Needles & Grooves AotM /// Vol. 44 – February 2023 /// Pavement – Wowee Zowee

TenderLovingKiller® said:
Pavements Studio Discography Ranked

01. Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain
02. Slanted & Enchanted
03. Brighten The Corners
04. Wowee Zowee
05. Terror Twilight

For me, Crooked Rain and S&E are all time favorites. I love all their albums but if I had to choose those two would be the two I would use to sell the band to those that were curious.
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This is my order as well with Crooked Rain making it into my all time top 50 albums. @hatfieldpdx is going to have me listening to a lot of Wowzee Zowee though now!
 
hatfieldpdx said:
I loved Brighten the Corners when it came out. Terror Twilight was the one that really underwhelmed me upon release. But much like you with BTC, it has continued to grow on me, even in recent years. All five albums are great, perfect in their own way.
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Have you given the recent Terror Twilight reissue with the alternate track order a go yet? I think it’s quite good and maybe even better than the track order they ended up releasing initially but it’s hard for me to adjust to listening to them in a different order after listening to the original track list for the past 20+ years.
 
CrazyDiamond84 said:
This is my order as well with Crooked Rain making it into my all time top 50 albums. @hatfieldpdx is going to have me listening to a lot of Wowzee Zowee though now!
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To be fair, had Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain been readily available on vinyl, it very well could have been this month's pick (interlude incoming). An incredibly formative album for me. I highly recommend everyone add it to their collection.
 
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If I had to rank them it would go like this:

1) Slanted & Enchanted + Watery, Domestic (my friend gave me a dub of S&E on cassette and included Watery so I thought those songs were on the record and have a tough time separating them from S&E)
2) Wowee Zowee
3) Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain
4) Brighten the Corners
5) Terror Twilight

Admittedly I never got into Brighten or Terror and always want to revisit them but always end up just listening to the first 3 albums over and over! I really should give them both a good listen...I also love Westing (By Musket and Sextant) and that could easily slide into the number 2 slot but that has a lot to do with when I first heard it and why S&E is number one...I could probably revisit their catalogue and the rankings could be totally different!
 
TenderLovingKiller® said:
Steven Mulkmas solo/The Jicks is all worth checking out too.

…and if folks are looking to really get into the weed of The Pavement Universe, check out Scott Kannberg AKA Spiral Stairs post Pavement project Preston School of Industry and Silver Jews which started out as a bit of a side project for college buds Dave Berman (RIP) and Stephen Malkmus while they were working as security guards at the Whitney Museum in NYC. I think Malkmus was only involved to a varying degree with the first two Silver Jews albums but that’s another excellent project worth exploring if you are jumping down the Pavement rabbit hole.
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Took the words out of my mouth! Malkmus has lived in Portland for years (our daughters went to the same school), so I have been lucky to see him play in venues of all sizes. And as you may have seen, Silver Jews are also in the incoming interlude list.
 
TenderLovingKiller® said:
college buds Dave Berman (RIP) and Stephen Malkmus while they were working as security guards at the Whitney Museum in NYC.
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Also, if Malkus wanted to write a book about this period in his life, I would be ecstatic. Though I did just read a old Guardian interview where he made it seem unlikely that he’d be writing a book any time soon.

Here’s the Interview BTW, it a bit of a Reddit AMA style thing.

Stephen Malkmus on Pavement's legacy, the Jicks' 'metrosexual revolution' and his favourite guitarist | Stephen Malkmus | The Guardian

The former Pavement frontman answered questions on his fly-fishing exploits, Berlin’s nightlife and getting slated by Beavis and Butthead
amp.theguardian.com amp.theguardian.com
 
Hemotep said:
That reunion tour was great but also hilarious. Malkmus looked like a rock star, and the rest of the band looked like fat middle aged dads whose wives told them they could go play with their friends. I felt represented on stage, which rarely happens.
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Ha! You just described Nasty (Bob Nastanovich) to a tee. My friends and I were joking that when the call came, no one was more excited than Nasty. For those who don't know, Nasty is Pavement's secret weapon, a beloved junk-drawer percussionist and occasional shouter-of-the-chorus. He could be any of us up there on stage, roaming around, banging on shit and seemingly shouting into the mic at will. Living the dream, no doubt.

As an ode to Nasty, here is an interview where he revisits Wowee Zowee. The money quote: "I think it should be everybody's favorite Pavement record." He claims, and I can't disagree, that S&E and Crooked Rain haven't held up quite as well in terms of how they sound today. He puts Brighten the Corners right in there too (as one that does hold up), FWIW.

 
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Today’s theme in @Joe Mac ’s January Challenge Thread was 7” so I busted out my Pavement 45s as it seemed like a synergistic way of promoting both threads.
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My Pavement 45’s:
Demolition Plot J-7
This is a Pre S&E Drag City EP featuring a whopping 6 tracks (I think they can all be found on their Westing (By Musket and Sextant)

Trigger Cut Plus Two
Includes S&E Stand out plus a couple non-album B-sides that can be found on the expanded edition of S&E

Cut Your Hair
This one features their biggest hit but also a fun cover of Reckoning-era R.E.M. with “Camera”

Dancing With The Elders
This is an early more stripped down version of Wowee Zowee opening track “We Dance” that includes a really fun outro. The B-Side is from a band called Medusa Cyclone that I am completely unfamiliar with. I will say the song “chemical” is quite good. Maybe one of you fine folks are more familiar with the group and can fill me in on the details.
 
TenderLovingKiller® said:
Have you given the recent Terror Twilight reissue with the alternate track order a go yet? I think it’s quite good and maybe even better than the track order they ended up releasing initially but it’s hard for me to adjust to listening to them in a different order after listening to the original track list for the past 20+ years.
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I'm aware of the new reissue, and have listened to some of the bonus material on Spotify (not a huge fan of expanded box sets on vinyl, tbh). Did not realize that the sequencing of the album tracks had changed...is that only on the vinyl edition? Regardless, will need to check it out!
 
hatfieldpdx said:
I'm aware of the new reissue, and have listened to some of the bonus material on Spotify (not a huge fan of expanded box sets on vinyl, tbh). Did not realize that the sequencing of the album tracks had changed...is that only on the vinyl edition? Regardless, will need to check it out!
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Yeah, here is Pitchforks write up on the resequencing:

“As the lengthy process of rendering Terror Twilight finally approached its conclusion, one last point of contention remained. Godrich had long envisioned a running order which would foreground the LPs more digressive, challenging material, beginning with the bonkers freakout “Platform Blues” (tellingly known in a previous incarnation as “Ground Beefheart”) and the menacing bad-trip vibes of “The Hexx,” essentially creating a 10-minute barrier of entry for anyone tuning in with the hopes of hearing the next “Shady Lane” or “Gold Soundz.” It was a bold plan, and one which speaks again to the conflicted nature of the project. Pavement had hired a hot producer and spent over $100,000, or $85,000 more than they’d paid to record the enduring classic Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain five years previous. Now, with his plan to split the album into a “weird” A-side and a more approachable, hook-oriented B-side, Godrich's well-intentioned gambit threatened to torpedo whatever commercial prospects the album possessed. The band was concerned.

Eventually, a compromise was reached with Kannberg leading the way on a revised running order that toggles between the outré and the confectionary—beginning with the Beatles-esque majesty of “Spit on a Stranger” before segueing into the banjo-driven, stoner-Beat poetry of “Folk Jam” and then returning to the austere and moving balladry of “You Are a Light.” This has been Terror Twilight as we’ve known it for 22 years: a strange admixture of the catchiest and most unsettling music of Pavement’s career, culminating appropriately enough with the lovely and ludicrous “Carrot Rope,” the indie-rock sequel to “My Ding-A-Ling” that nobody but Stephen Malkmus recognized we needed.

The vinyl edition of the new reissue restores Godrich’s original running order, and it certainly makes for a different experience: One side Hawkwind and one side E.L.O. The counterfactual sequencing of old LPs has become a trope of the reissue industry and makes for a diverting thought exercise, but this rearrangement does not amount to an improvement. As much as Malkmus and Godrich had become a creative quorum of two on the Terror Twilight sessions, it may have been Spiral Stairs who was, in that moment, seeing the appeal of the fractious group most clearly of all. “I was always to try to make the best Pavement record possible,” he writes in his essay. And so he did.”
 
@TenderLovingKiller® and I meeting in the Pavement-verse

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Matt M said:
This @hatfieldpdx and @TenderLovingKiller® back and forth have me thinking about trying to enjoy Pavement again. Maybe. Probably enjoying the conversation more though. :)
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Just know that Wowee Zowee is their A Ghost is Born, so you might want to start your adventure elsewhere. :D On a more serious note, as a fan of Guided by Voices you should be able to find some Pavement that is in your wheelhouse. Have you listened to Slanted & Enchanted or Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain?
 
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I am a really big fan of Malkmus' Sparkle Hard and especially Traditional Techniques. I first heard him through his excellent covers on I'm Not There and Day of the Dead. Have never really bonded with Pavement but will give them another chance now too. Appreciate the insight shared here.
 
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