Boston Spaceships-The Planets Are Blasted

...Less than 6 months since Brown Submarine dropped, we've already got a follow up from Boston Spaceships, The Planets Are Blasted. If you aren't already a Pollard disciple, odds are there is little here to make you a believer. If yr already on the team, there's plenty to get fists in the air, singing at the top of yr lungs about the requisite UFOs, demons, and girls named Dorothy. Although he perpetually floods his listeners, Pollard will seemingly always offer a choice nugget or two every go-round....

MP3: Boston Spaceships "Canned Food Demons"
MP3: Boston Spaceships "Tattoo Mission"

Dayton Music Fest 08 -10.4.08

...although last year we were able to cover a fair amount of the Dayton Music Fest, we admittedly fell for the hype surrounding the potential for a sellout at Gilly's in anticipation of Robert Pollard's homecoming show with his new band, Boston Spaceships. As a result, our account of the evening focuses on the action at Gilly's. Still, we were very excited about what we saw...

...kicking things off were last-minute additions, Hospital Garden. Having seen them a number of times over the last few months, we felt the band turned in one of their best sets. Likewise, The Sailing rose to the occasion and delivered a powerful set for a swelling audience. At long last, Boston Spaceships took the stage following a surprise introduction by none other than GBV alumni, Don Thrasher. For the part of the set that we caught, Pollard and co. combed through a flurry of material from Brown Submarine, as well as recent releases by The Takeovers and Pollard's recent solo album, Robert Pollard is off to Business. Although we were not fortunate enough to hear any classic material, Pollard's newest live band might very well be one of the best lineups Pollard has ever assembled...

Hospital Garden


The Sailing


Boston Spaceships


...after staying stationary for way too long on this night, we finally ventured over to Blind Bob's to catch a few of our favorites at DMF. Rolling into the Oregon District, the energy on the street was great. People were everywhere and seeming to have a great time. We caught the last half of Astro Fang's set, which may have been their best ever. The sound in the room was much improved over our previous venture into Blind Bob's, which we were very pleased about. We caught a few songs from the new lineup of Lab Partners, and they likewise sounded great. With the night waning, we headed out to try and stop into one more club...


...we got to Oregon Express just in time to catch a few songs from Human Reunion. By this point, we were getting a bit burned out, but the band sounded great...


...although we had a pretty good time, it would have been nice to have seen more. For more photos, go here.

...How did your night go? Got any good pictures?

REVIEW: Boston Spaceships "Brown Submarine"

"You know what the deal is dude..." -from "Big Chief Chinese Restaurant" Alien Lanes (1995)

Since Robert Pollard issued his first solo disc in 1996, it quickly became apparent that this was a songwriting talent of immeasurable proportions. By the early years of this millennium, Pollard established the Fading Captain series to cater to his unending number of releases. As the catalog bulged, however, the ratio of chaff-to-wheat also skyrocketed. It quickly became apparent that with each new release would contain a certain number of gems, it would also be filled out with tracks that were destined to become skippers...

...enter the latest shot fired from the Pollard cannon: the Boston Spaceships debut, Brown Submarine. With a half-dozen releases already out this year, it would seem as if there couldn't possibly be much more left in the pot at this point. Well, you're only half-right. From the kickoff of "Winston's Atomic Bird" it's apparent that Pollard still has a few tricks left. His unending ability to mutate his pop/punk/prog/psyche sensibilities is in full display on this track as the fuzzed out opening riff gives way to a fist-raising chorus. No sooner do expectations raise than they are quickly sobered as the title track offers yet another in the myriad melancholy acoustic ditties that are part of Pollard's oeuvre. Another pair of this style drag the disc down, "North 11 AM" and "Still In Rome", although the latter raves up just enough to almost salvage some character.

The finest moments on the disc, however, are when the Spaceships (Pollard, along with ex-GBV bassist Chris Slusarenko and The Decembrists' drummer John Moen) delve headfirst into the anthemic post-punk that hold the album up. Easily the most engaging track on the album, "Zero Fix" proves that Pollard can still rock harder than virtually any act going. Album closer "Go For The Exit" rehashes one of the lost gems from the Suitcase collection, delivering on the potential of that delicate acoustic demo. Sadly, the track ends with a rather unelectrifying conclusion. Pollard & co. serve up a solid pop serving with "Ready to Pop" that perpetuates his well-documented fixation with The Who.

Perhaps the biggest disappointment with Brown Submarine lies not in the songs themselves, but in the production value. For years now, Pollard has championed this "mid-fi" production value. After attempting to escape the lo-fi tag that followed the band as they ascended to indie rock god status and subsequent failed attempts at making the big rock record, Pollard settled into a niche that seemed perfect for his aesthetic. The result is a musical limbo in which the faithful call for a return to lo-fi and the unconverted are simply left scratching their heads wondering what all the fuss is about. Throughout Brown Submarine, the arena-sized anthems seem to fall flat, never fully arriving at their destination. Certainly, this is a dilemma that should be rectified in the live setting, but seems to hinder the finest points on the album.

As is almost always the case with each successive Pollard release, his idiosyncrasies will leave listeners with a handful of tracks that will inevitably lodge themselves into psyches everywhere and leave a stack of non-essentials behind...