Versus Number Twenty-Three

"Slanted and Enchanted" vs "Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain" vs "Wowee Zowee" vs "Brighten the Corners" vs "Terror Twilight"

Pavement comes to Austin on Tuesday for the first time since the band's reemergence after an eleven year break-up*. Much has been written by people far more talented than me for publications at least marginally more prestigious than my fucking wordpress blog, so I'll spare the reader the grandiose statements about how they are the most influential band of the 90s or how Stephen Malkmus is the closest our generation will have to a Bob Dylan.

*I guess the more accurate, up-to-date term would be "hiatus"

Pavement, first and foremost, is a great American rock band. In his "Perfect Sound Forever," Rob Jovanovic goes past the obvious influences of the band (Echo and the Bunnymen, Wire, Velvet Underground, etc.) to offer one rarely acknowledged but thoroughly accurate- CCR. Most Pavement fans I know would find this to be macabre suggestion, as they tend to identify Fogerty + Co. as creators of cheesy Americana rock songs that will always be caught in the vacuum that is Classic Rock radio. But there lies the genius of the comparison- while many Pavement fans praise the band for its unique approach to Rock music, in the end the band really does sound like a Classic Rock band. While their early EPs and "Slanted and Enchanted" certainly enjoy a pissed-off punk energy that quickly garnered the group a devout following, traces of AM radio predominantly run throughout the grooves. "Box Elder" almost sounds like an updated "Summertime Blues;" "The Sha-La-La-Las" of "Trigger Cut" recall a time when women who died on the toilet eating ham sandwiches were musical giants.





But the band was no stranger to experiment, and not in the "let's add a synthesizer" sort of way. Some of their poppiest numbers subscribe to Wire's "repeating yourself is for wankers" philosophy and clock in under 2 minutes. They followed "Crooked Rain," easily their most accessible record, with "Wowee Zowee," their most labyrinthine. Malkmus intentionally made many of his lyrics ambiguous, and actually changed the words when performing live apparently to perpetuate confusion*.

*This seems more out of Malkmus' probable complete annoyance with people screaming "So drunk in the August sun" over him than out of some Joycian lyrical invention.

However you define Pavement: the laziest band to ever tour, the loudest literary band in creation, a charming distraction or a mediocre mess, the quintet's influence is inescapable in modern rock, mostly due to the width of the net they cast during their recording years. They were never popular enough to shoot off a genre of music like Grunge, Emo, or Chillwave*, they just made great albums and gathered a fanatic following in an organic fashion**.

*The more I write about music, the more writing these genre classifications just annoys the shit out of me. I actually really like "Chillwave" music, but why do we have to make sure every single digitized recording be identified in a larger scene? I guess it is natural to want to coin a term, but I challenge those who find it clever to think of these absolutely pointless names and start applying the brain power to their writing (I doubt my son will come to me one day and ask "Dad, how was the indie-sludge-pop of the early 2010s," actually nevermind- I can completely seeing me having a kid that weird)

**Most of the time:


To honor the band's sole performance in the Lone Star state in a decade, I've ranked their albums. I can't stress enough that ALL would garner a "10/10," "A+," "3 boner salute," or whatever the maximum of your grading scale would be, but that doesn't mean I don't like some more than others.

5. "Terror Twilight"- The only problem with the band's swan song is that it sounds more like Malkmus' solo ventures- not a "problem" at all, as Malkmus' work with the Jicks was some of the best guitar work of the 2000s. Because of this more singular vision- which was engineered by Radiohead Producer Nigel Godrich and his rumored infatuation with Malkmus' slacker-genius persona- the album lacks some of the oddball cross-sections that characterized their earlier work. That being said, "Terror" has some of the group's best songs, including the oft-covered "Spit on a Stranger" to the grinning "Carrot Rope." "The Hexx" might be as dark as the group ever got, and the song's genuineness, particularly in the hypnotic final guitar solo, verifies the band's chops. It's no "Abbey Road," but that's because it wasn't known at the time that it would be the band's final album- and it's highly doubtful Pavement would do anything nearly as pompous as putting TWO three-part song suites in their kiss-off to the world anyway.



4. "Wowee Zowee"- The hardest album in the band's catalog to place. "Rattled by the Rush" and "Grounded" show the band's range and their refusal just to make a radio-friendly rock song. Malkmus jokes that "Rattled" was his pick for a single because he was smoking a ton of grass at the time and genuinely thought that with this song crossover success was finally his. While it is more likely that he is joking than not, the song seems a perfect metaphor for the band's sound- take the great rock song and turn it on its head. It's hard to see frat guys going nuts for a song that includes the lyrics "worse than your lying/ caught my dad crying," but the enormity of the guitar riffs and impeccable timing of the song show that the band has listened to just as much AC/DC as any so-classified "Hard Rock" group. The album's eccentricity is a response to the overwhelming praise the band had gotten for its first two LPs- fan's of "Crooked Rain"'s alt-country or "Slanted and Enchanted"'s Gang Of Four by way of CA were mostly confused by the song's somber pacing and indecipherable tone, but rock freakouts such as "Flux = Rad" and word-play exercises such as "Extradition" have slowly infiltrated the Pavement fan's ear, and as a result the album is often cited by the crazed as the band's best work. I find "Wowee" to be the band's most polarizing listen- if you're in the mood for a challenging but ultimately rewarding listen, look no farther; if you're looking for something more traditional in structure, run.

*Quick Note: This video was banned from MTV because it lead some to have motion sickness.



3. "Slanted and Enchanted"- The album that cemented Pavement's status as "critical darlings" in the Rock press is a grower if there ever was one. Reading the emphatic reviews of the album, from pitchfork to Rolling Stone to EW, might lead one* to believe this is the 90s "Sticky Fingers" and to just get a twelve-pack and buckle your safety belt because you're about to get the skin on your face melted off into your lap. It is almost the exact opposite, and the press' inability to properly articulate the album's charms lead me to denounce Pavement as history's most over-hyped band for about three years. If you've never heard of this album and expect some polished gem, you'll be disappointed- very disappointed. The sound quality is shitty at best, the mix seems like it was done by somebody who was standing on his head, and the chemistry of the band leaves much to be desired. That being said, it is one of the finest rock and roll albums of all time, for all of those "deficits" quickly become "qualities" when the verse- chorus- verse of the music world becomes stale. But it's bigger than just a "fuck it" approach to recording that makes the album irreplaceable in music's canon; it is the initially unlistenable pop ditties that literally bloom if given enough listens. Consider "Perfume- V" from later in the album. The song starts off with a jolting yet discombobulated guitar thrashing, then it kind of gets quiet and this earnest voice comes, followed by a weird sort of echo chorus that promptly concludes the song around the 2:20 mark. The song's brilliance is not obvious, but it is plentiful. I could easily write thousands of words about the phrase "She's got the radioactive and it makes me feel Okay/ I don't feel Okay," most of which would be focused on if there were parenthesis intended around some of the clauses.** Repeat listens also show Malkmus' slight yet effective cadence shifts, indispensable to the band's sound, and how they subtly mesh with the band's blasting yet nuanced instrumentation. And that's just one song. I find a new song I like from "Slanted" once every six months or so (currently, it's "Zurich is Stained," a sad, small countrified tune)- it's one of those great albums that can be as personal as the listener is willing to let it be. Bonus Points for the album name.

*I'll admit "one" in this case really means "me."
** But I'll admit you wouldn't want to read it and I would feel like an asshole about 2/3 of the way though so its probably best for all parties if I just leave it at that.



2. "Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain"- While it wouldn't have the sea change impact of "Slanted," "Crooked" is where Pavement silenced all who thought the cynical quintet was just another buzz band who had silently tiptoed into obscurity. How do you best follow the album that made you a critical darling on both sides of the pond? You make an album that sounds almost nothing like your rookie recording. While many of the qualities that defined "Slanted" are here in spades- the atypical song structure, the hyper-literary lyrics- "Crooked" is where Pavement seems to have adjusted to the idea of being a rock n' roll band. The snarls here are more subtle but twice as acerbic*. While maturity is to rock music as cyanide is to, well, everything else, the two years between "Slanted" and "Crooked" did wonders for the band's collective chops. With the original drummer Gary Young out of the line-up due to erratic behavior**, the band finally started to gel in ways few predicted. It resulted in the songs in the band's catalog that would closest resemble hits, such as the minor radio hit "Cut Your Hair" and the song Pitchfork recently named as best of the 1990s, "Gold Soundz." But it wouldn't be Pavement if it didn't have quirk and sarcasm to spare- "5-4= Unity" is the band's only foray into lounge (and it's great), "Fillmore Jive" the first song they let Malkmus really start showing his emerging talents as a six-string samurai. If you only have one album by the group, make it this one.

*See "Range Life," a song that pissed off Smashing Pumpkin's Billy Corgan so much that he used his commercial clout to get Pavement kicked off of Lalapalooza in the mid-90s. This solidified S. Malkmus as a wise-ass menace and Corgan as a humorless pussy. While Malkmus has gone on record and said that he was criticizing the Pumpkins' status, not necessarily the band itself, he has contradicted himself in several instances, occasionally going on drunken tirades about the bald uber-whiner while performing

**And not just drug use and alcoholism either. I highly suggest checking out "Slow Century," the documentary about the band, which hints at some of his odder habits such as passing out French Toast to fans before shows and doing hand-stands mid-song; which would have been charming if he wasn't the DRUMMER.



1. "Brighten the Corners"- My favorite Pavement album is also probably the group's least celebrated. Made in the aftermath of the hazy "Wowee Zowee," "Brighten" was the group's re-centering after venturing into the tempting yet tricking world of art-rock. It's lighter in tone than the group's other albums, but no less substantial. "Transport is Arranged" would be the perfect song for that scene in a film where the pissed off artist-type leaves town if it didn't change pace in such dramatic yet seamless ways. The manic "Embassy Row" might be Pavement's best song; its introspective but in a reactionary and not self-absorbed way- its the song when the band proved they could ignite as brightly as any band in the land. But the reason the album really hits home is because it perfectly sums up my* 20s. The hard realization that you aren't in fact the smartest person in the world. Friends growing up, becoming yuppies, bums, or power players. Enemies finding happiness. The world alternating between disappointing and motivating. All the weddings and pictures of dogs and babies. Trying- but not too hard- to make a dent. Getting those first gray hairs. Funerals. Laughing too much at immature things but not caring. Drinking to the point of moral hangover, just to be told you were cracking everybody up the night before. Mistakes and the lessons they teach you. Sloppy but fun sex. Realizing fat, dumb, and drunk is not a good way to go through life, son. Talking endlessly about sports and culture and repeatedly making the same points. The transition from cynicism to curiosity. Being equally terrified and excited that the world is ours soon enough.

Oh yeah, also because "it's the most I can stand to cry about/ the mental energy you wasted on this wedding invitation" is probably my favorite lyric.

*And while they may not know the album, a lot of my friends as well