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ESSENTIAL NEW MUSIC

Essential New Music: ESP Ohio’s “Starting Point Of The Royal Cyclopean”

It may not be a coincidence that Robert Pollard’s latest Guided By Voices offshoot, ESP Ohio, kicks off its debut album with the two-and-a-half-minute clarion call of “A Much Needed Shot In The Arm.” ESP Ohio—Pollard, guitarist Doug Gillard, Lifeguards producer/drummer Travis Harrison and current GBV bassist Mark Shue—plays with a startling cohesion and renewed verve that suggests TVT/Matador-era GBV, as evidenced by the quietly epic “Miss Hospital ’93,” the punky menace of “Intercourse Fashion,” the compelling thump of “Royal Cyclopean,” the pummeling Who-glazed rumble of “Lithuanian Bombshells” and the loudly epic “Grand Beach Finale.” Let’s face it, if you’ve resisted drinking Pollard’s Kool-Aid to this point, ESP Ohio isn’t going to tempt you to tip his Dixie cup. But to those of us who saltily salute whatever flag the Captain runs up his various flagpoles, Starting Point Of The Royal Cyclopean is one of the more exciting developments in the recent Pollardverse.

—Brian Baker