Robert Pollard
Zoom
2005, The Fading Captain Series
2005 is one of the weirdest years for Robert Pollard’s music. We spent most of it not knowing when his new solo double album, From A Compound Eye, completed around mid-2004, was coming out.
Meanwhile, Pollard kept a low profile (no tour, few interviews), but he continued to make things. He had something new out every few months, all of it strange. It was like a year full of B-sides and I mean that as a compliment. All real rock fans love B-sides.
Then there were the reports about how Bob’s music was about to potentially blow up in the movies.
Big shot director Steven Soderbergh was a fan. In 2002, he used the song “Do Something Real” (from Speak Kindly of Your Volunteer Fire Department) in his film Full Frontal. He would go on to write the introduction to Jim Greer’s book Guided by Voices: A Brief History, out later in ’05. He had a film coming in the fall called Bubble that would feature new Pollard music (we’ll get to that in #97 of this series). Soderbergh was also developing a movie about Cleopatra, an audacious musical to star Catherine Zeta-Jones and built around Guided by Voices songs, screenplay by Jim Greer.
The Cleopatra thing never panned out, as of this writing eighteen years later, but we didn’t know that yet in ’05. It was exciting to think about.
And I wonder… I just wonder… if maybe the Zoom EP was inspired by all of this movie stuff happening.
Just look at that cover collage.
It shows four people, all looking in different directions and giving off different emotions. They’re in the middle of seperate scenes in a story. There’s action and drama. We don’t know what’s going on, but we’re curious.
It’s a movie poster.
See some 1960s arthouse and underground film posters for a hint of what might be Pollard’s inspiration.
This makes Zoom a soundtrack for a movie that doesn’t exist. I imagine it to be a short experimental film. The title itself is a cinematic term (a zoom shot, a zoom lens).
The songs suggest no plot that I can discern, but three of its four titles do give us characters. “Dr. Fuji and Henry Charleston”, “Have a Day Mr. Clay” and “Catherine from Mid-October”. Who’s who on the cover is up to you.
Zoom is a gentle record. It’s the little brother of Motel of Fools, complete with non-sequitur dialogue clips (artist Park Doing interviewing people). Only one song has drums and everything has the warm mood of a great songwriter knocking out fresh-baked brilliance. Nothing is over two-and-a-half minutes and every moment serves a melody. Doug Gillard and Kevin March show up and contribute to the record’s hang-out vibe.
Gillard’s guitar work carries the opening instrumental, “Dr. Fuji and Henry Charleston (Zoom Variation)”. He walks us through a melody that we’ll hear again later. It’s the opening credits of the movie.
The middle two songs nail that classic Guided by Voices thing that lets greatness happen even when it sounds dashed off on the quick. “Have a Day Mr. Clay” is an acid-laced Sesame Street song (with furious maracas for percussion) and “Catherine from Mid-October” is a perfect flower made up of nothing more than a voice, a guitar, and a pretty tune. Pollard would record “Catherine” again about four years later with Boston Spaceships and it’s good and not overdone, but this earlier version is my jam.
Closing track “Zoom (It Happens All Over the World)” is the hit.
It’s a reprise of the opener, but this time in a different take with vocals and it’s a classic break-up song, totally straightforward (“Every part hurts/ Even my toes hurt”). Buddy Holly would have gone far with it. Is it 2005 or 1955? I can barely tell, but that’s why it hits so hard.
It wouldn’t have fit on a Guided by Voices album, but it’s perfect for a fake movie soundtrack where nothing needs to make sense. It’s the work of an artist who prefers shapes and textures over anything rational and is comfortable with absurdity.
You can expect more of that in Pollard’s 2005. I’m just getting started with it. We’ve got a lot to talk about.