Gillard’s New Album ‘Parade On’ is Guitardedly Good.

ALBUM REVIEW: Some of you know who Mr. Doug Gillard is even without actually having his phone number in your contacts or perhaps you got his digits from his previous release Call from Restricted. If we lead you to any record this year please let it be his latest and greatest Parade On as it’s guitardedly good.

We mean this with all affection and not a single bit of sarcasm; this is a bus you must get on. Doug’s passion for manipulating a 6 or 12 string guitar is on the same level as Johnny fucking Marr; strum for strum and we never met that Brit. He’s a band leader who will lead you down a path with several possible outcomes. One, inspire you to make your next record greater than good and NOT just ok,  but great. Two, in the process make you pay attention to the details, or you will do us a favor and quit playing music so the good stuff can bubble-up. Three – you’ll take a deep dive into the depths on a download binge 30,000 feet of stacked records. Four, sell some off your guitars (Maybe you’ll donate one to a charity like The Project Matters ‏@TPMNJ) while you mull over the second option. Actually you might NOT have to do any of this because this one stands all on it’s own. However, if some of you actually happen to step foot into a record store (even if just on record store day next week) and look up the likes of Nick Lowe, XTC, or Death of Samantha. Some of you may consider seeing him play with his band or taking the leads in Nada Surf. The two shows he’s playing with GBV are sold out so your out of luck there.

The pointed point is this is his third solo full-length coming out on Nine Mile Records strewn out over a few years of being a professional musician. I can’t even count all his other releases he’s played for you but it does not matter that is what wiki is fucking for. If I were record clerk (I vowed never to do so this) — this is the album I would literally point you towards besides the song “I AM a Tree” he recorded once with Guided By Voices. There I said it and it only. Took me two, three whole paragraphs. After that you are on your own.

We interviewed Doug Gillard last year, even played a show with him at the Asbury Lanes and enjoyed him nerding out talking about his guitar set-up. There is enough exploratory timeless guitaring on this album set forth as a reminder the guitar neck is an expansive and mysterious place. Dudes can play guitar and makes all the tones sound effortless while allowing you to hum along with vocal melodies. Our faves on this album are all of them. “Your Eyes” is the most Smiths like one, the opener is another classic similar to XTA or Nick Lowe with something off of Labour of Lust (1979) but don’t let us bore you with our shallow knowledge record store clerkdome. This one is going directly to our top 10 of 2014.

RELATED:
MP3s: New Guided By Voices 7″ on Fire Records
For nerds: Doug Gillard’s Guitar set-up
Donate a Guitar to The Project Matters to help teens stay out of trouble and learn a trade. Like professional rock musician. Contact TPMNJ on facebook to learn more.