Guided by Voices "Keep it in Motion" with New Album

Well, okay, I'm still enjoying all there is to enjoy on Let's Go Eat the Factory, which was just officially released on January 1 of this year, but classic lineup Guided by Voices have just announced album number two of 2012: Class Clown Spots a UFO will be out in June via Fire Records, and the first single from that record, "Keep it in Motion," is available to stream right here via Soundcloud. With some tradeoff vocals between Robert Pollard and Tobin Sprout, an urgent and melancholic refrain, and an all around sense of it being a playful, beautiful mess, "Keep it in Motion" sounds like, well, classic GBV. The single will be available to purchase March 19th with b-sides "Pink Wings" and "White World." And Fire Records says that "Keep it in Motion" will be followed by two additional singles, "Jon the Croc" on April 21 (Record Store Day) and title track, "Class Clown Spots a UFO," on May 15.

Very exciting stuff. It's nice that the guys are making up for lost time: after making us wait eight years since the last proper GBV album, and sixteen years since the last "classic" lineup record, we only have to wait five months for the follow up to Let's Go Eat the Factory! And, hey, if that's not enough -- if what your life needs is even more new Robert Pollard music -- Pollard has a new solo record, Mouseman Cloud, coming out April 3. Get ready for a weird one there, as the press release stresses that the record emphasizes "wordplay rather than melody." Yikes! Nevertheless, the press release for that record goes on to characterize Pollard's process and fecundity in a fairly eloquent way: "He [Pollard] cares deeply about each and every part of every song he records. That he seems to do so frequently and effortlessly is not his fault. It's a unique and unparalleled talent...the work of a consummate craftsman as well as a crazy genius, and proof that these two traits are not incompatible." Rock on, you crazy genius, rock on.