Chronicling the creative process for Pop Zeus, the forthcoming Guided By Voices/Bob Pollard tribute comic- including sketches, concepts, finished art and whatever else is in my brain at the moment.

Thursday, June 19, 2008

Who Are Carbon Whales?

Happy Jack Rock Records continues to deliver the goods with the July 15th release of Carbon Whales' 4 song EP entitled South. And the pre-order is now available! The tracklisting for South is...

01 Welcome To Miami
02 Work Into Me
03 False Teeth
04 The Jeep

But who are Carbon Whales?

The band's MySpace page reveals the lineup as...

bob evans: guitar, vocals
joustin clarke: bass, vocals
ride: drums

And here is an mp3 clip from "The Jeep", one of the 4 tracks on South.

The official story from Happy Jack/Rockathon guru Rich T is...
This is a Bob SPONSORED release. Some obscure band from the 70s that Paddy Considine turned Bob on to. There are these 4 songs they did that apparently are the only things they ever recorded. It was never released. Bob really loves it so we tracked them down and asked if we could release it. The singer sounds EXACTLY like Bob. More details next week. It'll be a 7" and a slip jacket CD release.
Sounds great but suspiciously like a Robert Pollard side project. Some quick online investigation reveals no record of a band named Carbon Whales. And for years, Bob similarly denied that the psych band Nightwalker were Guided By Voices (they were). A 70's sounding band that has a singer named Bob, who sounds exactly like Bob, with an album cover by Bob? Hmmm (scratching chin)...

Regardless, color me stoked for another bitchin' Happy Jack release in the not too distant future!

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

EAT 5 And 6 Announced!

As a regular reader of Pop Zeus, you already know that EAT is Robert Pollard and Rockathon Records' continuing series of literary/art journals. And EAT 5 (to be released on July 15th, pre-order now available!) and EAT 6 (September 15th, 2008) are primed and ready to warp your mind and melt your eyeballs.

First up is EAT 5: The Dogshit Chronicles. This all text issue is something special, check the word from my main man, Rich T...
EAT 5 will be out shortly and it is unlike any of the other EATs. It is actually a book of stories written by Bob. True stories of his times in Northridge. Really crazy stories written about some really crazy people.
And Bob sez...
It’s just going to be the very best drinking, crazy-ass party stories that I can conjure. The “How the hell did I survive that?” kind of thing. Kind of like the Basketball Diaries, but it’s the Dogshit Chronicles. It mainly has to do with alcohol, not heroin or whatever... I’ve got shitloads of them. But I can’t always come up with them, because they’re not like we went out and fucking burned a building down or something. It’s just where we went out and shit that we didn’t expect to happen would happen. The next day we go, “Jesus Christ, we’re lucky we didn’t kill ourselves.” Those kinds of things.
Sounds hilarious! And like EAT 4, EAT 6 will be another all-collage issue.

If the print runs of these EATs are anything like the others, they will be limited editions and could go out of print. So make sure you order early and often, kids...

Monday, June 16, 2008

Boston Spaceships Revealed! Band Members, Tracklist, Preview MP3, Tour Dates, Etc...



As reported earlier, Robert Pollard has a new band called Boston Spaceships! And many more details have come to light regarding who, what, where, when and why...

First and foremost, the all-star touring lineup for Boston Spaceships is...


Robert Pollard: vocals and songwriter


Tommy Keene (The Ascended Masters and Keene Brothers): lead guitar and keyboard


Jason Narducy (The Ascended Masters and Bob Mould Band): bass


Chris Slusarenko (Guided By Voices and The Takeovers): other guitar


John Moen (The Decembrists and The Takeovers): drums


It's like the ultimate Marvel Team-Up with the Ascended Masters joining forces with The Takeovers! A powerhouse unit, without a doubt...


The band's debut album, Brown Submarine (dropping [pun intended] September 2nd on Pollard's own label Guided By Voices Inc.) was recorded in Portland with Slusarenko on everything but drums (Moen, obviously). Bob's vocals were recorded sometime later by Todd Tobias at Waterloo Studios.


And the tracklisting is...

01 Winston's Atomic Bird
02 Brown Submarine
03 You Satisfy Me
04 Ate It Twice
05 Two Girl Area
06 North 11 A.M.,
07 Zero Fix
08 Psych Threat
09 Andy Playboy
10 Rat Trap
11 Soggy Beavers
12 Ready to Pop
13 Still in Rome
14 Go for the Exit

And Go For The Exit is available right now as an MP3 courtesy of those shaggy haired folks at Pitchfork!



If you have been paying attention, you will instantly recognize Go For The Exit as a re-titled and re-worked Suitcase 1 song (and one of my personal favorites) Go For The Answers. And that's one of the coolest things about the Boston Spaceships project. Pollard is using the band as a way to fully realize old songs that were either released only on Suitcase or weren't released at all. Suitcase songs like Soggy Beavers, It's Easy and Dorothy's A Planet will be among the "brown nuggets" on Boston Spaceships' docket (and some may even be hiding in the tracklisting above, under new titles). Another 1/3rd of the songs will be old songs never heard. And the final 1/3rd will be brand new Pollard compositions. Unlike The Takeovers, all the music will be penned by Pollard.

The news gets even better. Bob considers Boston Spaceships to be his new band. So a new BS album will be released every year! The follow up to Brown Submarine is already in the works. This is not to say that the yearly solo and Circus Devils albums will cease production. Never underestimate the Pollard work ethic!

Thankfully, we won't have to wait until September to get some Boston Spaceships wax on our turntables. The debut single, You Satisfy Me b/w Impossible Octopus will be released as a 7" red vinyl single on Happy Jack Rock Records, August 5th!

Soon after Brown Submarine launches, the fully formed Boston Spaceships will hit the road to bring you the rock! Expect to hear an all-new setlist (GBV free, so I've heard) of Boston Spaceships tunes, new solo Pollard and other surprises. Here are the dates and opening acts...

09-25 Cincinnati, OH - Midpoint Music Festival *
09-26 Cleveland Heights, OH - Grog Shop *
09-27 Washington, DC - Black Cat *
09-29 Philadelphia, PA - Johnny Brenda's *
09-30 Boston, MA - Paradise #
10-01 New York, NY - Highline Ballroom *
10-03 Ann Arbor, MI - Blind Pig *
10-04 Dayton, OH - Dayton Music Festival
10-06 Chicago, IL - Double Door *
10-07 St. Paul, MN - Turf Club *
10-09 Champaign, IL - Higher Ground *
10-10 St. Louis, MO - Bluebird *
10-11 Memphis, TN - Hi-Tone *
10-14 Austin, TX - The Parish *
10-15 Dallas, TX - The Loft *
10-17 Atlanta, GA - The Earl *
10-18 Nashville, TN - Mercy Lounge *

* with the High Strung
# with Big Dipper