Robert Pollard - Elephant Jokes - August release

Good weekend! My mailbox last night had a copy the upcoming Robert Pollard CD 'Elephant Jokes', slated for August release. Sweeet. I just plunked it on and am rockin' to the big rock sounds. 2nd track, Johnny Optimist, great song. Big chorus. Robert Pollard is alive. More reviewness coming as I get through it...

UPDATE: Here's a bit more on the CD - plus an MP3 from 'Elephant Jokes' below. Robert Pollard's artistry knows no bounds.

First, some promo copy as written by Bee Thousand 33/13 writer Marc Woodworth:

"You want nostalgia? OK, here's some nostalgia. Think music as real and unselfconscious as anything since Same Place the Fly Got Smashed or songs alive with Alien Lanes' aesthetic but even hookier and smarter ('Stiff Me'? Are you kidding? Pure gold!). Music that sounds just like friends playing for the fun of it in the family basement (so the family's grown up and moved away, it's a different house and it's not exactly a basement anyway, but I defy you to hear the difference).

On Todd Tobias' playground, everything's possible, same as it ever was. Ocarina and kiddie chord organ on 'Jimmy' with a drum beat as pared down as Hot Freak's trusty old 4/4? Check. A turn on the guitar by Tim Tobias, GBV '99-'03. Uh huh. A verbal landscape where angels look like hell and Cyclops calls for his perverted eyelash? Did you expect anything less?"

Dfactor sez: Whew. That's some promo copy. I think I remembered just now why I didn't like that GBV 33 1/3 book so much. But nonetheless, I think the point of Woodworth's beer-fueled prose is to get across the point that Pollard's new songs should DEFINITELY appeal to the old school GBV fanboy inside many of us, who always want to hear the "old shit" instead of the 'new shit". And I think he's right.

It's only my first time listening through, and I'm hearing cool riffs with great vocals (Newly Selected Dirt Spots), as well as a classic GBV-styled riff with some of the lowest register Pollard vocals ever on (All You Need) To Know. From wavering melancholy vocals on the new CD's Desiring over tender acoustic guitar to the one verse-one chorus rock brilliance of Hippsville (Where the Frisbees Fly Forever).

The thing about Pollard is that "He Stockpiles Songs for Armageddon" (suggested song title). He is constantly writing songs, recording 'em and filing them away. So this MP3 for the 14th track on the CD - "Jimmy" - which starts a bit like 'Hot Freaks' and has a kooky catchy chorus: "Jimmy hits (it's?) your love, Jimmy get your gun, Jimmy hits your love gun, supersonic love gun" - could've been written and recorded anytime in the last 2-12 years? Who knows? Anyway, it's fun. (Click the link, wait 30 secs for the file, then download - I don't host music files too often, but if anyone has better suggestions, shout 'em out)