Publishing Briefs: Guided By Voices Legend Sides With Third Side — Plus, Bad Brains Trusts Pincus

Robert Pollard — indie rock ironman, lo-fi pioneer and high-kicking frontman of Guided By Voices — has signed an exclusive worldwide publishing administration deal with independent music publisher Third Side Music.

TSM, co-founded in 2005 by Patrick Curley and Jeff Waye, said it will represent Pollard’s entire catalog, spanning over 40 GBV studio albums, numerous EPs and compilations, and roughly two dozen solo studio albums.

“Robert Pollard is one of the most prolific and influential artists and songwriters in history,” said Curley. “We’re very honored to be entrusted with his songs and help create opportunities for new generations to experience the brilliance of Guided By Voices.”

GBV officially debuted in 1987 with Devil Between My Toes, but it was 1994’s Bee Thousand that broke the Dayton band to a wider audience. Other landmark albums include Alien Lanes (1995), Under the Bushes Under the Stars (1996), Mag Earwhig! (1997), Do the Collapse (1999), Isolation Drills (2001), Half Smiles of the Decomposed (2004), Class Clown Spots a UFO (2012), Let’s Go Eat the Factory (2012), The Bears for Lunch (2012), and Zeppelin Over China (2019), among many others.

Pollard’s decades-spanning songwriting output is so vast it’s nearly impossible to quantify, yet some of his most accessible and beloved tracks rank among lo-fi rock’s finest. Standouts include “I Am a Scientist,” “Game of Pricks,” “Bulldog Skin,” “As We Go Up, We Go Down,” “Glad Girls,” “I Am a Tree,” “Pimple Zoo,” “The Official Ironman Rally Song,” “If We Wait,” “A Salty Salute,” “My Kind of Soldier,” “Lucy’s World” and “Hold On Hope.”

For a sizable chunk of the band’s early years, Pollard shared some songwriting credits with occasional bandmate and fellow lo-fi icon Tobin Sprout, namely on “hit” songs like “Hot Freaks,” “Motor Away” and “Are You Faster?”

Lyrically, Pollard favors punchy, fragmented phrasing and abstract metaphors, yet he’s not immune to sentimentality. “A Tribute to Beatle Bob,” off the band’s latest album Thick Rich and Delicious, honors the late St. Louis concert fixture who was known for his herky-jerky dance moves and bowl cut.

[Odds are, GBV released another album while you were reading this.]

Check out the rest of this week’s publishing news below, including Bad Brains joining Trust Records, Sony Music Publishing signing Sienna Spiro, Reservoir partnering with Skatta and Young Guns Publishing welcoming Jake Puliti.