Guided By Robert Pollard
Robert Pollard Solo

Robert Pollard
Superman Was A Rocker
(CD)
(2008)

Robert Pollard - Superman Was A Rocker
2008
by Propellerless

I have read on-line, Guided By Voices fans really putting down this mini-album
and I never understood why, I actually really enjoyed it.

Bob takes instrumentals tracks recorded between the years 1980 to 2007,
which feature ex-GBV members Tobin Sprout, Jim Pollard, Mitch Mitchell,
Doug Gillard, Kevin March, Nate Farley, Tim Tobias and others
and records vocals over them.

Quite a few interesting moments,
“Another Man's Blood” starts out with Bob’s first band Anacrusis,
then after eight seconds the “Classic Line-up” provides the instrumentation.
then at the end the Gillard/Farley/Tobias GBV line-up makes an appearance,
all the while Bob wails away.

One of my favorite tracks is “Back To The Farm” which starts off with Hiram Campbell aka Bob,
calling a GBV interview show of some kind, hassling Mitch and Kevin.
then it’s goes into an acoustic guitar instrumental
by Kevin March that sounds like an out-take from “Kid Marine.”

The instrumental track for “Substitute Heaven” which Bob sings over,
sounds like a very early take of “Pantherz” from Box 1.

Quite a few of the instrumental tracks only feature Bob,
which were probably recorded years earlier.
One of them “Surveillance” is a cool weird backwards thing and
“Fascination Attempt” is a short sped up recording.

The one song that features Bob’s original vocal is “More Hot Dogs Please”
apparently it is the first full Guided By Voices recording with vocals from the basement days.

Kevin March also does all the instrumentation on “Love Your Spaceman”,
with Bob’s vocals it could be single.

It’s actually a fun album; it’s like listening to an off-the-wall radio show.
Perhaps not for everyone,
But I really enjoy GBV’s early noisy weird stuff, so it’s up my alley.
If you enjoyed GBV early eps, you might like this.