Pavement: Slanted And Enchanted

     It wasn't until about six years ago that I finally got around to checking out Pavement. Way before that, many roads should have lead me to Pavement. When I first immersed myself in Guided by Voices I became obsessed with Matador Records. So obviously, when you're into a lo-fi,indie band on the Matador label comparisons to Pavement abound. For some reason, I was put off by a couple trivial things. First, I thought Pavement was a horrible name for a band. I can't even explain it; it was just one of those irrational hangups that lead to questionable decision-making. The other thing was they were always described as cool or smart alecky or slackers, which I translated as they were a bunch of jerks. The unfortunate aspect of this is I missed years of listening to Pavement. The positive is that when I finally decided to give Pavement a chance Matador was reissuing their albums. Even if my kids have no interest in Pavement, they should keep these reissues because the packaging is amazing. I mentioned before that I was going to post about Pavement in a series of posts. This is the first installment, so I'll begin with the reissue of Slanted And Enchanted.
     I keep going back and forth on my favorite Pavement album between Slanted And Enchanted and Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain. S&E comes right out of the gate with two of my favs "Summer Babe" and "Trigger Cut". "Summer Babe" has the great line: I got a lot of things I want to sell... but not here babe. For me, S&E shows a ton of potential with half a dozen or so awesome songs, but much of it sounds like musical experimentation. Don't get me wrong, I don't have a problem with that, but I need to be in the right mood to want to listen to it. Other standout tracks are "In The Mouth A Desert", "Here", "Two States" and "Perfume-V". The great thing about the reissue is all the extras. There are John Peel sessions, songs from the recording sessions, a live show from London in 1992 and the EP Watery, Domestic.
     Watery, Domestic has my all-time favorite Pavement song, "Shoot The Singer". I love the opening line: Someone took... in... these... pants / somebody painted over wood painted wood. It's the way Malkmus delivers the line that makes it great. He does the same thing later with the line: I named the book... af-... ter... you. "Frontwards" and "Texas Never Whispers" are strong tracks as well. The package also comes with a booklet with lots of pictures and some essays. You can tell that the people at Matador are still music nerds first and business people second, because all the Pavement reissues are fantastic (still waiting for Terror Twilight, though). My next Pavement post will be Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain, which push comes to shove is my favorite.
     I promise I'll get to that Robert Pollard best of list, but it's a daunting task. Also, I've been on a Weakerthans bender lately, so I may be posting about them soon, as well. Peace.