{"id":9204,"date":"2008-02-03T12:48:48","date_gmt":"2008-02-03T12:48:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=9204"},"modified":"2015-10-23T12:50:07","modified_gmt":"2015-10-23T12:50:07","slug":"circus-devils-the-devils-in-the-details","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2008\/02\/03\/circus-devils-the-devils-in-the-details\/","title":{"rendered":"Circus Devils: The Devil’s in the Details"},"content":{"rendered":"

“Circus Devils is fun.” That’s how Bob Pollard, former leader of indie-underground heroes Guided by Voices sums up (one of) his (many) current project(s). An exercise in what he calls “punk prog,” on the fifth full length Sgt. Disco<\/i>, Circus Devils displays the twisted musical worldview of Pollard plus Todd Tobias. Todd adds that “there is an element of not quite knowing where the songs are taking you.”<\/p>\n

\n
There are many ways to try and explain Circus Devils. Maybe it’s better not to try.
\n–Todd Tobias<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

In GbV, Pollard was running the ship: “I wrote the songs, and the other members–including Todd–provided input for arrangements.” But in Circus Devils, “Todd and Tim [Tobias] write the music, and I come up with the melodies and lyrics. I call it the Ohio Rock Factory. Tim and Todd run the northern plant, and I’ve got the southern plant down here in Dayton. No tours permitted.”<\/p>\n

\"circus_devils\"<\/p>\n

<\/center>The latest release is packed with thirty-two short songs; I asked the duo if they felt a responsibility to give their listeners value-for-money. Bob: “I feel our responsibility is to entertain ourselves and hope that others can appreciate what we’re doing also.” Todd: “You think you got a good value for your rock dollar? Splendid.”<\/p>\n

Humor is always present in and around Circus Devils’ music; the group has a decidedly dada approach to the world. While not allowing that Circus Devils is a big joke (because it’s not), Todd allows that “our role model when it comes to humor is DEVO. They were serious about their jokes.”<\/p>\n

One of the tracks on Sgt. Disco, “In Madonna’s Gazebo,” sounds uncannily like a Wings track off Back to the Egg<\/i>. Pollard claims not to have heard that album, but says “I would consider [the comparison to Paul McCartney] a compliment, I guess.” Asked to describe Circus Devils music for the uninitiated, Todd says, “there are many ways to try and explain it. Maybe it’s better not to try.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“Circus Devils is fun.” That’s how Bob Pollard, former leader of indie-underground heroes Guided by Voices sums up (one of) his (many) current project(s). An exercise in what he calls […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[41,62],"tags":[2465,954,1859],"class_list":["post-9204","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-interview","category-rawk","tag-circus-devils","tag-guided-by-voices","tag-robert-pollard","cat-41-id","cat-62-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9204","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9204"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9204\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9205,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9204\/revisions\/9205"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}