Robert Pollard To Release Two, Count 'Em Two Solo Albums On October 9th! (Updated With Tracklists!)

Muppet News Flash! Pitchfork, your home for snarky, ironic hipster rock news and reviews has outscooped everyone with the tracklisting for both Standard Gargoyle Decisions and Coast To Coast Carpet Of Love! And here they are...

Standard Gargoyle Decisions:

01 The Killers
02 Pill Gone Girl
03 Hero Blows the Revolution
04 Psycho-Inertia
05 Shadow Port
06 Lay Me Down
07 Butcher Man
08 Motion Sickness Ghosts
09 I in the World
10 Here Comes Garcia
11 The Island Lobby
12 Folded Claws
13 Feel Not Crushed
14 Accusations
15 Don't Trust Anybody
16 Come Here Beautiful
17 Spider Eyes

Coast to Coast Carpet of Love:

01 Our Gaze
02 Count Us In
03 Exactly What Words Mean
04 Current Desperation (Angels Speak of Nothing)
05 Dumb Lady
06 Rud Fins
07 Customer's Throat
08 Miles Under the Skin
09 Penumbra
10 Slow Hamilton
11 Looks is What You Have
12 I Clap for Strangers
13 Life of a Wife
14 Youth Leagues
15 When We Were Slaves
16 Nicely Now

And the article describes the albums as follows...

One, Standard Gargoyle Decisions, is being described as "super-catchy pop," while the other, Coast to Coast Carpet of Love, as "down and dirty rock

...which is the opposite of what I reported below, ah well. (Update! Pitchfork got it reversed. I was correct. Hee haw!)

So this means that only two of the remaining Silverfish Trivia tracks made the cut (unless they have been retitled), The Killers and Life Of A Wife. Met Her At A Seance and the title song Coast To Coast Carpet Of Love are MIA, presumed dead or perhaps b-sides on the Happy Jack Rock Records Single Series. Very interesting (and somewhat confusing)...


Instead of releasing just one new solo album on Merge Records October 9th, Robert Pollard will be releasing two! They are the aforementioned Standard Gargoyle Decisions and the newly announced Coast To Coast Carpet Of Love, named after a song from the previous incarnation of Silverfish Trivia.

How we got to this place is a long and twisted tale. The recently released mini-LP Silverfish Trivia was originally a full length LP. But Bob was not satisfied and more recording and tracklist fiddling transformed Silverfish Trivia to its current 7 track state. Which left the remaining songs from the original version (as heard on Bob and The Ascended Masters' Normal Happiness tour in November) as well as several others. The known leftover songs from Silverfish Trivia were...

The Killers (formerly a Psycho And The Bird's track)
Piss Along You Bird
Met Her At A Seance
Life Of A Wife
Coast To Coast Carpet Of Love

In addition, Pollard had written and was itching to record an additional 28 brand new songs. So Standard Gargoyle Decisions and Coast To Coast Carpet Of Love will be comprised of the 28 new songs as well as a sprinkling of the original Silverfish Trivia tracks recorded last year, if they make the cut (or aren't a part of Crickets).

Which brings us to the previously posted Happy Jack Rock Records Single Series. And its now been revealed that the series will comprise A-sides from both Standard Gargoyle Decisions and Coast To Coast Carpet Of Love as well as non-album B-sides. The first two 7" singles will be Rud Fins b/w Piss Along You Bird and Spider Eyes b/w Battle For Mankind. So that means that two tracks from Standard Gargoyle Decisions and/or Coast To Coast Carpet Of Love are Rud Fins and Spider Eyes. And Piss Along You Bird (from the original Silverfish Trivia) didn't make the cut for either. Phew!

So come October 9th, us Pollard fans will be spoiled rotten yet again. Not a lot of rock artists have released two LPs on the same day. But if anyone could, it's our prolific and brilliant Uncle Bob! And those in the know are saying that Standard Gargoyle Decisions is the heavier, darker and harder-rocking of the two. While Coast To Coast Carpet Of Love (at one time titled "Lay Them Hands") is more poppy and melodic. More details coming soon, stay tuned...


(photo courtesy of barthatronic and DTS)