Singer/songwriter Robert Pollard [ tickets ] will play a few dates in November with his backup band, The Ascended Masters, supporting his latest solo album, "Normal Happiness."

The ultra-prolific former Guided By Voices leader will barnstorm through an eight-date excursion into the Midwest and East Coast, kicking off Nov. 9 in Bloomington, IN. Various opening acts will handle support duties along the way.

Tickets are currently on sale for most of the shows, and can be obtained via the tour links on Pollard's website.

Pollard and his band--Tommy Keene, Jon Wurster, Jason Narducy and Dave Philips--are hyping the Ohio native's second studio album in the same year. The double-CD "From a Compound Eye," Pollard's first solo work since dissolving Guided By Voices in 2004, hit stores in January, not long after the 2005 release of "Guided By Voices: A Brief History," fellow GBV member Jim Greer's official biography of the band.

"Normal Happiness," released Oct. 10, is streaming at Pollard's website, which also contains unreleased demo versions of many songs from the album, which is officially the performer's ninth as a solo artist.

Yet another Pollard side project, Psycho and the Birds, a collaboration with his longtime producer Todd Tobias, bore fruit earlier this year with the release of a full-length album, "All That is Holy." An EP, "Check Your Zoo," followed in September.