Biography
Two prominent voices from the Midwest indie rock scene have come together in Lifeguards to deliver melodic yet forceful rock & roll, although Robert Pollard and Doug Gillard already share a lengthy history of collaboration. Hailing from Dayton, Ohio, Pollard founded Guided by Voices in 1985 and served as its principal songwriter, frontman, and creative force. Gillard, meanwhile, played guitar and wrote songs for the Cleveland art-punk outfit Death of Samantha between 1984 and its dissolution in 1990; two years later he joined former Death of Samantha frontman John Petkovic to launch the blues-inflected Cobra Verde. After parting ways with his Guided by Voices colleagues in 1996, Pollard recruited Cobra Verde to back him on the 1997 release Mag Earwhig! and its supporting tour; that album also featured a fresh version of Gillard’s composition “I Am a Tree,” originally cut with his short-lived band Gem. Although most of Cobra Verde eventually left the Guided by Voices lineup, Gillard remained until Pollard brought the group to a close at the end of 2004. The pair first recorded as a duo on the 1999 album Speak Kindly of Your Volunteer Fire Department, then launched Lifeguards as a side project in 2003, issuing Mist King Urth on Pollard’s Fading Captain imprint. Gillard later appeared on Boston Spaceships’ fourth album, Our Cubehouse Still Rocks, in 2010; that same year the Lifeguards name was revived for Waving at the Astronauts, which surfaced in February 2011.
Albums
