| SWIZZLE
STICK PUBLISHED: OCTOBER 28, 2004
http://www.swizzle-stick.com/bin/review.php?id=R0002708
DOUG
GILLARD - Salamander (Pink Frost)
First impression
Yes, Virginia, there is life after Guided By Voices, and it doesn¹t
just begin and end with Robert Pollard.
Where you¹re
likely to hear this CD
college radio
Song you should
pick to play on the jukebox
"Valpolicella", "Going Back (To You)"
Drinking Partners
Jason Falkner, The Church, and of course, Guided By Voices
The Morning
After
At the end of the day Doug Gillard may ultimately be regarded as
Robert Pollard¹s main hired gun, brought into the Guided By
Voices fold after the dissolution of the "classic" Sprout/Mitchell/Demos,
et al lineup in the band¹s mid to late Œ90s heyday. Few
outside the cult of GBV¹s most devoted hanger-oners, recognize
that Gillard¹s pre-GBV collaborations parallel the depth and
breadth of Pollard himself. True, the Voices may have "broken"
Gillard to a national audience, but his roots had long been ensconced
deep in the fertile soil of ¹80s Ohio indie-rock, namely with
Homestead Records favorites, Death of Samantha. Following that band¹s
prolific run, Gillard enjoyed a tenure with the decidedly angular
Cobra Verde, and later fronted his own off-kilterish power pop aggregation,
Gem throughout the mid Œ90s right up to 2001. Gem¹s 1995
debut LP Hexed, ushered in a new era of melodic sensibilities and
wryly measured songcraft that would eventually become Gillard¹s
present calling card. In fact, 1999 saw his first wide-scale solo
release, the excellent Malamute Jute EP, a makeshift appetizer for
the current Salamander that demonstrated just how developed his
hook-driven prowess had become.
Despite all the years hanging along side Robert Pollard (resulting
in some six extremely consistent GBV albums), Doug Gillard never
completely embraced Bob¹s fragmentary, mid-fi aesthetic, but
the finer nuances he endowed in GBV are fully realized here, and
the vision is purely his own. Salamander kicks off with the barely
pronounceable "Valpolicella," a brilliant strum and jangle
stunner that¹s on par with Todd Rundgren¹s equally hooky,
unpronounceable "Lysistrata." Then there¹s "Going
Back (To You)," another right and tight jewel that fits like
a glove here, but would have surely been deemed to conventional
for a GBV album. "Me & the Wind," and "Symbols,
Signs" would have made the last Gem album, Sunglare Serenades
all the more likeable, the taught "Give Me Something"
points precisely to Gillard¹s more vigorous, stop-on-adime
GBV ax-workouts, while the relatively raucous "Drip-Nose Boy,"
is clearly indicative that he retains a firm indie-rawk footing.
Amidst all the aforementioned grandeur, there¹s still another
eight gold nuggets here that I don¹t have the space to extol
on, but let¹s just say this may be one of those rare albums
that produces a new personal favorite on each subsequent listen.
Perhaps more importantly, now that Guided By Voices is in the sunset
of their run, we'll ostensibly have more than just Robert Pollard
and Tobin Sprout albums to look forward to in the coming years.
(Neal Agneta)
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