Pitchfork

When Robert Pollard tore his calf muscle earlier this month, he was forced to cancel three East Coast dates. Bummer, right? But holy overcompensation, now the Guided by Voices ex has announced, in an interview with Billboard.com, that he has not one, not two, not three, four, five, or six, but seven new albums on his plate.

Sheesh! Not that this guy has ever tended towards restraint, but this seems a bit excessive even for him.

He'll have a lot of time on his hands, as he's saying goodbye to the touring life, at least for now, Billboard reports. "It's too hard to psychologically re-energize yourself each night," he told the website, partially attributing the decision to a lack of audience turnout. "With Guided by Voices, it didn't matter what day it was. What I'm doing now, in my opinion, is not only the same thing, I think it's a step up, even. But you get tired of beating your head against the wall."

So instead of playing not-exactly-packed clubs, Pollard is devoting himself to the preparation of new material. He has wrapped up work on his latest Merge album, Silverfish Trivia, Billboard reports, and plans to release it in the fall of 2007. Tracks include the "string instrumentals" "Come Outside" and "Speak in Many Colors", as well as the "prog-like" "Circle Saw Boys Club" and the wtf?-inducing "Coast to Coast Carpet of Love".

Merge has not confirmed this release yet, however. 

Billboard says that Pollard has also teamed with Todd Tobias again under the Circus Devils moniker for a double-disc record titled Sgt. Disco, which is currently label-less. Another record from the Takeovers (Pollard with former GBV bassist Chris Slusarenko), called Bad Football, is due in the spring.

And speaking of spring, come March, Pollard's Fading Captain Series will have officially faded, as Billboard reports that he plans to shutter the label. He'll say goodbye with a 50(!)-track best-of collection titled Crickets, which will feature several previously unreleased numbers. Fading Captain will be replaced by a new label named-- I kid you not-- Record Company Records.

So far, Record Company has confirmed two vinyl-only releases: Meet the King: Asshole 2, a second collection of Pollard's alcohol-induced stage banter (it's the follow-up to the [1]0.0-earning Relaxation of the Asshole), as well as The Great Houdini Wasn't So Great, the third disc of recordings by the pre-GBV group Acid Ranch. These records will only be available online.

According to Billboard, Pollard described the Record Company albums' cover art subject matter as "a photo of me lying in a bathtub drinking a beer with a track suit on" and "my dad in the middle with a drink and a cigarette in his hand, my ex-brother-in-law Kevin Fennell, and me on the left of my dad with a pinstripe sport coat and a string tie," respectively.

"I don't blame labels who tell me, you've gotta quit doing so much shit," he continued. "But this is not even my main stuff, you know? That's side stuff. That's the way I operate and that's the way I will continue to operate. They couldn't stop me. And here I am 49 years old, unsuccessful."

Well, if you call being one of the most revered figures in indie rock being "unsuccessful", OK then.

As previously reported, Merge Records has launched its annual holiday charity auctions with a "Merge Mega-Bundle" (aka "one CD copy of every 2006 release signed by the respective artist") on eBay. Pollard's From a Compound Eye and Normal Happiness are both up for bidding, along with albums from Spoon, Destroyer, Camera Obscura, M. Ward, Portastatic, and more.

And in other Pollard news, anyone who orders anything from Pollard's online store will receive a free trading card with their purchase while supplies last. Because if anybody deserves a trading card, it's Robert Pollard.