Lifeguards
Mist King Urth
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Lifeguards
Mist King Urth
Fading Captain Series #27, 2003
RiYL: Guided By Voices, Gem |
Many fans of the Bee Thousand/Alien Lanes variety were questioning Pollard’s devotion to musical spontaneity after GBV’s uncertain leap into the majors with 1999’s TVT-released Do the Collapse, and even more threatening to Pollard’s “king of indie rock” title, they were questioning the man’s innate gift for crafting brilliant melodies. Speak Kindly silenced them like a gunshot in a room full of bickering senators. The concept – Gillard recorded all instruments by himself on an analog four-track, then mailed it to Pollard for vocals – and indisputable quality of songwriting left no doubt that Uncle Bob still possessed the scrappy intuition that had endeared him to legions of obsessive rock addicts.
What excitement, then, when GBV’s website announced another collaboration between Pollard and Gillard of the Speak Kindly sort. Would this produce such dazzling feats of melody as “Slick as Snails” or “Do Something Real”? Would this reiterate Pollard’s relevance to the underground rock community, upping the ante for the next GBV full-length? Would we get another batch of live staples on par with “Pop Zeus” and “Tight Globes"?
Nothing short of another Bee Thousand could live up to the expectations created by Speak Kindly, so the product - a mid-length disc called Mist King Urth under the curious moniker Lifeguards - needs to be judged on its merits, and not in relation to some imagined potential.
Mist King Urth is full of strong material, due mainly to Gillard’s virtuosity as a guitarist-drummer-keyboardist and home recorder. The instrumental beds are marble-solid and impressively varied. Gillard’s remarkable Yes impression on “First of an Early Go Getter,” for example, emotes genuine affection for prog guitar acrobatics. Still, you feel that Pollard spent about 1/100th of the time coming up with vocals as Gillard did mixing the guitars.
It’s pretty standard fare (obtuse/fanciful lyrics, shaky but sincere vocals) until the third track, “Society Dome.” A wistful bassline and beautiful, light-handed acoustic guitars – underpinned by churning drums – are the perfect counterpoints to Pollard’s heartbreaking melodies. I imagine Bob sitting in the studio debating whether he should save this song for the next GBV full-length. It’s that good, and the high point of the album, although “No Chain Breaking,” “Then We Agree” and “Red Whips and Miracles” are also quite memorable and catchy.
Mist King Urth, like most other Fading Captain releases, is an on-the-go experiment between sincere music buffs, with Pollard holding the reins. Most of the time the players orient each other toward their strengths, and when they don’t, at least it sounds like they’re trying.
JOHN WENZEL | John is a Denver-based writer and former editor of Sponic magazine. John currently works for The Denver Post and Rockpile and has contributed to such noble but non-paying enterprises as Shredding Paper, Aversion.com, and Erasing Clouds. He's obsessed with the Dayton, Ohio '90s music scene but likes to think he's keen on some of the new bands the kids are listening to these days. John also helps run the Friendly Psychics Music recording collective. Email.