Neal Pollack inhabits an important corner of the literary scene. This is the corner that rocks out. Neal Pollack is a man capable of wielding a highly tuned laser of wit and of partying non-stop for days on end. He has produced two books: “The Neal Pollack Anthology of American Literature” and “Never Mind the Pollacks.” In both, Pollack places himself as the main character, first as the greatest living American writer and then as the most gifted rock critic the world has ever known.
In the new novel, “Never Mind the Pollacks,” Pollack takes a satirical stab at the world of rock ‘n’ roll, as his alter ego becomes the impetus and the documenter of the rock movement up through the Seattle explosion, which he refers to as “the largest gathering of talented morons in human history.” The novel is full of fictional accounts of dropped names, like Bob Dylan sabotaging a relationship between Pollack and Joan Baez.
Like a homework-doing machine, Pollack does his homework. Pollack says that he likes to immerse himself in the culture of what he is making fun of. Before mocking literature in his “Anthology of American Literature,” he hob-knobbed with the scholarly elite. In preparation for ripping on rock ‘n’ roll, he read old magazines and played rock shows.
In the future, he plans to take on baseball and perhaps write a novel about an angry young man, before he gets too old. When you’re reading Pollack, you can rest assured that though the facts may be fabricated, there is a root of experience as guide.
Mere satire, however, is not sufficient to describe what Neal Pollack accomplishes in his writing. He lies to you. He makes Lou Reed and Elvis lie to you, too. He tells you that a young boy named James Osterberg, donning gilded pants and Nico’s lipstick, transformed into Iggy Pop, and Neal is there in the novel, telling everybody (probably including you) that they don’t know what they’re talking about. He makes you laugh. He floods your heart with the desire to rock out.
With his new novel still relatively new to the bookshelves and his CD still made of molten plastic, Neal has launched himself into a book tour like no other. His band, The Neal Pollock Invasion, has been sweeping up the coast, rocking whoever they can. When the crowds are small, those few people will be rocked harder. When the crowds are large, many more people will be rocked. For its stop in Madison Sunday, Pollack promises that the band will “burn Madison to the ground … metaphorically, of course.”
One may ask how an author goes about assembling a rock band to go on a book tour with him. Pollack claimed that he got Eric Clapton to work for $300 a week, revived Chris Novocelic’s career and formed a touring version of Tower of Power. In this case, the truth is even better.
A few years back, a guitarist named Jim Roll put out an album with the publishing house that carried Pollack, so Pollack wrote liner notes for Roll describing the connections between literature and rock. When Neal needed music, he went to Jim, who brought a country-rock trio into Pollack’s life. The problem was that Pollack lived in Austin and Roll lived in Michigan. Neal needed direct collaboration and punk. Dakota Smith was the answer, playing weekly, unannounced gigs in front of a convenience store. With this fusion of punk, country and literature, the Neal Pollack Invasion was ready to cut an album and take America by storm.
Forget the rock ‘n’ roll, forget the satire, and forget the legions of adoring fans. What sets Neal Pollack apart from other writers is pure dedication. Neal is respectful of the road.
“I’m trying to live out the philosophy of the book, and it’s not that easy,” he says. But after the big boys are partied out and the indie bands have had enough and George Clinton finally gets kicked off stage, Neal is still rocking. This month has been a relentless rampage of touring, doing at least one show every day and then moving on to the next American hamlet. And they will not stop until you have all been rocked.
“I’m giving everything I have to promoting this book,” Pollack says. You have to admire that kind of dedication.
If you are tired of stuffy book readings, if you are tired of rockers who can not handle stage banter, if you need to go see a rock show and a reading but only have time for one, go see Neal Pollack and The Neal Pollack Invasion. Come on, you’ve kept with your Sunday night study/calisthenics program so long, you deserve to rock out in a new way. The best way. The Neal Pollack way.
Neal Pollack will be holding a reading/rock show at King Club, Sunday, Oct. 19. Doors open at 7 p.m., reading at 7 p.m., rock at 8 p.m. The cover is $10.