* En anglais uniquement
Lifeguards find two notable figures from the Midwest indie rock community joining forces to create tuneful but powerful rock & roll, though it's not the first context in which
Robert Pollard and
Doug Gillard have worked together.
Pollard, from Dayton, OH, had been the leader, principle songwriter, and lead vocalist with
Guided by Voices since the group's formation in 1985. Meanwhile,
Gillard was a guitarist and songwriter with the Cleveland-based art punk band Death of Samantha from 1984 to the band's breakup in 1990, and later formed the bluesier
Cobra Verde with DoS singer and guitarist John Petkovic in 1992. In 1996,
Pollard had a falling out with the other members of
Guided by Voices, which led to him firing his bandmates and hiring
Cobra Verde to serve as his backing band for the recording of the 1997 album
Mag Earwhig! and a subsequent tour. (The album included a new recording of the song "I Am a Tree," which
Gillard wrote and recorded with his short-lived group Gem.) While eventually most of the members of
Cobra Verde drifted away from the
Guided by Voices lineup,
Gillard stayed with
GbV until
Pollard opted to retire the band at the end of 2004. In 1999,
Gillard collaborated with
Pollard to make the duo album
Speak Kindly of Your Volunteer Fire Department, and in 2003
Pollard and
Gillard formed
Lifeguards as a side project, recording the album
Mist King Urth, which was released through
Pollard's Fading Captain label. In 2010,
Gillard contributed to
Our Cubehouse Still Rocks, the fourth album from
Pollard's project
Boston Spaceships, and later the same year they revived the
Lifeguards moniker for another collaborative album,
Waving at the Astronauts, which was released in February 2011. ~ Mark Deming