Pavement:Classic or Dud

I can sum up Pavement with a few words: run-on sentences, inside-jokes (which, unfortunately are never explained), sloppy jams hovering somewhere between self-mocking angst and slacker apathy culminating in complacency.

Something about them was unique at one time, but not terribly more unique than several other bands of the same era. And, is it just me, or does Steve have NO RANGE?!

That being said, I think Pavement are okay for summer music ("Summer babe"...) but Steve's starting to wear out his welcome in my eardrums.

I like the ballads, I think - "Here", "We Dance". Ask me in ten years.

I appreciate the Fall's virulence, to hark back to an obvious predecessor, to Pavement's mere quirkiness. Compared to the bile Mark E. can drop from his lips, the endlessly quoted putdowns from "Range Life" seem completely wimpy and pointless.

"Slanted.." is the only album that I play regularly, and I admit it's good, as is half of "Wowee Zowee". They CAN be almost great ("Summer Babe", "Here", "Father to a Sister of a Thought"), but seem content to pad out releases with half-arsed Pavement-by-numbers material. Or should that be Fall-by-numbers?

I lost interest by "Brighten the Corners" when it was clear that they could only do one thing, and we're probably going to do it for ever.

They make me bob my head and laugh and feel good - which is the whole of the point of Pavement (as far as I see it). And...job well-done.

'Crooked Rain, Crooken Rain' is simply brilliant in it's slackerisms. And is in my top 3 (maybe even THE) summer album list. Already have listened to it many times this very summer period and will surely listen to it many more times (as I have for past summers). It still hasn't lost it's charms on me (not come summer time, at least). Last summer, a younger cousin of mine got married. And...I played 'Crooked Rain' loud as I drove there and back as the perfect soundtrack to all that has been slacked in my young, but getting old, life. Worked perfectly for that "I'm 30. What do I have to show for it?" mood when you just want to say "Fuck it all. I'm going driving in search of some far off land of fairies and hot cocoa." (fine, maybe that's just me, but)

'Woowee Zowee' is good in many spots (nix the forced "punk" tracks). And Malkmus solo album is a solid summer album (for the most part). The rest...I don't care too much for, but. 'Crooked Rain' makes up for the rest alone.

It being Preston, Lancashire would have fitted Pavement's rather tiresome Anglophile image, I suppose.

well because your vitriol for the indie bands you don't like is so potent! but what people don't realize is that this is only because a True Indie Rock Player cannot tolerate impure visions, hangers-on, fake players in tha tr00 game! Why ride the Night Train to Butterglory when you can have the '97 California Cabernet of Trigger Cut! latecomers get a late pass, we been up in this game since the jump!

best song off S&E sounds least like the rest; i'd like them if all their songs sounded like that one.

With each Pavement album, there's like six good-to-great songs, and the rest is just absolute self-indulgent wankery garbage. It's shocking that their first couple records have achieved the status of Perfect Canonical Rock Classics That Everyone Should Buy. TRUST ME - THEY'RE NOT!

I completely agree with that, at least for S&E. I couldn't even listen to CRCR-- particularly that godawful single "Cut Your Hair"; Wowee Zowee and Brighten the Corners failed to make any impression on me whatsoever-- well, except that they seemed exceedingly mediocre. S&E has a few good songs, but "Here" is the standout tune, and it doesn't sound like the rest. I never feel inclined to listen to anything else by Pavement besides that song.

here?

also, classic!

xpost

the last song sounds a lot like "here." i'm blanking on the name. "i've been waiting. anticipating."

pavement are my favorite band ever. it makes me a little sad to know that some people don't like them; there's certainly some aspect of their music that everyone can love. a lot of people complain about malkmus' voice (especially early), but i think that he does some fantastic things with his voice that don't really fall under the "technical" category.
i've never really heard anyone say that the guy can't write a tune, mostly because that would be absurd to say. i can see why some people would be a bit put off by his (to them) excessive ennui and laid-back style, but for me that just enhanced what i loved about him. also, the more time you spend with the records, the more you can appreciate the songs which aren't as obvious at first. i know he first time i listened to S+E, i didnt really 'get' it besides "here", which i probably put on repeat for 5 hours straight. once you get adjusted to that particular style, the other stuff starts to make sense. what might ostensibly be "self-indulgent" are to me fruitful exercises in his singular, genius style. to each his own, though.

mr snrub, that's "our singer", S+E's closer

http://blogs.nashvillescene.com/nashvillecream/2009/02/the_spin_pavement_reunion_at_t.php

four-fifths of Pavement reunites (not really) for Bob N.'s wedding

was spiral stairs not invited? harsh.
i certainly wouldn't mind seeing Pavement play live again, but all of the hubbub and hype that would accompany a potential reunion would be dreadful, I'm sure.

Bob Nastanovich says:

... As far as Pavement goes, I'd have gladly played Pavement song(s). My parts were mostly easy as many of you know and require little practice. I'd love it if Pavement reunited. Gary Young and Scott Kannberg were not invited to the wedding as I have not kept up with either as well as I should have over the last 10-15 years. Our wedding was limited to 100 guests (with plenty of family involved (both sides)). In my opinion, there should not be a Pavement reunion without all six members involved. Anyways, for the record, I'm game...

Best, Bob N

p.s. The first toast goes to Tony Crow. BN

Posted On: Monday, Feb. 23 2009 @ 10:42PM

Seeing them in fall ‘22 was especially big for me because I missed the 2010 tour entirely

I caught last night's Brooklyn Steel show, and as I was standing in line, I was pretty amazed that everyone around me seemed to be in their early or mid-20's, and at least one person mentioned they were too young to make the first reunion in 2010. My first Pavement show was in 2010, and likewise, it seemed like I was surrounded by college kids or 20-somethings. It seemed to be a sign that their audience doesn't really age the way other acts have - for example, when I saw Beck's solo one-off in 2021 at Irving Plaza, I got the feeling most of the people there had been listening to him in the '90s.

And yes, it was a great show, and perfectly complemented that 2010 show I saw, which was kind of the perfect show for new fans if you could only see one show - a virtual "best of" setlist, and incredibly the few popular favorites that weren't played at that show were played last night. ("Here" was most welcome.)

opened with Elevate Me Later, possibly my favorite Pavement song. We also got a bunch of WZ favs (Black Out, Father to a Sister, Half a Canyon, Fight this Generation). A beautiful Here closed the first set.

jealous!

I know there’s probably no money to be made in it, but I’d love the band to cobble together some sort of composite commemorate live LP - maybe the best of the best style.

Or pick two of the best shows and issue them as a double album (or whatever). Yes, I know most of these shows have surfaced as fan bootlegs, but surely Pavement were doing their own higher fidelity recordings here and there.

would be cool! i think they should take a page from Sonic Youth and start digging into their live archives, put some good shows up on Bandcamp, etc. When I interviewed Spiral late last year he said they had a bunch of stuff lying around.

Just saw this while looking up a Podcast Mike Stax mentioned on his own Ugly Things one
https://open.spotify.com/episode/4AVvPthXIIL2SVshBdkZyl?si=b9c145731669491a

I caught them 5 or 6 times on the 2010 tour, and was pretty bored by the time I got to the last few (didn't help I worked 4 nights of shows at Brixton in a row so some obvious burnout on my part). But putting that aside the 2 shows I saw last year were far far better than any of the 2010 ones and I'm so glad I got to see them.

I went to a show at a tiny venue last night (The Kilowatt SF) and recalled it was the last place I'd seen Pavement prior to last year's reunion shows, maybe 100 people fit in there. So I had a 25 year gap between that show and the latest reunion.

35 years ago today:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slay_Tracks:_1933%E2%80%931969

<3

Thanks Steve, I needed a reason to feel old today.

35 years?!

it can run for president now

christ

steve. . . you're killing me

The Wedding Present's bass player bought a copy in New York, brought it back to Leeds and within a year the Weddoes recorded (with Steve Albini!) a cover of "Box Elder" as a b-side to "Brassneck". That's somewhat amazing in retrospect.

Pavement never got credited for that on 'Bizarro' either iirc

Covered by The Wedding Present was definitely something that popped up in every early mention of Pavement I saw in the music press.

is it is good as their Steve Harley cover?

Definitely not.

7” box set announced: https://store.matadorrecords.com/cautionary-tales-jukebox-classiques

I keep saying this, but if they want my money they’ll release select live shows as physical media

Some of other things they’ve done (like this) kinda baffle me

standalone repro of og swirl grey vinyl Demolition Plot w/ racecar tire stamp on inner sleeve or gtfo

xpost i dunno, i think things like this and the Godrich tracklist TT and the S+E demo tape they made are *relatively* clever ideas.

i am kind of starting to wonder if Scott finally figured out that they can just repackage the same stuff in different ways, add old flyers and art and stuff, put it on vinyl and people will buy it. no reason they can't / shouldn't fill in the gaps between anniversary years with 2 LP live sets.

until the color vinyl bubble bursts, a band like this can just milk that market forever, i think.

I think it’s v cool (luv that it has Haunt You Down / Jam Kids), tho I have most of em. Never heard of the Black Out 7”.

Wish they had somehow included Dancing With the Elders (split w/Medusa Cyclone)

no idea why someone would buy this, but i'm fine with them getting paid

how about: they don't have any of the band's 7"s?

still don't understand tbh, but i am (clearly) not a collector

Do people who buy these things know about Spotify? It's much cheaper

I’m fine with Pavement getting paid! I’m just being a jerk. Get them checks!

I think the TT reissue (even with the changed tracklist) seems more immediately logical - they’d done the prior studio albums, and this was them finally ending the cycle.

"easily fooled" and "strings of nashville" are great

thassa lotta money tho

That box is cool but I'd rather Drag City or whoever just keep Perfect Sound Forever in print on its own.

I keep saying this, but if they want my money they’ll release select live shows as physical media

Absolutely this. Feel like Sonic Youth starting to release physical editions of old archival shows has been successful, I'm sure they'd sell tons!

And I get why they'd release this box, there are plenty who will snap this up and they'll get paid, but... I can't imagine any Pavement thing I'd want less.

<q>Do people who buy these things know about Spotify? It's much cheaper

― H.P, Wednesday, March 13, 2024 11:17 PM</q>

this is certainly one way to look at the music you love

god dammit

Never heard of the Black Out 7”.

This was a limited release available with pre-orders of the expanded WZ in 2006.

New 7" records typically cost between $7-$15, so considering that this set is 17 records, the price isn't really outrageous by current standards.
I've got a few of the originals between Summer Babe and Pacific Trim, and probably own just about everything else between Westing and the deluxe cds.
The set does look pretty cool, graphics/packaging-wise, so I might do it.

You got what you deserved there alpine
(This boxset does look vry cool and would be nice to have)

when i interviewed Spiral last year, this is what he said about future archival stuff:

Spiral Stairs: We did a big deal with Matador a few years ago to do the catalog worldwide, so we came up with a few ideas. The movie thing was one of them, reissuing Terror Twilight and Westing was another. We’re probably gonna do like a singles box. And I really want to do a proper box set. We’ve got a lot of live stuff that we’ve recorded over the years that we’ve never done anything with and there’s some very early stuff that I’ve unearthed. There’s really cool archival stuff that people would probably be interested in. Having it all in one nice box set would be great. The older I get, these box sets are all I buy now. [Laughs].

true enough, HP.

good info, tylerw. sounds about like i imagined. i suspect Spiral wants to flush out the archives and pay his mortgage, and SM wants little to do with it but isn't going to stand in the way. no surprise the relationship with Matador changed a bit ... someone has to push them to keep the faucet dripping.

Oh cool, the box set is streaming(!)

...but there's nothing new on these?

I thought it was just the Westing comp and the album reissue b-sides* repackaged in their original form...?

*(which were already all available on streaming)

correct, nothing new.

although i will say it is kind of nice to have this stuff separated from the proper albums. reminds me of my 2CD homemade compilation of their b-sides that i made in, like, 1998ish - "Four Channel Destiny"

granted, this is soemthing you can easily do with streaming playlists, but i don't make playlists.

I think those alt versions of "Black Out" "Extradition" weren't streaming before(?)

But otherwise, yeah, I agree with alpine static – while you could recreate the track list, I still think it's cool that they made it available as a standalone thing.

Huh – the alt "Black Out" has "Gonna haunt you down, haunt you down..." lyrics

"Extradition" sounds pretty close to the album track

Also, I guess you still need to dial up the Westing... comp to hear the "Perfect Sound Forever" tracks (so Drag City Incorporated get their $0.0000002)

...and ftr, that's exactly what I'm doing now. I've never known most of these songs by title, but damn... "Internal K-Dart" and "Perfect Depth" are such anthems. After hearing those, you kinda have to play the final EP, and close out the trilogy.