Robert Pollard Is Off To Business

...it seems as if even the largely agreeable Merge Records could not even satisfy the beast that is Robert Pollard. Despite an unruly release schedule, Pollard has left Merge to start his own label. Here's the lowdown from robertpollard.net...

After amicably departing Merge Records after 4 albums in two years, Robert Pollard Is Off To Business will be Robert Pollard's only proper "Robert Pollard" full-length for 2008, released on Robert Pollard's new Guided By Voices Inc. label.

At 10 songs in 35 minutes, it's an extraordinary rock tour de force. Robert Pollard Is Off To Business sports Todd Tobias' cleanest and meanest production yet, giant songs and riffs that pack a wallop, and arguably Pollard's finest singing ever captured on record. For Pollard, whose albums normally run 15-25 songs, this 10-song work (the majority 3:30 or longer) is a departure from form. Since freeing himself of a band in 2004, his albums have each had very distinct and varied flavors, and his creativity has flowered.

In stores: June 2, 2008. The release coincides with Fantagraphics' Town Of Mirrors: The Reassembled Imagery of Robert Pollard, a lavish coffee-table book retrospective of Pollard's collage art and lyrics, as well as several Pollard art exhibits.

Robert Pollard Is Off To Business will be released on Pollard's new label, Guided By Voices, Inc. The first release on GBV Inc. will be a 3-song EP released April 8, available only through www.robertpollard.net. The limited edition EP (cd & 12" 33 1/3
vinyl) will include one album standout "Weatherman And Skin Goddess" plus two exclusive non-album tracks.

...it will be interesting to see how this changes things for Pollard, what with his legendary output now under his own control. Stay tuned....