So, this isn’t a typical review. You can find those elsewhere (a nice one with photos from Chicago here and an accurate one from Minneapolis here.) Instead, this is a view of Guided by Voices filtered through three of my favorite lyrics from songs performed by the band on this tour.

I wish I could give a shit, just a little bit.

–”Lethargy,” Guided by Voices

Of course, Guided by Voices does give a shit, more than a little bit. Why would a truck driver, a graphic artist, an attorney and a recluse reconvene 16 years after their last parting to join someone like Robert Pollard on the road for a month if they didn’t care? If nothing else came across during the two shows I caught this week — Minneapolis on Tuesday and Chicago on Wednesday — it is that this band cares a great deal about rock ‘n’ roll.

The reason they were able to return at all was that their fans do as well. I was pleasantly surprised at the packed houses at both — First Avenue in Minneapolis holds 1,500 and the Riviera in Chicago holds 3,000, and both were seemingly nearly full — and wondered if the band would have broken up in the first place had this many people given a shit back when it was a going concern. These are certainly the largest crowds Guided by Voices has faced in its career, reunion or otherwise, and without a doubt the most that this lineup, which disbanded in 1996, has seen.

All of that is by way of saying that the engine that drives the band and its fans is a deep passion about music. It’s no stretch to consider Pollard an amateur historian or rock ‘n’ roll, and any dedicated fan, who must surely have dozens of Pollard’s records on the shelf, must be as well. That history is brought to bear as the band performs the kind of show its members grew up on. Long on great songs and energy, short on bells and whistles, it is the kind of show that soars or falls based on the strength of the songs and the passion with which they are performed.

And we’re finally here and shit yeah, it’s cool.

–”Echoes Myron,” Guided by Voices

Guided by Voices for so long was a basement/garage entity that when it hit the relative big time of a large indie label and tours in large clubs, its members seemed as awestruck at the turn of events as their fans were in finding a group in the early 1990s that played this kind of music this well. Yes, for fans at these reunion shows, it is unbelievably cool to be afforded one more chance to see the “classic lineup” of the band run through some of its most beloved songs, but the above line packs the most punch when it comes from the point of view from the stage. Shit yeah, it’s amazingly cool to be Pollard or Tobin Sprout or Mitch Mitchell or Greg Demos or Kevin Fennell and to have left your life — if not behind, certainly on pause — for a month while you relive (and, truthfully, greatly exceed) your finest moments as a band.

They are working so hard to recapture and enhance that the only real critique of the show is that the band is trying to hard. Not playing too hard, mind you. Rather, they are reaching for something that never was. Pollard used to do a high kick or two; now he does a dozen or so. He used to jump occasionally and twirl his microphone from time to time. Now, it is nearly incessant. God forbid a 53-year-old man prove that he’s in better shape than most of his audience, right? This mild criticism is simply that he has nothing to prove and yet performs as if everything is at stake.

As far as critique-worthy aspects of the show, that’s the one that’s easiest to take, and it means that these performances truly hit on all levels. One could quibble with the setlist — I wished for deeper cuts from Under the Bushes, Under the Stars, for instance — but it hits nearly all the high points. The songs are performed with emotion and passion and surprising dexterity.

They pulled into economy island
King shit and the golden boys
Plenty more where we came from
Top of the line
Don’t stop now.

“Don’t Stop Now,” Guided by Voices

The only question now, of course, is, what’s next? Is this truly just a reunion, a one-off after which the members will return to their lives? That would be my guess. While it was clear that Pollard reveled in the glow of a crowd the size of which he’ll never see again as a solo artist, he also has grown used to splitting the take in far fewer pieces and seems to revel in the creative freedom that was truly his once he left the GBV name behind (a freedom that has been a debit and a credit to these ears). However, does Mitchell want to go back to driving a truck? Could Demos be content to flip through a scrapbook to relive this brief vacation? Will Fennell be happy returning to whatever it was he was doing? One imagines that the “gee, Bob, these shows are going great… what do you think about sticking together?” conversations already have begun on the bus rides from town to town.

But one reason why the band may well feel like King Shit and the Golden Boys is the expiration date stamped on the entire affair. I’m a huge fan of GBV and Pollard, but I’ve let life get in the way of seeing Pollard’s solo shows in Chicago over the past six years. When word hit that Guided by Voices’ classic lineup was reuniting for what seemed like a once-in-a-lifetime tour, I bought tickets in two cities and arranged airfare in between without much consternation. If the band moves beyond the musical in its emulation of the Who and launches regularly scheduled “farewell” tours, I’m sure my interest, and the resulting willingness to part with cash, will wane.

I sense that Pollard realizes this… and that the reasons why he decided to move on from this lineup in the first place are rising again to the fore. He has nothing left to prove, and can consider this a victory lap that gives the band and its fans a chance at Dr. Phil’s best friend: closure.

So yes, they’re finally here, and it is pretty cool. And no, there aren’t more like them where they came from, because, despite protestations to the contrary, they do care. And because of it, so do we.

So, we’re five days away from a monumental musical event: the debut of the reunited Guided by Voices. The band’s 1992-96 lineup will kick off a 20-date tour at the Texas Palladium Showroom in Dallas on Wednesday, Sept. 29, hitting Austin the next night before hitting Las Vegas for the Matador at 21 event that led to the reunion.

I’ll catch a couple of shows in October, and am excited to see this lineup. I obviously haven’t seen the band since its 2004 exit, and saw this version only once, at South by Southwest in 1996.

As anticipation builds, I have wondered what the band will play. According to early word, the band will draw exclusively from four albums — Propeller, Bee Thousand, Alien Lanes and Under the Bushes, Under the Stars. That omits Vampire on Titus, which was released between Propeller and Bee Thousand, and several tracks released on singles and elsewhere.

Assuming that they stick to the four albums mentioned, here is a 37-song dream set list. This is in chronological order only, so other than assuming they’ll open with “A Salty Salute” and close with “Don’t Stop Now,” the rest would just be conjecture.

Over the Neptune/Mesh Gear Fox
Weed King
Quality of Armor
Exit Flagger
14 Cheerleader Coldfront
On the Tundra
Hardcore UFOs
Buzzards and Dreadful Crows
Tractor Rape Chain
Goldheart Mountaintop Queen Directory
Hot Freaks
Echos Myron
Gold Star for Robot Boy
Queen of Cans and Jars
I Am a Scientist
A Salty Salute
Watch Me Jumpstart
They’re Not Witches
Game of Pricks
A Good Flying Bird
Pimple Zoo
Auditorium
Motor Away
My Valuable Hunting Knife
King and Caroline
Striped White Jets
Blimps Go 90
Cut-Out Witch
The Official Ironman Rally Song
No Sky
Your Name is Wild
Acorns & Orioles
Underwater Explosions
Don’t Stop Now
It’s Like Soul Man
Drag Days
Sheet Kickers

The list includes some songs that weren’t among my favorites at the time but which have become treasured — “On the Tundra,” “They’re Not Witches,” “No Sky” and “Drag Days” among them — that I hope hear with this new appreciation in play. The beauty of this is that band leader Robert Pollard has cherry picked the band’s strongest era here. While I’d love to hear a couple of early songs like “Drinker’s Peace” or some rockers from Mag Earwhig!, they really can’t go wrong here.

For a teaser, here’s the band rehearsing “A Salty Salute” in Dayton earlier this month:

So, a year ago, I decided to start keeping track of every full album I listened to. I did this in part as justification for my still-insatiable desire to acquire new music decades after my first purchase, and in part to simply help me to see if my actual listening was as broad as my self-image indicates.

The results were interesting. Over the course of an entire year, I listened to 732 full albums. That equates to 61 a month, or almost exactly two per day. That last figure is a bit misleading, as I would often go a day or two without listening to anything all the way through, while other days spent chained to the computer at work would find me spinning five or six.

I set ground rules: These needed to be albums, not EPs or singles. I needed to listen to them in whole. And once something was heard, it couldn’t be listed again, no matter how many repeat plays. So, while I listened to well over 8,000 songs in this exercise, the total is likely double that or more, as hours and hours spent with the iPod on shuffle, repeat listens of favorite discs and partial spins all were omitted from the total.

The most interesting thing I found is that I changed my listening habits because of this exercise. I’m often chided for not listening to things all the way through, often surprised when listening to old discs while distracted by other things to find an uncredited bonus track at the end or some other unknown treasure toward the end of the tracklist. Because I couldn’t record the album on the list unless I heard the whole thing, I forced myself to hear every last note.

I also listened to a lot more new music than I might have otherwise. There were few albums in the past year that earned a rave review anywhere (and that sounded like they would remotely fall in my musical wheelhouse) that I didn’t track down some way and hear. That expanded my palette, as I found myself embracing much more electronic music than ever before, but also led me to confirm the long-held belief that while an awful lot of of well-reviewed music might offer immediate visceral pleasure, they are lacking in the long run and rarely demand a repeat spin.

I set a goal at the beginning of this calendar year to listen to more classical music, hoping to move from completely ignorant to marginally knowledgeable of the genre’s best works. I did better given that concerted effort than I have in the past, but with only 18 classical collections having been played (though, in my defense, some were multi-disc sets), I have a long way to go.

A look at what I listened to the most meshes pretty well with a list of my favorite artists. Push comes to shove, a list of what I would have expected to listen to the most created at the beginning of this exercise would look a lot like the actual result… with a couple of exceptions. First the list:

That’s the top 10. I keep a blog about Robert Pollard’s music, and that coupled with the fact that he puts out 5 or 6 albums a year means he’ll probably always top this list. I’m a huge fan of Crowded House, R.E.M., Teenage Fanclub and Big Star, so those make sense. I got on a serious Steve Wynn kick last year that continues unabated. The Beatles boxed set accounts for their presence here, while reading the 33 1/3 series book on the Minutemen’s Double Nickels on the Dime helps explain their spot. Devo and Richard Thompson were both driven by live shows. However, I hadn’t listened to Devo in years before pulling them out in July, so their strong showing is pretty remarkable. I’m always listening to Thompson, so that’s no surprise.

My year came to a close on July 31. When Aug. 1 rolled around, I listened to a CD and then headed to the computer to record it. A funny thing happened, however; I decided to let it go. I have been listening to things at pretty much the same pace I did before, but in just a few days, I find I’m already more willing to listen to a handful of songs and then swap something out if it’s not working for me. If I can maintain the adventurousness and patience afforded by the exercise while injecting some much-needed flexibility, my listening experience is sure to improve.

Does anyone have a bunch of money I could borrow? I have never been tempted by the bright lights of Las Vegas, but I really, really want to be there from Oct. 1-3 for “Matador at 21,” a celebration of Matador Records’ 21st anniversary.

As if the presence of Pavement, Sonic Youth, Belle and Sebastian and Spoon wasn’t enough, the event promises an appearance by a reunited Guided by Voices. And not just GBV, but “the Classic ’93-’96 Lineup” of the band. That means Mitch Mitchell, Tobin Sprout, Kevin Fennell and Robert Pollard, together on stage for the first time in 14 years.

I saw this version of the group once at Liberty Lunch during the 1996 SXSW. In that pre-Internet era, I didn’t really know as much about the band as I would have liked. I had the Vampire on Titus/Propeller split, Bee Thousand and Alien Lanes, as well as every single I could put my hands on, but I wasn’t fully aware of the lore. 15 years later, of course, I could more fully appreciate a show by that version of the band. I assume the setlist would be limited to the pre ’97 discography, which would make for an awfully great night.

Seeing the list of bands scheduled to play, I’m struck by how strong Matador’s roster has been. I can take a pass on the bands in the last few lines of that flyer for the most part (save for Shearwatert, but everything else is top notch. Only Merge has had as consistently solid a lineup.

So, anyone who would like to contribute to the “TIRBD to Vegas” fund, please feel free to get in touch.

No, unfortunately, not that hall of fame. The other one. Yes, they’re both in Ohio, but that’s where the similarities end. While Pollard’s output and the quality of his work with Guided by Voices et al more than qualify him for the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, it is his exploits in another field — or rather, on another field — that led to his induction this weekend into the new Northridge High School athletics hall of fame in Dayton.

Pollard and his brother, Jim, another former member of Guided by Voices, were among the inaugural induction class in the hall thanks to their athletic prowess while at Northridge.

Most of the things you read about Pollard are rather fawning when it comes to his music, so it is amusing to see how the “straight” press deals with hit. here is how the Dayton Daily News describes Pollard: “Another inductee making it big on a national level after a colorful NHS career is Bobby Pollard, (’75) a pop-rock artist from Clayton who heads up the group Boston Spaceship, previously known as Guided By Voices.”

That is so small-town newspaper that it’s actually pretty cute. Never mind that it gets wrong the name of Pollard’s latest band and the evolutionary arc between that and GBV, but I’ve never thought of Pollard as a “pop-rock artist.”

Regardless, the honor is clearly justified. As the Daily News goes on to explain, Jimmy is the “high-scoring ‘Ridge basketball whiz,” while Pollard’s claim to fame “was pitching the first no-hitter in Wright State history in ’78. He was the Bears’ quarterback on the gridiron.”

Seeing the Pollards and their parents (photo from the Daily News above) makes Robert seem aged and mortal, when his career has been all about (intentionally or not) making him seem ageless and super-human. It’s nice to see him humanized, but I’ll take it for what it is, a blip in the narrative that supports the theory that Superman was a rocker.

With today’s post about the Boston Spaceships’ track “Brown Submarine,”I’ve officially hit 250 songs on my Robert Pollard catablog, My Impression Now. Hitting that milestone, I hereby declare myself the king of catabloggers when judged by sheer volume of posts.

Others have completed their tasks, of course, something I may never do given that Robert Pollard releases new songs at a rate fairly close that at which I review that music.

The last time I noted my progress here , I had notched my 100th song (“Glad Girls“) in December 2007. At that time I took a survey of the other catablogs known to me. Those behind a few had given up, several others had been dormant for a long time, and a solid number were still going strong.

Fast forward to today, and things have changed (see list below). Six have definitely stopped, 10 have not posted in several months and only a handful of us are still going. Three have completed their task: the Pearl Jam blog More Than Ten, Solar Prestige a Gammon, which covered Elton John’s music from 1969 to 1977, and Matthew Perpetua’s R.E.M. blog, Popsongs ’07-08, which launched this whole movement in May 2007. Perpetua promises to write at some point about Accelerate, the album the band issued late last year after he had finished his project.

I’m surprised all of this didn’t catch on more than it did. It seemed like a great idea, both from the perspective of a writer and a reader. What better way to fully immerse yourself in a favorite band’s work than to force yourself to write about every note? And what better way to learn about a band than to read such passionate, micro-level criticism?

Thing is, it’s a lot of work. I’ve cranked out just shy of 65,000 words on Pollard’s music, and I’m not even a 1/4 of the way through his catalog. The guy behind the Pearl Jam blog (assisted by a few others toward the tail end) wrote 188 posts, while Perpetua wrote 204 (with another seven dedicated to a great Q&A session with Michael Stipe).

I plan to soldier on, if for no other reason than the close listening required of this has made me appreciate Pollard’s music all the more. I’ve been reading Lawrence Block’s great memoir Step by Step, which largely chronicles his obsession with racewalking over long distances, and I see parallels to my own Sisyphean quest. Sure, part of the motivation is in doing something that few others can (or, I’ll admit, want to), but the rewards along the way are what make this truly worthwhile.

R.I.P.
Robynsongs – Robyn Hitchcok
Chrome Canyons – Wilco
Spring, Sprang, Sprung – T-Pain
Emotional Karaoke – Mountain Goats
More Words About Buildings and Songs – Talking Heads
Ten Thousand Lies – Nine Inch Nails

M.I.A. (including month of last post)
All My Little Words – Magnetic Fields: June 2007
Blursongs – Blur: August 2008
Fridgebuzz/Radiostutters – Radiohead: October 2007
Hyper-ballads – Bjork: July 2007
Paraguay and Laos – Bluetones: October 2008
Separated Out – Marillion: August 2007
So Misunderstood – Wilco: September 2007
Crimes on Paper – Self: August 2008
One Imaginary Blog – Cure: July 2008

Still Going Strong
Fragments of a Cale Season – John Cale
I Can’t Sing It Strong Enough – Pavement
Music from a Bachelor’s Den – Pulp
My Impression Now – Guided by Voices
Too Many Words – Low

Done
Popsongs 07 – R.E.M.
More Than Ten – Pearl Jam
Solar Prestige a Gammon – Elton John (69-77)

Having just grudgingly ordered my third Robert Pollard-related disc of the year — the Circus Devils’ Gringos, which follows the Boston Spaceships’ The Planets are Blasted and the solo The Crawling Distance — I was pleasantly surprised to learn that Pollard has yet another disc set for release. While his recent output has been spotty at best — I’d go so far as to say there’s nothing that really sticks with me since the surprisingly consistent solo album Robert Pollard is Off to Business from way back last June — this one holds promise. It’s a pairing with Australian singer-songwriter Richard Davies, leader of the late lamented Moles and, most importantly for orch-pop fans, one half of Cardinal.

Two MP3s from the project, dubbed Cosmos, were posted today. The first, “Nude Metropolis,” can be found at Magnet magazine’s web site. The second, “Hail Mary” is posted at Stereogum. According to the reports, the 14-track disc, Jar of Jam Ton of Bricks, is due June 9 on Pollard’s Happy Jack Rock Records. As with other Pollard collaborations, Davies wrote and recorded the music and Pollard wrote and sang the vocals and melodies. But four of the tracks, including “Hail Mary,” feature Davies alone.

The MP3s are fantastic, and stand in stark contrast with Pollard’s recent work. While Todd Tobias, who provides nearly all of the music for all of Pollard’s releases these days, is a talented and prolific guy, the Pollard/Tobias collaborations are starting to all sound the same (yes, of course they throw a curveball with the forthcoming acoustic Gringo). From the first note of “Nude Metropolis,” it’s clear that Pollard will need to step it up; this is majestic pop that requires more than a tossed off vocal. It reminds me of his most successful collaborations, on discs with Mac MacCaughan, Tommy Keene and Tobin Sprout.

Nosing around the net in an attempt to catch up with Davies, who hasn’t released a solo album since 2000′s Barbarians, led me to something that bills itself as his “official (for now)” web site. Not much news there, save for word that an unreleased disc, Tonight’s Music, has been shelved for at least two years, and, more exciting: Cardinal tracks. It seems Davies and Eric Matthews, the men behind Cardinal, got back together at some point during the past couple of years, but only came away with three tracks. That’s usually the kind of news met with frustration, but instead, it came with a link: download the tracks here. They’re good, if not entirely up to the standard of Cardinal’s sole, self-titled disc.

The ever-prolific Robert Pollard has much more up his sleeve over the next few months. In addition to the Boston Spaceships disc, Brown Submarine, that’s right around the corner and the latest Circus Devils’ disc, Ataxia, due soon, he has several more projects in the pipeline.

According to Rich T. at Rockathon, those who buy merch on the Boston Spaceships tour will get a download card that allows them access to tracks old and new, including songs from a Circus Devils’ album called Gringo, scheduled for October 2009 release; a Pollard solo album, The Crawling Distance, due Jan. 20; and a track from the sophomore outing from Boston Spaceshpis, The Planets are Blasted, due Feb. 17.

Of course, all of this is subject to change… in fact, I’d bet on it. But it sounds like 2009 is shaping up to be just as prolific as, well, as 2008 and every other year for the past decade or more before it. This year alone he issued five LPs and at least as many EPs, as well as another issue of EAT and his coffee-table book, Town of Mirrors.