Yolita / Up Up And Up Released: 28 April 2015 (Guided By Voices Inc.) Faulty Superheroes Released: 25 May 2015 (Guided By Voices Inc. / Fire Records) Lineup: Robert Pollard: Guitar + Vocals Todd Tobias: Bass, Guitar, Keyboards Kevin March: Drums Steve Hopkins: Bass on ‘What A Man’ 1. What A Man 2. Café Of Elimination 3. Faulty Superheroes 4. Faster The Great 5. The Real Wilderness 6. Photo Enforced Human Highway -------------------------- 7. Take Me To Yolita 8. Up Up And Up 9. You Only Need One 10. Bizarro's Last Quest 11. Mozart's Theme 12. Parakeet Vista Release info: Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays Robert Pollard from the swift completion of his latest brilliant record. Faulty Superheroes jets off Pollard's vinyl-grooved runway like the prototype for some new super-sonic power pop fighter jet, and at this point in his career is anyone surprised that the twelve tracks on his latest effort are uniformly awesome? The answer is no. Exactly no one is surprised. The biggest thing Pollard has to contend is his own miraculously consistent greatness. That he rarely if ever stumbles is some kind of marvel, and perhaps implies superpowers of his own. If you see what we did there. Faulty Superheroes has a tossed-off, effortless magnificence that the rash of indie-whatevers trailing in his wake from Bee Thousand to the present constantly strive for, and fail to achieve. The constant sense of surprise, of wonder, of discovery that you routinely find in superbly-structured instant bomp classics like "Faster The Great" is not something that can be taught, or learned, or imparted, or copied. Pollard pretty much abandoned the four-track for twenty years now and still gets tagged as "lo-fi," which is a word that makes even less sense now in the days of digital recording than it did then in the days of occasionally tape-hiss smothered coulda-shoulda- been hits. "Take Me To Yolita" in lesser hands could have been not much more than a bad one-liner stretched to fit a pop song, but Pollard reverse-engineers the titular pun to build a Kinks-like mini-epic that elevates the raw material of the song to transcendent heights. "She walks to him but that's not him." Damn. And so it goes. Are there bum notes here and there? Recording accidents-on-purpose left in like crushed empty beer cans strewn around the miniature, glimmering pop/rock/psych/prog construction sites left standing in the wake of each of Faulty Superheroes' finished/unfinished songs? You betcha. The Guided By Voices aesthetic was formed and developed and continues to be improved by Pollard, which makes all the more puzzling the hand-wringing that accompanies every announcement of a so-called GBV "break-up" (or for that matter, "reunion."). "You only need one," he sings on the song of that title. As long as we have Bob, we need nothing else. And we have Bob. If you're counting your blessings, don't forget that one. It's kinda crucial. This was the last solo album to feature musicianship from Todd Tobias and the only one to feature GBV’s Kevin March on drums. Also there is a really cool Matter Eater Lad reference on the inner sleeve: https://flic.kr/p/2kvz5at Apologies if that link doesn't work, I normally use Flickr desktop site to copy & paste a photo, and had to try and paste the link from the mobile app as the site is blocked on my work PC, so I can post it when home later if it hasn't worked. Please share your thoughts on Faulty Superheroes (and Blazing Gentlemen if you haven't already)
I forgot to say, none of the Faulty Superheroes songs have been played live. It has been said before in here by myself and others, but I will say one last time, that many of these songs, and lots of post 2006-7 solo songs in general, would be awesome to hear played live by the current GBV lineup. It's simply testament to Bob's legendary songwriting prowess (I am sounding like the album release notes now!) and I guess reflective of how quickly he moves on, that so many great solo tunes haven't been played live. I realise that he didn't tour the bulk of the solo albums, the main exception being the 2006 'Ascended Masters' tour, and then random solo songs played here and there by GBV. But man, I would love to see a set consisting largely (or solely) of solo material. Another behind closed doors gig would be cool, but I dream of some kind of 'residency' of them playing like 5 gigs in a week, doing a really different set each time, there is plenty of material to draw from! Very quickly on Faulty Superheroes, I think its another excellent album and it was great to get Kevin March drumming on even one solo record. That said, and whilst he might never see this, thank you Todd Tobias for your outstanding contribution to the solo albums discussed in this topic.
