Ha, this is an ambitious thread! I'm excited to participate as I'm an occasionally lapsed Pollard fan, but I've heard all of the solo stuff. Nearly all of the solo albums feature some remarkable songs that get lost in the sheer volume of what he puts out - even when I'm not a fan of the production I'm always in awe of how effortless he makes songwriting seem. I tend to like my Pollard when he's more involved in the recording process and playing guitar/whatever than when he takes more of a back seat, and that's a big reason why this initial run of albums during the pre-Tobias years are so special, especially through Kid Marine - just as vital as the GBV albums through the 1990s, and occasionally more so, I'd argue... WAVED OUT is one of the stranger, more melancholy ones that provides a nice respite from the more bombastic albums surrounding it. Some of his most haunting material is here, like "Artificial Light" and "Just Say The Word" along other ominous dirges. Throughout it's got that great mid-fi John Shough sound for the most part, and "Second Step Next Language" is a perhaps unintentionally poignant farewell to the basement and to the lofi sound for the time being. Onto a next language and major labels, and goodbye to Matador (for now.) As a sign of how long the gestation process can be in Pollard-world, here's an early version of the "Wrinkled Ghost" melody called "Eloise" from one of the Suitcase boxes. The band at the time was The Crowd in 1983, with Kevin Fennell, Mitch Mitchell and a guy named 'JK.'
That's really the best way to handle his catalog in general, GBV, Pollard, Spaceships, solo, etc. There's SO MUCH, and not all of it will hit you, what i like you'll hate and vice versa. The ipod and smart playlists was great for me, I'd use the ratings to mark anything 4 or 5 stars, and then go back to a "favorite GBV" playlist, which now has like 750 songs? And a "new favorite GBV" playlist for stuff in the last 2 years. So even mediocre albums had some killer songs, and just focused on the strong stuff. Every year had at least 15-20 songs spread out among all the releases
Thanks for nominating me to this thread. I'm not gonna be contributing because I'm one of those GBV fans that concentrates mainly on the group albums and misses a lot else (besides Keene Bros and Boston Spaceships). So I'll be reading along and rediscovering all this stuff.
Unlike some (most?) of you, I have to say I’ve always dug Showbiz Opera Walrus. It’s Bob at his most endearingly Peter Gabriel-ish weirdness and wonderfulness.
Also, the last line in "Girl Named Captain ("I'm not in your dreams, get out of mine") has got to be a comeback to the Dylan line (Talking WW3 Blues: "I'll let you be in my dreams if I can be in yours-- I said that.")
This week we move on to Kid Marine discussion. But first, just because I forgot to mention it during Waved Out, there was an alternate version of Whiskey Ships on the Hardcore UFO's box set's 'Delicious Pie & Thank You For Calling' disc, entitled 'I Invented the Moonwalk (and the Pencil Sharpener)'. Its not as good as the Waved Out version, but its an awesome song title and as such its kind of a shame it wasn't used for a song all of its own. Anyway, Kid Marine: the first solo album to come out self released under the 'Fading Captain Series' banner. The series would include solo releases, 2 GBV 'Suitcase' box sets (& their corresponding 'Briefcase' LPs), Circus Devils albums, and numerous side projects. It culminated in the 2007 'Crickets: Best of The Fading Captain Series' 2CD compilation (FCS #44). 1999 was a busy year for Bob. Kid Marine itself came little over half a year after Waved Out, and was followed by releases by Lexo & The Leapers, Nightwalker, GBV's Do The Collapse, and the collaborative effort with Doug Gillard, Speak Kindly of Your Volunteer Fire Department, which we will chat about next week. So, onto Kid Marine: Kid Marine Released: 2 Feb 1999 (#1 in the Fading Captain Series) Lineup: Robert Pollard: Vocals, Guitars, Keyboards Greg Demos: Bass Jim MacPherson: Drums Jim Pollard: Feedback on 2 Tobin Sprout: Piano on 14 Kim Pollard: Scream on 5 Huff Winka: Percussion on 10 Lord Lanternhead: Violin on 4 1. Submarine Teams 2. Flings of the Waistcoat Crowd 3. The Big Make-Over 4. Men Who Create Fright 5. Television Prison 6. Strictly Comedy 7. Far-Out Crops 8. Living Upside Down 9. Snatch Candy 10. White Gloves Come Off 11. Enjoy Jerusalem! 12. You Can't Hold Your Women 13. Town of Mirrors 14. Powerblessings 15. Island Crimes Powerblessings, recorded by Tobin Sprout to 4-track, was a holdover from the proposed / aborted GBV album 'When I Go North' (see page 3 of this topic, post #70). Seven of these songs have been played live by GBV, and out of these only 3 were played more than a handful of times (Submarine Teams, Far-Out Crops & The Big Make-Over). Submarine Teams was played a whopping 125 times between 1999 & 2003 & great versions of it appear on some of the GBV live LPs from that era. Town of Mirrors was wheeled out for the epic 100 song New Year's Eve 2019 Teragram Ballroom LA set, for the first time in 20 years. Please share your thoughts on Kid Marine.
Love this album, probably my favourite RP solo album. Not all the tracks work, some are a bit undercooked and (arguably) there aren't as many standout classics as on NIMA and Waved Out but, despite all that, the whole thing fits together so well, it also sounds great. This is definitely Bob's peak album as a guitarist, there's so much clever and inventive playing on this album - no, he can't play a million notes a minute like Doug Gillard but I'd rather listen to Bob play any day of the week, he has that Wire thing of playing extremely simple but effective lines that some hotshot guitarist would never have thought up in the first place.. One of the problems I have with his later albums is he doesn't play any guitar on them. Also great rhythm section on this album, Jim Macpherson was such a class act drummer and Bob hadn't started expecting every drummer he worked with to play like Keith Moon yet - or bass player to play like John Entwistle.
Huff Winka and Lord Lanternhead are both Bob I love Kid Marine. There’s a couple near the end that don’t do much for me but I love the first half, especially Big Make Over, Men Who Create Fright and Flings of the Waistcoat Crowd, far out crops was fun live too. And then it closes strong with Powerblessings and Island Crimes. It was a bit of a grower for me. I think I remember reading it was one where Bob had the words first for most of the songs, instead of the music first. I liked how some songs like Fright were like all chorus and no verses, Waistocat was all verse and no chorus. But once they caught into me, they were just as catchy and addictive as a traditional pop song. That stuck out to me at the time, it’s one thing to have a great snippet song like Indian Fables but those seemed at first to be happy accidents, now i noticed him do this approach purposely. And I love this Demos/jimmy Mac/ bob trio, it’s loose but mid fi, tv prison rocks, and it flows great. It was great to get this album I think 6 months after Waved Out while waiting impatiently for Do The Collapse. I saw the SXSW 99 show in Waterloo Park, I can spot myself near the fron in this photo that ran front page of the paper. It was a fun show, huge crowd, Spoon and the Gourds opened, we got 5 or 6 KM songs and a few more DTC previews like Liquid Indian. the Fading Captain series to me was a great way for Bob to start clearing the backlog, addressing concerned that like 96, there could be way too much product. He could call things solo or new band names, and release them as he was done with it. He said that what songs ended up on a GBV proper album vs a solo or side project was due to whatever songs were written at the time. Sometimes I’d wish he traded a few Gbv album cuts for a strong song on a solo album, but they all got played live so after a while it didn’t matter. Release it all, we the fans will sort it out. Kid Marine was a great start and with that sxsw show, it just felt like Bob was on the edge of breaking big
Kid Marine is Who-er than Who! My fave Bob solo record...nuanced, layered, moody goodness. Great fall music.
I'll comment later on Kid Marine, but I think guidedbyvoices makes important points here. In my view, this is around the time when, in many ways, Bob's artistic vision/manifesto reveals itself. The way I've come to think about it is that for Bob, process* matters as much as product and, ultimately, the line between the two is nonexistent. Complaints about a lack of editing/missed opportunities for masterpiece albums miss, in my opinion, the whole point of the ongoing glorious Bob Pollard project. *writing and releasing a lot of music (duh), and (sometimes) starting at the end with an idea for an album (title, artwork, band name, track list) and then creating and organizing music to will it into being
I heard ‘Submarine Teams’ first on a CMJ sampler cd, which I believe also had a Tobin song on it as well. That crazy vocal intro definitely set the tone this was something a bit different. Then the riff comes in and at time, I felt like it was like nothing I’d ever heard yet while still really bringing the rock. It still rates very high for me, and the song conjures this colorful nautical universe where they have underwater sports leagues playing weird games. I didn’t have a computer at the time and would go over our neighbors’ house to get on the internet. Things took a while to get up to northern Michigan then, probably still do. I managed to find the GBV page and began my process of sending money orders in for Bob/GBV vinyl, and try to fill the gaps by ordering other stuff from a local cd store. But ordering the FCS releases felt special; I didn’t know anyone else so even knew who GBV were. Kid Marine felt very different though still very Pollard. It has quite an interesting mood that sustains through the whole album, like a strange and dreamy small town. Songs like ‘Men Who Create Fright’ and ‘Far Out Crops’ contribute to that. Something just feels more intimate about it than a GBV album. Maybe just that it was self released instead of on Matador.This is probably the album for me where a lot of Bob’s albums start to feel like their own little pocket universe. I just read on the Wikipedia page for this album that Bob apparently entertained the idea of doing a sequel album, Kid Marine 2. Never heard that before, probably not going to happen now as that was from an interview in 2003.
I'm not quite as fond of the album as you (and would rank several of the solo albums above it), but it was the perfect Pollard solo album at the time. I bought it with no idea that the Fading Captain Series would be a thing (and what a thing!), so it was like a cool, covert release which contrasted strongly with what GbV were doing at the time, on the verge of the big commercial break that never happened. It has a great feel from start to finish, but for me the album loses on points because it lacks that regular pulse of 'classics'. That said, I absolutely adore 'Submarine Teams' - which didn't sound much like anything else he'd done at that point - and 'Men Who Create Fright' - which still sounds pretty unique. 'Island Crimes is a perfect closer (and I would love to hear a longer version of the framing 'Kid Marine' title track) and 'Television Prison' is a hoot. Much of the rest of the album is a bit of a blur for me.
I agree: the Fading Captain years were a kind of golden age in terms of their range and unpredictability (and, oh lord, Suitcase), even if you did get steaming duds like Hazzard Hotrods and Acid Ranch. It was like a mainline to Pollard's id. Does anybody else remember that magic moment when you went to the luna website to order the latest releases and found a secret link that led you to the amazing Live at the Athens Time Change Riots album? Even when Pollard had his own bespoke record label for releasing whatever he wanted, he still put out 'secret' releases for the cognoscenti.
Wow! That’s like banging rocks and sending smoke signals, ha! In 96 when I was first getting obsessive, me and my roommate had AOL, where you paid by the minute like old phone bills. We would log our time on a notebook so we could divide. When the bill came, I think we’d have $120 bills for dial up so slow I’d turn images off, text only.
Yeah, right? My brother and I were driving ‘50s cars at the time and listening to oldies constantly, we were pretty old fashioned. I always ordered stuff I couldn’t find anywhere with money orders in the ‘90s. Vinyl, import cd singles, etc. Imagine just sending in a money order for a record with 500-1000 copies pressed nowadays and just waiting. Always worked somehow too.
Not going to be able keep up with all this, but been immersed in NIMA of late, and I can say, while I can peg the moving parts better, they don’t necessarily click with me in a big way. But I don’t dislike any of it, and I’m always happy to be listening to it. The dirgey ones like “Parakeet Troopers” and “Chance To Buy An Island” hit the most, and of course “Psychic Pilot” kills. My first GBV was Do The Collapse and I had no real context for it, and acquaintance with this one would’ve really helped (for one thing, I wouldn’t have had the uninformed impression that the 'sensitive' Bob voice used on “The Ash Gray Proclamation” was probably Tobin Sprout on GBV records). Clearly I’m not to be trusted, but we all arrive at our own pace I suppose, and I’m sure I’ll get in line come Speak Kindly. There’s no explaining what resonates with us individually, like my own outsized love for something like Let It Beard.
Kid Marine was overhyped to me until it wasn't. This was one of the last Bob solo albums I heard, largely because I don't really do digital (aside from You Tube, but the album was not on there in it's entirety until the reissue came out), and the vinyl was very expensive prior to the reissue (and still is), and I guess I was just determined to hear it on vinyl first. But people would always tell me that it's one of the best things Bob's ever done, if not THE best thing. I guess I couldn't help but be disappointed with years of built up anticipation. But then, after a little while, it sunk in. Looking back over the course of his entire catalog, it's a very strong album; certainly his best solo effort up to that point and definitely in the upper echelon overall. There are no duds on this album, though sometimes even lesser songs can contribute to an album's flow. While not every song is a gem, there are really no songs that I feel I have to bear with in order to get to the next one. Each track can be taken on it's own merit and be played independently of the album and stand on it's own, though weirdly enough, it's hard for me to pick individual favorites. Of course, this makes for wonderful song flow throughout the entire thing. I have to once again give the edge to the original vinyl pressing of Kid Marine over the reissue, though liked Waved Out, it's pretty close. There's just a certain constrained quality to these reissues. It's not bad enough to be disappointed with a reissue if that's the only pressing you have, but when you're able to make the comparison, you can hear that the original is just a bit more open.
That’s a brilliant photo and looks like a great set you saw. I am probably on a YouTube video of the London show I went to, just haven’t looked closely enough. Didn’t know about Huff Winka and Lord Lanternhead being Bob. I should have guessed, they are hardly everyday names! They sound like made up Suitcase band names. I’m actually surprised Bob doesn’t have a song called Lord Lanternhead.
This one’s new to me, with two “spins” on YouTube yesterday, and for me way it’s more immediate than NIMA. I mean, “Television Prison” - c’mon! And not the first time I’ve thought Bob (intentionally?) sounded like Peter Gabriel (“Far-Out Crops”) and it all just flows beautifully, with those great Who-ish bookends. I suppose I’m gonna have to buy the reissue now. Been a bit lukewarm on the solo Bob I have, so this is gonna be a rewarding project for me.
I've never really considered that the opening 'Kid Marine' segment of Island Crimes is anything more than a short snippet. I guess it could have been cut from a longer song. If so that would be great to hear someday. I'd say some of the mid-period solo albums are a blur to me. No doubt some songs will jump out at me when we get to them though. When I put up Kid Marine for discussion, I planned to play it twice & post my opinions. I should have known better, as I actually ended up playing it about 5 times on Monday and have played it a few more times since. In fact I've probably overplayed it now! I've still been playing NIMA & Waved Out too. Similar to the experience of @Strummergas, from things I’d read, Kid Marine seemed to be a firm fan favourite, yet I didn’t really get it upon the first few listens. I must say I’ve enjoyed it a lot this week. As a cohesive work it’s very good. There’s not really a poor track on it, but at the same time I’m not sure how many songs I would lift from it to put on a solo faves playlist either. Perhaps many of them would seem strange out of the context of Kid Marine, I’m not sure. Submarine Teams is a great opener. Whilst I’ve had to get used to the fluttering vocal effect thing throughout, I still prefer the straight up live version by GBV. These are my fave versions of it and they kill! I would recommend both those 2001 shows to any fan. Great sets and sound quality: (1:13:50) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qt-zAX8IbGI (1:12:20) @3Dman I love your quote about Bob's albums feeling like a 'pocket universe' & the nautical theme in Submarine Teams. I just love the scenes portrayed in this song. ‘Shocked by a whaling umpire’s trumpet’, what a line! Side 1 is excellent, the first three on Side 2 are just sorta average plodders to me (along with Snatch Candy), but I love the closing 4 songs. The short but sweet climax of You Can’t Hold Your Women is great and Greg Demos’ bassline really reminds me of the outro to GBV’s Perfect This Time, released the same year. The closing lyric ‘Psychic Realtor’ sounds like it should be the name of a Bob spin-off project. Bob must’ve been particularly fond of the closing trio, as he kept that sequence intact on CD2 of the Crickets comp, it’s most unusual to see that done in any comp. Television Prison is a cool little 2-chord stomper, I’m surprised it’s never been played live. Flings of the Waistcoat Crowd, The Big Make-Over, Men Who Create Fright & Far-Out Crops are a whole lot of fun. A couple of song cross-references feature too: Snatch Candy has the line 'Flings of the waistcoat crowd' in it, and Enjoy Jerusalem! has 'Television Prison' mentioned in it. Nobody else writes lyrics like ‘Distribute the newsworth, oaf’, ‘Bedazzlement made affordable’ & ‘Wolfing the creamskin for all the right stuff’. I must have played this album a dozen times before I noticed The Brides Have Hit Glass’ companion lyric ‘The grooms have hit ice’ in Snatch Candy. Sometimes even in a song that’s just passed over me many times, there is just one of those great moments where a lyric jumps out at you. Bob’s delivery of ‘The cakemaker never fails to stun me’ in Enjoy Jerusalem! is one such moment. The mysterious cakemaker would go to appear on Honey Locust Honky Tonk too, during Who Buries the Undertaker. Hmmm, Bob has mentioned cake quite a few times. Who doesn't love cake though? In the words of Father Jack Hackett: "I LIKE CAKE!" Perhaps that's another reason I love August By Cake. I digress. . . Just because of how well these 15 songs hang together, I imagine Kid Marine would be in or very close to the top tier if I was to rank or batch together the solo albums in groups come the end of this. This album has really got under my skin this week.
I don't know that it's a complete song (or that there's much more to it than what we hear on the album), but I'd at least like to hear the complete recording that's split between 'Submarine Teams' and 'Island Crimes', with whatever its natural ending is (as it fads early in the middle of the 'song'). I edited together the two halves (ending up with something a little over a minute) because it's such a poignant fragment.
Kid Marine is easily my favorite Bob Pollard solo record. It's like a lean rock opera, incredible sequencing, consistent mood, not a bad song, great one to listen to alone and sing along. The uncluttered arrangements and clean mid-fi sound make it perhaps his most lithe album. The guitar playing is super melodic; on many songs (The Big Make-Over, Far Out Crops) he plays a consistent, repeated riff or figure while the chords move beneath it (I think this is called "ostinato"; just looked it up). Far-out Crops is probably a top-20 Bob song for me. I had never made the Peter Gabriel connection that someone noted upthread, but yeah, that's spot-on, with a quiet beginning and gradual build a la The Future is in Eggs. Some other favorite moments: Flings of the Waistcoat Crowd: Incredible lyrics. I agree with the observations on themes others have shared. Though I can't discern a narrative thread the whole way through, my interpretation of this song is it's the hangover of the war in Submarine Teams. A vibe like The Deer Hunter - industrial, broken veterans, druggy ("The tar, the teeth & the gear"). It reminds me of the Circus Devils song "Soldiers of June." What a closing line: "Learn every weakness." The Big Make-Over: The phrasing on the last line - "Drive, Shaft! Up and over dig me cliff" kills me every time. Strictly Comedy: When this song starts I always imagine a cheesy 70's movie with two guys in motorcycle and sidecar in front of a screen showing a receding road. White Gloves Come Off: The way he delivers those last lines: "This time put your sweaty palms up - Get 'em white." You Can't Hold Your Women: That bass part after the last line ("Psychic Realtor")
This week, by popular demand, we will creep into a box of mesmerising trinkets. . . in the words of Uncle Bob himself from the 'Live at the Athens Change Riots' album, "Speak Kindly of Your Volunteer Fire Department boys and girls, 'cos they just might save your burning ass!" Robert Pollard with Doug Gillard - Speak Kindly of Your Volunteer Fire Department Released: 5 Nov 1999 (#4 in the Fading Captain Series) Lineup: Robert Pollard: Vocals Doug Gillard: Instruments 1. Frequent Weaver Who Burns 2. Soul Train College Policeman 3. Pop Zeus 4. Slick as Snails 5. Do Something Real 6. Port Authority 7. Soft Smoke 8. Same Things 9. And I Don't (So Now I Do) 10. Tight Globes 11. I Get Rid of You 12. Life is Beautiful 13. Messiahs 14. Larger Massachusetts 15. And My Unit Moves With a working title of 'Mercy Giants' (a nod to the GBV Alien Lanes song They're Not Witches), and the shortest musician credits since on his self-titled (Hubcap) album, Bob Mould declared: "Bob Mould is Bob Mould", Speak Kindly. . . features the legendary Doug Gillard as the sole musician. All instruments (including biscuit tin drum kit!) were recorded by Doug to 4-track. Doug also co-wrote Pop Zeus, Port Authority, Messiahs & Larger Massachusetts. Nerdy trivia & slight diversion: Credit for photo collages goes to 'Kuda Labranch'. I am guessing this mystery person could be Bob himself, based on the Huff Winka / Lord Lanternhead credits on Kid Marine turning out to be Bob. Can anyone confirm this? The name 'Kuda Labranche' randomly appeared again the following year, as the artist behind 'My Big Day', on a seemingly very rare V/A comp, 'Tractor Tunes, Volume 1'. Version 4 of the song, to me it beats all 3 back to back versions on Suitcase 1, CD1. Yet it is a mystery when this version was recorded, and by which lineup. Presumably mid to late 90's as it sounds so different to any of the Suitcase versions (V1 is listed as a Same Place the Fly Got Smashed outtake, V3 as an outtake from the proposed / aborted Back to Saturn X LP, who knows what V2 is). If anyone can shed any light on that mysterious one off comp track, please do so. Anyway, back to Speak Kindly. 9 of these 15 songs have been played live, and 7 of those (the closing 2 songs an exception), have been played well into double figures, mainly from 1999-2003. The only ones to see an outing in recent years have been Do Something Real & I Get Rid of You (played a bunch of times in 2016 & 2018 respectively), plus And I Don't (So Now I Do) was dusted off for the Teragram Ballroom 100 song show. Songs like Pop Zeus (last played 2002) & Tight Globes (last played 2003) are long overdue a live return. In case you hadn't guessed, I am a big fan of Pop Zeus. An Earful O'Wax had this to say about it: "Pop Zeus- 5 Irresistibly good lead guitar lines that completely make the song. Driving, pogo-pop. Hell of a collaboration. Get on your ****ing roof and yell this at the postman or neighborhood dog walker, because it’s that good." I don't always agree with his rankings or song opinions, but he got this one spot on! This video is stone cold proof that Pop Zeus slays live. Whilst the basic production on the album is charming in its own way, to hear songs like that with the full on big rock show treatment is something else. To hear the current lineup thrashing through this would be immense! Please post your thoughts on Speak Kindly of Your Volunteer Fire Department & thanks for all your contributions so far.
Driving this weekend so before I add my thoughts on Speak Kindly, listening to KM fresh this week, man I forgot how much I love these two. Brilliant lyrically and musically. Flings is just a mash of words but fun as hell to sing along with along with that line ‘great days are becoming’ - along with Powerblessings just two great positive ‘cant wait for the future’ bookends. And Big Make Over is such a stately riff, like a melancholy epic in the Seventh Level Shutdown range, a career highlight in my eyes, and to follow it up with Men Who Create Fright, Strictly comedy (way better than I remembered because the little parts in between that pulsing main riff are killer and too short ‘dig the accompanying playwrite, up tight’), TV Prison, Far Out Cropsssssssssss (not a huge fan of the intro but when the drums kick in, that verse is so good. I am taking samples, Clipping and saving!)
