By: Robert Pollard Appears on: From A Compound Eye Whenever I take the time to transcribe all the guitar parts for a song off one of the many albums Robert Pollard and Todd Tobias made together, it’s always a rewarding experience. Tobias tends to layer several intricately composed guitar parts onto Pollard’s main guitar track, […]
Tag: From A Compound Eye
Kingdom Without
By: Robert Pollard Appears on: From A Compound Eye In “Kingdom Without,” Robert Pollard builds a powerful tune using some of his most relied upon guitar techniques: open string drones and arpeggios. As much as I love every other part of this song, however, I think I’d have to say that my favorite part is […]
A Flowering Orphan
By: Robert Pollard Appears on: From A Compound Eye “A Flowering Orphan” features a gorgeous string synth arrangement by Todd Tobias as the main instrument—it’s the kind of song that makes me forget that Robert Pollard originally wrote it on guitar. After hearing his demo for this song (released as part of the Hot Freaks […]
Field Jacket Blues
By: Robert Pollard Appears on: From A Compound Eye Today we’ll take a look at some guitar tablature for “Field Jacket Blues,” a track from Robert Pollard’s From A Compound Eye that, in my opinion, is one of his great “odd-timing” songs. I’m sure someone out there knows what time signature all these different parts […]
I’m A Strong Lion
By: Robert Pollard Appears on: From A Compound Eye Todd Tobias added a lot of fantastic keyboard embellishments to some of Robert Pollard’s songs on From A Compound Eye. While the songs sound great for his additions, it can sometimes make the guitar parts a little tough to distinguish in the mix (in some cases, […]
Kick Me And Cancel
By: Robert Pollard Appears on: From A Compound Eye “Kick Me And Cancel” is yet another great example of the Robert Pollard guitar technique I call “Open String Drone.” This technique consists of playing a melody on one guitar string while also playing an adjacent open string. In the case of this song, the melody […]
Recovering
By: Robert Pollard Appears on: From A Compound Eye “Recovering” provides Robert Pollard’s From A Compound Eye with a stellar closing track. It starts off with a gentle acoustic finger-plucked verse riff, then blasts into heavy chords for the chorus, using Pollard’s signature two-note chords: a fretted note on the sixth string played along with the […]
Dancing Girls And Dancing Men
By: Robert Pollard Appears on: From a Compound Eye Learning how to play “Dancing Girls And Dancing Men” on guitar had me pretty stumped for a while; with the prominent (and very bouncy) bassline, drums, and keyboards, it doesn’t seem like a particularly guitar-driven song. Especially with the Todd Tobias-produced Robert Pollard songs, I often […]
Hammer In Your Eyes
By: Robert Pollard Appears on: From a Compound Eye I have a theory about several of the songs on From A Compound Eye. The songs in question are “Hammer In Your Eyes,” “Kick Me And Cancel,” and “I’m A Widow,” and the theory is that Robert Pollard sat down with his guitar and wrote the main […]
Love Is Stronger Than Witchcraft
By: Robert Pollard Appears on: From A Compound Eye On New Year’s Eve 2004, the world ended. Or at least, that’s how it felt to some of us die-hard fans of Robert Pollard and his band, Guided By Voices, when they played what was announced to be their final show (which was released in its […]
