Speak Kindly of Your Volunteer Fire Department is an album released by Robert Pollard

Robert Pollard

Robert Pollard is an American rock musician and singer-songwriter who is the leader and creative force behind indie rock group Guided by Voices, who disbanded in 2004, only to reform in 2010...

 and Doug Gillard

Doug Gillard

Doug Gillard is a guitarist and songwriter from Cleveland, Ohio who has performed with bands and artists such as Death Of Samantha, Gem, Cobra Verde, Guided by Voices, Richard Buckner, Children's Crusade, Starvation Army, Yuji Oniki, My Dad is Dead, The Mice, Bill Fox, Fence Lions, Zest Of Yore,...

 in 1999. For the album, Gillard recorded instrumental tracks for songs Pollard had written (along with contributing four instrumentals of his own), to which Pollard later added vocals.

The fifth track of the album, 'Do Something Real', appeared as the final soundtrack to Steven Soderbergh

Steven Soderbergh

Steven Andrew Soderbergh is an American film producer, screenwriter, cinematographer, editor, and an Academy Award-winning film director. He is best known for directing commercial Hollywood films like Erin Brockovich, Traffic, and the remake of Ocean's Eleven, but he has also directed smaller less...

's 2002 film, Full Frontal

Full Frontal (film)

Full Frontal is a 2002 film by Steven Soderbergh, about a day in the life of people in Hollywood. The film, starring Catherine Keener, David Duchovny, Julia Roberts, Mary McCormack and David Hyde Pierce was shot on digital video in under a month using the Canon XL-1s...

.

The two would collaborate again in 2003 under the moniker Lifeguards with the album Mist King Urth; this time, however, Gillard composed all the instrumentals himself, with Pollard adding lyrics and vocals.

Track listing

1. "Frequent Weaver Who Burns" – 2:50
2. "Soul Train College Policeman" – 1:39
3. "Pop Zeus" – 2:28 (Pollard, Gillard)
4. "Slick as Snails" – 4:19
5. "Do Something Real" – 2:55
6. "Port Authority" – 4:05 (Pollard, Gillard)
7. "Soft Smoke" – 0:49
8. "Same Things" – 1:19
9. "And I Don't" (So Now I Do) – 2:10
10. "Tight Globes" – 3:07
11. "I Get Rid of You" – 2:50
12. "Life Is Beautiful" – 2:27
13. "Messiahs" – 2:25 (Pollard, Gillard)
14. "Larger Massachusetts" – 2:53 (Pollard, Gillard)
15. "And My Unit Moves" – 1:41

All songs written by Robert Pollard except where noted.