Month: May 2025

Posted on

Robert Pollard-Mania! #109: NORMAL HAPPINESS

Robert Pollard
Normal Happiness
2006, Merge Records

Double albums are peachy keen and all, but their follow-ups are also fun to think about.

Or what does the artist do AFTER they’ve made an epic? This is a vulnerable place and where they go is revealing.

Some authors and filmmakers get into a groove of thinking in grand terms every time. See Marcel Proust or David Lean. There’s nothing wrong with that, but rock music, rooted in blues, folk, and jukebox 45s, seems to come with a natural gravitational pull back down to Earth after a big statement.

There are many paths to take. Here are a few that come up a lot:

Continue reading “Robert Pollard-Mania! #109: NORMAL HAPPINESS”

Posted on

Robert Pollard-Mania! #108: CHECK YOUR ZOO

Psycho and The Birds
Check Your Zoo
The Fading Captain Series, 2006

I wish I had great memories to share of cruising to Mel’s Drive-In with my buddies in a Chevy Impala on the last day of summer vacation while Wolfman Jack unleashed new Psycho and the Birds tracks on the radio all night.

The truth is though that I barely remember playing this record when it came out. I bought it, spun it, filed it, and forgot it.

That’s not because it’s bad. No, it’s a vital artifact of the crazy things that can happen when Robert Pollard and Todd Tobias get together. Check Your Zoo rocks, slips into pretty art-rock drama, and closes with some of the best out-to-lunch trippy clatter on a Pollard record from its year. I didn’t hear that at that time, but I hear it now–and it’s important that we have it.

Continue reading “Robert Pollard-Mania! #108: CHECK YOUR ZOO”

Posted on

Robert Pollard-Mania! #107: BLUES AND BOOGIE SHOES


Keene Brothers
Blues and Boogie Shoes
2006, The Fading Captain Series

Ask me for my favorite of the three albums that Robert Pollard released on the same day in May of 2006 and my answer will vary depending on that day’s pollen count and how I feel about my gut microbiome.

Each record is a different camera angle, a different lighting scheme, a different movie from a different section of the video store (we still had some of those in 2006).

Turn to Red is my favorite when I feel light and, at age 48, like I have many decades ahead of me. It’s weathered music that rocks with defiance.

All That is Holy appeals to my introverted side. All that I want to do anymore is sit and think. And when I sit and think, I end up thinking about God and death and eternity and the ancient world and all things unfathomable.

Blues and Boogie Shoes sounds best to me when I feel every hour and minute of my age and I’m happy to just still be here right now. Tomorrow, who knows? Might get hit by a truck.

The Keene Brothers are seasoned. There are decades behind these sounds. There are major label promises that didn’t work out, great albums that never got their due, and a lot of living behind these sounds. There’s a lot of beauty just for the art behind these sounds. You can hear that.

Tommy Keene and Robert Pollard sound good together. They’re two melodic giants, about the same age (Pollard is eight months older) and at this point doomed to be mavericks.
Continue reading “Robert Pollard-Mania! #107: BLUES AND BOOGIE SHOES”