Somewhere, right now, indie rock kids are overjoyed beyond belief listening to this record. Why? Because Go Back Snowball is a project by two men that they readily worship for the music they release with their full-time bands. And people have often wondered in conversations at coffee shops and record stores what it would be like if they actually made a record together. The wonder is over, as Bob Pollard and Mac McCaughan, of Guided By Voices and Superchunk/Portastatic respectively, have joined forces for "Calling Zero." And it's almost as good as you'd expect it to be.
Pollard is a king of melody, often showing fantastic ability on GBV records in finding a vocal line where no one in their right mind could. And McCaughan is the master of instrumentation, writing triumphant indie rock with Superchunk and playing all the instruments in his quirky but solid side project Portastatic. The genesis of this record is reportedly like that of Pollard's recent Airport 5 collaborations with Tobin Sprout: McCaughan records all the music and sends it to Pollard, then Pollard has free reign with it for vocals and lyrics. And the results are certainly a good sign of what is possible here, and a worthwhile listen to be sure. But it's far from perfect. Primarily, the problems here are due to the arrangement that spawned the collaboration in the first place. Pollard is at the mercy of whatever music McCaughan gives him, and there are a few tracks here where you can almost picture the elder statesman saying "What in the hell can I do with THIS?!" ('Again the Waterloo') Pollard is, in his own right, a fantastic songwriter, and I think the results would have been that much more dynamic had they actually wrote some songs together and recorded them in the studio together, not a reasonable facsimilie of it. And the lyrics are classic Pollard, which is both a good and bad thing. He's shown such growth and maturity on the past two GBV records in his lyrics, so why does it seem he's going out of his way to be oddball again here? ('Throat of Throats': 'Vultures looping through fiery hoops/In third dimension jumping suits') It sounds just like you'd think, though: Pollard fronting Portastatic. If that sounds like something you'd like to hear, try it on. It really is a great record, and I hope they collaborate again. Given the prolific nature of both men, it's certainly possible. But please, gents, next time sit in the same room with each other a few times first? -
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