There is a lot going on in the world of Robert Pollard these days, and I’ll start with the most self-promoting news first. My other blog, My Impression Now: GBV Song-by-Song, has hit another milestone. I’ve posted my 200th song analysis, surely putting me in the upper reaches among catablogs in terms of output. Then again, I chose an artist who has recorded more songs than any other, so my eventual dominance in that category is built in. Last time I counted, Pollard had more than 1,200 songs on record, so I have a long way to go.

He adds to that total on a seemingly continual basis. It has been a while since he has done so behind the veil of secrecy, so it’s nice to see him try some different things like his latest release, an EP by Carbon Whales. According to his web site, this is a Bob-sponsored release by “an obscure band from the late ’70s that actor Paddy Considine turned Bob on to. The 4 songs on this EP are apparently the only things they ever recorded. It was never released. Bob really loved it so we tracked the band down and asked if we could release it. The singer sounds EXACTLY like Bob.” Um, that’s because it is. A few rumors are floating around about the backing band, but suffice to say, that’s Pollard on vocals. It’s a good EP full of straight-ahead rock like “The Jeep.”

One new group whose membership is not open for debate is Boston Spaceships, whose debut LP, Brown Submarine, is due Sept. 9. The trio features Chris Slusarenko on bass and John Moen on drums. Slusarenko was the last GBV bassist and Pollard’s partner in the Takeovers; Moen is the Decemberists drummer. The two MP3 available thus far — “Winston’s Atomic Bird” and “Go For the Exit” — seem to support the self-proclamation that “Pollard is penning fantastic pop songs in a style no longer fashionable.” It’s just nice to see Pollard acknowledge that working with a band from time to time can be a nice change of pace from Todd Tobias’ one-man-band act on Pollard’s solo discs.

The next two Pollard releases are in book form. First up, vol. 5 of Eat, his annual-ish journal of art, band names, lyrics and poems. This time out, “the Dogshit Chronicles” offers 46 pages of Pollardiana, including stories new and old. It’s as if you’ve grabbed a space on the rug in front of Uncle Bob’s rocking chair as he spins a few tales for you and the rest of the kids… or read his blog, which is perhaps where these truly belong. Hard to charge $10 for a blog, though, so that’s out. Regardless, it’s funny, and one imagines that Pollard could turn out dozens of these filled with stories from his early days in Dayton, teaching, playing shows and partying at the Monument Club.

Lastly, but most expensively, is Town of Mirrors, Pollard’s stab at legitimizing his collages as fine art. His gallery showings and four-figure sales last years were the start; this is the mass market feather in the cap. It’s a 144-page hardbound book from Fantagraphics gathering more than 175 of his collages. Fans are familiar with many of these (particularly those of us who ponied up for earlier volumes of Eat), but this presentation promises to be the best yet for these works. Pollard adds to his starpower fan base with this one, as author Rick Moody pens the introduction (filmmaker and Pollard collaborator Steven Soderbergh had that honor in Jim Greer’s GBV book). “The visual art of Robert Pollard is uncanny, moving, strange, and it summons a dark melancholy at the same time; an austere beauty is forged in what is degraded and worthless in the image repertoire of culture itself,” he writes.

Suddenly, the $12.50 Robert Pollard charges for his EAT collections of collage art and verse seem positively bargain-like. A show of Pollard’s collages opened last week at Studio Dante in New York, a gallery owned by “Sopranos” star Michael Imperioli. The show, “Do the Collage,” has been a hit, and several of the pieces already have been sold. They average between $1,500 and $6,000. There are 93 in the collection, with about half framed and half not. If Pollard sells all of them, he’d be looking at well over $100,000. Not bad for a pursuit that most of us gave up in elementary school.

More power to him, of course. He had been selling things off in drips and drabs on eBay, drawing prices similar to those seen here. At least everyone gets a chance to see these in person, and he gets some notice as an artist.

He’s unashamed about selling the work, even though some of the pieces were used on record sleeves and thus are likely seen as collective property of GBV nation. “Why should I not make money on that? It’s my art,” he told me in a 2006 interview. “Some people think, ‘Why are you selling this stuff on eBay; are you desperate or trying to gouge the fans?’ No, I’m not, because it’s my art, and artists sell their stuff, don’t they?”

There are things to be learned from the collection. The cover of the forthcoming Fantagraphics book of Pollard’s collages, Town of Mirrors, is among the images, as is the cover of a forthcoming Circus Devils LP and a box collecting the Happy Jack Rock Records singles series. The original art that has been used on several already-released records also is available, including the last Circus Devils LP, Sgt. Disco, and his solo Standard Gargoyle Decisions disc.

Some people have called me crazy for my stated goal of writing about every song Robert Pollard has released, doing so through my new blog, My Impression Now. While it’s a daunting task — 1,100 songs and counting — I figured I could at least keep pace with Uncle Bob and slowly chip away at that mountain of songs.

But his plans for 2007, while not making me back down from my goal, are at least putting a bit of fear in me. A quick count reveals he’ll release at least 100 songs this year in one form or another. Already out is his self-released seven-song EP Silverfish Trivia and the six extra songs on the Fading Captain series best-of Crickets. Next up is a second Takeovers disc with Chris Slusarenko, the 12-song Bad Football, and the forthcoming 32-song Circus Devils disc, Sgt. Disco. Then come two solo albums in October on Merge, the 17-song Standard Gargolye Decisions and the 16-song Coast-to-Coast Carpet of Love.

That’s a lot of Pollard, and a significant addition to a Sisyphean task. It’s amazing that Pollard has remained so prolific. While listening to the new Dinosaur Jr. disc the other day (which is surprisingly good), specifically the two Lou Barlow cuts on the album, I remarked at how much the output of my favorite artists had slowed, conveniently doing so as I started a family and lost some time to keep up. I once bought everything Barlow touched, and the same went for the similarly name-hopping Will Oldham. Both have slackened off considerably, leaving me with only Pollard to chase in any sort of fanboy capacity. Hopefully, I’m up to the challenge.

Stealing an idea that has already been appropriated by a few and will likely be swiped by many more, I have started a blog with the goal of writing about every Guided by Voices and/or Robert Pollard song that has been released. I’m not sure if he was the first, but my direct inspiration comes from Matthew Perpetua’s great new blog, Pop Songs 07, appropriately subtitled, “I’ll write about every R.E.M. song, eventually.”

Wanting to do something similar, I thought about what artist would be worthy of such scrutiny. As a huge fan who owns nearly everything Pollard has released under dozens of names, I quickly hit up on the idea for My Impression Now. As with Matthew’s blog, I’ll write about what I want when I want. That means I’ll hop around from release to release and song to song, with no regular publication schedule. This will take a while: the extremely helpful Guided by Voices Database lists 1,163 songs, 13 of them being covers. That leaves 1,1,50 to write about, and Pollard plans to release another six on the Fading Captain Series best-of Crickets later this month. As always, future releases are always just weeks away.

Lest anyone think I’m an apologist, I do find plenty to fault with Pollard. Lately it has been the lower quality of his releases relative to their cost. He worked hard to build up a base of people like myself who will buy pretty much anything he releases. He has exploited that trust lately, however, with overpriced EPs and the decreasing quality of his EAT poetry and collage collections (color photocopies, Bob?). I still consider Pollard to be pound-for-pound the best songwriter out there, and look forward to forcing myself to think a bit more analytically about his craft.

The Robert Pollard merch train rolls on, with two new sizeable cars added to, um, transport your dollars away from you. I’ll work on that metaphor. Meanwhile, Pollard will be lining his wallet with my hard-earned cash.

First up, the long-anticipated two-CD set that collects the best of his Fading Captain series. That 43-release series will be distilled to 50 tracks, along with six previously unreleased songs to hook those of us who already bought the original discs. It also promises a full-color booklet of “beautiful FCS ephemera, album covers, unpublished photos and more.

The next release comes in two forms: DVD and double CD, and features Guided by Voices’ Austin City Limits appearance from November 2004. The show is offered as a single DVD or a double CD. Unfortunately, they aren’t packaged together, which means buying to separate items.

Both Crickets and the Austin City Limits sets are due May 15.

It’s nice to see Pollard offering a bit more bang for the buck on these releases (granted, he has nothing to do with the New West Records release of the ACL stuff). His last release, the EP Silverfish Trivia, was a pricey affair at $13 for seven songs, three of them rather slight instrumentals featuring strings. Of the four actual songs, the standout is the eight-minute mini suite “Cats Love a Parade.” The rest is typical of latter-day Pollard self-released work: decent but not earth shattering music that you’ll likely not play very often. The only real thing of note is that it inaugurates his post-Fading Captain imprint, Prom is Coming.

Robert Pollard’s personal publicist, otherwise known as Billboard magazine’s web site, reports that the former Guided by Voices leader plans to retire from touring. Pollard cancelled the last three shows of the tour in support of his latest release, Normal Happiness, because of a pulled leg muscle, and now vows to make things permanent. Sort of. “This is not to say I’ll never play another show again, but this touring thing is too much,” he tells the site. “It’s too hard to psychologically re-energize yourself each night.”

Never fear, however. He’ll buy our love with recorded works; as many as seven are planned over the coming year. There’s the official solo record Silverfish Trivia, coming on Merge next fall, and a spate of side projects that include a Circus Devils disc with Todd Tobias called Sgt. Disco and another Takeovers disc with Chris Slusarenko.

The strangest news, however, is that Pollard plans to shutter the Fading Captain series after one final release, a 50-track retrospective called Crickets, which, he tells Billboard.com, will include some previously unreleased tracks. “To me, you’ve got to wrap things up to be able to take a look at the value and the worth of them.”

The strange part? He plans to start another label, Record Company Records, that will release things like another Acid Ranch disc and a second album of his drunken stage patter. Um, Bob, that sounds an awful lot like Fading Captain-type stuff. Then again, for a guy who records under a new band name every few months, it actually makes sense that he’d want to change the name of his label every once in a while, too.