In Stores Now: Waving at the Astronauts by Lifeguards

Detail of the poster for the 1965-66 season of the Basel Municipal Theater by Armin Hofmann, 1965

I might as well begin with a pro forma reference to the prolificacy of Ohio-based songwriter Robert Pollard, because I want to make a point about his extensive discography - he has released enough albums (with his band Guided By Voices, solo, or in one of many collaborations) that there are a variety of ways to divvy up and categorize his output. For the purposes of this write-up, I'm proposing that his collaborative albums typically fall into three categories: (1) another musician who fleshes out compositions or demos recorded by Pollard (Boston Spaceships, Psycho and the Birds), (2) a collaborator who writes original pop instrumentals begging for a catchy melody to be provided by Pollard (Airport 5, the Keene Brothers), or (3) an artist who challenges Pollard to find a melody to fit a more "difficult" set of instrumental compositions that don't easily fit Pollard's typical style (Go Back Snowball, Phantom Tollbooth). Waving at the Astronauts, the second collaborative album that Pollard has made under the Lifeguards name with former GBV guitarist Doug Gillard, falls pretty cleanly into that third category but, impressively, it is among Pollard's most interesting post-GBV albums.

Among Guided By Voices fans, Gillard is almost universally praised as Pollard's best foil in the post-"classic-lineup" years of the group. He was the sole survivor of the uncomfortable GBVerde iteration of the band, and his brainy guitarwork molded itself to Pollard's songwriting with eerie precision during the band's later years. With Waving at the Astronauts, he has given Pollard a set of heavy-ish rock instrumentals with interesting and slightly off-kilter structures, and Pollard has done a great job of adding a matching vocal element and equally engaging melody. The songs on this album have an art-rock or post-punk bent, with some prog, motorik, and even glam elements thrown in. As a result, Pollard has to stretch a little to make his vocals work - this is probably his shouty-est record, but there are some great vocal hooks and choruses as well. Not everything works, of course - "(Doing the) Math" and "Trip the Web" just don't hang together very well as finished songs, and the album's closer "What Am I?" is a throwaway with one of my least favorite Pollard lyrics ever ("Hi - I'm a fly ... a big nasty hairy f***er ... wiping s*** of my legs right now.")

But, a few glitches aside, Waving at the Astronauts has some very rewarding moments that sound better for being a little outside of Pollard's wheelhouse. The album opener "Paradise Is Not So Bad" is smart without falling into the "too smart" trap of the album's lesser tracks - it's got a chorus so good that Pollard prefaces it by saying, "Here comes the hit!" "Nobody's Milk" has Pollard spitting invective over a Stones-style blues riff, and it works. Later in the album, Gillard delivers a sped-up version of the same approach with "Sexless Auto", and that works too. Krautrock-style grooves dominate two tracks back to back in the middle of the album - "Product Head" has a cool locked-in math-rock riff and "You're Gonna Need a Mountain" rides on a relentless piano-and-cymbals rhythm. We even get a nice ballad with the delicate "They Called Him So Much". Gillard's one-man band has an appropriately muscular sound (even plays drums on the majority of the tracks) and his production has a fresh, roomy feel to it (I'll restrain myself from comparing it to Pollard's favored producer Todd Tobias). On paper, this should be a bottom-tier Pollard release for me because it largely eschews his poppier impulses, but it rocks in a way that's hitting me just right.

Obligatory "Pollard's got more albums coming" note: the Mars Classroom album (The New Theory of Everything, a collaboration with Gary Waleik of Big Dipper) comes out in a month, and Let It Beard, the star-studded double-concept-album by Boston Spaceships, drops in August (I'm really excited about both of these!)

"Paradise Is Not So Bad" by Lifeguards