left them behind. Maybe if Gillan turned on his TV, figured out his
band is more likely suited to VH1 and made the wise decision to
stop making new albums and focus on touring strictly as a
nostalgia act, the great talent Deep Purple still has wouldn’t go to
waste.
Robert Pollard
From A Compound Eye
Merge
A year after putting his Guided By Voices project to rest,
underground hero Robert Pollard returns with perhaps his best
solo album yet. Heavily traded through GBV Internet friendly
groups for much of 2005, From A Compound Eye sees its official
release through Merge Records this month. While it may be
surprising to some that Pollard would make the move to Merge,
his relationship with the label and their flagship band Superchunk
reaches back before Spoon, the Arcade Fire and others made the
NC label the coolest indie imprint in the world. In fact, Pollard and
Superchunk’s Mac recorded an album earlier this decade under
the moniker Go Back Snowball. From A Compound Eye is one of
Pollard’s best releases in some time. Recorded entirely with his
Circus Devils collaborator Todd Tobias (who also contributes
drums, bass and guitars to the album), it offers up 26 new album
tracks that range from lo–fi balladry to mid–fi style rockers. All of
these contain that natural Pollard flair for strong song structure,
energetic vocals and enough interesting musically detours that
he never lets his laurels do the talking. Surely to be considered a
classic as time goes by, this is exactly the album I wished Robert
Pollard would return with. I’m glad he did.
Kat Burns
For The Birds
Independent
Whitby native Kat Burns has been performing in public just shy of
three years, but is on her way to carving out a nice niche for
herself. For The Birds is a short, sweet half-dozen songs in just
over 20 mins that is reminiscent of a more up–tempo Julie Doiron
