When Pavement Sends You Running for Cover

Did you see Pavement at Reading Festival?

It is the oldest popular music festival in existence today. In the last five decades, Reading Festival has hosted big bands and acts, such as Nirvana in 1992, Paramore in 2014, and Metallica in 1997.

Reading ’92

If you want to listen to some nineteen-nineties-era rock that you could share with friends, you should have no problem finding Pavement’s discography. They are an unparalleled example of a fun, witty rock and roll band, that won accolades and a level of popularity that has helped their discography endure.

1. What happened?

It was on 23 August, during their two-week Europe tour with rock band Sonic Youth, that the band played at Reading, an approximately 40-minute set.

Pavement was a five-member band, although Stephen Malkmus, Scott “Spiral Stairs” Kannberg, and Gary Young alone formed the band in 1989. Pavement recorded the music at Gary’s studio, Louder than you Think.

The song from those sessions includes Box Elder, seeming to be about leaving town in frustration, which enjoyed some interest. The Chicago record label Drag City handled it.

2. Why it was so awesome

On 23 August, ’91, the band was playing on the strengths of a 7″ single, Summer Babe (Winter Version), and three earlier EPs. The first full-length LP was a big deal, as Matador Records was working to help make Pavement a name for themselves. Meanwhile, Geffen Records was getting Sonic Youth major success, Sonic Youth having previously been shoegazers known for their song Death Valley ’69.

Both Sonic Youth and Pavement are influential music acts.

Death Valley ’69 (Sonic Youth, 1985) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1zPOcllS9Q

Refute https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6C78dcy8-w

3. What the crowd thought

Despite obscurity in 1991, Pavement was becoming a success. Pavement’s most recent album now is Quarantine the Past, and the time seems right for both old songs and unseen material.

The unreleased songs from Pavement won’t be hard to find. Bandcamp is making it available in different formats in April. Besides the reissue of Spit on a Stranger from 1999, there is a set of all their music.

You don’t need to hear the complete collection if Pavement interests you. You could begin with Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain, which is their best-known release.

4. What the band said about Reading

The members of Sonic Youth and Pavement became pretty good friends. When Malkmus turned his attention to Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain, he sold a lot of units, but not as much of Pavement’s music after that found the same popularity.

Certainly, it would have been more difficult to make videos that would have been more popular with MTV audiences. Still, the two videos Pavement released with Wowee Zowee in 1995 were, in one instance, simply a bathtub filled with water, and, in the second one, the band appeared to be in a country-rock video, even though they were known for their straightforward rock music.

Perhaps Malkmus was being difficult. I like the Father to a Sister of Thought video, but Wowee Zowee obviously had little chance to break into the country music market, being an experimental rock album.

5. You can’t see them, but they were great!

You can get an idea of what they were like with the second CD from Slanted and Enchanted Luxe and Reduxe, where, for example, the discs include the song Frontwards from the Watery, Domestic EP, in both its studio recording and also played live, at Brixton Academy, in December of 1992.

An MTV video from 1995 of Pavement talking at Reading can be seen on YouTube. You can watch how they handled themselves when they are talking somewhat candidly.

Pavement is a band that you might find interesting if only for the sake of hearing songs that are both unique and entertaining. Like Range Life, from Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain, or In the Mouth a Desert, on Slanted and Enchanted. Artistically, Stephen Malkmus is competent.

“Thanks for coming to Reading Festival this year. As you probably already know, we’ve got a few of our most interesting acts playing live on the Main Stage: Arctic Monkeys, Rage Against The Machine and Megan Thee Stallion. We also have other great names, such as Bring Me The Horizon and Halsey.”

I’m joking, I’m not a Reading Festival emcee 😉 Those artists are apparently in for Reading this year, however.

WordPress Discover: Music

For April 2020, to get bloggers in the same spot, WordPress Discover has returned.  This week WordPress Discover is helmed by blogger Krista Stevens.

Today’s theme is “music.”  Krista asks about favourite albums.  My favourite album going is the Indie effort Groove Denied, by Stephen Malkmus, which came out on the Ides of March last year, 2019.

Sticker

It was exciting to learn about it.  It’s the second reinvention of himself Malkmus has presented, the first his solo career that followed his famed 1990s band Pavement, and now with what I’d estimate is a trilogy of albums so far, after five years between album releases.  What I mean is that Pavement did albums in the nineties, which were Malkmus along with several bandmates, and then there were several Stephen Malkmus solo records in the 2000s and 2010s, which ended with what to me was a fairly loud silence, a paradox.

After five years, Malkmus reinvented himself with kind of a second solo career.  The highlight for me was the album from 2019, Groove Denied.

If you don’t know about record albums, the groove is what the arm of the record player reads to play the music.  I take that the expression “Groove Denied” is a reference to streaming services that play digital recordings.  A record player is an analogue machine.

It is interesting for me that Malkmus’ vocal delivery, although perhaps a little dimmed by the passing of years, remains, to my ear, identical to how he sounded when he played with Pavement.

The songs Stephen Malkmus composes have always been brilliant, in my humble opinion, but Groove Denied seems outstanding.  There are three music videos for Groove Denied, handled in the United States by Matador Records, and it was a treat to watch them last year on YouTube.

Last year was the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Pavement record that went into the Top 5 of the year, Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain, in 1994.  The X shape on the cover of Groove Denied reminds me of the X Stephen Malkmus is wearing in the Pavement Slow Century DVD, when he comments on Pavement’s feud with the Smashing Pumpkins.

Mermaid’s May 2019 WordPress Tea Party

The Little Mermaid website belongs to a blogger who organizes month-long tea parties, inclusive blog hops that invite participants to mix and to write collectively on a theme.  I have read some new bloggers, accordingly, and enjoyed some new bloggers accordingly.

May’s theme is “music.” It’s a fun theme. https://www.thelittlemermaid.site/join-in-the-fun-join-in-the-may-2019-tea-party/

While music is not my lifestyle, I hear some.  My taste runs to College Rock, Electropop, Art Rock, Folk-Rock, and Soundtrack.

I can’t play an instrument, but it’s lovely to think of the musicians who make social media the method to make a name for themselves. Before the days of social media, musicians had to count on other resources to become successful.

One song I have a preference for is the Stephen Malkmus single Jenny & the Ess-Dog.  STEPHEN MALKMUS “Jenny & The Ess-Dog” (2000) https://tinyurl.com/yyebecd8

  Malkmus had broken away from his famous band Pavement, and I remember his next band the Jicks did Jenny & the Ess-Dog for his first appearance on David Letterman.  I don’t believe he had ever been on Letterman’s show.

I regard him as a favorite.  Pavement – Perfume-V https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5qnAwmVTv0

@EvaMcGreggor

I find music to be a pleasant pastime.  I’ve heard of painters, for example, who play music while they work on a canvas, or the like.  I often play the radio, or the streaming app Spotify, when I blog, do Facebook and Twitter, clean the apartment, those kinds of household business.

I’d like to thank The Little Mermaid for helping with such a great idea as the monthly tea parties.  Such are the fruits of blogging with WordPress.

Let’s hope there are more tea parties down the road and thank you for reading about my experience.

You can see me on Twitter at https://twitter.com/findingenvirons.  You’re welcome to “like” this post, to comment, and/or to “follow.”  Have a beautiful springtime.