BOSTON SPACESHIPS

In 2007, after swearing off ever starting another band and enjoying a successful solo career for a half-decade since ending Guided By Voices, Robert Pollard was seduced by the camaraderie of former Guided By Voices bassist Chris Slusarenko (Takeovers, Svelt, Sprinkler) and John Moen (Perhapst, Decemberists, Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks, Elliott Smith, Dharma Bums) and launched the Boston Spaceships, putting out two LPs in less than a year. Now, in 2009, on their third record, Zero to 99, they are primed to seduce fans and critics alike with Pollard’s most relentlessly melodic, hook-laden, pop-punk record since Guided By Voices’ Alien Lanes almost 15 years ago.

Pollard is rock’s Woody Allen, a man who indulges himself for the sheer creative joy that comes from making music, with no regard for the law of diminishing commercial (or critical) returns. In this decade alone, he has released dozens of records under many names, ignoring every bit of conventional wisdom in the music “biz” that demands artists pace themselves commercially, releasing a record every few years and supporting it with heavy touring, promoting, et. al.

Yet despite the equanimity with which he approaches his myriad of releases, the Boston Spaceships announce that this is not just any rest stop on the Pollard intergalactic superhighway. “IS EVERYBODY HAPPY NOW?” Pollard defiantly screams on the opening track, as if he knows this is this record that longtime fans have been waiting for. So it’s perhaps ironic that Pollard confirms these suspicions with track two, “How Wrong You Are,” an anthemic Pollard insta-classic that proves quite quickly just how right listeners are to get excited. From the moment the first chorus begins, Pollard digs his hooks in deep and never lets go, culminating in a racous singalong reminiscent of the “You Are Forgiven” refrain in The Who’s “A Quick One While He’s Away”.

Zero to 99 barrels like a freight train from there, delivering track after track of vintage Pollard pop rock, with a band more than up to the task of not only hanging on for the ride, but helping to fuel the engine. From the Buzzcocks-esque guitars on “Found Obstruction Rock ’n’ Rolls,” to the Keith Moonish, Tommy-era drums of “Question Girls All Right,” to the McCartney-like bass riffs on “Trashed Aircraft Baby” that would fit right in on Abbey Road, Zero to 99 is a 37-minute feast for fans of classic pop/punk rock.

This is quintessential Pollard, a record that holds it own alongside widely acknowledged classics like Guided By Voices’ Bee Thousand, Alien Lanes and Under the Bushes Under the Stars. One gets the sense that Pollard is having the most fun he’s had in decades, before he was pulled reluctantly from obscurity and thrust into the limelight with GBV in those heady, post-Nirvana mid-1990s. The Boston Spaceships have not only landed; they’re conquering the goddamn planet.

Robert Pollard was a fourth-grade schoolteacher until 1994, when Guided By Voices broke into the national consciousness with the release of the album Bee Thousand. With over 900 songs registered to his name with BMI, Pollard is among the most prolific and acclaimed songwriters of his time, having been named of one Rock’s “Top 50 Front-Men of All-Time” by SPIN magazine. Zero to 99 was recorded in Portland, OR and Kent, OH with producers Jonathan Drews and Todd Tobias. Special musical guests include Peter Buck (R.E.M.), Sam Coomes (Quasi), Tommy Keene (Robert Pollard, Paul Westerberg), Scott McCaughey (R.E.M., Minus Five, Young Fresh Fellows) and Kaitlyn Ni Donovan.