pavement

  zaphod said:

i've owned the slanted and enchanted redux thing since it was released, listened to it a few times. i don't hate this music at all, but it just passes over me without leaving any impression at all. is that normal for this band? do i need to really sit down and listen a few times to get into it? i don't think i'm being willfully stubborn here because i've actually heard the album a number of times, it's just really boring. is this one of those bands that i have to pretend it's the early nineties and this is groundbreaking music for the time, or can it stand on its own?

 

i'm listening to it as i type this and...nothing. with the soft bulletin i can atleast see where someone would think "wow, great sound here" but this is just...so fucking bland. i'm basically making these threads because there's a lot of bands i've never liked but would like to come to terms with. sonic youth is next.

zaph, i feel the same exact way. i'm going to give S&E another chance this weekend as i have a long drive down to VA and need new tunes, but i feel that i just missed the period in which i might have liked these bands (and i would include sonic youth as well) and there's just no appeal; it's not bad, it's not great, it just is.

however, bands from the same period like slowdive (which i basically started listening to from your recommendation) and vaportrail i now love, so it works both ways.

opinions.

i like the way malkmus is sloppy on purpose. some stretches in his guitar solos are just terrible, but then he plays these brilliant bits to interconnect them, picking just the right notes after so many 'wrong ones.' and he constantly sings or plays the dominant seventh over major chords, giving his songs that limpid blues feel if that makes sense ... :undecided:

pavement = genius

Zaphod / pavement fans / anyone -

try SPASM SMASH XXXOXOX Ox & ASS by TRUMANS WATER from 1993

they were kinda lumped in the same boat as EARLY pavement back in the day by lazy music journalists. there are definite similariteis - the whole lofi aesthetic - and i believe they covered forklift on a pavement tribute album. harsher noise with more of a beefheart approach to arrangements - lots of choppy stop starting and time sig changes etc with screeching ear bleeding guitars and 2 part shouty/talky vocals.

oh look...copied from amazon:

  Quote

"This band was brought to my attention by john peel, and i can see why he loved them. i once heard this band was compared (musically) to pavement. stop there. FALSE. i once heard THEY make pavement sound like U2. stop there. TRUE. This band is in the genre of "squigglycore", crazy drums, bent guitar jams, messed up rhythms, hyper singing, all of which will make you, strangely, dance.

If your looking for something different and original this is what you need. Hard to get though. Go for "god speed the punchline" if all else fails."

was that review helpful to you?

on "conduit for sale":

Malkmus is writing about the end of rule in Turin, Italy under the house of Savoy. Hier Proctor was the viceroy in the region, of Swiss/German lineage. I'm not sure of the context in which this is written, but apparently "Ray" was a local Italian nobelman who lived in Turin under the Savoy Rule and was fairly wealthy. However, and if my facts are correct, both he and Proctor were having daliances with many of the same women, and in particular, had been cockhold by the same woman. In a cheap attempt to elevate his name from the muck of public scandal, thereby saving public face, he wrote several articles in the local print media. However this thin attempt was a translucent veil to the general population. In order to keep the peace, and show his continued benevolence to the native Turins under his despotism, as well as to help his rival save face and maintain the love of the people, Proctor liberates a portion of the township under Savoy Rule. It becomes an Italian Run area in the lowliest portion of the city. The locals rush to inhabit the free land, because in their eyes living inside the Savoy ruled areas, or on the fringes of the city in their own homes, is not as satisfying as living free in a hovel.

"Between here and there is better that either here or there."

:dizzy:

yea, i don't know if you can really "get into" pavement. i think its one of those bands that either speaks to you or doesn't.

for me, the beauty is in the lack of technique. it sounds like their music just happens, no planning, no writing, it just comes together. most bands try really hard to be quirky and witty, but pavement does it naturally. they aren't trying to be quirky, that's just the way they are. stephen malkmus' lyrics are very poetic and complex in a goofy/silly way, like he's just making it up as he goes along.

i'm sure this will come off sounding snotty, but if you don't get it, you just don't get it. its not like a "you're not smart enough to get it" type thing, its just a very niche band, i think. i can totally see why most people would think they sound like shit, to be honest.

but yea, check out crooked rain, crooked rain - if you don't like that one, pavement just isn't for you.

for some reason i don't feel like reading through this entire thread; i'll just say, i strongly disliked pavement up until two years ago, when my gf at the time kept playing 'wowee zowee' in the car and then i fell in love with them. and i'd really hated them before, probably in the same way that you (zaphod) hate them now, that they were just this overrated uber-indie band with a lead singer who can't sing and lazy instrumentation, etc. but then all the songs (or most of them) suddenly coalesce and you realize that malkmus is a songwriting genius.

with that said, S+E and westing are their two worst albums by a WIDE margin; 'here' and 'summer babe' are okay, but. give crooked rain and wowee zowee a few listens, all the way through, and if you still don't like pavement, then okay.

(and malkmus' solo stuff is good, i don't know what you guys are talking about)

(also i realize that the original post didn't say anything about "hating" pavement; but i use the word hate in a pretty broad sense)

and i'm going to go ahead and second the idea that sonic youth are the most overrated band on the planet. apart from maybe 60% of goo and daydream nation ... boring noodling crap. yet they're the band that everyone seems to namecheck, i can't figure out why

(and soft bulletin is not the flaming lips' best album)

  playbynumbers said:

and i'm going to go ahead and second the idea that sonic youth are the most overrated band on the planet. apart from maybe 60% of goo and daydream nation ... boring noodling crap. yet they're the band that everyone seems to namecheck, i can't figure out why

i'm not a huge devotee of sonic youth, a lot of their stuff is pretty hit or miss imo. but, they have put out a few really solid albums in the last five years. Murry Street is fucking awesome and last year's Rather Ripped is really good too. Both are a little less heavy on noise and more melodic than some of their better known albums. daydream nation is brilliant, though.

they just don't write very good melodies ... i liked rather ripped (well, liked it more than the o'rourke collaborations), but if you're going to do short 'catchy' songs, at least write decent hooks

fair enough. it's a matter of taste, but i hear where you're coming from.

i don't like pavement but i like meat puppets

I think I liked their Space Ghost Coast to Coast appearance, but that wasn't much.

terror twilight is great

  ieafs said:

great band i think... i've been a big fan ever since i was 13 when 'terror twilight' came out.

you were 13? jesus i'm fucking old

  ieafs said:

the thing with them i think, is that if you take them the wrong way - they seem quite insincere and "indie" and everything bad about the 90s - especially the S&E stuff.

you have to take that slacker/ironic approach in context. they came onto the scene when bands like Def Lepard and Guns N Roses still dominated the airwaves and mtv. The music industry was churning out carbon copy bands like Warrant and Firehouse while interesting bands like Pavement had no access to exposure. So did they have chips on their shoulders? i imagine they did. if you dared to be different and faced that atmosphere, you'd be sour on the whole thing too. that was part of their appeal. they just seemed not to give a fuck.

They have never caught my ear.

pavment ist rad!

i was driving around today listening to "gold soundz" and crooked rain kind of clicked for me and now i seem to like pavement. although i've listened to everything else they've done since making this topic and i don't care for their last two albums. then wowee zowee is very good, sort of like the white album, plenty of variation and the tracks play off each other even when they don't work individually and create a kind of weird logic to the album. i really like "grounded", that's probably my favorite pavement song.

still don't like sonic youth, though.

My sister is a masseuse. She works back stage at a concert venue. She massages rock stars all the time. Last night she massaged The Shins. Shes friends with them now. Im excited as I really really like the Shins

congratulations!

Don't get the hype really... not bad not good... merely fun I guess

Decided to listen to Crooked Rain this early morning as a result of this thread

Try Brighten the Corners?

But Texas Never Whispers is the best Pavement song.

i don't like their last two albums, and brighten the corners is easily their worst.

but i do like wowee zowee and crooked rain. i think wowee zowee is my favorite pavement album. s&e has a couple good songs (here, summer babe) but i'm not a fan of it. one of those influential albums that i respect but don't actually like.

Wtf, everyone always hates on Brighten the Corners.