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Published: Thursday, February 3, 2005 DOUG GILLARD - Salamander (Pink Frost) As of January 1, 2005, Ohio's perpetually soused indie-rock quasi-superstars Guided By Voices ceased to exist as anything other than a lingering hangover. Nearly all the hoopla accorded this event was aimed at the motivations and future plans of GBV main man Robert Pollard, but late in '04 Pollard's longtime first lieutenant, aw-shucks guitar hero Doug Gillard, quietly released his first full-length solo CD. Turns out Salamander is a great, fun, pop record -- exuberant, hooky, gritty and smart. The high quality shouldn't surprise any inveterate liner-note readers out there, who will remember that Gillard wrote GBV's immortal "I Am a Tree," one of the rare non-Pollard compositions to be allowed into the band's canon. Even so, Salamander sounds not a whit like Gillard's old band. "Valpolicella" is as breezy a love song to a Northern Italian wine as you're likely to stumble upon (slyly recasting the Fab Four's "Penny Lane" with its "in my guts and in my mind" refrain) while "Me & the Wind" (no relation to the 1983 XTC tune of the same name, music geeks) is head-spinning, propulsive power-pop. The lyrics throughout the disc are relatively straightforward, often wryly humorous and sometimes even intellectually stimulating (i.e. "Symbols and Signs" with its Roland Barthes-ish evocation of "fetishistic souvenirs"). The overall
sound is energetic and cohesively rocking, an impressive feat considering
that Gillard plays nearly all the instruments himself. Solo albums
by former second bananas rarely make much of a splash, and with
good reason. But regardless of your feelings about Guided By Voices,
anyone in the market for catchy, well-played songs that aren't stupid
or juvenile (or poetically obscurantist or sonically prog-rockist)
would be wise to saddle up this Salamander and take it for a spin
or two.
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