Salamander

Cleveland's Doug Gillard has been a rock band puzzle piece since the 1980s. He co-starred as the obscure sideman in bands Death of Samantha and Cobra Verde and, for the last eight years, has served as Robert Pollard's right-hand-axe-man (and writer of the acclaimed "I Am a Tree") in Guided By Voices. As GBV calls it quits, Gillard finally takes a crack at manning the whole puzzle with his solo debut, a hook-bejeweled passage into three decades (sixties through eighties) of pop-influenced songwriting and allusions to the Zombies, the Kinks, Nick Drake, Dwight Twilley, the dB's and Urge Overkill. Promoting a variation from Pollard's spit-shined power-pop for a more pensive display, the gifted Gillard plays all instruments (guitar, bass, drums, piano and percussion) save for drummer Jon Wurster's (Superchunk) three-song accompaniment, and his unrefined self-production juxtaposes his own complex guitar solos and piano breaks with the record's melodically gorgeous tone. --Scott Holter