By: Robert Pollard Appears on: Of Course You Are “Promo Brunette” is a fascinating specimen of a Robert Pollard song to dissect. It consists almost entirely of verses, each of which begins the same and ends differently. It’s almost as if Pollard had a chord progression laid out for a verse but couldn’t decide how […]
Tag: Robert Pollard
Your Rate Will Never Go Up
By: Robert Pollard Appears on: We All Got Out Of The Army “Your Rate Will Never Go Up” features a chugging rhythm guitar during the intro, verse, and outro, and a middle section that uses a pedal point through a couple of its chord progressions. You need to be logged in to view the rest […]
Dunce Codex
By: Robert Pollard Appears on: Lord Of The Birdcage With the Hot Freaks digital subscription, we got to hear the “roughs” from Lord Of The Birdcage—all the songs from the album, but with just Robert Pollard’s vocal and guitar tracks. These provide clear audio of Pollard’s isolated guitar parts, which make the job of learning […]
Little Pigs
By: Robert Pollard Appears on: Of Course You Are The demo version of “Little Pigs” is on Suitcase Four: Captain Kangaroo Won The War with the title “I Can Never Let You Win.” This version lets you clearly hear Robert Pollard’s use of open string drone riffs in the song. For the version recorded for […]
Stay Away
By: Robert Pollard Appears on: Space City Kicks The guitar riff at the beginning and end of “Stay Away” features an oft-used technique of Robert Pollard’s. You’ll play a melody using various frets of the sixth string while letting the fifth string ring open with every note. Other than that riff, you’ll use chord strumming […]
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 […]
Supernatural Car Lover
By: Robert Pollard Appears on: Normal Happiness In terms of song structure, “Supernatural Car Lover” is pretty much all over the place. Especially after listening to Robert Pollard’s demo (made available via the Hot Freaks digital subscription), I get the impression this song was very much a “stream of consciousness” kind of composition, where he […]
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 […]
Sex She Said
By: Robert Pollard Appears on: Space City Kicks Robert Pollard employs his trusty arpeggio guitar technique to great effect yet again in “Sex She Said,” with a fretted note only on the sixth string and the open fifth and fourth strings. Of course, the arpeggio work is repeatedly interrupted by some rude power chords. You […]
Subspace Biographies
By: Robert Pollard Appears on: Waved Out The quail, the quasar, the empties crushed and fired away; “Subspace Biographies” has it all, plus some superb guitar work by Robert Pollard. Let’s dive right in! You need to be logged in to view the rest of the content. Please Log In. Not a Member? Join Us
