Boston Spaceships: Our Cubehouse Still Rocks

Robert Pollard’s recent promise to release five albums in 10 months was slightly ominous. The last two solo albums from the Guided By Voices frontman were dozy, crunchy affairs; Circus Devils’ stabs at spooky psychedelia have been touch-and-go; and Boston Spaceships—the collaboration with former GBV’er and Takeovers multi-instrumentalist Chris Slusarenko and The Decemberists’  John Moen—still had some proving to do, even though the group’s latest albums were bristly enough to scrub off any lingering traces of Brown Submarine’s gunk. But Uncle Bob had the right idea when he promoted The Spaceships from one of his “postal-rock” bands to a living, breathing touring outfit, and Our Cubehouse Still Rocks, while less varied than Zero To 99, and without the sourpuss charm of Planets Are Blasted, is an anthem-heavy affair that’s both the band’s best work to date and Pollard’s most satisfying outing since From A Compound Eye. “Airwaves” is a handclap-accented T. Rex groove that pauses halfway through to scrape one of Marc Bolan’s chewing-gum-sticky guitar solos off its heel, and “Dunkirk Is Frozen” finds Pollard mugging as a Dum Dum Boy, freezer-burned vocals and all. Along with “John The Dwarf Wants To Become An Angel”—which really wants to become “Wrecking Now”—the rest of Cubehouse proves there’s enough juice left in the tank to fuel those next four releases.