Boston Spaceships

Robert Pollard channeled his efforts into solo work after Guided by Voices disbanded late in 2004, launching his own Guided by Voices label and shepherding assorted GBV projects to completion before assembling Boston Spaceships with Chris Slusarenko of the Takeovers and Sprinkler plus John Moen of the Decemberists and the Dharma Bums. The trio mounted just seventeen concerts across its lifespan, operating almost exclusively as a studio concern apart from one abbreviated tour in fall 2008. Drawing on Pollard’s characteristic distortion of vintage garage and pop forms, the band delivered Brown Submarine in 2008, then Planets Are Blasted and Zero to 99 the following year, all issued on the Guided by Voices imprint. Our Cubehouse Still Rocks appeared in 2010. The three reconvened in 2011 for the seventy-minute epic Let It Beard, which incorporates guitar contributions from Colin Newman of Wire, J. Mascis of Dinosaur Jr., Steve Wynn of the Dream Syndicate, and Mick Collins of the Dirtbombs. Citing the record’s sweeping ambition, Pollard ended the band later that year, convinced its grandeur could never be surpassed. The anthology Greatest Hits of Boston Spaceships surfaced in 2012.