...a buzz in the afternoon staring at the lake...listening to Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain. There may be other music that is also suitable for drinking in the afternoon but, I don't think there's a better one...certainly not in the summer time.
In fact there's not a better record from the 1990's full stop. Really it has to be on a very short list no matter what decade you consider.
We'll come to that shortly...me and The Boy are preparing a video review of the record for your edification.
It's like that sometimes with covers...so, let's have a few more before moving on.
Julie Doiron from Eric's Trip goofing on Shady Lane from Brighten the Corners. Brighten the Corners was not the best album of the 1990's...in fact it was quite a disappointment. Horrible bloodless, deliberate production and almost any version of the songs not on the album is an improvement. This one's fun.
Nobody need ever bother with this one again...it has been obliterated.
Lotta folks have taken a stab at Here...Grandaddy, Built to Spill...but Tendersticks owns it.
Next up we take a long hard look at the business of RocknRoll....and watch with glee as it's burnt to the ground.
Pavement have always been something of a mystery to me. Not sure how, but I've actually managed to more or less avoid their music completely and never got off my backside to do anything about it. I've liked the solo stuff by Malkmus that I have heard.
ReplyDeleteThere is a lot to listen to here. I'll get back to you when I've given it some time and chased up some of the originals. Enjoy your beer.
Their story is somewhat complicated but it includes three brilliant albums and a slew of legendary releases.
DeleteYou are in the right place if you're looking for an introduction and you are in for a treat.
Will be doing some homework.
DeletePlease push in the chairs and clap the erasers before leaving.
DeleteSo I already know how important Pavement are to you, and you already know I saw them play my local town back in the day :-)
ReplyDeleteNow what I'd like to know is: why the name 'Pavement'? It seems such an odd choice of word for a US band. Any back story there? Or just one of those random words?!
There is kinda.
DeleteWe use the word pavement...but, 90% of the time it means the surface of the road. The pavement is what you bounce your head off of in a bicycle wreck...the connotation is always of something hard and unforgiving.
Just yesterday, at the pool, Martha told the Boy to stop jumping around the edges or he would bust his jaw on the pavement. The pools edge is tiled...you would never refer to it as pavement but, the idea of that being where you bust your face as a kid is a really strong one.
So, when I hear the world pavement I think of something hard and unforgiving...and many thought they were a heavy metal based on the name.
Among other things, Pavement had no interest in being another whiney heartbroken indie boy band. Obviously this wouldn't have worked in the UK...where they would be Sidewalk...a decidedly soft sounding name. But they overcame it I reckon.
Ah thanks Erik, I found that really interesting. I had no idea. The word 'pavement' here seems so innocuous and dull, just as you say 'sidewalk' would be there - and I didn't realise it was was ever used in the US in any context, so the combination of those two things always bugged me. Now your explanation gives it a whole different meaning.
DeleteI'm glad we got that out of the way because, like you, I would give the swerve or need a lot of convincing on a band that had decided to call themselves sidewalk.
DeleteFunny...if we had had roads and sidewalks before Lincoln's War would almost certainly still be the only ones calling them pavements and we might not be having this discussion at all. I reckon :)
One other thing...there is one instance in which we use pavement as sidewalk and that is police or salesmen "pounding the pavement."
DeleteThis is exactly what Ray and Remora are doing in the video...they're pounding the pavement selling Gold Soundz. Which is kinda funny really.
The frozen turkey shot with arrows comes from the original Gold Soundz video...they shot a frozen turkey out of the sky and it had keys to a mustang in it.
3 new artists to me there and most enjoyable to...I do have a Pavement album but maybe I should delve deeper.....Love the Tindersticks take....but I love everything they do.
ReplyDeleteI'm always a little taken aback by their version because it displays and understanding of just how strong a song it is...as a song, removed from whatever Pavement were up to...their catalogue is littered with 'em.
DeleteI feel that I don't know Pavement at all, despite having owned a couple of their albums in the past. For me they're one of those bands that go in one ear and out the other - enjoyable while it's happening, but I can't quite remember the song after it's done. I have, however, been enjoying the Malkmus solo stuff this year, so maybe it's time I went back and gave the band another run around the block.
ReplyDeleteI did have a bit of an Eric's Trip and Julie Doiron phase, back in the, ahem, day, and this one's nice indeed. Tindersticks though - can they do no wrong?
Make sure these albums y'all own aren't brighten the corners or terror twilight ...both fine albums as it goes but we not be discussing Pavement on those two confused efforts (though the songwriting is still there...live versions of those songs can be jaw dropping).
DeleteYou need only look at the bands who've covered their songs from the beginning -
Wedding Present, holly golightly, built to spill, granddaddy, those above...and on down the line to surfer blood and cage the elephant, Blur were explicit about being stoned on Pavement when they wrote most of Blur Wooo Hooo. John Peel adored them and rightly, as a genius with such things, saw them as the flip side of Nirvana.
Get with the program People! :)