Why is Robert Pollard the most underrated songwritter ever?

Meddle off Zero to 99 is so great. The whole albums really good.

I have enjoyed the occasional robbert paulard

kinda want to make my own Pollard Oughties best-of... which, since I own exactly none of these records, would probably just mean pirating/ripping as many of them as I can, getting super-stoned, throwing everything on shuffle, and deleting every song that doesn't rock my world on the first listen. I'll let you guys know what I end up with.

came across this recently: http://leatherbagmusic.blogspot.com/2010/05/best-of-robert-pollard.html
haven't listened though! seems like a cool selection.

wow this is wonderful!

love guided by voices, but i've never really progressed past the big GBV albums cuz honestly digging thru all of pollards stuff seems like such a grind...

his first few on matador, not in my airforce and waved out are almost as good as the gbv records he was putting out at the time. his latest one (?) we all got out of the army isn't shabby either

yeah, not in my airforce and waved out are pretty indistinguishable from GBV of that era -- pretty sure those songs were "GBV" songs for all intents and purposes, just that he couldn't put out more than one GBV record a year, or something. They have a lot of the same players. both are pretty essential.

which one had "subspace biographies"? that song rules

that's on Waved Out -- prob one of Pollard's best rockers! starts out awesome, gets better.

Sounds like Wire that song, this is a good thing

really, tho, at the end of every year, Pollard should just: "didn't buy the six albums I put out this year? Here's a playlist of the best 20 songs" ... I'd buy it. maybe that's totally missing the point, but I do find it hard to keep up.

I've tried listening to his post-GBV stuff, but it really isn't very good

Of the stuff I've heard, which is prob'ly like 5% or sumthin'!

i dunno, i always like hearing new stuff by him when I put it on, but after a few listens, I rarely go back to it.

i'd say that first Boston Spaceships record is probably my fave from the last couple years?

I've heard tell that's good. Of the other stuff I've heard, songs seem fussy + overcooked, his voice is not what it was, don't like this Todd Tobias guy playing all the instruments.

yeah, it's true -- his voice does seem a little weak these days.

out of context - but the Owen Pallet cover of Game Of Pricks is really good

Listening to that selection linked above. Holy crap - "First of an Early Go-Getter" sounds like "Hold Your Head High" by Argent!

yeah the owen pallet cover is great -- arthur russell meets GBV. man, "game of pricks" is quite a song isn't it?

"It Is Divine" off this mix really gives me goosebumps....kinda gets me in that classic GBV ballad way like "14 Cheerleader Coldfront"

i'm 4 songs in... songs 2-3 are kinda turkeys. song #4 is awesome though "Frequent Weaver..."

okay this mix picks up after an uninspiring start. but then #6 ("Gold") is kinda sucking the wind out of the momentum that had built with #4-5

this is great tylerw, thanking u

Robert's lyrics may be a bit surreal for mass consumption. That may be one reason. He's really clever. That can be a problem too.

Really loving the new Boston Spaceships record. I feel like this project has a much better hit-to-miss ratio going for it than the stuff under his own name as of late.

circle of trim off of tower in the fountain of sparks

pop zeus as well

those two. those are the answer to the thread title question

always loved the first track off that tower in the ftn of spark record

Hows the new one? Haven't gotten my copy yet. But I am super, super excited by what I read on the (excellent) Wires and Waves blog:

Next month, he releases a new record with former GBV guitarist Doug Gillard under the name Lifeguards, and March will see the release of a collaboration called Mars Classroom, made with the guys from underrated '90s indie-rockers Big Dipper.

all three of his new ones are pretty strong! the lifeguards one in particular.

Oh man, didn't even know the other two were "out there".

yeah i'm on a promo list for him, for some reason ... i just get download links. but yeah, listening to the mars classroom now -- pretty great! straightforward, catchy pop rock.

Glad to hear, can't wait to hear these.

just chiming in again to say i REALLY like the Mars Classroom LP, maybe more than any Pollard LP in a while ...

^ i agree, even though i'm biased (i play drums on some of it)—it's a real grower, too.

whoa, no shit? yeah, i really dig it -- less ummm proggy than some of his other solo joints? just straight-up, simple tunes, with a nice warm (slightly melancholy) vibe.

you see, the thing is, GARY WALEIK is the most underrated songwriter ever.

ha, yeah, maybe. what's the deal with this -- did gary write all the music, and pollard the lyrics?

that's right.

cool. i think i read somewhere that big dipper was one of pollard's fave bands ...

http://music.is-amazing.com/sites/music.is-amazing.com/files/covers/robert_0.jpghttp://images.uulyrics.com/cover/v/vashti-bunyan/album-just-another-diamond-day.jpg

I picked up the Lifeguards LP on a whim. Back in the early 00s I was a Pollard/GBV devotee for a good while but I haven't bought a Pollard release in about four years. Whether it was declining interest on my part or perceived lack of quality on the part of Pollard (probably a bit of both) but I was drawn in by the first song from the new Lifeguards and I have to say I find it quite good. It's much more "produced" than most Pollard efforts, the arrangements are more sophisticated and it is, for lack of a better word "weirder." Some noisy flourishes, proggy parts, over-the-top hard rock vocals by Pollard, etc. I quite dig it. Gillard's guitar work is excellent.

lol just got a promo for another pollard record this year -- a new circus devils record! i want to meet someone who is like the world's biggest circus devils fan. they have nine records now!

best song title so far: Aerial Poop Show (Inst)

ha! what's the album called? i'll be on the lookout for it. pollard's on a roll this year. i've heard four (4!) of his projects so far and no duds among them

Capsized! (exclamation point included)

So the email I got from Pollard just now says that Let It Beard is the last Boston Spaceships record! Was this announced before and I missed it? Really disappointed because I felt like the Spaceships was definitely the best thing Pollard had going right now.

huh, really? i hadn't heard that. with all the hype (relatively speaking to other pollard releases) around this one, seems surprising.

No, that announcement seems to have caught most people out. Real shame, 'cos yeah BS are one of his best, & LiB is probably their best yet.

Yeah, the press release I got had the subject line of "The End is Near..." and here's the pertinent part of the email:

The ultimate (and final) Boston Spaceships album. A 75-minute thrill ride through the many forms Pollard has mastered in his three decades of writing and recording, Let It Beard is the White Album meets Quadrophenia meets Jesus Christ Superstar meets Same Place The Fly Got Smashed.