Author: Stephen Deusner

Back in ’93 or ’94, at the height of his legend, Guided By Voices’ Robert
Pollard was like the proverbial dancing bear. The audience applauds the
performance not because the dance itself is good but because a bear is doing
it.

Similarly, Pollard became an indie superhero not because the
songs he wrote were all that great (along with some truly remarkable tunes, he
had a lot that were underdeveloped, abrupt, or just plain bad) but because the
songs were penned by a proudly alcoholic former fourth-grade teacher from
Dayton, Ohio, who was famously prolific and an obsessive archivist.

As it would for anyone, it proved difficult for Pollard to keep
dancing for very long. Although GBV released one of the all-time classic lo-fi
albums, 1994’s Bee Thousand, the band’s subsequent material proved too
self-indulgent and choppy, too sloppy and slapdash to maintain the myth, and
they veered dangerously close to self-parody and irrelevance. Pollard’s own
prolific nature didn’t help much, and the seemingly unending parade of
overlong albums and twice-a-year EPs — as well as the two immense and aptly
titled box sets Box and Suitcase — were overwhelming in their
density and too often underwhelming in their quality. The overall impression
was that despite the quantity of material, Pollard simply didn’t have a lot to
say.

In 1999, GBV tried sincerely to sell out with Do the
Collapse, which showed they were willing to put on a straight face and be
serious, but the album’s pristine production, courtesy of ex-Car Ric Ocasek,
turned off many long-time fans and failed to catch the attention of many new
listeners.

Isolation Drills, their second album for the TVT label and
their 12th overall, finds them still trying to claw their way out of lo-fi and
into a little bit of commercial/critical respectability. This time around,
they’ve enlisted the help of alt-producer Rob Schnapf (Beck and Mary Lou
Lord). Schnapf proves a wise choice, as he injects a little nuance and a lot
of life into the band’s sound. The guitars especially benefit from his knob
twiddling: “Skills Like This” gallops along on a major rock-and-roll
riff, while all six strings shimmer distinctively on the sublime “Chasing
Heather Crazy.” Isolation Drills is GBV’s guitar album, if you can
believe that.

Pollard himself also rises to the occasion with 16 well-crafted
songs, all of which — from the short but bittersweet “Sister I Need
Wine” to the anthemic “The Enemy” — are absolutely crucial. In
fact, while most rock albums feel too long at 12 or 13 songs, there is not an
ounce of filler on Isolation Drills, each of its songs contributing to
a very cohesive whole.

As a vocalist, Pollard has developed a surprisingly wide if still
somewhat limited emotional range. He recalls a young Michael Stipe on
“Fair Touching,” all dry mumbles buried beneath the dense guitars,
while on “Want One?” he fronts like the glam-rock god he posed as on
“The Weed King” from 1993’s Vampire on Titus. And on the
just-over-a-minute “Frostman,” his voice aches with age and sobriety
as he surveys his life’s winter. It’s a supremely jarring moment on an album
with so many high points.

Perhaps most surprisingly, Pollard seems to finally have
something to say. “How’s My Drinking?” is a gentle assessment of his
famed you-know-what, on which he exclaims, “I don’t care about being
sober/but I sure get around.” “Run Wild” plays like an anthem
to his past: “Leave your things in the streets/and run wild,” he
sings, but he knows he can’t heed that advice. The song is at once a
bittersweet ode to the past’s many indiscretions and a monument to his own
individualist ideals. Regrets but no regrets.

On “Fair Touching,” he delivers a line that is
painfully direct: “Currently fabulous/perhaps at last/the song you sing
will have meaning. ” Isolation Drills is shot through with a deep
sense of remorse over missed opportunities and a lurking fear of loneliness.
Pollard’s not speaking romantically but publicly — he seems aware that this
is probably GBV’s last shot at greatness and he sounds desperate to live up to
it. “There’s a better road ahead,” he sings on “The Brides Have
Hit Glass,” adding that “I just don’t know how to make it there/so
I’ll just hang around and take my chance.”

Ultimately, Isolation Drills is GBV’s All That You
Can’t Leave Behind, their triumphant return to form — even though they’ve
never sounded this good before. And early sales point to impending commercial
success as well. During the week following its release in early April,
Isolation Drills sold more copies than any of the band’s previous
albums, debuting on the Billboard Top 200 Albums chart at number 168.
It’s the first time any of the band’s albums have appeared on the list.

This time, the applause is for both the bear and the dance: the
grumbling, never-say-die Pollard and his spirited, poignant career album.

You can e-mail Stephen Deusner at letters@memphisflyer.com.

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notes

by CHRIS HERRINGTON

After breaking into the Top 10 of our local music poll last week,
Greg Oblivian’s new band The Reigning Sound has a big week ahead of
them with a 7″ single and debut album, Break-up Breakdown, due out
on the Sympathy for the Record Industry label. The Reigning Sound will be
performing on the porch at Shangri-La Records Friday, May 11th, at 5
p.m. and will be signing copies of the new records. Shangri-La has another
front-porch, record-release performance slated for Sunday, May 20th, at 4 p.m.
when singer-songwriter Cory Branan will be playing and signing copies
of his MADJACK debut The Hell You Say.

Also at Shangri-La this week, author Richard Younger will
sign copies of his new book, Get a Shot of Rhythm and Blues: The Arthur
Alexander Story (University of Alabama Press). The late Alexander was
one of the soul stars of the Muscle Shoals sound in the ’60s and produced such
classics as “Anna,” “You Better Move On,” and
“Rainbow Road.” Younger will be at Shangri-La on Wednesday, May
16th, at 5 p.m. and will also be giving a reading and signing at The
Deliberate Literate at noon on Thursday, May 17th.

On the strength of the breakout hit “Chickenhead,”
Project Pat‘s Mista Don’t Play has been certified gold. The
video for the album’s second single, the ubiquitous-on-local-radio “Don’t
Save Her,” was recently shot in Miami with what the band’s label
characterizes as a Baywatch theme. It was directed by the same team who
helmed Three 6 Mafia‘s upcoming straight-to-video feature
Choices.

After two shows from the man himself a couple of weeks ago,
B.B. King’s Blues Club turned 10 on May 3rd. The club plans an official
anniversary celebration for this August.

Plan ahead: There are plenty of notable concerts on tap in
the coming weeks, with a special reunion by D.C. hardcore legends Bad
Brains leading the way. Re-dubbed “Soul Brains” for legal
reasons, H.R., Dr. Know, and company will be at Last Place on Earth on
Friday, June 15th. Tickets went on sale last Friday for a big hip-hop and
R&B show slated for the Mid-South Coliseum on Thursday, June 14th. The
Seagram’s Gin Live tour will feature Mystikal, Ludacris,
Jagged Edge, Jaheim, and Lil’ Jon and the East Side Boyz.
Bluegrass elder statesman Del McCourey will grace the stage at the
Hi-Tone Café on Thursday, May 17th, and will be followed at the
club on Sunday, May 20th, by the official release party for Cory Branan’s
debut album. — Chris Herrington

The Glands

It’s my heart that’s in the right place but my head that’s in the
clouds,” the Glands’ Ross Shapiro sings on “Swim,” thus summing
up his band’s peculiar charm. The Glands are a rare thing indeed: an Athens
band that doesn’t seem to be influenced by any other Athens band. They don’t
belong to the eclectic Elephant 6 collective, and their tight blend of pop and
rock is miles removed from the loose jangle of early REM or the party-movin’
workouts of the B-52s.

The band’s eponymous sophomore album, released last year on
Atlanta’s Capricorn Records, is a glorious hodgepodge of styles, ranging from
witty, intelligent pop to crunchy, guitar-driven rock to contemplative folk.
It’s a friendly record, one that sounds immediately familiar yet is strikingly
original and resourceful in its execution.

One of the first things you notice on the album is its sense of
spontaneity, a result, perhaps, of the band having no set approach to making
the record. “Sometimes there is no real plan to how something is supposed
to go,” says Shapiro. “So we’ll go into it with the plan to
experiment until something good comes out of it.” Such playfulness is
evident throughout The Glands, from the yawning violin in the coda of
“Swim” to the great tectonic bass shifts that move
“Lovetown” to the seemingly lackadaisical construction of “I
Can See My House from Here.”

The album’s diversity of sound comes not only from the band’s
loose approach to recording but also from its use of multiple studios and
producers. In addition, the Glands are listed as co-producers on each track.
“The different studios,” Shapiro explains, “have different
ambiences. Each producer works in a different way, and since our songs go all
over the place, it’s good to have no set habits. Plus, they’re all kinda part
of the band.” The result is a surprisingly diverse collection that shifts
moods often and easily, constructing hooky pop songs and murky soundscapes
with equal success — and never using the same trick twice.

Despite this eclectic quality, The Glands is a genuinely
cohesive collection. Holding all the disparate elements together, Shapiro’s
voice — utterly devoid of affectation — exudes a laid-back charm. Sonically,
it falls somewhere between Tom Petty’s matter-of-fact Southern drawl and Bob
Dylan’s nasal whine, but it also suggests such newcomers as Mercury Rev’s
Jonathan Donahue and Doug Martsch of Built to Spill. But Shapiro’s voice
displays more resonance and distinctiveness than those comparisons suggest; he
is no better or worse a singer than those above but very different,
simultaneously disaffected and completely relaxed.

Genuinely intriguing and sharply crafted, his lyrics possess a
conversational quality that matches his vocal style. There are flashes of
insight on songs like “Straight Down” and “Favorite
American,” and “Soul Inspiration” bristles with an alarming
ambiguity. However, he conveys more meaning in the sound of his voice than in
the words he sings, so lyrics remain secondary to the album’s overall
sound.

The rest of the band — Doug Stanley, Andy Baker, and Neil Golden
— display a funky versatility, genre-hopping from indie to pop to straight-
ahead rock with a dexterous flair. The opener and would-be single,
“Livin’ Was Easy,” shuffles into a drum-heavy breakdown inspired, it
would seem, by Pavement’s “Summer Babe.” It laments having to leave
behind the simple pleasures of life — “Why did I go?/The livin’ was
easy/I had a room of my own/and the weather was warm.”

“When I Laugh” thumps along with a relentless momentum
and some endlessly catchy backup doo-doo-doo-doo-doos. “Swim,”
heralded by a short string intro, changes gear to upbeat pop, tricked out with
a bubbly piano theme. Taken together, the first three tracks comprise a
perfect opening: endearing, inviting, and unflaggingly upbeat. It’s not until
the fourth song, the beautiful, ponderous “Mayflower,” that the
momentum slows.

Through the course of 13 songs, the Glands also touch on classic
rock with pieces like “Straight Down” and “Work It Out,”
which actually have guitar solos, as well as slower, moodier pieces like the
evocative “Ground,” which centers on a start-stop guitar theme and a
spiraling organ solo.

But the album’s literal and conceptual centerpiece, “I Can
See My House from Here,” is its own creation entirely. A steady-moving
pop song at heart, it piles layer upon layer of percussion, guitar, vocals,
and a variation of the piano line from the Four Seasons’ “Oh What a
Night.” It has the spaced-out vibe of a remix, yet every sound feels
vital and central.

For collectors, the vinyl edition of The Glands contains
five extra tracks, which, on the whole, are fairly minor. Only “Something
in the Air” is truly worth seeking out. Its propulsive tempo and crisp
guitars match the mood of “Straight Down” and “Work It
Out,” while Shapiro’s boyish la-la-las and casual lyrics complement
“Livin’ Was Easy” and “Swim.”

Such a rare band has accomplished an even rarer feat: The Glands
have created a small masterpiece of precise sound and easy intimacy, and
Shapiro’s richly textured voice, paired with the band’s exacting work, reveals
new depth and detail with every listen.

The Glands

With The Go and The Final Solutions

Tuesday, March 20th

Last Place on Earth

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Music Notes

by CHRIS HERRINGTON

Rockabilly Revival

To the extent that longtime Memphians Jesse Lee and Jimmy Denson
have been recognized, it’s usually been in relation to Elvis Presley. The
Denson brothers grew up with Elvis in the Lauderdale Courts housing project
and their father ran the Poplar Street Mission, which helped the Presley
family start their lives in Memphis. Jesse Lee Denson, roughly two years
Elvis’ senior, is said to have given Elvis some of his earliest guitar
instruction and mentoring. But thanks to a new import release from London’s
Ace Records — Long Gone Daddies: Original ’50s Rockabilly & Rock ‘n’
Roll from the Modern Label — listeners can check out how the Denson
brothers fared as artists in their own right.

This collection of obscure first-generation rockabilly sides
crams 32 singles and demos onto one disc, including Lee Denson’s “High
School Hop” and five cuts credited under the moniker “Jesse
James” that were performed by Jesse Lee and co-written with brother
Jimmy. These sides were cut in Los Angeles on the tail end of the rockabilly
wave for a label called Kent. “High School Hop” is a typical genre
exercise that, for all its energy, sounds pretty calculated. But the Jesse
James cuts are a little bit rougher. The surprising “South’s Gonna Rise
Again,” included here in its 1958 singles form and as a previously
unreleased demo, is a nervy, proto-Bocephus, scary-white-boy roots anthem with
group-vocal hallelujahs and lyrics like, “Down south of the Mason-Dixon,
friends/Rebels are a’rockin’ and rollin’ in” and “Save your
Confederate money, my friend.” It may have just been a prideful
rockabilly testament, but in 1958 I bet it sounded pretty sketchy. And then
there’s “Rock Daddy Rock,” which begins with the lustful cry,
“There’s a lot of 13-, 14-, 15-year-old girls .”

The Denson brothers are still in town and are anxious for people
to rediscover their music, which could be a problem. Last I heard, Shangri-La
Records in Midtown was trying to get some of these English-import discs but
wasn’t having much luck. If you’re interested, check with Shangri-La.

New Releases

Significant new records scheduled to hit the racks this week:

Bastard Sons of Johnny Cash — Walk Alone
(Ultimatum Music)

Eric Clapton — Reptile (Reprise)

Daft Punk — Discovery (Virgin)

Idlewild — 100 Broken Windows (Capitol/Odeon)

Los Super Seven — Canto (Columbia/Legacy)

Swag — Catch-All (Yep Roc)