> Does this strike anybody else as odd? Guided By Voices has had half of the
> population of Dayton in its ranks at one time or another over the band's
> two-decade lifespan, and the only constant has been Pollard. Not to
> denigrate the contributions of his many cohorts, particularly Tobin Sprout
> in the mid-nineties and Doug Gillard in the band's current incarnation,
but
> GBV has essentially evolved into being Pollard's alter ego. It's just a
> little hard to grasp why he feels the need to no longer be a "gang leader"
> when the "gang" basically consists of him and anybody else who happens to
be
> in the room at the time.

Probably for the same reason that Roddy Frame decided to finally break away
from the Aztec Camera name and just release solo albums.  I suppose that, at
some point, one wonders, "Why am I hiding behind this group name when nobody
knows who *I* am?"  Not that his fans don't know...but casual folks might
recognize the name Guided By Voices but NOT Robert Pollard...