Why is Robert Pollard the most underrated songwritter ever?

haha, who's sock was this?

It belonged to Anthony Kiedis.

Haven't heard the Cosmos record yet, still catching up some of his other 2009 releases. This week I've been on a really big Circus Devils kick, particularly Sgt. Disco and Ataxia. I love the dark, creepy vibe that pervades many of these songs. There's also a much higher percentage of real hooks on these, as compared to the earlier Circus Devils albums, so maybe just a little "easier" to absorb. I got Gringo off iTunes the other night, but haven't spent any time with it yet.

Gringo kinda sucked, though I've got no real incentive to meet the guy halfway anymore - i'm fine w/ living with his 90s stuff forever

I long ago gave up on buying (or even listening) to the recs he made. The sheer volume just drove me away. But I do agree the guy writes some pretty good tunes. Sadly he isn't a very good editor.

Oh yeah, I won't argue about the editing thing... but I've discovered that even pulling out a record I'd dismissed years ago, some new gem shines through and I realize how truly great he can be.

No doubt. It's just becoming less and less worth it as his hit to miss ratio decreases with time

xpost I'm just too lazy to make it work, y'know, fuck that, I don't wanna weed through the mediocre songs. Thing is, that all his recs have gems, but I'm just not that big of a fangirl to put energy into it, y'know. Not even with my favourite band dEUS.

Oh, I understand completely. For the last, oh, three years now I've sworn I'm giving up on Pollard and at some point, when searching for something new to listen to, I shrug my shoulders and dive in.

I gave up following Pollard around 2000 but no doubt he's written gobs of great tunes since then. Is there any dedicated fan here willing to recommend a 2 or 3 disc compilation of his best bits from the 00s?

That would be a project I'd love to tackle, but two things holding me back:

1) Right smack in the middle of taking and studying for my ARE, not that much time to spare.
2) I'm sure I've only heard like 75% of what he's released this decade.

Maybe in the Spring, when I'm done testing, I'll follow through with it.

yeah, i've thought about putting together a Best-of the 2000s Pollard comp, but #2 is holding me back as well. And I've heard a lot of his albums!

Alright, we'll circle back in March. Maybe between the two of you you've listened to them all!

I am serious about tackling the project at some point, very much so. I just don't want to promise it right now when there's very little chance of it happening anytime soon.

"Haven't heard the Cosmos record yet"

disapointing record. i had some expectations cause it's the richard davies comeback after some time, but it's skipable stuff.

bob hasn't put out a record i really enjoy since the 2nd last GbV album. circus devils seem like some sort of bad joke. no intention of going near the cosmos record after hearing the reviews..

The Richard Davies songs from the short-lived Cardinal reunion are so staggeringly better than the Cosmos stuff that...it's just sad.

the cosmos album is one of my favorite albums of the year, and my favorite pollard album this year (though most of them have been good). it strikes me as a great piece of pretty, melodic surrealism. for some reason whenever pollard does one of these spacey-moody, low-key dreamy pop collaborations, it gets generally dismissed - like the airport 5 albums or the go back snowball album too, for example. The critical drubbing of the circus devils bugs me too - it's experimental horror-rock, don't expect it to sound like GBV.

I think the drubbing from Davies fans is justified...can't speak for the other side of the aisle.

So guys now that I'm laid off I'm going to start tackling that best of 00s Pollard comp.

do it! would love to hear the hits without the expense and effort involved in buying and plowing through a hundred records i don't really like. of course, a big part of the fun is deciding which ones are "hits"...

I look forward to your findings!

me too! I just got the new one in the mail (not out til March 2010 ...) 11th record since Summer of 2008! Ridiculous.

Can you include some Mist King Urth on there? I never did find that one.

Shit, see this is where I fail because Mist King Urth is one of the few I don't have! Also, I didn't realize that even cutting off at 2000, there are still FOUR GbV albums proper included!

I'd say keep it non-GbV.

That's the way I was leaning because it was going to be way too easy to fill up a big chunk of a disc from those four alone.

After poking around, it seems I do have some Mist King Urth tracks after all. Here's the starting list from which I'm going to pull. I know there are some gaps here, but I feel like between the Crickets comp and random other tracks I've acquired I can piece things in well enough. Seeing these gaps makes me feel like a Pollard slacker though!

Motel of Fools Robert Pollard
Fiction Man Robert Pollard
From A Compound Eye Robert Pollard
Normal Happiness Robert Pollard
Standard Gargoyle Decisions Robert Pollard
Coast to Coast Carpet of Love Robert Pollard
Superman Was a Rocker Robert Pollard
Robert Pollard is Off to Business Robert Pollard
The Crawling Distance Robert Pollard
Elephant Jokes Robert Pollard
Zoom Robert Pollard
Silverfish Trivia Robert Pollard
Ringworm Interiors Circus Devils
Pinball Mars Circus Devils
Sgt. Disco Circus Devils
Ataxia Circus Devils
Gringo Circus Devils
Brown Submarine Boston Spaceships
Headache Revolution Boston Spaceships
The Planets Are Blasted Boston Spaceships
Zero to 99 Boston Spaceships
Life Starts Here Airport 5
Jar of Jam Ton of Bricks Cosmos
Blues and Boogie Shoes Keene Brothers
Lightninghead to Coffee Pot Moping Swans
All That is Holy Psycho and the Birds
We've Moved Psycho and the Birds
Choreographed Man of War Robert Pollard and His Soft Rock Renegades
Turn To Red The Takeovers
Little Green Onion Man The Takeovers
Bad Football The Takeovers

Yikes.

I had Mist King Urth and sold it on ebay (I think). "Heavy prog" iirc.

Well I've always wanted to hear it bcuz the other Pollard/Gillard duo album, Speak Kindly Of Your Volunteer Fire Department, is better than any GbV album this decade.

"fether herd" on the mist king urth album is unlike anything else bob's done

Speak Kindly Of Your Volunteer Fire Department, is better than any GbV album this decade.

yep that's why I bought it too. they're not at all similar really.

not saying it's bad per se but when I decided to unload some records I went through my big pile of GBV and related I made a rule that if I couldn't remember how ANY song went on that record it probably deserved the sell pile.

"they're" meaning Fire Dept. and Mist King

weird. "fether herd" sounds like guided by voices covering birdsongs of the mesozoic. hard to forget, for me at least

jon, why not tower in the fountain of sparks?

Sadly thats one of the few I don't have. I believe I have a couple tracks from it though. That one and Go Back Snowball are both up there on my list of Pollard releases to buy when I have the cash.

lol, jesus, that list 00s records. and I've got a lot of them!

Think the Boston Spaceships records have been my fave of the last few years ...

The two songs I have off Tower...Sparks are kind of lame tbh. Both good tunes that go on repeating their material wayyy too long.

Slowed down a bit to work on year-end stuff and the holidays, but this project is still definitely moving forward! 2009 actually turned out to be one of my favorite post-GbV years for Pollard!

When I made a Pollard mix for a friend, my biggest hangup was putting on a song or two from each album. That's really not the worst approacch - if an album doesn't have a song demanding to be included, then leave it off!

Still working on the project, albeit very very slowly. Mainly bumped this thread to talk about how great the first Pollard of the new decade sounds! Seriously, dude is on a fantastic roll these past two years.

Yes! I'm behind on the Circus Devils stuff, but the solo stuff and particularly the Boston Spaceships have all been grade A. I like Suitcase 3, too.

I did this a few weeks ago, frustrated by having to sort through umpteen records to get my fix. Agree above w/ difficulty in getting every record represented & gave up after awhile:

http://i390.photobucket.com/albums/oo346/HadrianVIII/GrayGardens.jpg

1:14:07

01 Brown Submarine 1:22
02 Dancing Girls And Dancing Men 2:40
03 Heavy Crown 2:40
04 Stiff Me 2:17
05 Gratification To Concrete 3:34
06 Penumbra 1:50
07 Rhoda Rhoda 1:52
08 I'm A Widow 3:37
09 Andy Playboy 1:30
10 Shadow Port 2:59
11 Keep Me Down 2:40
12 Symbols And Heads 2:08
13 You Satisfy Me 3:04
14 Conquerer Of The Moon 5:04
15 When A Man Walks Away 1:49
16 I Surround You Naked 2:42
17 Tattoo Mission 2:44
18 Zero Fix 2:44
19 I In The World 2:01
20 The Right Thing 4:30
21 Canned Food Demons 2:08
22 Gasoline Ragtime 1:38
23 Denied 2:36
24 Towers And Landslides 2:01
25 The Original Heart 2:15
26 (All You Need) To Know 3:45
27 Love Is Stronger Than Witchcraft 4:13
28 Nicely Now 1:51

Love the list Hadrian! I'm still missing a lot of his '00s output, probably close to half.

One song you forgot is "Slow Hamilton," definitely the most melodic song I've heard of the more recent years...

Slow Hamilton is gorgeous. Also, Weatherman and Skin Goddess.

his new dvd is almost enough to cure me of gbv fandom

ahem!

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