If you’re one of those people who slavishly follow Robert Pollard (GBV, Boston Spaceships and a host of others) you’ll be heartened by this news and if you’re one of those people who pick up the odd release when he churns out something close to classic, then you’ll also be pleased by this news because, the new one is a cracker. There’s a whole host of nuggets squirrelled away in Pollard’s back catalogue which are easily overlooked due to his productivity. Earlier this year I binged and I got hold of Cosmos, a collaboration with Eric Matthews (from the Moles) and Mars Classroom with Gary Waleik from Big Dipper. There both as great as they could be and the latter in particular has some songs that make my life less dull.
This one’s a band effort though, not GBV (but mostly former, current or future members) featuring Doug Gillard, Mark Shue and Travis Harrison, the band are called ESP Ohio and the record is “Starting Point of the Royal Cyclopean”. It’s billed as a band rather than collaboration and it shows in the music which is mid-fi and full of the joyous hooks of his best work. You can judge for yourselves the video for the lead single ‘Lithuanian Bombshells’ is below. The album’s out on Rockathon Records on November 18th.
