Pitchfork: Robert Pollard Kicks Off Tour Tonight

While singing along to old Guided By Voices records in the shower may help to wake you up in the morning, doing it alongside hundreds of other GBV fans and Robert Pollard himself is way more fun. Unfortunately, when Bobby P hits the road tonight for an on-and-off three-month tour in support of his new solo album From a Compound Eye, you're probably going to have to sit through a whole bunch of non-GBV Pollard stuff before he gets to the hits. But hey, if you're a real fan, what's the difference?

As previously reported, Pollard is backed by Tommy Keene, Dave Phillips, Verbow's Jason Narducy, and Superchunk's Jon Wurster on the tour. The crew will also make a stop at SXSW in Austin in March, with the exact date and venue TBA. Expect lots of drunk A&R; men reliving their college days.

US truths:

01-26 Athens, GA - 40 Watt *
01-27 Carrboro, NC - Cat's Cradle #
01-28 Washington, DC - 9:30 Club ^
02-09 Cleveland, OH - Beachland Ballroom &
02-10 Columbus, OH - Little Brother's $
02-11 Newport, KY - Southgate House @
02-24 Los Angeles, CA - Knitting Factory
02-25 San Francisco, CA - The Independent
02-27 Portland, OR - Doug Fir Lounge +
02-28 Seattle, WA - Crocodile Caf� ~
03-30 Minneapolis, MN - First Avenue
03-31 Chicago, IL - Metro
04-01 Detroit, MI - St. Andrew's Hall
04-20 New York, NY - Irving Plaza =
04-21 Boston, MA - Paradise %
04-22 Philadelphia, PA - Theatre of Living Arts %

* with Tenement Halls
# with Portastatic
^ with the Rosebuds
& with Rainy Day Saints
$ with Murder Your Darlings
@ with Times New Viking
+ with Swords
~ with Once for Kicks
= with the Original Sins
% with Richard Davies & the Crowd

Just to refresh your memory since we last filled you in, Pollard's new new album, Normal Happiness (a working title), is complete and tentatively scheduled for an October 2006 release on Merge, according to Billboard.com. It's said to contain a number of songs originally written for the soundtrack to Steven Soderbergh's upcoming film Bubble. Yeah, we know allll about Pollard's recently released Music From Bubble EP. Word is at least one of its tracks ("Boring About") has been reworked for Normal Happiness. Considering the EP's 4.0 rating, we encourage any and all touch ups.

* Pitchfork Review: Robert Pollard: Zoom (It Happens All Over the World) EP / Music From Bubble EP