Pavement Reunion?

[davy]

Never been a fan.

[sashwap]

seriously, the lack of "rattled by the rush" is just dumb.

[cold before sunrise]

who has tix for coachella yet? saw that tix are on sale and don't intend to miss it. i'd love to see pavement play but not if it meant missing phoenix or spoon.

I guess I know where I'll be on 19 June.

if i miss them at coachella this might be a reason to squeeze in a visit to my ma and grand mama.

[davy]

i'd love to see pavement play but not if it meant missing phoenix

 

[sashwap]

some inside info on the matador forum:

As to songs that got omitted... Kennel District was never on it (personally I would have gone for it), but Painted Soldiers was there instead of Date w/ IKEA up until the last minute.

The very last change was the addition of Fight This Generation at the very end - the closer through most of the sequences was Unseen Power. That decision came down from Scott, and it totally worked.

If you really want to get into the history of the selection, tracks 1-4 came from one sequence, and tracks 5-21 (less Two States and Box Elder, and with Painted Soldiers in place of Date and at track 7) came from another sequence... in which In The Mouth A Desert would have started off the comp. This would have made it a bit more chronological but also a bit more predictable, so the "intro" sequence containing songs from all over the band's career was pre-appended. (Debris Slide was the fifth song in the original 5-track intro sequence, but it felt like too much lo-fi too early. Stereo was the opener through many of the sequences until it got switched out for Gold Soundz - we didn't want to open with a song that was also the opener for one of the LPs.)

That original 6-20:

6. In The Mouth A Desert Slanted
7. Painted Soldiers brain candy
8. Cut Your Hair Crooked Rain
9. Shady Lane/J vs. S Brighten The Corners
10. Here Slanted
11. Unfair Crooked Rain
12. Grounded Wowee
13. Summer Baby (7" Version) Slanted
14. Range Life Crooked Rain
15. Shoot The Singer (1 Sick Verse) watery
16. Spit On A Stranger Terror Twilight
17. Heaven Is A Truck Crooked Rain
18. Trigger Cut Slanted
19. Embassy Row Brighten The Corners
20. Unseen Power Of The Picket Fence no alternative

Rattled By The Rush, Stop Breathin', Major Leagues and Give It A Day were all on the sequence at one point... but the record was spilling over into double CD territory, and with all the Pavement double CDs out there, and the desire to keep the cost down and make this a cheap digestible introduction for newbies, the scalpel came down (painfully in the case of those particular songs!) to come up with a more compact, yet idiosyncratic, selection that had good flow.

I mean, we could have gone with just the really obvious hits for Pavement and made the most predictable collection of all time... I'm really glad they chose Heaven Is A Truck, for instance - once you hear the album flow - you realize that it isn't a filler track at all but a classic Pavement deep cut. It sounds totally different here from side 2 of Crooked Rain. I actually can't get that song out of my head at the moment.

We just got the vinyl test pressings in and it's particularly fascinating as 4 sides or "suites," each with its own mood.

I miss "Silence, Kit," "Perfume-V," "You're Killing Me," "Forklift," "Elevate Me Later," "Stop Breathin'," "Rattled By The Rush," "Father To A Sister Of Thought," "AT&T," "Grave Architecture," all of the "Give It A Day" EP, "Baptist Blacktick" and other B-sides as much as you guys do.

But 23-song comps need to be idiosynratic or they'll be boring. As a flow, rather than just a collection of greatest hits, I think you guys will agree that Quarantine is not just interesting but also enveloping and addictive.

** As for Terror being underrepresented... guilty as charged. I think most people feel that it is the weakest Pavement album. Other see it as a dry-run for the first Malkmus solo album. Whether or not either of those statements are true, Major Leagues was on the comp for a while - but the record was just too long. Carrot Rope was never a contender. Finally, 2010 is going to be the year of Terror, with the first vinyl reissue coming March 9, and Terror Deluxe coming in Oct/Nov, so we (and the band) thought, let's give the other records the nod.

[ddillaman]

I mean, I know I'm insane and not to be trusted, but I actually think Terror Twilight is the best Pavement album.

In unrelated news, I'm listening to "Heaven Is A Truck" right now, and despite knowing that I've listened to CRCR dozens of times, I don't even remember ever hearing this song before in my life, which says something about how forgettable it is in context ... think I'll make up a Pavement playlist of this best-of and see how it flows.

Wonder how much this tips towards a possible setlist ... March 1st can't get here soon enough ...

edited to add: also just realized that not only is "Loretta's Scars" not included, but nobody seems particularly fussed by this. Further proof my Pavement preferences are wildly out of sync.

[lastclearchance]

who has tix for coachella yet? saw that tix are on sale and don't intend to miss it. i'd love to see pavement play but not if it meant missing phoenix or spoon.

I will be in Seattle during Coachella. Maybe I will post more about this elsewhere.

[davy]

I don't care what they say. They have no reasonable excuses for omitting "Rattled by the Rush," and, now that I think on it, "Father to a Sister of Thought." Neither one of those songs would have damaged the comp's "idiosyncratic" nature. I mean, shit, the latter has pedal steel for god's sake.

They'll never persuade me that it was a good idea to include "Heaven Is a Truck." There are literally DOZENS of "classic deep cuts" that would've been a better fit. And "The Hexx" and "Fight This Generation"...if they were so concerned with the length of the thing, maybe they should've thought twice about including two LONG-ASS live favorites that never quite lived up to their reputations on record.

And the whole "Kennel District" and "Carrot Rope" were never on it...that just feels like a poke in the eye. And "Unseen Power of the Picket Fence" as a closer? Dudes were smoking too much weed during these meetings.

[edison]

A poke in the eye! Geez!

Perhaps more importantly, have any of you Pavement diehards actually tried out this playlist yet?

[narlus]

And "The Hexx" and "Fight This Generation"...if they were so concerned with the length of the thing, maybe they should've thought twice about including two LONG-ASS live favorites that never quite lived up to their reputations on record.

is there some collective Pavement intelligensia regarding this position, or just your opinion?

[Nick Ink]

This thread is a bizarre place for someone who's not really into Pavement. Who'd have thought a Fall tribute band could whip up such emotions!!

[donblood]

Who'd have thought a Fall tribute band could whip up such emotions!!

Hahahaha I you Nick Ink

[davy]

Bah. There is but one Pavement song that really sounds like The Fall to me, and that's "Conduit For Sale." On the whole, I've always felt like that comparison was a lazy one. There are plenty of bands who fit the role better.

Nonetheless, the joke is appreciated .

A poke in the eye! Geez!

Perhaps more importantly, have any of you Pavement diehards actually tried out this playlist yet?

I was referring to the blogger's statement about "Kennel District, et al. were never on it" as sounding like a poke in the eye; not the omissions themselves. I was also overreacting.

And no, I haven't tried out the playlist yet. For one thing, I can sorta hear it in my head, and for another, I need some kinda reason to buy the thing when it comes out. I think it's important to note here that my tracklisting and theirs are 74% in line with each other. I quibble out of love.

[Killdozersnakeboy]

The quote up the page reminds me of my undying love of Baptist Blacktick which next to Box Elder is my favourite Pavement recording. It probably should have closed the Best of.

Thank god they left Carrot Rope off. Awful song.

[narlus]

Bah. There is but one Pavement song that really sounds like The Fall to me, and that's "Conduit For Sale." On the whole, I've always felt like that comparison was a lazy one. There are plenty of bands who fit the role better.

Nonetheless, the joke is appreciated .

what about 'two states'?  that sounds MES-influenced to me.

[Good Intentions]

There's quite a lot of Fall pretty much everywhere you look, especially at the early end of the discography, especially compared to mid-late 80s Brix Smith-era Fall. But it's not straight-up Fall worship (Stephen Malkmus doesn't quite love repition), and it's not just Fall worship. As a songwriter Malkmus has his own thing going on. But there's more Fall in there than there is, say, NZ jangly lo-fi (and Pavement covered some NZ bands).

[davy]

Well, right, but once you hit Crooked Rain, even the incidental Fallisms have faded away. They were following different muses by that point.

[Andrew_TSKS]

True for CRCR, I'll agree, but the Fall influence was back on some of Wowee Zowee at least. And hell, you could argue a Fall influence on "Stereo" at least, if not any other BTC tracks.

[davy]

Nah, I don't hear it in "Stereo."

I'm not trying to say that Pavement wasn't influenced by The Fall. I'm just arguing that the comparison is a little exaggerated. I hear a strong Fall vibe on the early singles and Slanted, but "Conduit for Sale" is really the only song that ever struck me as sounding exactly like The Fall. After that record, I feel like you can just file The Fall away as being one of the many, many creative influences they were blending together.

[Nick Ink]

I do quite like Pavement, it's just been a loooong time since I felt like listening to them. I think the shock I felt at the bog-standardism of Malkmus's early post-Pavement material has yet to wear off. But I used to listen to them a fair bit, saw them live once (with that outrageous old bloke drumming), even got together with a girlfriend over a Pavement song. And yet, while I can see how someone would like them, I can't really see how they'd be a band to love.

[donblood]

I think the shock I felt at the bog-standardism of Malkmus's early post-Pavement material has yet to wear off.

still you Nick

[davy]

I can't really see how they'd be a band to love.

And yet, Machinefabriek.

[Nick Ink]

I can't really see how they'd be a band to love.

And yet, Machinefabriek.

Exactly. The gulf between our musical tastes could hardly be more obvious.

[monkeypants]

I can't really see how they'd be a band to love.

And yet, Machinefabriek.

Exactly. The gulf between our musical tastes could hardly be more obvious.

Surely Robyn Hitchcock can bridge the divide?

[mountmccabe]

who has tix for coachella yet? saw that tix are on sale and don't intend to miss it.

I am, unsurprisingly, going to Coachella yet again.  I resisted but rule/camping changes along with all the friends I have that're going have pulled me back in.

Pavement is my #1 for the entire weekend.