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Robert Pollard
Robert Pollard performing at SXSW 2006
Background information
Birth name	Robert Ellsworth Pollard Jr.
Born	1957
Origin	Dayton, OH, U.S.
Genre(s)	rock
Occupation(s)	Singer, Songwriter, Guitarist
Years active	1983–present
Label(s)	Matador Records Merge Records Fading Captain Series/Luna

Robert Pollard (born October 31, 1957) is a Dayton, Ohio, USA singer-songwriter, who until 2004 was the leader and creative force behind indie rock group Guided by Voices. During his high school years, he was a successful basketball and baseball player. Pollard was a fourth grade schoolteacher until 1994, when Guided by Voices first broke into the national consciousness with the release of the album Bee Thousand. With over 1000 songs registered to his name with BMI [1], Pollard is among the most prolific songwriters of his time. In 2006 Paste Magazine listed him as the 78th greatest living songwriter [2].

Contents 1 Solo career 2 Discography 3 Side projects 3.1 Fading Captain series 3.2 Prom is Coming Records 3.3 EAT and Town of Mirrors 3.4 Side projects mentioned by Pollard that have not yet happened 4 Personal life 5 External links

Pollard began releasing solo records in 1996, alongside regular releases from Guided by Voices. These albums were typically recorded with a small group consisting of current or former Guided by Voices members, and they were generally considered to informally be part of the Guided by Voices canon, as that band would regularly perform selections from the solo releases in concert.

After the dissolution of Guided by Voices in 2004, Robert Pollard launched his official solo career with the release of From a Compound Eye in February 2006. Pollard's recent studio work has eschewed the live-band format, instead relying on the multi-instrumental talents of Todd Tobias, who produced several Guided by Voices albums. In 2006, he resumed touring with a new band informally dubbed "The Ascended Masters", which featured Tommy Keene on lead guitar and keyboards, Dave Phillips on guitar, Jon Wurster on drums, and Jason Narducy on bass, but subsequent to the cancellation of some 2006 dates due to a leg injury, Pollard announced his retirement from touring. [3] Despite this, Pollard has recently performed two shows in support of his new albums. The first show was on November 31, 2007 in Chicago, IL at The Metro. The second was on December 1st, 2007 in Newport, KY (across the Ohio River from Cincinnati, OH) at the Southgate House. Despite a new album being released in January, there has been no word on any further performances.

Solo albums:

• 1996 - Not in My Airforce (CD/LP)
• 1998 - Waved Out (CD/LP)
• 1999 - Kid Marine (CD/LP)
• 1999 - Speak Kindly of Your Volunteer Fire Department (with Doug Gillard) (CD/LP)
• 2001 - Choreographed Man of War (billed as "Robert Pollard and the Soft Rock Renegades") (CD/LP)
• 2003 - Motel of Fools (CD/LP)
• 2004 - Fiction Man (CD/LP)
• 2005 - Music for 'Bubble' (CD EP/7")
• 2005 - Zoom (CD EP/7")
• 2005 - Relaxation of the Asshole (LP)
• 2006 - From a Compound Eye (CD/2xLP)
• 2006 - Normal Happiness (CD/LP)
• 2006 - Moon (live CD included with original mail orders of Normal Happiness)
• 2007 - Meet the King: Asshole 2 (LP)
• 2007 - Silverfish Trivia (CD/12" EP)
• 2007 - Standard Gargoyle Decisions (CD/LP)
• 2007 - Coast to Coast Carpet of Love (CD/LP)
• 2008 - Superman Was a Rocker (CD/LP, due January 29)

During the mid-90's, in addition to GbV albums appearing annually, Pollard's prolificacy typically was vented onto innumerable singles, EPs, compilations and other side releases. However, once signed to a major label and constrained to the expectation of producing only a single album per 18 months, Pollard began the self-financed and released Fading Captain Series, a series of releases both under his own name, and a wide variety of pseudonyms. In addition to solo and archival releases, Pollard began collaborating with fellow musicians and friends by mail via a process dubbed "postal rock" - Pollard would receive completed musical backing tracks, and add his own lyrics and vocals. Albums under the Airport 5, Circus Devils, and Go Back Snowball monikers, among others were produced in this fashion.

In December 2006 Pollard announced that the Fading Captain Series was being concluded with the release of Crickets, a 50-song "best of" collection spanning from 1999 through 2007 [4].

The bands that used to release works in the Fading Captain Series now release records on other labels, such as The Takeovers' Bad Football coming out on Off Records and the Circus Devils Sgt. Disco coming out on Digipak Records.

Acid Ranch: (archival recordings featuring Robert Pollard, Kevin Fennell and Mitch Mitchell)

• 2002 - Some Of The Magic Syrup Was Preserved (2xLP--Pollard's first double album)
• 2005 - As Forever: A Manifesto Of Fractured Imagination And Wreckless Living
• 2007 - The Great Houdini Wasn't So Great"

Airport 5: (Robert Pollard and Tobin Sprout)

• 2001 - Tower in the Fountain of Sparks
• 2002 - Life Starts Here

Circus Devils: (Robert Pollard and Todd and Tim Tobias)

• 2001 - Ringworm Interiors
• 2002 - The Harold Pig Memorial
• 2003 - Pinball Mars
• 2005 - Five
• 2007 - Sgt. Disco

Go Back Snowball: (Robert Pollard and Mac McCaughan)

• 2002 - Calling Zero

Hazzard Hotrods: (Recording of informal 1990 performance by Pollard, Tobin Sprout, Mitch Mitchell, and Kevin Fennell)

• 2000 - Big Trouble (re-released as Bigger Trouble 2005)

Howling Wolf Orchestra: (Pollard and various GbV members)

• 2000 - Speedtraps for the Bee Kingdom (12" EP/CD)

Keene Brothers: (Robert Pollard and Tommy Keene)

• 2006 - Blues and Boogie Shoes

Lexo and the Leapers: (Robert Pollard backed by The Tasties)

• 1999 - Ask Them (12" EP/CD)

Lifeguards (Robert Pollard and Doug Gillard)

• 2003 - Mist King Urth

The Moping Swans (Robert Pollard, Greg Demos, Jim MacPherson and Tony Conley)

• 2005 - Lightninghead to Coffee Pot (12" EP/CD)

Nightwalker (pseudonym for archival GbV recordings)

• 1999 - In Shop We Build Electric Chairs: Professional Music by Nightwalker 1984-1993

Phantom Tollbooth:

• 2003 - Beard of Lighting

Psycho and the Birds: (Todd Tobias supplementing Pollard solo demos)

• 2006 - All That is Holy
• 2006 - Check Your Zoo (7" EP/CD)
• 2008 - We've Moved (due Feb 26)

The Takeovers: (Robert Pollard and Chris Slusarenko)

• 2006 - Turn to Red
• 2007 - Bad Football

When Pollard announced that the Fading Captain Series was being concluded he also announced that he was starting up a new record label, then called Record Company Records [5] but later re-titled as Prom is Coming [6], which is named after a song off his first solo album Not in My Airforce. The first release on Prom is Coming was Silverfish Trivia.

In the fall of 2003 Pollard released EAT, a literary magazine consisting of original poems and collages by Pollard. As of October 2007 EAT is on its fourth issue [7]. Pollard's collage art is featured on many Guided by Voices albums (notable exceptions being the two released on TVT Records).

Robert Pollard's collages have been collected and will be published in Town of Mirrors: The Reassembled Imagery of Robert Pollard, due out in sometime in 2008. Town of Mirrors will feature roughly 150 collages, 20 of which were created specifically for the book's release.

• Red Explosion (mentioned back in 1996 or so)
• Polymorph Orchestra (mentioned around the time of Isolation Drills)
• Brown Submarine (mentioned recently as of Jan 2007)
• Frozen Sissy (allegedly a collaboration with his brother Jim Pollard)

Pollard was a school teacher for several years prior to the release of Bee Thousand in 1994. In James Greer's book Guided by Voices: A Brief History: Twenty-One Years of Hunting Accidents in the Forests of Rock and Roll he states that songs such as "Gold Star For Robot Boy," "Teenage FBI" and "Non-Absorbing" were inspired by his days of teaching.

During high school Pollard was a tri-sport varsity athlete. His most notable athletic achievement was throwing the first no-hitter in the history of Wright State University. Pollard has stated that during a Lollapalooza, Pollard and the other guys in GBV beat The Beastie Boys and Billy Corgan in a basketball game. Pollard stated that Kim Deal and Kelley Deal were cheering for them during the game and that Steve Drozd was riding on a bicycle during the game [8].

Much of the inspiration for Pollard's work has come from time spent hanging out with his high school friends from Dayton, a group he calls "The Monument Club" [9].

He has two children (Erica and Bryan) with his ex-wife Kim and wrote a song about each, with "Your Name is Wild" being about his daughter and "My Son Cool" being about his son [10].

• Robert Pollard Official Website
• BMI entry for Robert Pollard
• Robert Pollard Photo Gallery/Show Review at Prefixmag
• Coast to Coast Carpet of Love Review

v • d • e Guided by Voices
Robert Pollard
Doug Gillard • Nate Farley • Chris Slusarenko • Kevin March
Tobin Sprout • Mitch Mitchell • Tim Tobias • Jim Pollard • Kevin Fennell • Greg Demos • Jim Macpherson • Don Thrasher • Jim Greer
Discography
Albums: Devil Between My Toes (1987) • Sandbox (1987) • Self-Inflicted Aerial Nostalgia (1989) • Same Place The Fly Got Smashed (1990) • Propeller (1992) • Vampire on Titus (1993) • Bee Thousand (1994) • Alien Lanes (1995) • Under the Bushes Under the Stars (1996) • Tonics and Twisted Chasers (1996) • Mag Earwhig! (1997) • Do the Collapse (1999) • Isolation Drills (2001) • Universal Truths and Cycles (2002) • Earthquake Glue (2003) • Half Smiles of the Decomposed (2004)
EPs: Forever Since Breakfast (1986) • The Grand Hour (1993) • Static Airplane Jive (1993) • Get Out of My Stations (1994) • Fast Japanese Spin Cycle (1994) • Clown Prince of the Menthol Trailer (1994) • I Am a Scientist (1994) • Tigerbomb (1995) • Sunfish Holy Breakfast (1996) • Plantations of Pale Pink (1996) • Wish in One Hand... (1997) • Plugs For The Program (1999) • Hold On Hope (2000) • Dayton, Ohio-19 Something and 5 (2000) • Daredevil Stamp Collector: Do The Collapse B-sides (2001) • The Pipe Dreams Of Instant Prince Whippet (2002)
Box Sets: Box (1995) • Suitcase: Failed Experiments and Trashed Aircraft (2000) • Hardcore UFOs: Revelations, Epiphanies and Fast Food in the Western Hemisphere (2003) • Suitcase 2: American Superdream Wow (2005)
Compilation: Best Of Guided By Voices: Human Amusements at Hourly Rates (2003)
Related Articles
Airport 5 • Circus Devils • Cobra Verde • From a Compound Eye • The Power of Suck • Todd Tobias