Pollard's Vision (A Horse I Once Bet On In the Kentucky Derby)

The Takeovers "Fairly Blacking Out"

The Takeovers "The Public Dance"

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Anyone who knows me knows that all musical roads of mine lead to Robert Pollard (of Guided By Voices). If you don't know who he is, i'll give you the short version of the story. He was a school teacher in Dayton, OH for years while at night he would rock out with his friends and drink beer. Familiar story, except that said Mr. Pollard turns out to be a musical genius, tossing off perfect pop gems even while sitting on the toilet. (Gross, but true)

So he quits the day job, makes Guided By Voices a full time thing and for 21 years they secure a small but rabidly loyal fan base (me being one of the most rabid). He breaks up GBV in 2005, but it doesn't matter because aside from countless GBV records he's been putting out side projects for years under various names. So that the was the "Short" version.

The Takeovers is another one of the most recent of Mr. Pollard's musical adventures. It came out at the same time as two other "side project" records of his, which is a testament to his prolific nature. "Fairly Blacking Out" is pure Pollard gold. The opening line "She said that's a cute cat yeah/weather really dumped on us last year" is just the kind of cryptic thing i've come to expect from him.

Although almost everything he touches turns to pop gold (My very website, POP ZEUS! is named after one of his songs), there are always a few misfires. The Keene Brothers "Blues & Boogie Shoes", which came out the same time as the Takeovers' "Turn To Red", pissed me off so bad I wanted to throw it out the window of my car. To me it sounds like a Mike & the Mechanics record, just total 80s cheese. See? I don't give EVERYTHING a good review!