Despite breaking up indie-rock crusaders Guided By Voices in 2004, former frontman Robert Pollard continues to put out music at a pace that would make Ryan Adams blush. The irrepressible songwriter, who has over 900 songs registered to his name, will release two new albums simultaneously on October 9.
“I’m busier than I ever was,” Pollard, 49, says. “I’m putting out six or seven albums a year.”
Coast to Coast Carpet of Love and Standard Gargoyle Decisions, which Pollard will put out under his own name on Merge, will be complementary albums - one pop, one punk. Originally conceived as a double-album epic, Pollard and long-time cohort Todd Tobias, who wrote, performed and recorded both albums with Pollard, decided shortly after taping that the material didn’t gel as a single entity.
“We made the decision to break it down into two records, one being the pretty pop record and one being the abrasive punk record, although it’s got some pretty moments also,” Pollard says. “It’s almost like Guided By Voices; it’s the angel on one shoulder and the devil on the other.”
In support of the new albums, Pollard says he’s agreed to play at least two concerts. He abandoned the stage in late 2006, canceling the last three shows of a tour and announcing the end of his gigging days. But "Uncle Bob" is not one for retirement.
“I’m off for five or six months and I’m like, ‘Damn, I just finished these two records and they rock, I want to hear how they translate to the stage,’” he says.
The shows, one at Southgate House in Cincinnati and the other at Metro in Chicago, are tentatively scheduled for late November/early December. Pollard plans on playing New York shortly after.
Along with the albums, Pollard has announced the creation of Happy Jack Rock Records Singles Club. Starting in June, the prolific songwriter will put out a 7” single from one of the two new albums, along with an unreleased b-side, each month for a year.
Still, despite the new albums, two solo records on Merge last year, his other incarnations as a member of The Takeovers and Circus Devils, as well as his Fading Captain Series of recordings, Pollard feels he actually needs to speed up.
“I’d like to put out one [album] a month,” he says. “Recently, I said, ‘Well, I’m going to take a break now and take a summer vacation,’ and then I wrote nine or ten songs the other day. So I can’t stop.”
Lately, Pollard’s creative energies go beyond music. This spring, he published the third issue of his literary magazine, Eat, which contains his own literary poems and collages. Pollard plans to exhibit his collages in New York sometime in September.
“I’ve been going nuts on collages since I heard they were doing this exhibition,” Pollard says. “My old collages were really small - three inches by four inches. But if I’m going to do an exhibit, I’m going to need bigger collages. It’s tough to get over magazine page size. It will be a lot of crap on the wall. It will be fun, we’ll have wine and all that kind of shit.”
Related links:
Merge Records
Robert Pollard Official Website
The Takeovers on MySpace
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