CIRCUS DEVILS | SGT. DISCO

CEASELESS INDIE ROCK

By MARTIN PAVLINIC

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Circus Devils, the most art-damaged of Bob Pollard's endless side projects, has emerged from the fans-only cave of the Fading Captain series and stepped up as the first Pollard "band" to hit a larger indie label since the demise of Guided by Voices. Appropriately, Mike Patton's Ipecac Records seems the only logical home for this 32-song, 67-minute maximalist prog odyssey. Sgt. Disco comes about as close as one could get to the late '80s GBV (in spirit, if not sound and execution), with these guys just trying to tame the songarrhea and turn it into something resembling an album. Nothing here approaches the hookiness or questionable fidelity of the Classic era, instead foraging ahead with shanties, Throbbing Gristle-esque loops and noises, stoner jams and mini-pop-operas all piled like vignettes and miniatures averaging about 80-90 seconds. But they pile carefully, thoroughly producing a world within each. No lo-fi sketchbooks mastered to CD here, the intent and care lift it far above the quick throwaway most people expect from Pollard's secondary projects these days. The record doesn't consistently succeed, as one would expect from the sheer glut of music, but it's awesome to see Pollard finally successfully pull off an album completely divorced of GBV nostalgia in sound while embracing the wild exploration of yore.

VERDICT | GUIDED BY PEOPLE GETTING SICK OF HIS BULLSHIT

LABEL | IPECAC

RELEASE | 7.24.07

CIRCUSDEVILS.COM