You have to hand it to Robert Pollard: With Ted Kennedy dead, he’s easily America’s most prolific functioning alcoholic. This year is already shaping up to be one of Pollard’s busiest, what with the upcoming Guided By Voices reunion tour eating up a chunk of his autumn, but on top of that Uncle Bob has announced that he plans to release no fewer than five albums over the next 10 months.
He’ll begin with Sept. 7’s Our Cubehouse Still Rocks from his newish band Boston Spaceships, followed by January’s solo album Space City Kicks. A month later, he’ll revive his Lifeguards project (with ex-GBV guitarist Doug Gillard) for Waving At The Astronauts, then in March he’ll drop a still-untitled album from new group Mars Classroom, which pairs him with Big Dipper’s Gary Waleik. Finally, he’ll release yet another Boston Spaceships record called Let It Beard—a 26-track double album that features guest appearances from J. Mascis, Wire’s Colin Newman, Mick Collins of The Dirtbombs, Dave Rick of King Missile, and Steve Wynn of Dream Syndicate. And by then he’ll probably have another five albums in the can. What did you accomplish this week?
Oh, and as if that weren’t enough, Pollard is doing an art show at New York’s 45 Space on August 27-28 called “The Public Hi-Fi Ballroom,” which comprises “more than 60 imaginary record sleeves, as well as dreamed-up magazines and coffee table books.” That show will be hosted by The Sopranos’ Michael Imperioli, who hosted Pollard’s last major art show, “Do The Collage,” at his Studio Dante back in December. So he also has cooler friends than you too.