Not counting “Relaxing Of The Asshole” which is an album of Bobs in-between song
stage banter from Guided By Voices live shows,
the ep, “Zoom” is Bobs first solo release since the break up of Guided By Voices in 2004.
“Zoom” started as a Guided By Voices project,
originally titled “Zoom (It Happens All Over The World) Soundtrack”.
Two of the songs, “Dr. Fuji and Henry Charleston” and “Zoom (It Happens All Over The World)” were
recorded while the band was rehearsing their last album, “Half Smiles of the Decomposed”
in Dayton Ohio.
The concept was,
all members of GBV would contribute songs to what was to be a full length album;
something more democratic from a creative stand point.
Bob aborted the project, saying, the full length album would have been tedious,
and resurrected it six months later as a solo ep.
Keeping the Pseudo 60’s softcore porn soundtrack thing.
“Dr. Fuji and Henry Charleston (Zoom Variation)” is an instrumental version of the title song,
with Bob on guitar and maracas and Doug Gillard on guitar.
A pleasant version of the song playable for muzak radio stations.
That’s not a burn, it’s actually quite nice.
“Have a Day Mr. Clay” is a fun acoustic song with Bobs double-tracked vocal.
At the closing of the song, a drunken Bob interviews with a woman from Frankfort Germany
about conceptual art.
“Catherine from Mid-October” is also Bob accompanied by an acoustic guitar,
both songs seemed to be fully realized versions, not demos.
There is another clip of dialogue, this time slightly sped up.
The title track “Zoom (It Happens All Over The World)”, closes the ep,
Nice pop song; every Beatles fan should be a fan of Bobs,
he’s the only one creating music close to what they were doing,
in a Pop/Rock sort of way.
The song features Bob on vocals, guitar and maracas, with Doug Gillard on bass,
Kevin March on drums and Bob, Doug and Kevin on backing vocals.
The song, “Zoom (It Happens All Over The World)” started life as “White Skin and Bone”
which was written during the Earthquake Glue demos and never used.
As of this date, it has not made its way onto any of the volumes of “Suitcase”.
The two songs that open and close the ep were engineered by Tony Conley,
some may know him for his guitar playing in the Mopping Swans,
one of Bob’s many side projects, but he also played guitar for Anacrusis,
Pollard's pre-GBV metal band.
The songs in-between were recorded by Chris Slusarenko,
who played bass on GBVs last album, “Half Smiles of the Decomposed”
and the tour.
In the next two years Bob would record two albums as “The Takeovers” with Chris,
on those releases, there is dialogue much like this ep.
The Takeovers would evolve into Boston Spaceships in 2008.
A nice release,
but not really reflective of the future of Bobs solo releases,
which would be recorded by the team of Pollard and Tobias.
But a nice little sidestep. |
Guided By Robert Pollard
