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Ron Hart

Robert Pollard with Doug Gillard
Speak Kindly of Your Volunteer Fire Department   
#4 in the Fading Captain Series

Loyal Guided By Voices fans who may have been a mite disappointed by the shiny Ric Ocasek production on Do The Collapse can find solace in this fourth solo recording by GBV frontman Robert Pollard. Speak Kindly Of Your Volunteer Fire Department, a collaboration between Pollard and ex-Cobra Verde/current-GBV guitarist Doug Gillard, is something of a return to the lo-fi sound of earlier GBV. While Pollard recorded all the vocal tracks at Cro-Magnon studios, Gillard laid down all the instrumental parts with his own four-track. The result is a raw, yet ear-pleasing, fusion of the scrappy, basement-born anthemia of Bee Thousand-era GBV and the slick new wave sheen of ...Collapse, most notably on "Soul Train College Policeman" and the knockabout "Tight Globes."