“Goodnight to the Rock and Roll Era.”
-Stephen Malkmus (Pavement)-
“This Malkmus idiot is a complete songwriting genius.”
-Gary Young (original Pavement drummer, and singer of Plantman)-
“These guys should try harder.”
-Butthead (Beavis and Butthead)-
There’s a couple things you should know about Pavement. They are THE preeminent indie darlings. Don’t believe me? Check out any of their reviews on Pitchfork. Ask any hipster walking around Brooklyn at 4am. Dig out your old VHS tapes of 120 Minutes. Or you know, just take Uncle T’s word for it. You shouldn’t be reading Pitchfork anyhow.
I fucking hate indie darlings. Vampire Weekend can suck it. TV On The Radio can bite it. And Animal Collective can lick it. If you were mentioned on Pitchfork’s Best of the Year don’t come near me. Cept you Karen O. I like your style. Pavement however??? Well let me start here. It’s the summer of 1994. I am in “fuck everything mode”. I go in and out of this mode from time to time even in my 30s but here I am a teenager in my parents hot ass attic and I’m locked into this mode for a good 5 years straight. So I’m sitting sweating my ass off watching 120 minutes and the video for Range Life by Pavement comes on. Fuck these guys. The music is too slackery for me. In fact, fuck everybody. Where’s my Black Flag cassettes? And yet I wonder…if the music is so slow, if the vibe is so slack, then why does the slo-mo live footage of the band look like they’re rocking the fuck out on stage? Nevermind I don’t care. Fuck everybody.
So I’m in a mall a couple few years back and Sam Goody is going out of business. I am taking great pleasure in this. I hold a personal grudge against these guys for running my favorite record store of all time (Pier’s Platters, Hoboken, NJ) off the block. I hate their $18 CD lowest common denominator catering asses. So I say to my lady… “let’s go in Sam Goody and pick their bones”. Like a circling vulture with a shit eating grin I go in and buy a bunch of CDs marked down 80% to prove a point. What point? That, this is they only way they’ll get my money. So I’m sifting though the bones and I come across the expanded edition of Pavement’s “Slanted & Enchanted”. My brain goes back to the band rocking out in slo-mo and I think “alright here’s your fucking chance Pavement”. From the minute I threw that album on I felt like an idiot. “Fuck everybody mode”, you failed me again! Pavement are phenomenal. I don’t use that word lightly. And I hate that I’m in agreement with Pitchfork on this fact, but it’s a fact. They’re fucking great with a capital Tony The Tiger “G”.
In their time as a band, they pissed off people like Billy Corgan of the Smashing Pumpkins and Michael Stipe of REM. (Both songs that pissed these dudes off make an appearance on “Quarantine the Past.”) They stayed indie and kept with Matador Records when they probably had many an opportunity to jump to a major label. They have two drummers (at the same time). They appeared on the Tonight Show sure, but they were drugged out of their heads when they did it. Their lyrics are second to none. And for as much low-fi slackitude they put out they also put out some pretty punk rock tunes as well.
But let’s face it, “Best Of” Albums are a mixed bag. They can be good if you’re not sure if you want to make the commitment to getting into a new band. They can be good if you’re huge into a band and are looking for remastered tracks, unreleased B-sides or rare live versions of songs you love. But they can be a waste of time if you already own all the songs on it. And they are usually greatly inferior to the actual albums that the songs came off of in the first place. I was thinking about this earlier in the week when I was listening to the best of the Violent Femmes. So is “Quarantine The Past” worth your money if you are a longtime fan or newcomer to the band? Yes and yes. Newcomers will know were they stand on the band by Side 3 and longtime fans will definitely dig the double LP, the gatefold packaging, the remastered sound (both drums sound unbelievably awesome), the new artwork, and the near perfect track order (my only gripe is that Fillmore Jive doesn’t close the collection or even make an appearance). Track order is specifically something about Pavements albums that make them what they are. If “Wowee Zowee” were ordered any different it would be less brilliant than it is. The same goes for this collection.
Thinking about the Violent Femmes again my mind is settling on their song American Music. If you don’t know it, it’s a song with a simple premise, which is that American music is the best music. Like the Femmes, Pavement is a great example of this point. Music critics have long compared Pavement to the British band The Fall. I own a Fall album. It’s garbage. With a few exceptions most music from the other side of the pond is when you compare it to American music. If you want to argue me on this point think about Apollo Creed dressed as Uncle Sam dancing to James Brown in Rocky IV. Changed your mind. Didn’t I?
So check out this album when it comes out this Tuesday. And if you’re a superfan check out the alternate version coming out on Record Store Day (April 17th) with different tracks and a different track order. And be sure to also check Pavement out live if they make it to your neck of the woods. I’ll be seeing them this September in Central Park. And I’ll be excited as shit when they play Range Life as it’s ironically now one of my favorite songs of theirs or anyones.
Fuck everybody.
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