Pavement

Certain Songs #1490: Pavement – “Range Life”

March 24, 2019 by Jim Connelly

Album: Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain
Year: 1994

“I/they don’t have no function”

It’s kinda funny how the most controversial song on Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain was basically a country-rock cruiser, and that the controversy wasn’t surrounding the fact that the music was miles and miles away from the punky fuzzouts they’d done on Slanted and Enchanted, but rather a throwaway punch-up joke that was taken too far seriously by its target.

Which is too bad, because that controversy kinda overshadowed what was perhaps the sharpest set of lyrics on the entire album — which is saying something — that contrast some hoary rock ‘n’ roll tropes with the desire to have some stability in life.

Certain Songs #1489: Pavement – “Gold Soundz”

March 23, 2019 by Jim Connelly

Album: Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain
Year: 1994

“So drunk in the August sun”

I’ve never owned Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain on vinyl, but how much fun would it have been to be able to turn the record and have a second to recover from the frenzy of “Unfair” before the gorgeous opening of “Gold Soundz” kicks in. Instead, on the CD, it’s weirdly jarring, like if you had one of those multi-disc carousel changers and it somehow started playing a totally different CD.

Certain Songs #1488: Pavement – “Unfair”

March 22, 2019 by Jim Connelly

Album: Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain
Year: 1994

“The last psychedelic band from Sacto, Northern Cal!”

Somehow, despite all of the stone classics surrounding it, “Unfair” turned out to be my favorite song from Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain — meaning that it’s my favorite Pavement song, period — as it’s a near-perfect combination of screeching rage, wild guitars, hilarious lyrics and a candy-sweet melody.

To to be honest, melody does take a bit of a backset in this case, but not so much that they don’t get away with producing a song that doesn’t have any chorus at all. Instead, “Unfair” starts at about an intensity level of 9.5 and ends up going to 11. At least.

Certain Songs #1487: Pavement – “Cut Your Hair”

March 21, 2019 by Jim Connelly

Album: Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain
Year: 1994

“Did you see the drummer’s hair?”

Holy shit, this song. I mean, holy fucking shit, this song.

First off, it’s always given me flashbacks to Pete Townshend singing in first person character “Why should I care / If I have to cut my hair” but that’s on me, as Pavement’s “Cut Your Hair” isn’t anything at all like The Who’s “Cut My Hair,” a song which instantly pivots to Jimmy’s issues fitting in with his peers and his parents.

Certain Songs #1486: Pavement – “Silence Kid”

March 20, 2019 by Jim Connelly

Album: Crooked Rain Crooked Rain
Year: 1994

“This is the city life”

Most great albums announce their greatness within just a few seconds: the synth that opens “Baba O’ Riley,” the guitar riff of “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” the stolen drumbeat of “Just Like Honey.”

Others? Well others take a bit to get going. Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain falls into the latter camp. You put it in the CD changer, and it acts like its surprised that you chose it, so it stumbles around a bit gather itself together — random bass notes from Mark Ibold, new drummer Steve West hitting various toms like he’s doing a sound check, Stephen Malkmus trying to get his squawking guitar under control, and you can be excused if you want to ask them if you should come back later when they’re ready to play.

Certain Songs #1485: Pavement – “Unseen Power of the Picket Fence”

March 19, 2019 by Jim Connelly

Album: No Alternative
Year: 1993

“And there stands R.E.M.”

As it turned out, the first song that anybody heard from the Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain sessions was kind of a goof that was on a compilation album called No Alternative.

Part of the early 90s Red Hot AIDS Benefit series of albums, No Alternative featured a killer line of alt-rock stars — Matthew Sweet, The Breeders, Soul Asylum, Beastie Boys & Smashing Pumpkins to name a few — doing original songs, covers and live versions. These days, it’s probably most remembered for having a killer Nirvana hidden track that was rumoured to be called “I Hate Myself and Want to Die,” but was named “Verse Chorus Verse” at the time, and is now known as “Sappy.”

Certain Songs #1484: Pavement – “Shoot The Singer (1 Sick Verse)”

March 18, 2019 by Jim Connelly

Album: Watery, Domestic EP
Year: 1992

“Slow it down, song is sacred!”

The final song on the Watery, Domestic EP was definitely a precursor to the more classic rock structures and sounds that were going to be all over the rest of their records, as well as formally introduce a previously-hitherto unheard element in their sound: R.E.M.

And so “Shoot The Singer (1 Sick Verse)” kicks off with Gary Young playing the straightest of straightforward beats, with Mark Ibold’s bass is high enough in the mix to actually be heard while Stephen Maklmus and Scott Kanneberg volleyed Buckian arpeggios at each other.

Certain Songs #1483: Pavement – “Frontwards”

March 17, 2019 by Jim Connelly

Album: Watery, Domestic EP
Year: 1992

“So much style and it’s wasted”

Probably intended on a stopgap in order to bring the new guys — bassist Mark Ibold & percussionist/hype man Bob Nastanovich — into the studio to do a few songs before recording the full-length follow-up to Slanted and Enchanted, the Watery, Domestic EP turned out to the last work original drummer Gary Young played on.

None of which, I of course knew, back when I picked it up on early 1993 — Pavement were pretty much still shrouded in mystery at that point, despite Slanted and Enchanted making it to #2 in the Village Voice’s annual Pazz & Jop critics poll.

Certain Songs #1482: Pavement – “Perfume-V”

March 15, 2019 by Jim Connelly

Album: Slanted and Enchanted
Year: 1992

“She’s got the radio active”

One of the more fun things about Slanted and Enchanted were the song titles, some of which had something to do with the lyrics of the songs, and some which didn’t. So there was a sometimes a bit of a disconnect as to which song you were listening to. While “Loretta’s Scars” and “Two States” were obvious, it took a while for “Summer Babe” to get to the titular babe.

Then again, there were songs where the title seemingly had no bearing whatsoever to the words. For example: “Jackals, False Grails: The Lonesome Era” or “Our Singer,” or most especially, “Perfume-V” the title of which has almost nothing to do with perhaps the most otherwise easily grokked song on the whole record.

Certain Songs #1481: Pavement – “Loretta’s Scars”

March 14, 2019 by Jim Connelly

Album: Slanted and Enchanted
Year: 1992

“I can see the sun, I can see the sun”

Of course Slanted and Enchanted was such a treasure trove of chewy goodness that after the opening one-two punch of “Summer Babe” and “Trigger Cut,” it was nearly impossible to figure out which songs I loved the most, even as I spent much of the summer of 1992 blasting it from my office at the Video Zone.

So my deepest apologies to people who loved songs like “Conduit For Sale,” with its repeated screams of “I’m tryin, I’m tryin, I’m tryin” (which caused Morgan to walk into my office and wryly observe “I think he’s trying”) or “Fame Throwa,” which balances perhaps the stupidest drumbeat ever weirdly synthed-out guitars or Kanneberg’s “Two States” or even the relatively mellow, almost jangly “Here.”