Cheap Ringworm Interiors (Music) (Circus Devils) Price

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Customer Reviews of Ringworm Interiors

What the guys do is use really loud sounds to form the structure of many of the songs. Often the sounds (some of it is simply feedback, some of it I can not identify at all) are looped to create a rhythm which would normally be done by drums and bass. Pollard's mellow, melodic singing is a perfect compliment to the bombastic noises. The lyrics don't say a whole lot in particular. They are more like an additional instrument, kind of like many early Pink Floyd songs. The songs ebb and flow together very naturally, culminating in the more traditional GBV-esque "New You". While most GBV albums have a few expendible tracks, here the tracks all serve to sustain the mood and the tension. Because of this, I find it to be the most cohesive recording in Pollard's catalog. I never find myself wanting to skip individual tracks. I am either in the mood to listen to the whole thing or I am not.

To me this is the most interesting recording of 2001, one of the few that breaks any kind of musical ground. It is basically the direct opposite of Go Back Snowball's Calling Zero, which I thought was pretty boring.

another honorable mention?
While both TVT & Matador have failed to shift any serious units with the "proper" GBV records, Pollards Fading Captain Series represents the output that isn't even intended to take the world by storm and by one way of thinking these should be the records that are truly exciting. The truth is that the FC records are just as spotty as the main GBV stuff, but the Circus Devils gets points for making a truly frightening noise, its incredibly weird and rarely boring. The songs peeking through the weeds of damaged effects created by current GBV member Todd Tobias and his brother Tim are a successful backing for Pollard because much like the Go Back Snowball collaboration with Superchunks Mac Macaughan, the music doesn't sound like GBV, casting Pollards always winning voice into unfamiliar terrain. There's a certain spontaneity as if Bobs trying out for a band by just freestyling over their entire set. The hot spots on this one include the arty post-punk angularity of Buffalo Spiders and Ringworm Interiors (though, like a lot of cuts Bobs not really doing much on that one) Correcto makes dramatic use of spoken word and droning guitar. "Do we have another no-show? Another honorable mention?" I like Protect Thy Interests simply because "what are those noises!?" Lets Go Back To Bed is cool Syd Barrett type silliness and New You just simply kicks butt in a classic rock way not heard anywhere else on this CD. It sounds like a band that finally found a song, but is in serious danger of losing control of it, particularly the drummer. Like a lot of GBV stuff, there's plenty of filler, but get this one if you want to hear Bob doing some really whacked-out experimentation and don't mind a lot of racket. Skip it if you're looking for more of Bob's hooky songwriting.

Guided by Noises
This is one of the loudest Robert Pollard projects I've heard.
Todd & Tom Tobias provide the noises and guitars, and Robert Pollard fills in with the vocals. It would be easy to imagine that Pollard is really just phoning this stuff in - that he had nothing at all to do with the music - but just got the tapes, listened to them a few times, and then went through volumes 47 and 48 of his lyrics looking for things that might fit the music... but not looking too hard. But really it's not as bad as that. After all, the Tobias' aren't making heavy metal backgrounds for Pollard, they're making what sounds like loud Guided By Voices songs; lo-fi, short, sometimes catchy ditties. Middle tracks like Star Peppered and Silver Eyeballs are quite nice. On the tracks that are just instrumental though, there really is no Pollard input or imprint, well, there's just not much point to that.
In the grand canon of the side-projects, this one will probably not be near the top of many peoples' lists.
In the meantime there is the latest Airport 5 record with Pollard and Tobin Sprout, and the very cool Go Back Snowball album featuring Pollard and Mac from Superchunk, which are both quite good, and proof that Pollard's seemingly bottomless pit of songs is not yet dry and is all the confounding how he can keep it up.