Prodigious, and not just in the hair department ... Ryan Adams. Photograph: Robert E Klein/AP
There's a small battle going on to be the most prolific recording artist of the year - and it's not necessarily big or clever.
At Ryan Adams' website, ryan-adams.com, the alt country/indie rocker is streaming eleven albums for free under three pseudonyms - DJ Reggie, The Shit and Werewolph. Some have talked deferentially about Adams' move into hip-hop and speed punk but few mentioned that it's supposed to be funny.
Adams' DJ Reggie is absurdly and gratuitously foul mouthed while the album Hillbilly Joel, by The Shit, has tracks like Drinking Hard, I Drink Too Much, Drunk as Hell Again and Drunk as a Pile of Fuck. Some of it is quite funny, but perhaps not as hilarious as you suspect Adams finds it.
Former Guided By Voices frontman Robert Pollard, meanwhile, has told Billboard that he has seven albums of material in a holding pattern, about to be released to the waiting world. One will be a vinyl-only release of Pollard's alcohol induced on-stage ramblings which, if - and only if - you are a particularly obsessed Robert Pollard fan, might be interesting.
Elsewhere you have major talents like Sufjan Stevens last month releasing a five-disc box set of Christmas songs he has recorded over the years. And you have his stated aim of recording an album for each of the 50 US states which, given he has only done Michigan and Illinois so far, means he plans to be around some time.
Being prolific in the arts is not always a bad thing. People like Rembrandt and JMW Turner never stopped and Damien Hirst is not far from being a modern day equivalent.
Then there is Agatha Christie - 80 mystery novels as well as short stories, plays and romance novels using the name Mary Westmacott.
As a general rule though, you have to be a pretty exceptional talent for the less is more principle not to apply. So to Ryan and Bob - honestly, an album every couple of years will be just fine.
