Podcasts about malkmus

This week we are joined by the director and producers of the amazing Gary Young/Pavement documentary ‘LOUDER THAN YOU THINK,' one of the best music documentaries I have seen in recent years and also one of the most enlightening about Pavement. We discuss how surprisingly open the members of Pavement were to discussing Gary, Gary's legendary home studio where he played drums and recorded Pavement's early records, the incredible marionettes that were built specifically for the film, what it was like for Brian to be in bands with Gary in the early 80s, the surprise explosion of Pavement's success, Gary's love of Prog rock and superstardom, the night Gary served mashed potatoes out of wheelbarrows to audience members, Malkmus's PTSD from working with Gary, the age differences in the band, the battle between lo-fi and professional goals, Gary's origin story from NY to CA, guitarist Spiral Stairs finding a box of unknown VHS tapes from their first Pavement tour, Rollerball, the blam-o-meter, Gary's wife Geri, the trauma of him leaving the band after overstepping his role, Gary's band Hospital, Beavis and Butthead, Gary's serious advice column in a Japanese magazine, Gary's struggle with addiction, the Watery, Domestic EP, Gary's reaction to the film & the time he disrupted his own film premiere by heckling the documentary.So let's do collective handstands while the band plays onwards...on this week's episode of Revolutions Per Movie!STREAM LOUDER THAN YOU THINK HERE:https://www.factorytwentyfive.com/louder-than-you-thinkREVOLUTIONS PER MOVIE:Host Chris Slusarenko (Eyelids, Guided By Voices, owner of Clinton Street Video rental store) is joined by actors, musicians, comedians, writers & directors who each week pick out their favorite music documentary, musical, music-themed fiction film or music videos to discuss. Fun, weird, and insightful, Revolutions Per Movie is your deep dive into our life-long obsessions where music and film collide.The show is also a completely independent affair, so the best way to support it is through our Patreon at patreon.com/revolutionspermovie. By joining, you can get weekly bonus episodes, physical goods such as Flexidiscs, and other exclusive goods.Revolutions Per Movies releases new episodes every Thursday on any podcast app, and additional, exclusive bonus episodes every Sunday on our Patreon. If you like the show, please consider subscribing, rating, and reviewing it on your favorite podcast app. Thanks!SOCIALS:@revolutionspermovieBlueSky: @revpermovieTHEME by Eyelids 'My Caved In Mind'www.musicofeyelids.bandcamp.comARTWORK by Jeff T. Owenshttps://linktr.ee/mymetalhand Click here to get EXCLUSIVE BONUS WEEKLY Revolutions Per Movie content on our Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Stephen Malkmus of Pavement and The Hard Quartet supergroup discusses his record collecting history and hobby, the curation and rarities of his collection and more. Topics Include: Discussion of California fires affecting friends and family Malkmus planning upcoming Australia tour dates Past experiences touring Australia - good venues and hospitality Planning to watch Australian Open tennis in Melbourne Record store habits in Chicago area Sold eight feet of records to Portland dealer Keeps records with sentimental value over others Considering organizing valuable records for emergency evacuation Owns rare Australian records from Bondi Beach dealer Band of Light, Buffalo, Carson among Australian collection Collecting New Zealand Flying Nun and Expressway records Prefers finding records in wild over online purchases Interest in outsider music and private press records The Shags mentioned as reference for outsider music Gary Higgins' "Red Hash" mentioned as great private press Values original pressings over reissues, condition less important Not particularly interested in promo or white label releases Discusses Led Zeppelin records and Robert Ludwig pressing Moved from LA to Stockton around age eight Played in Stockton punk band Straw Dogs Opened for major hardcore bands like Black Flag Tales of Terror band mentioned as influential Authorities from Stockton discussed - "Soundtrack for Trouble" First vinyl appearance was Slay Tracks release Early Matador Records special releases with dinosaur stamps Influenced by Swell Maps and Beat Happening Early Sub Pop and Homestead Records were influential Hard Quartet project confirmed as ongoing, not one-off Band recorded together, avoiding remote recording methods Discusses song "Renegade" and its evolution Compression techniques used on "Renegade" discussed Looking for Roy Rutanen record while in Australia Found Bram Stoker record in Gold Coast charity shop Uses phone to research records while shopping Values surprise discoveries in record stores most Tickets for The Hard Quartet Australian tour Commercial free, high resolution verion of this podcast is available at: www.Patreon.com/VinylGuide Listen on Apple: https://apple.co/2Y6ORU0 Listen on Spotify: https://spoti.fi/36qhlc8

Jake Morris, the longtime drummer for Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks, joins the podcast for a rambling chat about his love of Steely Dan, Malkmus, indie rock touring, and his own excellent new solo album The Long Goodbye. A member of The FM Podcasts Network.

Part 2 of my conversation with guest Jay Breitling about our favorite music of 2024. Show notes: Our top 10 albums of the year Shout out to Rock P's top 20 out of 10 countdown JB's #10: Triple album tribute album for Jesse Malin, an underrated songwriter JK's #10: J Mascis incorporates hot guitar solos into a mostly acoustic album JB's #9: Hot collection of bangers from Cloud Nothings JK's #9: Farewell set from Toronto noise rockers METZ  JK's #8: Angry breakup album from Fake Fruit Coming up on the 5th birthday of Parcheesi Redux radio, SITG hit 11 this fall JB's #7: Retro '60s sounds from Sharp Pins JK's #7:  Philly indie rockers return with in-your-face collection JB's #6: More great SF indie bubblegum pop from Lunchbox JK's #6: Power pop scorchers courtesy of Daniel Romano's Outfit Reminiscing about ER and One Tree Hill JB's #5: Peel Dream Magazine delivers peaceful indie pop JK's #5: Dublin indie rock act Fontaines D.C. with commercial breakthrough JB's #4: Dog Day with economical set of bangers JK's #4: Slacker alt-country with hott lead guitar by MJ Lenderman JB's #3: Another Slumberland slacker indie pop success with Neutrals JK's #3: Indie supergroup the Hard Quartet with Malkmus and Matt Sweeney JB's #2: The rare Johnny Foreigner album that isn't #1, but it's still pretty great  JK's #2 and JB's #8: Triumphant return from the Cure after 16 years JB's #1: Chime School with the peak summer hang soundtrack JK's #1: A November release from Kim Deal is a terrific reflection on loss First solo album after 37 years in the music biz Looking forward to 2025 releases from Hallelujah the Hills, maybe more Johnny Foreigner, Horsegirl, Mogwai Completely Conspicuous is available through Apple Podcasts. Subscribe and write a review! The opening and closing theme of Completely Conspicuous is "Theme to Big F'in Pants" by Jay Breitling. Voiceover work is courtesy of James Gralian.

MMT50 - 205Welcome back to The Pavement Top 50 Countdown, where we dive deep into the best of Pavement, the iconic 90s indie rock band fronted by Stephen Malkmus. Join us as we rank Pavement's top songs from fan-favorite hits to hidden gems that define the band's unique sound and legacy in indie rock.In this episode, we're getting closer to the top tracks as Rohit from Mombai and jD announce song number 5 on the Countdown. Whether you're a longtime fan or new to the world of Pavement, this countdown is designed to give you fresh insights into their music, the creative genius of Malkmus, and how Pavement influenced a generation of indie music. So, tune in for our take on these essential Pavement songs, and see where your favorite tracks land on the list.Episode Highlights:• A breakdown of Pavement's most influential tracks• Nostalgic and insightful discussions on Pavement's discography• Personal anecdotes and fan stories on what these songs mean to us• Why these songs define the indie rock genre and remain fan favoritesSocials and More:• Connect with us on Facebook for episode updates and more Pavement discussions: facebook.com/groups/meetingmalkmus• Email us at jd.meetingmalkmus@gmail.com to share your own favorite Pavement moments.• Visit our website at dewvre.com/tthtop40 for show archives and other Dewvre podcasts.• Follow us on social media: @meetingmalkmus for countdown updates, indie rock inspiration, and everything Pavement!This structure highlights the unique aspects of the countdown, encourages fan engagement, and makes the show's indie-rock focus clear. Let me know if you'd like any more tweaks!Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/meeting-malkmus-a-pavement-podcast/exclusive-contentAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

MMT50 - 208: The Pavement Top 50 CountdownIn this episode of Meeting Malkmus: A Pavement Podcast, jD and guest Andy from Birmingham dive into song #7 on the Pavement countdown. They explore SMs lyrics, Pavement's raw indie sound, and Malkmus's distinctive voice that continues to captivate fans. Join the discussion as they look back at Pavement's legacy and reflect on the unique, indie charm that defines the band.Episode Highlights:.• Pavement's Influence on Indie Rock – Andy shares his experiences discovering Pavement in the 90s and the impact of Malkmus's American accent on British fans.• Pavement Live – Recalling the early 90s live performance in Birmingham where Pavement opened for Sonic Youth.• Birmingham's Indie Scene – Andy describes his time growing up in Birmingham's vibrant indie rock scene, from record shops to mosh pits.• Bonus – A discussion on Watery, Domestic, the EP Andy only recently discovered, and why it's become a treasured addition to his collection.About the Pavement Top 50 Countdown:Every week, jD counts down the 50 greatest Pavement tracks as voted by fans. Listen as jD and guests break down each track, sharing personal stories, song insights, and Pavement memories. Episodes release weekly, leading up to the #1 track selected by fans.Connect with Us:• Email: jd.meetingmalkmus@gmail.com• Website: dewvre.com/meetingmalkmus• Facebook Group: facebook.com/groups/meetingmalkmus• Socials: @meetingmalkmus on all platformsThanks for tuning in to Meeting Malkmus. Don't miss next week's episode as we reveal song #6 and edge closer to the top of the countdown!Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/meeting-malkmus-a-pavement-podcast/exclusive-contentAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Yes, I have incorporated all the keywords into the show notes. Here is the updated version with all the keywords included:---**Show Notes: MMT50 - 212**Hey there, Pavement aficionados! jD is back with another episode of our Top 50 Countdown on the *Meeting Malkmus* podcast, exploring the essential tracks by the seminal indie rock band, **Pavement**. This week, we're diving into track number 12 on the countdown.Joining jD is Pavement superfan **Tim from Portland**, and trust us, you don't want to miss this one. It's a rollercoaster ride through **'90s indie rock** nostalgia, **Pavement concert stories**, and a heartfelt plea to support live music.---**Episode Highlights:****[0:00] Introduction and Tim's Pavement Origin Story**- **Discovering Pavement through the College Music Journal:** - Tim shares how he first stumbled upon Pavement in the summer of '94 through the *College Music Journal*, a pivotal moment in his journey into **'90s indie rock**. - *"Yeah, I ran down to Tower Records in San Diego and got the CD along with a few other ones... been cranking it ever since."*- **First Impressions of 'Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain':** - His immediate obsession after purchasing Pavement's seminal album, *Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain*. - *"Right out of the gate, this album was different, and I applauded that."***[1:57] Early Live Shows and Military Gear Coincidence**- **First Pavement Concert Experience in the San Diego Music Scene:** - Tim talks about seeing Pavement live for the first time in January '96 at Montezuma Hall, San Diego State University—a highlight in his **Pavement concert memories**. - **Silkworm as the Opening Act:**  - The concert featured **Silkworm** as the opening act, adding to the night's **indie music nostalgia**. - *"We decided to dress up... everyone put on some sort of military garb."*- **Serendipitous Moment with the Band:** - The hilarious coincidence of the band also wearing military attire, showcasing the quirky connection between Pavement and their fans. - *"We all looked at them and then at each other and just started laughing."***[4:13] Following the Band and Memorable Performances**- **Photographing Pavement at Bimbo's 365 Club:** - Tim recalls capturing the band during a show at **Bimbo's 365 Club in San Francisco**, adding to his collection of **Pavement fan experiences**. - *"I have some great shots from there... there was definitely, you know, kind of a whole San Francisco vibe going on."*- **Tibetan Freedom Concert Adventure [7:11]:** - Get the lowdown on Tim's experience at the massive **Tibetan Freedom Concert** in San Francisco, featuring a lineup that included **Sonic Youth** and cemented **Pavement's influence on indie rock**. - *"There were, I think, like a hundred thousand people there... It was a total bottleneck of a festival."***[9:05] Unforgettable Gigs and Onstage Antics**- **Mark Ibold's Onstage Incident:** - Hear about bassist **Mark Ibold's** mysterious onstage moment in Pomona, one of the more intriguing **Pavement concert stories**. - *"He couldn't play; he couldn't finish a song... the show ended shortly after that."*- **Bob Nastanovich's Live Performances:** - Discussing **Bob Nastanovich's** energetic contributions during live shows, highlighting the band's dynamic stage presence.**[11:01] Accidental HBO Appearance**- **HBO Reverb Special Featuring Pavement:** - Learn how Tim unknowingly became part of the **HBO Reverb Pavement** special during a gig at Cane's in San Diego, a unique highlight in his **Pavement concert memories**. - *"We didn't even know that was happening... Spiral was like, 'Oh, they're doing some fucking HBO show.' He didn't seem happy about it."***[12:20] Deep Dive into Track #12**- **Why Track #12 Matters in Pavement's Discography:** - Tim breaks down why this song is in his personal top five, offering insightful **Pavement song analysis**. - *"This song, you know, it's awesome. It's got rockets; it goes."*- **Personal Connection and Indie Music Nostalgia:** - How the song's themes resonate with Tim's own travels and experiences across California, enhancing his **indie music nostalgia**. - *"I know all the places it talks about... Hearing this the first times, we were just like, 'Who are these guys? What are they doing singing about our places?'"*- **The Quintessential Pavement Vibe:** - Discussing how Pavement's songs often mean everything and nothing all at once, reflecting their unique place in **alternative rock**. - *"It has kind of a theme but is totally non sequitur at the same time—it's right up my alley. It's cool."***[18:49] The Pavement Ethos and Live Music Today**- **Stephen Malkmus and the Band's Stance on Fame:** - Reflect on **Pavement's** unique approach to art over commercial success, and how **Stephen Malkmus** embodies this ethos. - *"They lean more art rather than commercialized... They always look painfully uncomfortable."*- **Memorable 2010 Reunion and 2022 LA Show:** - Tim and jD reminisce about the **Pavement 2010 reunion tour** and their first meeting at the epic **Pavement 2022 LA show**, standout events in the **Pavement fan community**. - *"Everybody that was there really wanted to be there... It just checked all the boxes for me."***[29:11] Support Live Music: An Impassioned Plea**- **Get Out and Go to Local Music Venues:** - Tim urges listeners to support live music by attending shows at local venues and supporting **local music venues in Portland** and beyond. - **Quote:** *"Go out, spend some money, and support the arts. When you go to a concert—even if you only stay for four songs—it has a positive impact on your body and your soul."*- **Local Venue Shoutouts in the Portland Music Scene:** - Tim mentions his favorite spots in the **Portland music scene**: Turn Turn Turn, the Kenton Club, and the Fixin' To, encouraging listeners to experience the thriving local music scene.---**Join the Conversation:**- **Twitter:** [@meetingmalkmus](https://twitter.com/meetingmalkmus)- **Facebook Group:** [facebook.com/groups/meetingmalkmus](https://facebook.com/groups/meetingmalkmus)- **Website:** [jd.meetingmalkmus.com](http://jd.meetingmalkmus.com)---**Extra Nuggets:**- **Exclusive Live Recording:** - Tim shares a rare live version of a song from Pavement's Toronto show. It's raw, it's real, and it's right here on the *Meeting Malkmus* podcast.- **Fun Fact:** - Did you know jD used an abacus and a goat with an extra leg to tabulate your Top 20 ballots in the **Pavement Top 50 Countdown**? Don't ask.- **Akin to a Pavement Band Interview:** - This episode feels like an intimate **Pavement band interview**, offering deep insights into the band's history and impact on **indie music**.- **Indie Music Podcast Community:** - As part of the broader **indie music podcast** scene, *Meeting Malkmus* continues to bring you in-depth discussions and interviews with **Pavement superfans** and insiders.---So grab your headphones, crank up the volume, and let's get amped together on this **indie rock** journey through Pavement's legacy.---Transcript: [0:00] Previously on the Pavement Top 50: That's right, song number 13 on the countdown is "Shady Lane," J vs. S. Ralph from Lincolnshire, what is your initial thought about this song?"Well, it's an amazing song. It's an amazing song. I mean, I think it might be—maybe I'm putting it third on my ranking of 'Brighten the Corners.' And I would almost say, you know, 'Brighten the Corners' is my favorite Pavement, so it is super up there. It's brilliant.""Hey, this is Westy from the rock and roll band Pavement, and you're listening to The Countdown."[0:39] "Hey, it's JD here, back for another episode of our Top 50 Countdown for seminal indie rock band Pavement. Week over week, we're going to count down the 50 essential Pavement tracks that you selected with your very own top 20 ballots. I tabulated the results using an abacus and a goat with an extra leg—don't ask. How will your favorite song fare in the ranking? You'll need to tune in to find out, so there's that."This week, we're joined by Pavement superfan Tim from Portland. Tim, how's it going, motherfucker?""Hey, hey, hey, it's going, motherfucker. It's going great.""That was very Canadian of me, motherfucker. Let's get right to it; let's not mess around here, let's not dilly-dally. Talk to me about your Pavement origin story.""Who? I discovered them through—I believe through College Music Journal, which was a publication back in the '90s. It was kind of—""I don't think so.""Okay. It was like a half-sized magazine, so I think it was an evolution from zines. I don't know. Anyways, I read a record review of 'Crooked Rain.'"[1:57] "And that's when I was introduced to them. So this was, you know, '94—summer of '94 probably—because I had just left uni and got a house with friends. And yeah, I ran down to Tower Records in San Diego and got the CD along with a few other ones. I would get this College Music Journal and read reviews and go buy albums; that was kind of my thing. So yeah, went down and got 'Crooked Rain' and have been cranking it ever since.""Yeah. So what was it like the first time you spun it?""Oh man, I loved it. You know, I had just graduated from uni; I was an art and business major of all things, and I was into everything that wasn't normal—trying, anyways. And that's what Pavement was for me, you know? Right out of the gate, this album was different, and I applauded the—I don't know, there's this sense of, like Beavis and Butthead said, trying and not trying, and I love that about this. I recently heard Jack Black say—somebody asked him what kind of bands he's into, and he's like, 'I only want to listen to bands'—this is an old interview—but he said, 'I only want to listen to bands who kick ass, who fucking take names.' And I was like, oof, I wonder if Jack Black's a Pavement fan because they do—they do, but they don't. But I love that about them."[3:40] "That, to me, oozed alternative. So yeah. But I didn't see them play live for, oh, a year and a half later. I was just this morning looking up shows I went to.""Oh, really?""Yeah. About half the shows I went to were before 2000 and half after. So the first time I saw them was in San Diego in '96 in January, and that was really fun. Just a quick story on that one."[4:13] "I went with a gang of friends, and they were playing at San Diego State University at this place called Montezuma Hall. I would say it holds like, I don't know, 500 people or something—not big. We were all pre-partying and talking about what we were going to wear; we decided to dress up. So everybody put on some sort of military garb—fatigues, whether pants or shirts or hats or what have you—which kind of looked like normal cool kid wear at the time. Then we go to the show, and Pavement walked out on stage, and they were in full military gear. Steve West had a safari hat with mosquito mesh draped over his shoulders, and he had his raccoon eyes—you know, paint around his eyes—and everybody was wearing military stuff, all the guys in the band.""Did you guys catch wind of that beforehand?""No, it was totally coincidental. We all looked at each other because we knew they were dressed up—they went out of their way—and we all looked at them and then at each other and just started laughing. It was a comical moment, and that was such a good show. JD, kind of like our LA show in May of '22, that first show in January of '96 was fucking awesome. They went nuts. After their encore, Malkmus said something to the effect of—they came back out and he was like, 'San Diego, huh? San Diego's alright. You guys think San Diego's okay? Yeah, San Diego's alright.' And then he said something like, 'Let's fucking fuzz out San Diego.' And then they just went into their last three songs.""Wow.""And just destroyed them. They were so, so good. I kind of followed them a little bit after that. I saw them in San Francisco weeks later; it was so fun for me, I had to get more.""Were they playing 'Brighten' stuff at this point? Because 'Brighten' was going to come out next year. Was it pretty much all 'Wowee'?""You know, I had a couple setlists pulled up. I have to go back and look. I'm not sure.""And my other question is, that San Diego show—was it opened by Silkworm?""Yeah, that was the one. They came out with, I don't know, '30s or '40s-looking sailor suits.""What the hell?""Like Navy sailor suits.""I guess San Diego, huh?""They looked cute. At the time, we had an amazing army surplus store downtown, and I just figured these guys went and hit it up."[7:11] "That's awesome.""None of them seemed sober that night. They were going for it. I saw them play in San Francisco after that and actually photographed that show at Bimbo's 365. I have some great shots from there.""Is that a good venue?""Yeah, it was cool. A cool bar-club, smallish—you know, medium-small size. There was definitely a whole San Francisco vibe going on. I brought some friends to that one from San Diego as well; instant fans. Then the Tibetan Freedom Concert in San Francisco the next summer.""You saw that?""Yeah.""That was kind of typical, you know, festival-type Pavement show.""Sure.""Quick and dirty. We were way in the back."[8:11] "Lots of people?""Oh, hordes. I think there were like a hundred thousand people there or something.""Holy shit.""It was giant. We were kind of there for the whole experience—you know, Beastie Boys.""So they did a show in New York City and one in San Francisco?""Yeah, June of '96.""How have we never talked about this before? I don't think we've ever talked about you going to Tibetan Freedom.""Yeah, it was amazing. I drove my truck and had like four people in the back of the camper shell. We just piled in, and it literally took us like five hours to drive two miles to get out of the city. It was a total bottleneck of a festival. That was one of my first festivals where I thought, 'You know, might not really need to go to festivals,' but I continued."[9:05] "The next time I saw them was the following year at this club called Soma in San Diego. That was a great show—small to medium-sized again. They didn't play in San Diego a whole heck of a lot. Then I saw them at the Glass House in Pomona, which is out in the desert east of LA. Ibold, at one point during the show, just kind of lost it—like his brain left his body.""Or he had a serious gear malfunction?""Because he couldn't play, and the show kind of ended.""Yeah, he couldn't play, he couldn't finish a song—he just couldn't do it. The show ended shortly after that. I remember everybody on stage going, 'What's the deal? What's going on?' Malkmus or Ibold had some sort of breakdown or meltdown. Something happened. Stuff started kicking, I don't know.""A couple of years later, at Cane's in San Diego—Cane's was a bar where they filmed the HBO Reverb special.""Oh, really?""Yeah, I went to that. We didn't even know that was happening. We just thought we were going to a Pavement gig.""Right.""Walked in—and I have so many stories about seeing these guys—walked in and Spiral was standing right there, just hanging out by himself. I said to him, 'What's going on tonight? What's up with all the cameras?' And he's like, 'Oh, they're doing some fucking HBO show.' He didn't seem happy about it, and that was kind of the vibe of the whole gig that night—they were punching the card, you know.""They're sort of shy that way, right?""Yeah. I think—I don't know, man."[11:01] "They're a different band, right? They lean more art rather than commercialized.""Yeah.""And I think when you produce something that way, you obviously don't care if you're making Billboard Top 100. So if someone approaches you and they're like, 'Hey, I'm Mike Jones from HBO Reverb. We'd love to film you guys; you're hot right now,' what's your reaction if you're Pavement? You're like, 'Fuck. Okay, here's another drill we got to do and get over with,' you know?""Yeah.""They always look painfully uncomfortable. Like that Jay Leno performance and even the one on—was it Conan when they did the 2010 reunion? Or maybe it was Jimmy Fallon, I'm not sure.""All I remember is the Leno one.""Yeah, that one's so awkward.""It's so good though.""That personifies them, you know.""They were a little more experienced by '99. By then they'd been playing a bit. Then I saw them at the Hollywood Bowl for the 2010 show with Sonic Youth."[12:20] "Amazing lineup.""Yeah. Both of those shows, in my opinion, were like, get it done. The highlight of all of it—I was hoping at one point either Malkmus coming out and playing with Sonic Youth or Thurston coming out and playing with Pavement.""Didn't happen though.""It seemed like such an opportunity.""Yeah. I was thinking, this might not happen ever again. These guys have to get on stage and play together.""Yes.""And they didn't. The highlight was at the Hollywood Bowl—there's this half wall around the orchestra pit, like out in the crowd, that separates the orchestra pit from box seats, which is kind of where we were. Bob paraded that catwalk—that half wall. He went back and forth—you probably could guess what song he was screaming a chorus to—but he was like, 'I'm trying' all the way across that thing. It's probably like 50 or 60 paces across; it's like a half-circle.""Oh, wow.""It was so fucking cool. Then at the end, even Malkmus was like, 'We're out of here. We're going to the Speedy Ortiz show,' or some shit like that. It was just lights out, you know."[13:41] "Damn.""But then it was a long, long time until I saw them at the Fonda with you, my friend.""Yeah.""That was our first meeting.""Yeah. My hair was too long for you.""Oh my gosh. I'm so glad you canceled your dreads appointment for the next day.""Yes. Well, I was going to ask you to just pour some Coke in my hair and roll them, but we didn't know each other that way.""Denny's at 3 a.m., or whenever we were there.""That's right. That was such a good show. That was so amazing. I know you've mentioned it, but man, that was such a good show. It just checked all the boxes for me. There was so much excitement, so much buzz in the air in that venue. Everybody that was there really wanted to be there. It felt like there weren't sort of pretentious Hollywood people just showing up because it's Pavement, you know.""Yeah. Well, except—maybe you caught a glimpse of this—except the short girl that got in the fight with the other gal there. We saw a chick fight at a Pavement gig in 2022. It was kind of weird. It was kind of awesome. I doubt either of those gals—or maybe one of them, maybe the taller one—is listening, but man, one of them got sent down, like down to the floor from our platform. That was amazing. When I saw that happen, I was like, 'Fuck yes.'"[15:25] "Because it just gave me reassurance that the vibe of Pavement—being all of these different things in indie alternative music, whatever—is still alive. To have something like that at a show. Way better than the 2010 reunion. That holds a special place in my heart because it was my first time seeing them. It was in Central Park; it was really cool. But seeing them with you that night was definitely the best show I've ever seen.""Yeah.""Yeah. Maybe of all the shows I've ever seen, not just Pavement—it was very good.""Yeah.""So anyways, we saw them in '22 a bunch, and I think I counted—from what I could remember—like 12 times I've seen them. So half before 2010, half after.""That's pretty cool.""Yeah. They've always been, you know, sure, superfan status. But more as time goes by, they're kind of a classic for me. If I want to put on something, I usually reach for an album—actual vinyl instead.""Which one is the one you go to? Do you have them all on vinyl?"[16:55] "No, I don't think so.""Okay."[17:00] "I go to 'Crooked Rain.'""Oh, okay.""That's the one I was first introduced to.""Yeah.""You know, it checks the boxes for me. It's got a big start. It's got a great song number three.""Yeah. We love your number three.""I know. It's got a great midway point. It's got an instrumental—'5 + 4 = Unity,' or '5 - 4 = Unity.' And it's got a lot of staple items that make Pavement Pavement that you can pick out from the beginning to the end of their recordings. It has a little bit of 'Wowee' in it to me. It's a really good mix of who they are.""Yeah, if there was a Pavement Bingo card, you would definitely get a line.""Yeah.""Maybe even a full box.""Yeah, 'Hit the Plane Down'—you couldn't get more punky than that for Pavement.""Yeah.""You know, it's got a hit, 'Cut Your Hair.'""Yeah.""It's got it all. 'Silence Kid.' When I first put this on, from song one, it became my go-to for when I kicked off things like road trips or moved into a new house. Anytime I've begun something monumental in my life, I would put this album on. It's such a good start. I clearly remember when I moved to LA, set up my stereo, and I put this album on.""Oh yeah.""It just gets me in a really fun, good mood. Creative, too.""Yeah, I like that with 'Pot Hot.'"[18:49] "It makes me fun and creative.""Me too. Well, what do you say we take a quick break and then come back and reveal track number 12? We are almost in the top 10, my friend.""All right.""We'll be right back."[19:04] "Hey, this is Bob Nastanovich from Pavement. Thanks for listening. And now, on with the countdown.""Twelve."[21:46] "All right. Track number 12 on the countdown. I couldn't imagine a better person to do this song, having spent some time in SoCal. It's 'Unfair'—the South taking what the North delivers.""That's right.""Were you delivering to the North?""I mean, when I sucked and kissed, it's sour.""This song, you know, it's awesome. On the album, it could be a song three for me. It's got rockets; it goes. That's amazing. I'm so glad it's number 12. That's in the top 20, so it definitely should be. It's really high up there for me; it's probably in my top five.""Oh, wow.""So yeah, I'm happy. I've already answered my 'Is it properly ranked' question.""Oh yeah, big time.""I love this one. I mean, it really personifies Pavement—being from Stockton, Sacto area, all of that. This song is about the supposed battle between the North and South of California. I know all the places it talks about. I've been to Shasta many times. We had family living for many years in the Tahoe area; we know all these places. And I guess the jury's still out on where that North-South boundary line really is, because I think this song—"[23:27] "Malkmus likely wrote this song. I think he's just not having the South. He's really dissing it. There's a total vibe here of him just dissing the South.""So it's amazing.""Well, we've seen in his later life him moving to Portland, your hometown. He didn't move to LA. He didn't pack up and move to LA or Nashville, I suppose, would be the other big music place. But yeah, he went to Portland and went with that indie vibe rather than that corporate vibe. So I wonder if he gets that feeling or something.""Yeah, I don't know. It's good—you know, I went back, I was searching through some of those gigs I went to, and I believe it was the San Francisco show I saw in '96 that they closed with 'Unfair.' I'll have to go back and look at this.""Oh, wow.""Such a good song for a closer, leaving on high energy."[24:35] "And just when you think you've maxed out energy-wise, you get to that chorus—a sort of chorus."[24:47] "You know, 'the foothills of our mind,' and when he's just screaming, it goes into a second gear or a third gear and really picks up steam. It's so good.""Yeah, I used to put this on mixtapes.""Oh, you did? That's cool.""Yeah, like road trip mixtapes. It feels really road-trippy to me because he's name-checking all that geography.""Yeah, yeah. That last question in the song, 'To the last psychedelic band'—are they talking about themselves? Is that giving themselves kudos? I don't know. I would love to find that out. But yeah, this song really hits home for me. I drove California so many times; I know all these places. Hearing this the first times—even talking about Shasta early on in the song, verse two—I mean, at the time, my roommate was from Redding, which is adjacent to Mount Shasta. So we were just like, 'Who are these guys? What are they doing singing about our places?' Where are they from? Stockton, which is hilarious because he's like, in the song—"[26:16] "He says, 'This ain't no Bakersfield' or whatever the line is.""Yeah.""And Bakersfield really is not that much different from Stockton.""Oh, no?""They're both armpit cities.""Oh, really?""Just armpit cities, yeah.""Like industrial or something?""Yeah, like farm—ag cities. They're just kind of wastelands.""Oh, wow.""But yeah, I dig this song, dude. It's something you can sing along to and scream along to. It's not a quiet song.""Great to drive to.""Yeah. I'm so glad it's number 12. I would rather have heard it was in the top 10, but I'll take it as number 12. That way, it's still more special for me because it didn't make it to the top 10.""Yeah.""And it would have been my drift. That's kind of like the Pavement thing—like, you don't know us, but you might know us, you know?""Oh, you're a Pavement fan. Okay. Yeah, you seem like that. I've heard people say that before.""But great, you film hack. I don't need your fade. There are so many good lines in here. There's a theme, but it's kind of all over, which is what I love about these guys. Also, one thing that really vibed with me in the mid-early '90s with these guys is the lyrics not meaning shit a lot of the time, because everything we were listening to around then—there was so much cheese, bro, in rock and indie and alternative. So much music that I just had a hard time being a fan of. I'm not a big singer-songwriter guy. I like quite a bit, but it's not my favorite genre. So to get somebody putting a song together like this—it has kind of a theme but is totally non sequitur at the same time—it's right up my alley. It's cool."[28:27] "That is very cool. Well, thanks so much for coming out today and doing this. This has been great.""Yeah, JD. It's been great. Thanks for doing what you do because there's no one like you who could put this together. So we're all grateful.""Buddy, thanks so much.""Yeah, thank you."[28:48] "That's—I don't know what else to say. That's pretty fucking cool of you to say. Thanks.""From Portland.""And now I'm going to go back into game show host mode. Tim from Portland, do you have anything you would like to plug?"[29:11] "Yeah, I just want to tell everybody out there to get off your ass and go to a gig. Go to a show. Go to your local bar that has a stage. Go to your venue that holds less than 250 people.""Nice.""And support the arts, you know? When you go to these places—here in Portland, Oregon, I have three great places within three or four miles: Turn Turn Turn, the Kenton Club, which is just down the hill from me, and the Fixin' To in St. John's. These are all amazing places to experience live music. If you go in and you pay $10, you don't buy a drink—that $10 is generally going to the band.""Fucking right.""If you don't buy a drink or some food, the bar isn't making any money. Go out, spend some money, and support the arts. This is supporting the arts, and it's such an awesome thing to do. When you go to a concert—even if you hear a gig and only stay for four songs—it has a positive impact on your body and your soul. We walk away with heightened endorphins, and it feels good. You ever leave a show where you're just like, 'God damn, that was amazing. I feel so good. I wish I could do that all over again.' That's the chase, and that's supporting the arts. Everybody's got to keep getting out and doing that. I'm not talking about the mega stadium shows or the big festivals—if you can afford to go to that enormous dome, go for it. I'm talking about hitting up your local spots, your local venues. And if you don't have any, then find the amazing ones and do a road trip. Just get out and go to some shows. That's my plug."[30:50] "That's nice. I like from where you came. So there's that. Hey, it's JD here, checking in from the present. That's right—it's October the 4th today. That episode with Tim and I was recorded way back in February—the Ides of February, in fact. So, you know, as I'm editing this episode—and hey, listen, I don't do a whole lot of editing; I want this to be sort of authentic and real and, you know, all the rest of that shit. So, listening back, Tim's impassioned plea for live music made me think of some of the gigs that we've been to. Tim and I were talking; he's like, 'Hey, remember the Toronto show where they played "Unfair"?' And I was like, 'Fuck yeah, do I?' And he's like, 'I have a file.' And I was like, 'Ooh, send it my way, motherfucker.' Here it is. This is 'Unfair,' live from Toronto, on 'Meeting Malkmus,' a Pavement podcast."[34:47] "All right, man. Thanks, buddy. Well, thanks again. That's what I got for you. Wash your goddamn hands."[34:53] "Thanks for listening to 'Meeting Malkmus,' a Pavement podcast, where we count down the top 50 Pavement tracks as selected by you. If you've got questions or concerns, please shoot me an email: jd.meetingmalkmus at gmail.com."Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/meeting-malkmus-a-pavement-podcast/exclusive-contentAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

This week on the pod, jD sits down with Ross to discuss his Pavement origin story and reveal track 15. Transit: Track 2:[0:00] Previously on the Pavement Top 50. Coming in at number 16, it's Fill More Jive. It's the third song from Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain, behind Stop Breathing at 28 and Cut Your Hair at 21. So this song actually beats Cut Your Hair, which is, I don't know, is that surprising? Is that surprising to you? You no i'd rather pick bill more jive over over cut your hair but i mean cut your hair is the pop song so yeah yeah that's why i was surprised it wouldn't be in the top five or something i was you know just looking at the spotify uh the spotify plays you know uh-huh cut your hair is like way up there and bill more jive is not right right so is is it do you consider it like a deep cut like when you guys went to it on the most recent tour was it um was it a deeper cut in the bag of songs that you brought yeah i say a deeper cut because i don't think we we did it in 2010, okay and we hadn't done it for years in the 90s like i think we did it in 94 and maybe they did it with Gary too before me.Track 2:[1:23] So I would say it's a deep cut live, but in terms of, you know, records, you know, for people to really enjoy, it's a pretty great number.Track 3:[1:46] Hey, it's Shady here, back for another episode of our Top 50 Countdown for sentimental indie rock band, Pavement. Week over week, we're going to count down the 50 essential Pavement tracks that you selected with your very own Top 20 ballads. I then tabulated the results using an abacus and an abacus for dummies book. How will your favorite song fare in the rankings? Well, you'll need to tune in to find out. So there's that. This week, I'm joined by Pavement superfan, Ross from Fife. How the fuck are you doing, Ross from Fife? I'm good. Good from Fife.Track 3:[2:24] Excellent. This is good news. It's always nice to talk pavement with somebody, especially when they're doing well. Well, I don't get enough chances here to talk about anything pavement, so. Well, we're going to do that right now. Let's hear your pavement origin story. Story um well the very first time i heard pavement and this only came back to me in the last couple of weeks uh as i was thinking about you know this interview um and either it was either late 99 or early 2000s my high school girlfriend put major leagues on a mixtape you remember when you used to make mixtapes for you know for sure for your crush or your significant other at the time or whatever yeah she she made me a mixtape with uh major leaks and i i liked it it didn't set me off on my journey or anything you know but that's that's the first time i'm definitely aware of having heard Pavement. Right. A couple of years later, one of my friends.Track 3:[3:38] It was right about the time of, like, Eminem was huge. Dr. Dre had just released 2001. Yeah. Snoop Dogg was big. One of my friends flipped almost overnight from being an indie rock fan to a hip-hop fan. Oh, wild. So, yeah, I guess he was giving away his old CDs that he didn't listen to anymore or whatever. And he gave me Terror Twilight. It was a... I can't remember if he thought, right, Ross would like this or if he was just getting rid of it, you know? Yeah. But it really took me by surprise. I really liked it.Track 3:[4:27] At the time I was technically homeless. I wasn't living on the streets or whatever. I was crashing on people's couches. I was going through the sort of system like halfway houses and whatever. So I didn't have much possessions. but one of the one things I did have was Terror Twilight, and I would listen to it all the time while playing my Nintendo Game Boy or whatever and, it kind of felt like a it felt like a secret you know like my secret, because I'd never met another single living soul who had heard of Not just the album, but the band. I remember round about, it would have been the back end of 2001.Track 3:[5:28] Just pre-9-11, which seems weird, but that's the way that I remember this particular. I was on a lunch break at my first job, and I read a review of the first Malcolm A Soul album.Track 3:[5:49] And the review spent more time talking about Pavement than it did, you know, his new band, basically stating that, you know, these guys are legends, just they didn't get their due or whatever. No, I agree with that. So, yeah, a year later or whatever, I've got Terra Twilight, I love it. These guys are such enigmas to me you know this is before I was on the internet I couldn't Wikipedia them, I couldn't you know, there was no YouTube, stuff like that and by the way all this is, well some of this is on your 17th or 18th episode Krelvid User, you read out my letter oh gosh I had totally forgotten about that I remember I have a terrible memory you asked for submissions because back then a lot of the songs were quite short or even non-existent so yeah I got day drunk one day.Track 3:[7:10] I'd been out with colleagues and I thought I'm going to write JD a letter and tell him how I yeah so.Track 3:[7:20] My next the next part of the story is, I knew about the re-releases I think at some point, I don't know why I bought Sebado 3, the re-release of that album and, the album on the front it had a sticker with some sort of blurb from a music journalist saying that, This album, along with Pavement, created the blueprint for American indie. Jesus, high praise. Again, that just put it in my head. And I didn't even like Sebado Free that much. I quite like the band altogether, but I don't think it's a great album. So round about that time we're still talking about 2002 3, 4 maybe I don't have a great memory either, I go to Glasgow to watch a British band Rubin, I don't think they're around.Track 3:[8:30] Anymore but their first couple of albums were pretty good we go to King Tut's Wawa Hut, which is quite a famous venue because it's where uh oasis got signed by creation really yeah oh cool um it's a tiny place you can only fit you know two three hundred people in it maybe even then that might be a fire hazard uh but even before before the gigs played and the the venue's underground, it's like in a basement, before the gig me and a couple of friends are upstairs and I'm going through the jukebox, they've got one of these sort of.Track 3:[9:20] They're old fashioned now, but at the time they were quite modern, the jukeboxes where the album covers flip over in front of you, you know? Yeah. And I find a pavement, Slandered and Enchanted, and it's like, oh, that's that band, that's Territorial, you know, I keep hearing about them. So I stick five songs on, don't even hear them because, you know, the bar's so crowded, so noisy. But still it sticks in my head I want to learn more you know so a short time after that, I'm shopping locally in the nearest sort of large town.Track 3:[10:09] And I go into MVC it's a I don't know if it was an offshoot of HMV. I don't know if you've got any of this in Canada or not. You did have HMV at one time. Yeah, but they're all gone now anyway. And I find a copy of the Crooked Rain re-release. Okay. But it's like £25 or something. I was making decent money at the time. I had my first proper well-paying job. I had disposable income I was no longer homeless, But I'm not going to spend £25 on this CD I've got no idea if it's good or it's bad There's like 50 tracks So I know I'm probably going to get some sort of value for money.Track 3:[11:06] I leave. I think nothing else of it. About half an hour later, I go around the corner, and there's this independent record store sleeves. People in Fife will mourn it forever. It's gone now as well, as most independent record stores probably are. But in there, I find a copy of the re-release for £5. What? yeah it's a bit battered it's a bit broken as I think all pavement records should be, but yeah no questions asked I immediately buy it.Track 3:[11:52] I read on the bus home I read the, sort of the booklet that comes with it which just the whole time it's just adding to the mystique you know because I think Malkmus writes, I think it's from an old like, article he writes like an explanation for each song and it's never quite clear if he's just taking the piss or not, he says about stop breathing is a bit of a tennis match I was like, why wouldn't it be, you know? So, yeah, that night, the Saturday night, it burned in my memory. I mentioned this in the Creelvid user video as well.Track 3:[12:46] All my friends are going out on the town which was never an exciting occasion, but this night especially I put my foot down and said I'm not coming out I've got to paint a wall which I did, I had a wall to paint in my living room or wherever but my main reason for staying in was I wanted to listen to Crooked Ruin, Wow So I get everything ready I get A couple of beers ready Like take a couple of bong hits Or whatever I used to do that by then.Track 3:[13:28] And I get the I get the CD ready And the stereo you know And as soon as I switch it on I'm just transfixed, Like The intro to Silent Kid Or Silent Kit whatever they call it is still one of the most exciting pieces of music to me. It's fucking spectacular. Yeah, but I'd never heard a band do that. I know they've got a reputation of not giving a fuck, and a lot of bands tried to affect that feeling back then, but this is the first time I'd ever truly heard it. Yeah, yeah. Just the build-up and you hear them talking to each other and it's like, we're just going to leave that in? And it's like, yeah, of course we are. That's the recording, you know. And I just sat down on the edge of the couch, just staring at the stereo.Track 3:[14:35] And then every song after that just added to the... It was... Yeah, it was the most exciting night of music I've ever had. Oh, Jesus, that gives me goosebumps. And for, like, a good maybe six months after that, I think it's all I listened to. Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain. And of course there was a lot to listen to because it was the re-release so I got all the.Track 3:[15:10] I got all the demos of B-Sides as well and this was, perhaps, you could call it their golden era you know it had another one of my favourite pavement tracks Grounded, it had the demo of that so you got like a sort of, you know a sneak peek of what was to come, but yeah after that I think all my friends got sick of me, talking about pavement going on about pavement and it still happens quite a lot these days, you'd hear a new song on the radio and I'd say that's just a fucking pavement rip off, you know it still happens to this day I hear a song and I think, nah, you're the biggest band in Britain just now, probably, or Wet Lake, you heard them? No, I've not. Oh, they went really viral a couple of years ago with their first video, which is She's Long. Yeah. But yeah, they're big. They're quite popular in my work. I'll run Night Shift. Sometimes the radio sucks. Sometimes it's pretty cool.Track 3:[16:33] But yeah, they were getting played in the radio quite a bit. I went and listened to their album. And the final track on the album is called Supermarket. Okay. And I'm not going to call it a pavement ripoff, but it's definitely pavement inspired. Really? Yeah. It's like they sat down and thought, like, let's write a pavement song, you know? Not rip off a Pavement song, but let's write an homage. Yeah. You can go and check it out afterwards. It's kind of Wally's Alley-ish. Huh. But yeah. What's your go-to record at this point? Oh, that's always going to be Crooked Rain. Yeah? Always. Just because of those memories? Because of the night it blew me away, you know? Yeah. Second, I would say, was Slanted. That's the record I came to next.Track 3:[17:27] Believe it or not, probably my least favorite, and there is no least favorite, it's still a pavement record. Probably the one I go to least is Wowie. Oh, yeah? And I think that's just because that's the one I came to last. Right.Track 3:[17:46] But yeah, I was thinking of weird pavement stuff to tell you. After all, the very first time I listened to WALL-E, or not the first time I listened to it, but probably my favorite song on WALL-E is Father.Track 3:[18:04] Father to a Sister of Thought. Fucking brilliant song, yeah. And in that song, they mention Corpus Christi. Right. Right. The very first time I heard that song, I was driving my car. And they mentioned the Corpus Christi part. And straight away, I receive a phone call from my dad who was working in Corpus Christi. Get out of here. Yeah, seriously. That's fucked. He was in Texas, and he phones me, and I've just heard this Corpus Christi line. Like, what the hell? and I didn't even pull over to take the phone call, which is technically illegal. Well, I'm going to turn you in. Another thing is it was weird with pavement. Once I knew of them, once I... Go into them i saw them everywhere it's like oh yeah it's like when you've never heard a word before and you hear a new word and suddenly you just hear it everywhere you know right um so yeah the other sort of weird kind of thing is uh a couple years after that i'm moved to.Track 3:[19:26] They call it a city it's not really a city dundee in scotland not a nice not a nice place, so I'd start sort of dating this girl I can't even remember if we were dating at the time, she was a bit weird I realised far too late that she was highly autistic but we were math students so that comes to the territory, and one of the weirdest things about her is she was obsessed with this cartoon from the 90s, Space Ghost. Okay, yeah. So one day we go out for coffee, and just before we go to the coffee shop, I go and buy the Bright in the Corners re-release. And what are the last two songs on it? Space Ghost. Space Ghost theme, yeah. I think that made her like me more, you know. So it went in my favor. Nicely done. Well, what do you say we get into listening to track number 15? What is that? Well, we're not going to tell you until after this break. Okay. All right, we'll be right back.Track 2:[20:53] Hey, this is Bob Mustanovich from Pavement. Thanks for listening, and now on with a countdown.Track 3:[25:25] And there it is at track 15 from Wowie Zowie, Rattled by the Rush. What are your thoughts on Rattled by the Rush, Ross, from Fife? Well, I already said since I came to it last, Wowie's not my jam.Track 3:[25:47] I love it. It's still a pavement album. It's never the one that I go to. Right. and Rattled by the Rush might be the last pavement hit that I actually heard. Oh, really? Yeah. I don't think I heard it until at some point in the early 2000s. I bought, I can't remember what it's called now, the DVD. Slow Century. Slow Century, yeah. Yeah. I think maybe that's the first time I ever heard it. Oh because they showed the video on that right yeah I can't remember if it's the proper video or not I know that they had to re-release the video because it was making people sick, people used to be such fucking pussies, yeah um and I don't dislike the song or anything um if it's number 15 that's kind of surprising it wasn't in my top 20 No. It probably would be in my top 50. Okay. It sounds like I'm hating here. I'm not hating. No. At all.Track 3:[27:07] Well, you definitely think it's overrated at 15, so that's... Oh, yeah, definitely. Yeah. Definitely. The most interesting thing is obviously the lyrics. It's like a typical sort of malchemist crossword yeah I would agree with that I took a few notes, the opening line oh that I could bend my tongue outwards leave your lungs hurting.Track 3:[27:42] Could be sexual. Could be? It could also pertain to that tongue trick thing where people can fold their tongue up, you know? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I did a little research and apparently 73% of adults can do it. I cannot do it. I can't either, but I've learned that you can teach yourself to do it. Oh, really? yeah i was i i work night shift so you've got to find ways to pass the time yeah exactly um and that was a thing that was going about work a couple of years ago everybody asking can can you do it can you not and i can't do it but i have learned that you can teach yourself but you haven't taught yourself well I, I got I got halfway there but I forgot to keep like doing it you know gotcha it was it was never, maybe if I put it together for a pavement song that would have helped.Track 3:[28:53] Yeah after that we've got leave your lungs hurting tuck in my shirt and pints I wear so well cross your t-shirt smell well, that's just good malchus wordplay, right? Yeah. Maybe there's a specific meaning. Obviously, there's a theme there, clothing.Track 3:[29:16] After that, we come on to the best line in the song, maybe the best line in Pavement's entire discography, caught my dad crying. Yes. I wrote down here maybe it's better we don't know what it means yeah I mean I don't think for a single second Malcolm has walked in on his dad crying, but just the imagery the thoughts it's, The crucial word is caught. He could have said, saw my dad crying. He could have said, found my dad crying. But he says caught. Right. Like it's a bad thing, you know.Track 3:[30:03] So, yeah, God knows what to say about that. It's just a great line, you know. I agree. After that, we've got, Loose like the wind from the rough we get par. This is one of my favorite things about Pavement. They like to make sports metaphors they do yeah and we've got a whole song about sports and London Lions that was in my top 20, we've got bring on the major leagues possibly their biggest hit yeah but also just the line from the rough we get par, that would indicate to me after a bad start things have turned out alright right.Track 3:[30:47] And I know there's a prevailing feeling that the whole song is about their career or where their career has taken them I didn't know that well just the whole rattled by the rush just them being affected by, whatever level of fame they'd built up I didn't hear Pavement until 99 so I didn't get to witness the, right the ascent or the rise or whatever right you know right but yeah i've heard in doing a lot of research i did that this the whole song was about their you know them struggling to cope with you know whatever rise the rise to fame yeah and i do know from reading the liner notes and uh.Track 3:[31:39] In both Crooked Reign and Huawei re-releases that they were kind of fighting back against it. Maybe not fighting back against it, I think that gets overplayed sometimes. But I think Mark missed his explain. Maybe on Huawei or the Crooked re-release that they were kind of scared.Track 3:[32:08] You know how could you not be they were like a couple dudes from Stockton you know that were that recorded some noise art and next thing you know cut your hair comes out and that I would say is the biggest song oh yeah definitely I find that at the time as well it was just a really big time for music yeah a lot of majors were looking for the next Nirvana that's right Pavement were never going to be that. But they could have filled a hole, filled a gap. Spin Magazine named them the best band, pardon me, the best album of 2000, no, not 2000, 1992. Before the album even came out, right? Before it was chanted, yeah. No, no, it had come out. It had come out. It was the number one record of the year for 1992. So they came with a lot of buzz, like a lot of buzz. I remember reading the sort of tapes that they sent out for slanted they didn't send many out but every single one found its way to someone influential that's right I don't know if they were friends but they were fucking around with Sonic Youth.Track 3:[33:27] Certainly helped they opened for Sonic Youth on the UK tour yeah first time in the UK in 92 so that was there's a great Nostanovich podcast with another Canadian guy.Track 3:[33:42] There's like music journalism online oh is it creative control I think that's what it is I think that's what it is he explains that him Malkmus and Berman got a Nirvana show, cancelled, not cancelled but shut down in New York because they were being so boisterous. Really? Yeah, and this was before Nirvana took them to Redden and stuff, you know? Wow. So they were in that... They were in that space. Yeah. Yeah, definitely.Track 3:[34:17] They probably were getting a lot bigger than they thought they'd ever be, were ever prepared to be. Absolutely. Especially, you know, Slanted came out with a lot of hype, but Crooked Rain all of a sudden was this record that had hits on it, gold sounds and cut your hair. So, you know, I think a lot of people got maybe a bit carried away about what they could be. Well, one of the things, it doesn't fit into the hype, one of the things I wanted to mention about Crooked Rain maybe one of the reasons I liked it so much is it's a little bit what I call country fried, okay yeah I can see that father to sister of thought especially right well that's wowie, Crooked Rain's got his own range life I'm sorry but whenever an indie rock band, introduces a little element into country, I call it Country Frights. Country Frights.Track 3:[35:14] Crookheads and while we are definitely Country Frights, one of my favourite modern bands, Parkey Courts, they're a bit Country Frights. I've heard a lot of comparisons to Pavement with them. Well, the reason I first listened to Parkey Courts is I've seen an article where Malchmus was in a record store and he heard Parkey Courts and he thought it was Pavement. Jesus Christ, really? That's the reason I first listened to them, you know? Yeah. And? What do you think?Track 3:[35:50] Their first album, definitely, I could see the comparisons. The same kind of attitudes, like not really caring about tunings or you know. Just the first take's good enough no matter what. But that is a real good album. You should listen to Lie Up Gold, Parquet Courts. I'll check it out. Yeah, it's very, very good. I was trying to think. Meat Puppets, they were kind of country fried. Yeah, yeah. Have you got anything else on Brattled by the Rush? Well, it might destroy every argument I've already made, but the first chorus, I'm Drowning for Your First, that reads to me like being desperate for someone's attention, And that's not pavement at all, you know? No, no. Maybe that's something very personal to Malchus. Yeah, I'm drowning for your... The second album's kind of... The second verse, I think he's just showing off. Rhyming candelabra with Barbara.Track 3:[37:12] There's other lines. get all those hard hats and sing us some scat. I just think he's scatting himself there, you know? Yeah. Although the very last line, again, it's one of their best. I don't need a minister to call me a groom. I love it. What does that mean to you? What does it mean to me? I think, well, I don't need a minister to call me a groom. Like, you can, like, fuck religion. and you can go and get married or you can do whatever you want.Track 3:[37:47] Well, this is maybe just completely personal to me. Have you ever been in a sort of strictly friends with benefits relationship? No. No. Well, I have. I was for a couple of years. And to be honest, it was maybe the healthiest relationship I've ever been in. But um i noticed during that time that friends of mine who were in traditional relationships, they fucking hated it oh wow because i was getting all the good stuff without, all the bad stuff you know and i never had to meet her parents i never had to go on any any dates with Ikea. See what I did there? I got it. Yeah, so every time I hear, I don't need a minister to call me a groom. That's what comes to mind. Really? That's just maybe because of, you know, where I was at the time. Yeah.Track 3:[38:53] But yeah, again, I've seen that linked back to the music industry. And I guess Malcomus doesn't need I don't know who the minister is but to call me a groom would be to call me a star you know, okay I can he's already a star selling you know a quarter of what other bands are, and then of course they go on I'm rattled by the rush I'm rattled by the rush etc that that.Track 3:[39:29] And I know that Pavement's writing is sometimes a bit obtuse or weird, but that has to be a reaction to whatever level of fame or popularity they've gained by that point. I can see it. We've got the interlude, no soap in the John. That's very funny. I know that John's a sort of Americanism for toilet. Yeah. So to me, that would mean no sort of airs or graces.Track 3:[40:06] Or they're not going to clean themselves up for whatever, whoever. You've done a deep dive on some of these. I've thought about it a little bit. Yeah, you have. I've had a lot of time recently.Track 3:[40:23] Well, dude, speaking of time, it's been a great time hanging out with you talking pavement. I really appreciate you making some time for me and doing this, hearing your pavement origin story and talking about Song 15. Next week, we're going to hit Song 14, and I'm going to tell you what it is right now. No, I'm not. I'm just kidding. All right everybody is there any clue is there any clues you can give to like not what's in the top 10 or not a bit no way is there anything that took you by surprise, it all took me by surprise so far yeah we're gonna at the end of the series we're gonna do some sort of round table with people who haven't got a chance to be on and they will um, discuss the list as a whole because they'll have the entire list at that point. It's difficult, you know, recording this and you don't know all the songs that come before it. But hey, that's part of the game. I should point out that with my whole Crooked Re experience, Gold Sounds is my number one favorite song from anyone of all time and it's probably never going to change. It's a fucking great song. And if it's not number one, I'm going to write.Track 3:[41:44] All right, dude. Talk to you soon. Wash your goddamn hands.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/meeting-malkmus-a-pavement-podcast/exclusive-contentAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

SPRINTER BRAIN - Wild Pink THE COUNTRY CLUB - Oso Oso FOOLMUSE - Peter Cat Recording Co.cat  I WANNA DIE IN THE SUBURBS - Brigette Calls Me Baby ELECTRICITY - Lael Neale TURTLENECK WEATHER - JW Francis EARTH HATER - The Hard Quartet THE OSTRICH - The Primitives (Lou Reed) IF YOU DON'T LOVE ME ANYMORE - Shivas FORGOT SOMETHING - Heavenly Sweetheart PONY - Freezer LOSS - fantasy of a broken heart WALK THROUGH THE FIRE - Tony Allen COMPOUND SENTENCES - Combat LONSDALE SLIPONS - The Bug Club KITCHEN - Cal in Red, James Mercer JAZZCAZZ - Dan “The Drum,” Emma Noble VIVIENDO EN LOS SEQUALES (LIVIN' IN THE AFTER) - Panda Bear, Sonic Boom, Mariachi 2000 de Cutberto Perez STILL CORRIDOR - The Clientele SHE BELONGS TO ME - Bryan Ferry  

Part 1 of my conversation with guest Phil Stacey about our favorite cover songs.  Show notes: What makes a good cover? Be true to the song, but bring something of yourself to it Jagger and Bowie's cover of "Dancing in the Streets" is godawful In the '80s and '90s, used to get 45s or cassingles (or CD singles) to get B-sides Phil's honorable mention covers: U2, Courtney Barnett, Nirvana, Allman Brothers, Led Zeppelin, Etta James, Beatles, Stones, Bjork, Aretha, Pearl Jam, CSNY, Cowboy Junkies Nirvana's MTV Unplugged has several great covers Zeppelin covered a lot of songs on their early albums, with or without giving credit Jay's honorable mentions: The Clash, Hendrix, Pretenders, U2, Charles Bradley, Thin Lizzy, Bjork, Elvis Costello, Talking Heads, Living Colour, Soft Cell, Johnny Cash, PJ, Deep Purple, Urge Overkill, Violent Femmes, Anthrax, Breeders, Cheap Trick, Malkmus and Elastica, Iron Maiden, Queens of the Stone Age Phil's #10: Stevie Ray Vaughan takes on a guitar god's classic Jay's #10: Dinosaur Jr. makes a Cure song their own Phil's #9: Zeppelin's first album features a cover that was previously done by Joan Baez Judas Priest also covered a Baez song Jay's #9: A signature Blondie song was actually a cover Phil's #8: A timeless classic from the late '50s by the Flamingos Jay's #8: Sinead O'Connor made the definitive version of a Prince song Phil's #7: Faces with a powerful Temptations cover To be continued Completely Conspicuous is available through Apple Podcasts. Subscribe and write a review! The opening and closing theme of Completely Conspicuous is "Theme to Big F'in Pants" by Jay Breitling. Voiceover work is courtesy of James Gralian.

jD, what gives it's Friday! Well I've decided to take a pause to reflect on the list thus far. I've enlisted Allison from Portland and Elvar from Iceland to go on this journey. They will discuss, dissect and debate the list as it stands thus far. Enjoy!Transcript:Track 2:[0:15] Hey, it's J.D. here, back for another episode of the Pavement Top 50 Countdown. Hey, wait a minute. It's Friday. I can't be doing the countdown today. I just did number 20 on Monday. We're cracking the top 20.Track 2:[0:31] This coming Monday, we're going to hit song number 19, if you can believe it. We're so far down this list, it makes me cuckoo bird. because we've yet to sort of analyze the list with context. So we're going to remedy that today. I've got two people that are chomping at the bit to discuss, dissect, and talk in detail. How do you like that alliteration? About the list thus far. Song 50 to song 20. That's right. right, they are going to tear that son of a bitch limb from fucking limb and talk to you about whether songs are rated too high, too low, just right. Are songs missing from this list that should be in the 50 to 20 range? Are there songs in the 50 to 20 range that you would not have in the top 50 or should they be inside the top 50 if they're not inside the top 20 i don't know what i just said there i'm a little fucked up so there's that so let's get right to this let's waste no more time we have got allison from portland and elvar from iceland joining us elvar how the fuck are you doing, man?Track 1:[1:56] Pretty good. Pretty good. Elvar over here. Good to be here, man. Thanks for inviting me on. It's good to have you over.Track 2:[2:03] So from Icelandic, we go to Portlandic. Portland get it uh anyway uh allison from portland how are you doing motherfucker it's.Track 1:[2:14] Going great um allison over here and uh yeah thanks for thanks for having us yeah it's really great i love the pavement poster in your background by the way thank you that's pretty pretty slick um so you, know i don't think it's fair to go into the list before we get a sense of your pavement origins origin stories. We sort of need to hear those. So, Allison, we'll start with you. Yeah, I'll give a little origin story.Track 1:[2:44] So, my freshman year of college, it would have been all through high school and stuff. I was really into post-punk and just all kinds of punk rock and stuff like that. And I got really, really into the fall. And then I met a guy on an internet dating website who told me if I should, or I guess it would be an app, but he said, if you like the fall, you should listen to Pavement because the fall was one of their influences. And we can get into that and my thoughts on that opinion that some people have a little bit. But either way, I listened to Pavement and totally loved it. And it was just kind of like the soundtrack to my college career. And then since then, I've just, it always stuck with me. And over the past couple of years, getting to see him play all the reunion shows and stuff, it's just been a huge part of my life. So, yeah, it's a band that's influenced by all the stuff that I love. And did something totally unique. So yeah, that's kind of how I got into them. How cool is that? It's almost as though they were constructed in a laboratory just for Allison. That's how I feel, yeah.Track 2:[4:09] So Allison, is there anything you want to tell us about live performances you've seen? Anything like that?Track 1:[4:16] The Portland reunion show as they kicked off the tour a couple years ago. Well, I saw them two times since then. Then I saw him in Seattle and then also in Salt Lake City since then. And then hopefully seeing him, well, definitely seeing him in Seattle again later this year. So, like, cool. Oh, yeah? Oh, cool. Yeah, they're playing Bumper Shoot, so. Right, right, right. Yeah. And then I guess that'll be the end, right? Because we've got news of the Hard Quartet. Yeah.Track 1:[4:47] Yeah i think what's that alvar you haven't heard no what's that malcolm has uh announced his next band oh yeah the hard quartet yeah the hard quartet yeah i heard the hardcore set yeah how do you guys like the new track by the way i honestly haven't listened yeah you allison have you heard it yeah i like it yeah it's pretty good yeah very very gixxy for sure yeah for sure yeah i'm excited to see the rest of the record definitely i'm probably gonna wait for the whole record to drop because i like to listen to things yeah like completely when i heard the song i was like yeah it's i'm gonna i'm gonna love it in context definitely it's a context song i think you know today is all about context isn't it we're putting context to the list you know we're now i want to hear about your yes yes sure so in 2010 i was introduced to payment in my early 20s so i used to be like a rocker like i was into guns and roses when i was seven and music has always been like big for me and then this guy outney from this icelandic band fm belfast he was like hey you have to check out pavement you know like wowie sawie and i got p clip that's the first one i got okay i thought it was okay then i went to this record store and this guy was like yeah this is the best payment album gave me bright in the corners which is debatable and then i just got into it i remember just like going to youtube and listening to these like slanted and and and crooked rain, and just like, it blew my mind, you know?Track 1:[6:17] Like, it changed my life. And like I said, I was like 22 or something. So I got fairly late into the game, but I'm born in the late 80s. So...Track 1:[6:28] I saw Stephen Malkovich and the Jigs at November 19th in 2011 in Milan at a place called The Tunnel and we had a really nice interaction. I did like a shout out. I shouted out, do not feed the claustrophobic oyster which was my funny way of kind of requesting the track you know and Malkovich did like a skit like we but a lot I remember like I forget what he said but he finished it up with we don't know in songs about oysters so you know that was pretty cool so.Track 1:[7:04] And i don't know if you guys know but pavement played here last uh summer like three nights yeah and that's like a thing like wilco did it i went and saw all three wilco shows nick cave just did it because he sold out so it's like a hot shit in iceland to come and do like a vegas you know thing so so that was pretty i'm so regretful that i didn't make it i wanted to go so badly and i made some really good friends from america who i'm talking to like daily now you know like through through pain so that's awesome so yeah pavement bringing people together since 1989 1989. Definitely. Definitely. Let me say this though. They did play some of the same songs like, you know, throughout the night. What Wilco did, they played three, 23 tracks at, and never the same song. And that was mind blowing. So kudos to Wilco. I don't know if I can throw that out at the payment. Of course you can. Of course you can. That was like, like fuck, you know, so, but awesome. Awesome. Great. That's my origin story.Track 1:[8:13] All right. Well, we sound like we've got two qualified, bonafide folks here to analyze this list. So let's start at the start.Track 1:[8:25] What do you think? Have you been listening? Have you been arguing with yourself when you hear some of these songs come out and you hear these people talk about the virtues of these songs? Songs um are you pleasantly surprised are you disappointed give it to me all alvar you can start buddy a little bit of both do you want me to start with the songs who are too lower or or too high you know you you are the leader my friend let me start with this loretta scars is at number 34 and that's probably my single favorite songs of all time uh wow just i don't know just the way he You guys know the song, the way he sings it in this pleating, nonchalant tone.Track 1:[9:17] And when it kicks into full gear, I can just fucking hear eons of human history in that song, for lack of a better word. Really? And like the way he sings it, like the way he sings Loretta's scars, the way his voice like winds up on Loretta and then lazily speaks the scars. I fucking love that. That's my favorite vocal melody of all time. And I don't know why, just like if people, for the last 10 years, if people ask me, what's your favorite song? I always go to that song. It's just.Track 1:[9:57] So you're pissed at 34? 34 yeah where is it on your list it's it's definitely higher than 34 because i i love that song um i don't know i'm not super good with like the different like with like pedal talk but whatever tone um he's got on that like fuzzy slanted era guitar is like one of my favorite tones so yeah um i think loretta scars is like one of the best examples of that and um i don't one of my favorite things that malchus does with his voice is like change register a lot like kind of what you're saying and um he does it beautifully in that song um yeah i definitely think that one could have been higher but i think a lot of the slanted songs could be higher but that's my my My own preference. And the lyrics. Interesting note, at number 34, that's the first song from Slanted and Enchanted on the list. That's the lowest one. That's the lowest one. Interesting. Yeah. That's insane. That's insane. I don't know how many others are on the list. I can't tell you, but. Right. But.Track 1:[11:16] But it's cool. He's using like, Mark Musch uses two guitar tunings on this album for these guitar heads. And he's using the C, G, D, G, B, E tuning, which makes this really nice dissonance. Like he's doing pop chords, but like, you know, that's what's great about this album. You know, he's doing like pop chords, these weird left field pop structures, but with these, you know, alternative tunings that really bring this awesome, awesome flavor, you know, and Gary's on the drums.Track 1:[11:49] It's just like, I don't know. It's just a beast. She's a beast yeah i could go on about that song you know but like you know i'll just i'll just have to do like a separate youtube video on it but you know yeah definitely allison do you have one you want to pick up i was very surprised to see where is it so i can make sure i get the number right i was very surprised to see pueblo at 39 because i thought that could be way higher um it's funny because like in the 30s and 40s i i mean i guess that's still pretty high out of 100 but a lot of my absolute favorites are on here so like pueblo number 39 and starlings the slipstream at 40 those two are like two of my favorites so seeing those ranked at that level right next to each other um is a little bit interesting i think they're similar songs too um just in the way that they kind of get into this like mellow ballad um era from from that that time of pavement where he kind of leaned into the more melodic ballads a little bit.Track 1:[13:04] Uh, and it's like a lot of belting out and sort of like a climax in the song. Uh, I really associate that with those two tracks. So I was really thinking it would be higher than, um, that level. And then there's some other ones on there. I said slanted, but I guess more of what I was referring to is like the early, like Westing and like before they did, uh, more of the full length records. And it was a lot of like EPs and stuff. A lot of those early days are my favorite songs. So I thought that some of these would be a little bit higher too. Like Home would be one. Yeah. Yeah, there's very little representation on the three EPs. I'm just looking quickly here. Yeah. And. Five, six songs. Yeah, like maybe Pacific Trim. There's one from Pacific Trim. So in the top. Yeah. Gosh, in the stuff that we've listened to, I almost gave something away. But in the stuff that we've listened to so far, there's nothing from the three EPs. Oh, really? I thought Forklift was in there. Wait, do you mean the early ones? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. What about Hackler Spray? Isn't that there?Track 1:[14:21] Hackler Spray is in the 93. It's on the top 100. It's on the top 100, but not the top 50. Oh, we're not going to the 100. Sorry, sorry, sorry. We're talking about 50, yeah. We're talking about 50, of course. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. I was going over those two a lot and being like, I don't know about this, but anyways. I saw that... Can I go on? I saw that Blackout was number 20. That's easily a top five for me.Track 1:[16:49] A top five definitely and I feel that song and paired with like Motion Suggest Itself and Father of a Sister of a Thought like these three are examples of Malkmus and the band, making up this like unique style when the music and the lyrics and the melodies and the performances are all put together somewhere between indie rock and alternative country but neither, and I don't know, it's so weary and so stoned and so depressed, and I feel like even if we listen to the stuff that was going on on Crooked and the stuff that was going on Bright in the Corners, similar songs like Lorraine's Live or Finn or something.Track 1:[17:37] There's this point in time where they made the songs, and just like Pueblo, and Grounded, for me, probably top five songs ever on an album, never matched in production, and resonance just the way it sounds, the way it feels with the lyrics I haven't done psychedelics and listened to those songs but it would just really crush my soul probably in a good way and I realized that going through and I'm really listening to it and I was like wow this is the best stuff that I, and I can't really, if you guys can give me an example of something that sounds similar I would love to hear it you know like Like, like, like if I could challenge you like that, I don't know. I know I like, I'm experiencing this different differently than you guys, but like really blows my mind.Track 1:[18:28] Like, yeah, I'm trying to think, but like, wow. He is an interesting record to try and find comps on. Right. Because it's so all over the place. Yeah. It's got elements of those first EPs. Like, I think those, you know, those burst songs that are anywhere from like a minute 30 to like two 10. You know, that almost feel incomplete, but they're still awesome.Track 1:[18:50] They're on there. And then you've got something like Father to a Sister of Thought. And then you've got, like, it's just so diverse. Yeah. Yeah. The reason I love Wowie Zowie is because it really feels like they piecemealed together a record that's just like super, like you said, diverse. Verse and it has a it has a very sort of like exile on main street or um yeah yeah i mean honestly that'd be my biggest comparison just in terms of like the spirit of the record because there's so many different things going on and so many different types of songs and even like, genres almost like yes some of it is really poppy stuff some of it is like they really harken back to like the early EPs on Huawei Zhaoyi.Track 1:[19:38] Yeah would you guys never just cut it down to like a 46 two-side record have you never thought about that i would love to know the the spiral like i hope someday that comes out did he want to do that he had a track listing at some point for the record that was about an 11 song record i think okay and uh i would love to know the sequence and i would love to know what didn't make the cut but that would be crazy would you guys not cut anything of it i would keep it exactly as it is yeah yeah i probably would too i'm i'm very much um i really think that they got their records right in terms of like the sequence of them and what songs were included on them like i love hearing you know the bonus releases that have come out that incorporate like like, unreleased songs or b-sides from singles or whatever, but I think the way they laid their records out is pretty perfect most of the time. Well put, well put, yeah.Track 1:[20:40] They're five records, and they're all different, and they're all very, very good, like, bordering on masterpieces if they're not masterpieces. Like, don't get me wrong, it's my ultimate favorite band, but I love to nitpick, you know, like... That's why you're here, buddy, that's why you're here. That's fun, yeah. I was happy to see You Are Light in the top 50 because I feel like that's a super underrated Terror Twilight song.Track 1:[21:12] It's definitely like the highlight of that record for me. So I was really happy that was on there. What do you guys think about that one? It's one of my favorites on that record, for sure. It made my top 70, definitely. And yeah, sorry, I went over the 50, I forgot. But yeah. Oh, that's okay. You're the light. That's a beautiful one. Definitely. It is. You are a light. I love the way it begins. I know that sounds very specific, but it's just sort of flipping on, kind of, you know? Yeah. Yeah, definitely.Track 1:[21:48] And whatever where where is that on the it was number 45 is you are light okay yeah so shoot the shoot the singer at 25 that for me is a top 10 what do you guys think oof yeah i mean all of the i feel like watery domestic songs are way up there for me i think he really they really found.Track 1:[22:14] What the band was about with those songs like yeah the singer i'm glad it's in the top 25 because i feel like some of the the ep songs like don't get as uh much traction with like newer, you know pavement fans like it took me a while after getting into them to listen to like the eps and stuff like that so glad that people are listening to it i think that's a great song what's interesting to me is you look at shoot the singer is 25 and then texas never whispers is 22 i would definitely flip those two yeah uh i love texas never whispers i think uh watery is, absolutely perfect it's it's even the even the outtakes from it greenlander etc are are uh so So Stark, um, they're, they're great songs as well, but, um, I like shoot the singer better. So yeah, it would be, it would be, it would have to be higher. I don't know where I could put it, but I feel like everything from watery could be in my top 15. Yeah. Like lions is 61. That's definitely a top 20. And yeah.Track 1:[23:30] Yeah, that's a great one. And it's also like you said, this perfection of this era. We have this super low, down-tuned guitar accompanying the bass that's barely audible, and then a slightly distorted guitar making all these single notes all over the place accompanying the vocals. And Malkomash is just nailing the vocals, and Gary is just nailing these drum fills, and the lyrics are great. And I don't know if I'm going too deep into it, but I feel like the lyrics on Watery, They are their own things. They are different from the lyrics on Crooked Rain and different from the lyrics.Track 1:[24:05] On Maui Sawi. It's amazing. I'm so glad we got this session because they were evolving so fast. And even like these extra tracks, like on the LA Desert Origins, we have like sessions from 93, like early Elevate Me Later and Rains Live and Grounded stuff. Stuff that's just like the band it's got gary it's got like some of it's got gary right yeah and then you can see the bands just doing different versions of these songs and just how, how full of magic they were back then you know just like i don't know just makes me realize how freaking great they actually are and were you know so yeah watery definitely absolutely yeah definitely up there yeah they found it yeah i one of my favorite things about gary's drumming um i play the drums and he really inspired me a lot because um he really leaned into like you don't have to play like a one four beat and keep it like you know a regular rock beat like he always kind of threw in some sort of like strange like instrumentation for keeping time and i think a A lot of the watery songs had that and a lot of the slanted songs had that.Track 1:[25:22] Um well think about his choice even his choices on on summer babe that that hi-hat that that like triple with the hi-hat like going into yeah like that's cool like that's innovative right like that sounds like something i haven't really heard that much definitely right that's yeah that's exactly what i'm talking about that sort of just like interesting unique spin on things that he did I don't know if you guys noticed I had to like my friend had to point it out to me on Loretta Scars when he's singing from now on I can see the sun he's just doing.Track 1:[26:00] On the hi-hat and the and the snare and nothing else a little bass drum, and I didn't notice like like just like you said super left field stuff but still fits so much that like you know oh yeah great great drummer rest in peace gary rest in peace that's right, now have either you guys had the chance to see the documentary no i wonder when it's going to come out like gary i got a i got a chance to watch it because i interviewed the director and he sent me a link so i could watch it but i assumed it would be out by now like i haven't i haven't talked about that on the podcast because don't they just go around these they have to go around for like sometimes a few months or something around these different, festivals. Right. Before that's true. Yeah. But yeah, definitely. Is it good? How is it? It was good. It was really interesting. He's an interesting dude, man. He's far out.Track 1:[26:59] Is it like a documentary style? It's a documentary, yeah. It's a documentary on his life, yeah. I wasn't familiar with Plant Man and the solo stuff that he did after Pavement, so that was really fun to get a chance to see. Interesting. Yeah. I'm not super familiar with that. Yeah. Me neither. It's really a poppy song, too. It's goofy, but it's sort of like, I don't know, it's really sort of mainstream-y, you know? All right you have to send it to me later yeah i'll do that yeah sure there's also this oh the movie like no no no no you can't do that obviously the song right yeah i was like wait a minute no i can't do that um but there's also this live action movie sorry like if i'm digressing too much that's okay we're here to talk live action with these actors like doing the yes yeah what do you think yeah have you seen any i'm i'm very excited about it um my understanding is that uh Tim Heidecker and Jason Schwartzman are playing two of the guys who started Matador. Their names escape me right now.Track 1:[28:08] And it's just kind of like, I think the original concept that I read about a couple of years ago was that it was going to be half documentary about the reunion shows. And then the other half was kind of like a retelling of how Pavement came together with actors. Um that's what i read at one point i'm not sure if maybe that has changed but um yeah i'm super excited about that because i love a lot of the actors that are involved with that um so yeah i can't wait me too uh like i want a release date and i want a trailer date like when are we going to get that man yeah and the guy who's playing marshmallows he's got this marshmallow chin in cuteness you know so um let's go to songs who are rated too high you know like since we are kind of or what do you think yeah absolutely drive the boat man drive the boat fin fin fin at 24, that's not in my top 70 for sure uh what do you guys think not in your top 70 nope, I was a little surprised to see that one that high also um.Track 1:[29:27] Yeah, by the time we get to number 20, by the time we get to number 24, you're sort of thinking, oh, maybe we're not going to hear Finn, you know, because it certainly shouldn't be much higher than that. I wouldn't put it inside the 20, but it would be in my top 40 for sure. For sure, for sure. Yeah. It's hard in rankings like this to not compare to other songs, because when I think of my favorite songs on Brighten the Corners, Finn isn't one of them. So I think that sort of mentally impacts how I view the list. I did think that just because of how incredibly influential and popular that single was, I did think that Cut Your Hair would be higher than 21. Me too. That was so surprising, wasn't it? People are sick of it. It's just that, right? People are sick of it. If that's the case, how come Harness Your Hopes is on the top 50? It shouldn't be. No, it would have been much higher if it hadn't gotten the resurrection.Track 1:[30:41] I think it would have been higher. Let me ask you, Alison, when you listened to Brighton & Cornish for the first time, was it the original 12-track album? Album i believe so i i didn't listen to um the full extended version that they released in like 2008 until a couple years ago i think so and that's your that's your favorite album jd am i right about that it is my favorite yeah and you but it floats it floats because i love crooked rain i love i don't you can't count watery but yeah i think because i got the deluxe edition and And then it's followed by the hacks and then it ends with like harness your hopes and roll with the wind. So I just kind of took it, you know, cause I was so new into the band. So I didn't really take fin as this end song. So it was kind of, I think that might have, you know, uh, interesting. It does work really well as like an end to the album, which was the intention, I believe. So, yeah. I still think it was I still think it was Anna SM.Track 1:[31:49] Flirting at that point with the idea I think so interesting point yeah, it would have been a good way to end it have you guys heard the 94 version there's like a live 94 version it's slightly more fast tempo no I kind of like that better they played it And like 94 life, it started on YouTube. Yeah. Oh, shit. It's like in Oklahoma or something. Maybe I'll play it during this podcast. I'll intercut it.Track 5:[32:27] We'll be right back.Track 5:[32:44] People, see where they're at Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah Yeah, No one has the blues No one has the blues No one has the nights ¶¶, I don't want to be called in the middle Look what you say to me.Track 5:[33:55] No one has a clue No one has a clue No one has a clue No one has to do it, baby.Track 1:[34:27] What about Fight This Generation? What do you guys think about that? I thought that could have been higher for sure. That's one of my favorites. yeah one of my favorites can you tell me what you love about that song can you articulate it um i think that i like it um from like a mood perspective it feels like, uh it could be a soundtrack to a movie or something um the change about halfway through the song where Malthus is doing that riff and then the tempo kind of picks up. And then there's like this moment when Malthus's voice kind of cracks a little bit. And I think it's just like the coolest thing ever. It's when he goes like, fight this generation. I always thought it was funny a little bit, but it's, it's so cool. It sounds, it sounds really cool to me. So that's definitely like a top 10 song for me.Track 1:[35:33] Yeah, it feels like the part in the movie where something bad or scary is about to happen, but like in a really awesome way. So because I only real. Oh, sorry. When I went to see traditional techniques, the tour for that, it was just him by himself and his MacBook and that lovely blue guitar. And um he he played a version of fight this generation and it was so cool it was so low-key, uh like i struggled at the beginning to figure out what it was i was really high but i mean i was i was listening to it and i was like what is this i know this song i know this song and then all of a sudden you know when when when you hear sweet yardley it's like oh yeah all right cool and then it just makes you want to jump up and down right after that after we get that you know that we get sort of lulled into submission and then all of a sudden it's just like wham smack you over the head yeah yeah i definitely think that uh major leagues is a little high for me personally that was never never uh a favorite of mine i don't know it just like never really clicked with me. I love the music video, but it's just not my favorite song.Track 1:[36:58] But yeah, definitely. Going back, really, Malkmus is an underrated vocalist for sure. The way he can draw out his shit and just crack his voice and do whatever. It's like the next generation Lou Reed, but just a little cuter and a little more nuanced or something. And Lou Reed is probably my favorite artist besides Malkmus. So you know yeah he has a really he has a wide range like more than than a lot of other rockers that i could think of um he makes choices he makes choices that just aren't common as well, like if if there's two paths and one is the past that's the path that is well traveled,Track 1:[37:49] he often goes on down the other path and i don't think he does that to be you know um different or far out or whatever i think it's just he's really good on that other path he's really good but yeah he was also very lucky to team up with spiral and oh my god yeah and gary in the beginning and then mark and and bob and steve you know like yeah i mean on his own he would have been great but just Just imagine Paul McCartney on his own. He would have been good, but not.Track 1:[38:23] It's all a matter of chance, but what a great... So, hot take, Stop Breathing No. 28 doesn't crack my top 70 at all, you know. Top 70, he says again. There's actually, like I said, there's this version on the Crooked Rain, LA's Desert Origins Deluxe CD, the No. 2 CD, from a session recorded in early 93 at Gary Studios.Track 1:[38:50] The gritty version, do you remember that one? if you guys go and listen to the the second cd of the the deluxe version of crooked rain you can hear like a more gritty version of uh is that the egg eggshell version no no that's that's the actual version is the heaven is a truck this is like oh right yes you're right this is the first first question on that song and he's saying like stop he's instead of saying stop breathing he starts saying start breathing start breathing and then start bleeding and then he says dad now i know that you broke me and i'm like wow okay yeah that's uh i don't know maybe i've listened too much to the the first one you know but like i really i really love that session you like all my friends ls2 the the original elevate me later and you know that's a great great great session soon yeah i love that we have access to some of the um i don't know the sessions that didn't make it to the albums and you can see how the song progressed as they were writing it so yeah how the lyrics changed and sort of the arrangement could change over time and what do you guys think about all my friends being at number 64 i think that's a gem oh sorry that's not 50 oh god damn Yeah. Sorry.Track 1:[40:13] Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. You guys remember that one? Everybody's going. Yeah. Yeah. I feel, I feel that. Would that be in your top 70? That would be in my top 25. Okay. If, if, if they had taken those two first minutes, you know, and not gone into the second three minutes where it breaks down, because I feel like they started as this one. Of the best starts ever. Everybody's going out tonight, everybody's hanging out tonight, it's all right. Such a teenage nostalgia. And then when he starts shouting, I need it, I need it, and his voice breaks and the guitar is playing top.Track 1:[40:58] That's for me, it's one of the best shit I've ever heard in my life. But unfortunately, it digresses from pure genius Genius onto like a sub-part track. So that's why it's top 25 and not like... In your top 10. Yeah, definitely. I don't know. How do you guys feel about that song? I like that song a lot, but I don't know... I don't know that I have a lot of feeling about it one way or the other as to where I'd put it on even my personal list. And my personal list doesn't go much higher than 20 just because that would just make my head explode. That's why I feel like when you're saying top 70, I'm like, holy shit. Yeah, I tried just going through all of the songs and just putting them just for fun. And, you know, the top five are really easy. Top 10, fairly easy. Top 20. then the top 30 40 you can start interchanging them how you feel 50 60 70 they change between days i'm not saying that but i'm like throwing it out just like i say you know yeah i definitely think as we move from here into the top 20 it's gonna get really difficult because i um even just like looking at the way these are ranked sometimes it's like difficult for me to see how i would tier them because if i start thinking about them or i hear them then i might change my mind i don't know yeah about some of these well let's talk about this a little bit more then yeah allison um.Track 1:[42:27] Let's investigate a little bit more about what would be inside your top 20 what are you anticipating what are you looking forward to where do you think things will land based on what you've got so based on where we are um there's definitely some of my favorite tracks that are kind of missing from uh the list so far um and yeah i'm just curious what there is uh from there I'd love to see every song that they ever released on a list and then work back to see what's missing. Because looking at this, even just from 100 to 21 right now, there's a lot on there. So it's taken me a minute to think about what's missing. But yeah, I'm definitely hoping to see a lot more of like the early days in the top 20, just because I, you know, it makes me excited to think that people are appreciating like that era of pavement for sure. Like the early piece.Track 1:[43:40] Yeah, yeah, definitely. Always excited to hear people talking about those and listening to those. So, yeah. Yeah, between those and Slanted, which have been, you know, not represented very well so far in this bottom 30, I have to think we're going to, you know, start to peel that layer, right? Like, we've got to see some Slanted stuff in this top 20. Like, numerous, numerous songs. More crooked. Yeah. Definitely. Where does Summer Babe land for you guys?Track 1:[44:19] I definitely think it could be pretty high up for me. I mean, yeah, I love that song. To my top 15, absolutely, with a bullet. Yeah, top 10, definitely. It actually made things easy for me. I just downloaded the whole discography and put it into iTunes and fucked around with it for like two days. And that really, really put it into perspective. Because it's a lot when you see the list, it really jumbles up your mind. I was like, oh, you know, getting like kind of disoriented. So yeah, for sure.Track 1:[44:48] Yeah yeah summer babies on there what do you guys think about my friend i know never mind i was gonna go back into the what about our our singer is that is is that not in the top 50.Track 1:[45:00] No i don't think so no okay okay okay what about grave architecture that's number 32 two for me it's top 50 what do you guys think top 15 top 50 okay yeah i i think it belongs up here for sure that's such a catchy song oh yeah yeah that's a really good example of like the vocal register change like it hurts so rad and i'm fucking glad i i love that that's actually the part that really turns me off because i think the beginning when he says come on in that's also one of the best vocal melodies ever it's like three words and the way malchmus says these three words come on in it's one of the like top beginnings and songs ever but i feel like it kind of digresses for me with that pulled so red and i'm glad so yeah it's interesting to hear like different yeah you guys are so diametrically opposed there that's funny yeah yeah it is it is i i'm curious like in terms of where we're going um what i haven't seen that i was really surprised to not have seen yet is that we haven't seen um silent kid on here yet so yeah i'm definitely.Track 1:[46:21] Yeah me too i a couple years ago made a list of like my favorite songs of all time and that was on there, like pavement aside, that's definitely one of them. So I'm curious if that will show up. Did I ask you just for fun, where do you guys rank Blackout? Are you happy with 20? Where would you put it? Did you already tell me? No, I didn't tell you. I think it's fine at 20. Yeah, I think it's fine. You would have it higher? Like I said, top 5 definitely, all time. What about you, Allison? I'd probably I mean, it's a great song. But again, it's like thinking about other songs, it probably would get bumped down from 20 if I had like, all the song titles in front of me, right?Track 1:[47:11] Yeah okay cool but it's a great song yeah yeah definitely so what else are you looking for in the top 20 avar have we seen rattled by the rust no we haven't seen rattled by the rust no, rattled by the rust i mean frontwards definitely elevate me later one of my all-time favorites, you know i know rain still life is going to be there gold sound is going to be there the more obscure songs that I would love to have seen that are not on there are like, Passat Dream from Bread in the Corner the Spiral song that for me is also like kind of the like Lorehatter Scars it kind of brings out eons of kind of human civilization if that means anything it just like opens up my soul the way like how do you guys feel about that one Where's that? I like, yeah, I really like those two Spiral songs. And we've seen, I like a lot of Spiral songs, but I'm thinking from that record.Track 1:[48:14] We've seen Date with Ikea already, right? Where did it land? Yeah. 38. Do you guys think Pass a Dream is going to be there or not? In the top 20, what do you guys think? Which one? I don't know. Pass a Dream. dream it could be i mean a lot of this has surprised me yeah um yeah go on um i was gonna say i bet you like we'll see a little bit more of the wowie zowie songs too because like grounded's not on here yet um it doesn't look like father to a sister of a thought is on here so i'm i'm I'm curious if those will get pretty high ranking as we go on. Western homes. What do you guys think about that one?Track 1:[49:04] The closer to what we saw i'm not in love with yeah i'm not in love with it i'm not in love with it i think it's a fun song but it's not like a favorite song no of mine i never liked it but then i went back to the album before this podcast and he's like your western homes are locked forever it's like summing up this paranoia that's building up at the you know turn of the century kind of and the way it's i don't know i love that ending of the album for me you say with the eclectic while we saw it definitely agree there it's like a and kennel district at 23 what do you guys think about that did you like it that high i'm glad to see it there because i feel like and i'm talking about this like i don't know but i feel like unless we get painted soldiers, but painted soldiers is in the top 100 i think um yeah i don't know that we're gonna see another other spiral song like i'm more i feel like kennel district might be yeah his biggest might be the last spiral song we see i you know again i'm not tipping my hand but it's a really great fucking song and i'm trying to think are there spiral songs on record because preston school of industry is great um.Track 1:[50:22] Uh oh fuck what one am i thinking about what's the one that uh he and sm do the like the duet on like where they're back at four circa 1970 that's right 1768 yeah i think that's in the top 100 yeah that's 62 i i would knock that up to to a top 50 definitely me too i love that one love that one again especially because we've got both of them right we don't have very many where you get to hear no you know so yeah it's pretty rare i can't really think of another well there's maybe a couple but yeah i i love kennel district that's definitely my favorite spiral song, it's a great song i feel like if we were to ask a lot of people they would say that's their favorite spiral song and that's to me is the harbinger of like doom you know that that it's going to be the last spiral song i just think it's insane there are 100 songs on there and And Pass a Dream. There are so many subpar pavement songs on this top 100. And that to me is a real... I'm upset about that one. It's not on the top 100?Track 1:[51:26] No. Let me look and see if it's on the whole list here. That's what I'm saying. I'll tell you where it is. Because the whole list goes up to 121. Ah, really? Oh, wow. There was enough songs. So Western Homes. What about Perfume V at 58? Did you guys think it is? Yeah, yeah. Even if it's not, it's almost in the top 50. How do you guys like that one? I love that song. I think it probably, it's a good spot for it.Track 1:[51:56] Definitely like close to top 50 at least. It's a great song. Yeah. Okay. So I'll tell you what 100 through 105 was. Okay. So number 100 was Baptist Black Tick. number 51 or 101 was stare no sorry 101 was baptist black stick 102 was stare number 103 was pass a dream uh number 104 was platform blues and number 105 was from slate tracks maybe maybe okay so there you go i'm think jackal's the lonesome error that has to be in the top 20 What do you guys think?Track 1:[52:36] Jackals, false grace, the lonesome era. That's a spiral song. That's spiral singing. I got one holy life to live. That's peril. Yeah. That's not the top 50 for you. What about you, Alvin? Oh, no. You said top 20. I wouldn't be in my top 20. I said top 20. Yeah. Yeah. I think probably not top 20, but it's definitely up there. Okay. Okay. Cool. cool that's like that's like top top 10 for me probably i love that one that's what keep going, I was going to say, I kind of feel similarly about Fame Throwa, because that's some of my favorite drumming that Gary did. I thought that would be way up there.Track 1:[53:21] I thought it would be in the top 50 for sure. Where did that end? 79, yeah. I don't know there's something about some of these songs like I've been talking about maybe like an acetate about eons you know like the eons of human existence kind of like you know and like Jackals, Loretta Scars Our Singer like I feel like You fucking love Slanted don't you There's this energy, and like I said if I had to pick the best top five songs of an album I said like Blackout, Grounded, Motion, Pueblo, and Father of a Sister of a Thought. I could maybe pick five of Slanted. But these 10 songs for me, I don't know. I think it's why I love Pavement so much. It's to me on another level that no one has ever reached.Track 1:[54:16] Yeah. Agreed. And that's why we're all here. We love this band. What about Camera? that's not on the list camera is on the top it's on the whole list but is it it might be the last song camera yeah camera is so that's 120 119 118 okay yeah how do you guys like that one that's my top that's a top 40 for me oh i fucking love his voice in that song when he really when he's really squealing yeah you know i like that yeah but would it be in my top 50 no probably not though there are a lot of songs left though for me if i try to rack my brain i have a hard time kind of filling it out with the songs that are here it's going to be well so what you're saying is it's going to be a surprise and you're going to keep tuning in so that's good to hear yeah yeah Yeah. So I really want to thank you for joining me tonight to have this discussion, this roundtable discussion. Any final thoughts? Excited for the top 20. All right. Well, we'll kick into that next week. We'll see what our predictions. Yeah, we'll see where our predictions end up. Coming on Monday, song number 19.Track 1:[55:34] And we'll see who's, yeah, that's going to be a good one. That's going to be a good one. It's going to be surprising. My take from this is just like, made me realize just how much I fucking love Pavement. Like I said, I knew it was my favorite band. And I'm sorry if I've been going way too into the nitty-gritty of the shit that obscure stuff, but it really blew my mind for the last two days, really going back to these songs and being like, wow, okay, they really... And after all the music I've gone through throughout these years, after I listened to Pavement, they're still just always up there. And thank you for doing this, JD. Thank you for your work. Oh, thanks, man. Awesome, awesome. Thank you. Awesome it's a lot that means really really you know yeah it's just so cool to see like other pavement fans and just know that they're still you know super relevant inspiring yeah yeah yes yeah and it'll make a nest like how close are you talking to muskmus you think oh me yeah i did you did oh you didn't listen to the yeah you gotta listen to the whole hear it i didn't hear it which Which episode is that? I want to say it's, Oh God, I don't know. I don't know what happened, but I know that it happened on Valentine's day. It happened on Valentine's day of 2022.Track 1:[57:00] I think. Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. Okay. Yeah. I fulfilled my destiny. Yeah, absolutely. Awesome. So anything you guys want to plug, anything that you have to plug, any projects that you're working on or anything online or anything like that. Allison, you mentioned you play drums. Are you in a band? I, uh, stay tuned. I don't have anything to plug just yet, but, um, yeah, hopefully we'll soon. Yeah, actually have a band that's going pretty good that I hope I can plug soon. Oh, awesome. I have a podcast called peeling the onion where I'm interviewing like musicians. So that's everywhere, like on Spotify and YouTube and stuff. So how many episodes? Yeah. Like seven. And I've talked to great people, like talk to looper low. The other day you know really he was awesome i talked to steve albini like february 20th so i was really lucky to get that one in and it's been like a lot of i'm talking to people i really admire you know what i mean so yeah i really taken the time to do like my homework so it's been a lot of fun for me because i love music as you guys can hear you know so cool so peeling the onion find that on podcast networks everywhere yeah and it sounds like a good one might be the One of the last interviews was Steve Albini, right? Yeah.Track 1:[58:23] Yeah. It's very sad because I was asking him like, so because I knew that he wanted to quit before he lost his hearing, you know? And he said like, I'm going to go on for like 10 more years. And, you know, like, you know, and it was just, and I know people who knew him personally and he was a really genuinely nice person and just such an influence on music overall. All like you guys know you know yeah so awesome yeah really nice to meet you guys you guys are really cool nice to meet you guys too yeah great to meet you too yeah all right stay cool that's what we got for you this week and wash your goddamn hands.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/meeting-malkmus-a-pavement-podcast/exclusive-contentAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

This week on the podcast jD welcomes David Fieni to the show to discuss his Pavement origin story and then they crack the top 25 with song number 25 on the countdown!Transcript: Track 2:[0:00] Previously on the pavement top 50.Track 1:[0:02] This week we are celebrating song number 26 fight this generation what do you think of this one jeremy from the falls this is probably it bridges like the the best run i think that pavement has on any album.Track 2:[0:21] Hey this is westy from the rock and roll band pavement and you're listening to the countdown countdown.Track 3:[0:29] Hey, it's JD here back for another episode of our top 50 countdown for seminal indie rock band, Pavement. Week over week, we're going to count down the 50 essential Pavement tracks that you selected with your very own top 20 ballots. I then tabulated the results using an abacus and a bong made out of a kumquat. How will your favorite song fare in the rankings? Rankings you'll need to tune in to find out so there's that this week i'm joined by a pavement super fan david from new york dude how the fuck are you i'm fucking great i'm psyched to be here chatting with jd oh that's cool another uh pavement super fan yeah yeah absolutely are you uh are you did you make your pre-order for the box set or are you going to i'm going to i'm just like Like, it's crazy because it's like one of those things, I think a little bit like you, I've started, I sort of came to Pavement when, that was like my shift to CDs. And I got all of their stuff on CDs. And then I only started getting the vinyl in the last couple of years. Yeah. And so literally just before this, I ordered my last piece, which was Watery Domestic. What a cool, yeah, Watery Domestic. And then the singles thing looks just freaking amazing.Track 3:[1:50] It does yeah i'll order it uh the shipping to canada is obscene though it's like 60 bucks u.s to ship to canada which is like that's not right that's probably 80 bucks uh a canadian you know so it's like it's like half the cost of the product yeesh i don't know so david let's uh not beat around the bush here let's get right into things you mentioned compact discs and your collection. Tell us about your Pavement Origins story and getting those compact discs. Well, J.D., when I was four years old, Billy Corgan murdered my parents.Track 3:[2:31] Actually, that's not true. So I grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area, and I was right in the – I would have been – if I wasn't such a prick and, like, took myself too seriously, I would have been right in the midst of, like, the beginnings of pavement. Wow. But all the people around me were, like, saying, you know, I was reading stuff, how great pavement was. And I was like, oh, fuck that shit. I'm not going to jump on the bandwagon, the indie bandwagon. And so I didn't really get into them until maybe 1996. Okay. Which is, you know, they're still – they're peaking as they usually did. And so I don't remember if it was Bright in the – no, it was Crooked Rain was definitely the thing that kind of just sucked me in for life.Track 3:[3:19] And then Bright in the Corners. And I'll tell you a quick story about in 1997, I went to Rolling Stones concert. Pearl Jam opened up the Oakland Coliseum. And I drink a lot. And I got about an hour of sleep. And the next day I had, because of lack of sleep, I asked the girl out in my class that I had a hard crush on to go out for coffee. We talked for like three hours. And then I actually ended up marrying her. I've been married for 24 years with her, to her. But after that coffee, I rode my bike over to my friend Walter's house, and he was playing some records, and he put on Slanted and Enchanted. And I have like the strongest memory of listening to here on his little dinky turntable. So I got into the band like 96 and 97. I saw them at – where was it? The Warfield.Track 3:[4:16] Where's that? And that's in San Francisco, yeah. And then I saw them in 99 for Terror of Twilight. And I've seen Jicks and Pavement and stuff since then. And I did see them in Philadelphia this last time around with my friend Seth. So that was freaking amazing. Loved that. So, yeah, I mean, they're kind of like a second wave band for me because I was into stuff like R.E.M. and The Replacements and Husker Du and all of this stuff. And then I got into Pavement and it's kind of like a, you know, it's something that stuck with me. And it's definitely a pretty hardcore relationship. You know what I mean? Yeah. Yeah. I know exactly what you mean. So talk to me about your first real-time record then was Bright in the Corners, right? If you got in in 96, Bright in the Corners comes out in 97. Yeah. Yeah. You know, it's funny. I think, yeah, it must have been Bright in the Corners.Track 3:[5:20] And that's still... I mean, the thing is about the records is like I think that each of them has been a favorite at a different time, including including Terror Twilight, which when it came out, I just I love that record. It's obviously it's like a shift in a different direction in some ways, but it's it's so fucking brilliant. And I just can't, you know, I love all of the all of the records. I'll tell you, I'll come back to that later, but there was an interesting hole in my collection until fairly recently that I'll tell you about. All right. Yeah. So you saw them in Philadelphia on the reunion tour. What did you think this time out? Dude, it was like bliss for me. I was just, I was like smiling the whole time, which is probably exactly the opposite of what I did the first times I saw them when I was, you know.Track 3:[6:20] I thought I was fucking cool or something. But this time I was just grinning the whole time. And, you know, I know you've seen a bunch of the shows. People are singing along, which is like not a super pavement-y thing, but it totally was great. And also a cool thing was that my friend Seth, he has his son and some friends of his. They're all into pavement, and they're like this new generation coming up. And so they were there. And that's obviously so cool because it makes me think of like, oh, when I was growing up and I was into like the bands from the 60s or something, you know? Yeah. Like it's like a cycle, you know, that goes on. What do you think pulled him in? Was it osmosis from his old man or was it Harness Your Hopes or what's the deal? Yeah. Yeah, well, you know, I think it's people who want music that doesn't suck, that's not corporate music, that is just fucking cool and original. And it just, you know, there's a thing that Malcolm has said in this, I think recently, someone asked him, like, why are you going to make another record? And he's all, no.Track 3:[7:33] He said, the songs exist in the present, which I love that. I mean, it's such an obvious, simple statement, but it's also true, right? The songs exist in the present. And so each time you sing it, that song is going back out. Each time you play a record, it's existing right in that very moment. So it's like, I just think there's the music just, the music stands out. Maybe, you know, maybe the whole Harness Your Hopes thing kind of brought in a few people. But, you know, it's just, it's a good, it definitely made me slightly hopeful for the future.Track 3:[8:10] Harness Your Hopes definitely harnessed my girls, my two girls. Oh, yeah. They're both big TikTokers, and I guess that's where they saw it. But my daughter will brag to me that she's got Pavement in her playlist. I think she's got one other song, but I don't know the song. Yeah. I'm guessing it's something like Major Leagues or something. That one, I guess. Yeah, my 12-year-old daughter loves Harness Your Hopes, but she listens to Pavement. I put stuff on. I make playlists for her, and so she gets into that stuff. You raised her well. I know, at least in that respect. Yeah. So what is your go-to record at this point? I know you said that they're all, you know, they've all taken a turn as your favorite, but if you're feeling nostalgic and you want to hear something, which one do you go to?Track 3:[9:02] Um, I don't know. You know, I think maybe Crooked Rain is going to be the one. Crooked, both Crooked Rain and Bright in the Corners. Fellow Bright in the Corners lover. Is this right? Yeah. There's not that many of us.Track 3:[9:18] It's a great record. it is a great record but you're right crooked rain is what is it it's it's almost like it feels timeless like it doesn't feel of the 90s yeah to me uh production wise the low the low fineness of it um it just doesn't have that same 90s production you know that we're that we were so inundated with uh from seattle you know yeah that's right i mean the whole issue of production is is like such an interesting thing to going from like gary yeah as the producer yeah and um and then through the different iterations of different folks and obviously terror twilight has its own story but yeah i mean i think that's part of it like and you and you go back to those early like demos and stuff and it's just they are just fucking around with sound a lot of the time right and um yeah i was listening to i was listening to the because they're streaming the the singles collections you know they are yeah yeah i was listening to that today and so i was just like a song like a song i don't like just put on is it the k dart song or internal k dart internal k dart yeah which is like It's like.Track 3:[10:38] It's not like a fully formed human, you know, being, it's like a sonogram, but it's still beautiful, because you can hear spiral and SM, like kind of experimenting with sounds and how they're going to play off each other and just textures and stuff. And so, you know, that stuff is, is, is really important, obviously.Track 3:[11:03] I love your analogy. It's a sonogram. That's brilliant. It will be fully formed at some point, slanted and enchanted. But early on, on Demolition Plot, it wasn't necessarily. You're right. It was more foggy, primordial ooze, I call it. I like your sonogram-ness. That's very cool. So is there a single in the box set, one of the seven inches that you're looking most forward to?Track 3:[11:34] I don't know. I have to look at it again. But I think it'll be, you know, the singles have a number of songs on each side, as far as I understand. So I'm looking forward to kind of just having a different, because it gives you like a different entry point into the catalog, right? Yeah. Because you're listening to these singles, and then some of the B-sides, and then some of these other tunes. And so, yeah, it was interesting listening to the Summer Babe. It sounds like the vocal is mixed differently from what I'm used to. I mean, the whole thing. I guess they're all remastered, aren't they? Well, I think they are. But on the Summer Babe 7-inch, that's the one with Baptist Black and Mercy Snack, I think. I think so. It's not the winter version. That's the designation. On Slanted, it's the winter version. This is the original, you know, the original. As far as I understand. Right, that makes sense, because it was the single that came out right before. Yeah. Yeah. So it might have had a little bit more work on it on the winter version. So good ear. Good ear on you. Do you want to get into this and flip the record and talk about the song number 25? Let's do it. All right. right let's do this we'll be back right after this hey.Track 2:[13:04] This is bob nastanovich from payment thanks for listening and now on with a countdown 25.Track 3:[16:28] Song number 25 is our first entrant from the masterpiece, Watery Domestic. It's Shoot the Singer, One Sick Verse. David from New York, what are your initial thoughts about this song?Track 3:[16:43] Shoot the Singer, I think it's probably one of Pavement's most perfect songs. If you just listen to it, the textures, it's such a beautifully textured song. And the production is pretty unique, I think, for them. It has this really, I think it must be, this is the Water Domestic is where Ibold and Bob join the Spiral One SM and Gary. And I don't know exactly who's playing on what and all that, but I'd like to think it's Mark. And that bass, it kind of has this kind of cool buzzing sound. It reminded me of Us from Piglib, but then I listened to it, and it doesn't really play out. But it's just a cool kind of – the bass is kind of – has a beautiful sound. It also has – and I don't think I even noticed this until listening to the song a bunch in prep for this. It has a really – what sounds very much like a really perfectly kind of mixed acoustic guitar in the back, but really kind of mixed in just so and you know and that's just like one of the things so like and they have the the verses that have this beautiful kind of more kind of relaxed mellow.Track 3:[18:08] Tone and you hear again like really nice interplay with spiral and and malchmus and then you get to i don't know if they're really choruses but it's like slow it down song is sacred and you know Those two – and then the distorted guitar comes in, and it's really such a cool contrast with the –, and then it goes back to the sort of more little chill verses. And then it has that outro, which is freaking – it's so good. It's just – it's a cool thing because it –.Track 3:[18:45] So, again, one of the lines that stands out in the song is, slow it down, song is sacred. And you hear Malkmus sing, and his vocalization is super, it's really beautiful on this song. I think it's one of his best, really, performances in some way. And it's really kind of, there's like an urgency to it that is not always there, but that's not what you want for every song. And in the end, it kind of is like, it doesn't technically slow down, but it kind of is like he's slowing it down and trying to get more out of the song. And he wants to stay in the music and there's the la da da da da da da and um which made me think about so this is shoot the singer it's a song that has references to music in its title and, maybe a little bit in the song and then it made me think of other songs like cut your hair has that kind of you know the non non words but vocalization right right so a lot of the and And that's another song that's about music. So it's like I feel like there's a few others that I can't remember now that have. So Pavement songs that sort of have like music themes or songs about songs or whatever, they seem to often go into that, you know, la, la, la kind of shit, which is really cool. It's kind of like pure music without, you know, without words or something.Track 3:[20:02] I don't know. This song, I just, it's such a beautiful song. And obviously Water Domestic is, you know, such a, like, masterpiece. And I, dude, I owe you, like, a massive, I owe you massively because I, super fan that I am, you know, I've seen them a bunch. And I had everything. And I was into, I had gotten, like, Westing and all of that stuff and listened to that stuff before I discovered in the last, like, five years. Don't fucking mock me, dude. Watery Domestic. And it was because listening to Meeting Malkmus. So somehow I had seen that fucking rooster, right? I had seen that rooster, but I had never, I had never like listened. I mean, I think I must have heard a song or two, but I was like completely oblivious. And so that's like such a joy to just discover what's. What a cool thing to find that. Yeah. It's and it's, you know, in large part to your, you know, your podcast. So thank you. Well, I'll take the feedback. I love it. But I think that it's important, because I came to Pavement late as well, as well as your situation with this record.Track 3:[21:23] To me, it's an absolute bonus to, in the midst of loving a band.Track 3:[21:35] Uncovering something that you didn't know about, and you're listening to new music that is old, if that makes any sense. Yeah, right. And it's right in that sweet spot, right in the pocket of slanted and crooked rain, right? So, what a fertile period. Yeah, it's peak.Track 3:[21:52] It's total peak pavement. And it's interesting, too, because it's like Gary's last stand, and you listen to it. And I think in some ways, all the love in the world to Westy, right, who just is great. I love him. But like in a certain sense, like Gary, at least at this period, his playing was more like pavement-y. You know what I mean? Sure. It's a little bit more rickety, slapdash, and kind of I hate to say slacker or whatever, but it kind of like it really fits in. Of course, they kind of, Westy kind of you know it's a it's a slightly different direction but i mean i love i love you know i love them both but you know this so this so that ep so it's the cool thing is like i have no nostalgia about the record i just listen to it it's right now it's happening and i you know get into it but um i feel like it's a song that has two standouts and that's front words and Shoot the Singer. Yeah. But they're set up perfectly with Texas and Lyons, Linden, right? Because it's just such a perfect little sequence. You can't get a more perfect EP out there.Track 3:[23:12] And, yeah. So the other thing that I wouldn't mind mentioning is, so I grew up 50 miles away from Stockton. Gee whiz. And so, like, it's hot and boring. And, like, those songs, like, Lions Linden especially, but also, like, Summer Babe and a few others, they totally evoke that landscape of, like, bored people.Track 3:[23:40] Kind of just like, you know, like suburbia. It's kind of like a little bit almost beyond suburbia in some ways. It's kind of this, you know, every street a straight line, all of that stuff. And then there's the Delta and the girl mixing a cocktail with a cigar, all that shit, you know? So it's like very evocative of that whole landscape. Escape yeah i mean i i can't say enough about this ep uh like you mentioned their standouts but i would have it's sophie's choice yeah to pick yeah to pick the number one and i would include lions linden and texas never whispers in in that yeah for sure um it's just so goddamn good And even when you listen to Lux and Redux and you get Greenlander and I forget the other two right now because I'm an asshole, but even those outtakes from Watery are spectacular. Yeah. Oh, I know. Greenlander is another one of those sleeper ones that's such a freaking cool song. Yeah. Definitely. Where do you think in the scheme of things this song was rated 25 so right at the halfway point.Track 3:[25:04] Do you think it's overrated, underrated, perfectly rated? What do you think? I think – I'm glad it's not any lower. Me too. Because I would put this in the top 10, 15 for me for sure. Of course, it changes all the time, like whatever. But I think 25, it's fine. I'm not going to go on a rampage. I'm not going to go on a rampage, J.D., against your fans. Did you vote? I didn't vote. You know, I saw the call, and then I meant to, and then I didn't. So many people have reached out and said, oh, man, I missed this. Yeah. There was enough to make this 100% valid, let me tell you. Yeah, yeah.Track 3:[25:55] Dude, that's what I got. How about you? Is there anything you want to plug or mention? Listen to the Bug Club, man. They're amazing. They opened up for a pavement in the UK a few dates, and I got into them from that, and they've just become one of my favorite bands. The Bug Club from Wales. I don't know, that and Permanent Ceasefire. That's about it. Okay. Well, that's cool. I like giving the tips. That's nice. That's what we've got here. Song 25. Stay tuned next week when we cover song 24. In the meantime, thank you so much, David from New York, and be sure to wash your goddamn hands.Track 1:[26:39] Thanks for listening to Meeting Malcolmists, a pavement podcast where we count down the top 50 pavement tracks as selected by you. If you've got questions or concerns, please shoot me an email. JD at Meeting Malcolmists dot com. You.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/meeting-malkmus-a-pavement-podcast/exclusive-contentAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

This week on the ole Pavement top 50 podcast, jD welcomes Amir from Providence to talk all about his Pavement origin story and to breakdown song 28!Transcript:Track 1:[0:00] Previously on the Pavement Top 50. Oh, I love this song so much. It's a song, I hadn't, it wasn't on my first wave of songs to study, even though I knew we were going to play it. But it wasn't, like, you know, there were other songs I felt like I had to nail more. So this was towards the end. I said, okay, let me get into this type slow jam. Hey, this is Westy from the Rock and Roll Band.Track 3:[0:24] And you're listening to The Countdown. Hey it's shay d here back for another episode of our top 50 countdown for seminal indie rock band pavement week over week we're going to count down the 50 essential pavement tracks that you selected with your very own top 20 ballots i then tabulated the results using an abacus and the kid from the sixth sense wait a minute am i dead how will your favorite song fare in the rankings. You'll need to tune in to find out. So there's that. This week, I'm joined by pavement superfan Amir from Providence. Amir, how the fuck are you? Hello, I'm calling from Providence, Rhode Island, and I'm very fine. Life is good. Excellent. That is good news. It's great to have you here. Let's just not beat around the bush. Let's get right into this. What is your Or pavement origin story. So that's a long origin story. So I live in Providence, Rhode Island, as I mentioned. By the way, cheers. This is local. Cheers. Watery domestic beer from Rhode Island. Narragansett Atlantic-like lager. So...Track 3:[1:37] A little plug for Atlantic Light Lager. Yeah. But anyway, yeah, that's very watery. Anyway, so I was not born here. I was born in Moscow, not Moscow, Idaho. Moscow, Soviet Union, which is more or less the same thing as Russia. And I grew up there in the 80s. And I loved music since I was, I don't know, since I remember myself. I started playing piano when I was four. So I listened to a lot of music it was also the 1980s were an exciting time for rock music in Russia because Russia was like after many decades of like complete censorship it was starting to open up and, rock music suddenly became legal so it was possible to listen to that, if you if this makes you curious I recommend everybody listen to the Wind of Change podcast It's just an amazing story. Oh, it's amazing. I've listened to it. Yes, it's brilliant. So, but, yeah, so I started, like, loving rock music when I was, like, a child. But we are a Jewish family, so we moved to Israel in 1991.Track 3:[2:52] And even though Russia was opening up back then, Israel was, like, always a very open country, open to everything. So we had MTV, or more precisely, we had MTV Europe, which is not exactly the same thing. Uh mtv like in the united states and mtv europe it's not exactly the same thing mtv europe has a lot of uh uk uh bias and uh like because it broadcasted from the uk uh and uh it's it also tried to incorporate some other european music like italian or german but it was mostly like very uk biased so that's when i was growing up mtv was uh important it was like there was no youtube YouTube kind of replaced MTV now but MTV was important culturally like hugely important not just for myself but for a lot of other people, but initially when I started like watching it it was kind of boring at least during the day but then during the night it got much more exciting because they started like after midnight, they started playing much more interesting stuff and there was a show called Alternative Nation I think it was every Tuesday on MTV Europe and they played stuff like Sonic Youth and Pavement and European what you would say alternative bands, like whatever alternative even means.Track 3:[4:18] I tried to figure out what does it even mean that it's alternative? Is it a certain guitar sound? It actually doesn't mean much at all. It's just rock music that is cooler than Bon Jovi. Well, what's funny, it was alternative to the mainstream and then it became the mainstream. Exactly. Like, if you look back at this, like, it was totally the mainstream. Like, Nirvana was alternative, but it was already quite the mainstream back in 1992. And by now, it's completely mainstream. But, you know, whatever. Names of things are sometimes funny. So, yeah. And they mentioned pavement occasionally. Now, initially, they mentioned, I didn't really dig it. Like I remember, I definitely remember they showed Cut Your Hair, of course. They never showed it during the day. They showed it late at night.Track 3:[5:12] I didn't really understand it. I was like, it just looked weird. And these days, I look at the Cut Your Hair video, and now I'm a Dan and I have children, and they look at it and they just think it's funny with the gorilla and the lizard. Yes. And I was just overthinking it totally. Like I was 15 years old. why what does what does this mean i was totally overthinking it um but yeah they should cut your hair and they i remember they showed the gold sounds video um maybe also yeah rattled by the rush like the weird the weird version with the bathtub okay didn't really understand like what's the deal with that so i did love like i did love a lot of other alternative bands like i loved sonic youth i loved therapy if you if you heard that's a band from northern ireland uh i love the, alternative, rock band, whatever that means.Track 3:[6:03] Anyway, so then I graduated high school. And as pretty much everybody else in Israel, I got drafted to the military. Now, what you don't hear, you often hear about the Israeli military on the news. What you don't hear about the Israeli military is that most people there, they don't do combat and wars and stuff like that. It's just, I work with computers And that's like what most people do. They work with, you know, cars, equipment, computers, whatever. I worked with computers. And I had a friend there. And that friend was much cooler than I am. He's probably still to this day much cooler than I am. And he had many more CDs than I had. And he knew alternative music like way better than I had. I did know Sonic Youth. Sonic Youth, which is another Samuel band. I did know Sonic Youth much better than he did. But other than that, he was like the huge expert. He taught me about cool bands like Mogwai and Mercury Rev and a bunch of others. And he taught me about pavement.Track 3:[7:08] And he gave me the Wowie Zowie CD to listen. Interesting. And I was immediately hooked. That was just incredible. So like from the first seconds of We Dance, oh my God, how did I miss that? We Dance is such a brilliant song. I'm just thinking about this. I will make this really weird comparison, but it kind of makes sense to me. Because like I mentioned that I play piano. I played piano for many years, like almost 40 years now. Oh my God. I'm old. And I...Track 3:[7:43] There's another band called Guns N' Roses. There is. Which is nowhere near as cool as Pavement. Nowhere near. But that's like the not-alternative thing that they were showing a lot on MTV. And I couldn't feel like, why are so many people excited about this band? And then I saw November Rain, which, ooh, it has piano. Piano is classy. So it's classy. It doesn't... No, I'm not comparing. I'm not comparing Guns N' Roses to Pavement, but We Dance had the piano, piano is classy. And so I heard like, Ooh, that's a much like, that's such an interesting song. And I absolutely loved it. And I loved the rest of the album as hectic and eclectic as it is and extremely long. I saw it described somewhere as three six-song EPs or six three-song EPs. That's probably the... That's an interesting way to look at it. Yeah, I saw it described like that somewhere. It's a very weird album, but it's so great. It's absolutely like all of it. I love it. And then I heard the rest of it from that friend. And he gave me like Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain, and Brighten the Corners.Track 3:[9:10] And later I just bought them all myself. So slanted, of course. So I have them all twice because they released them with the usual version and then the Lux and Redux and all those. LA Desert, they expanded. So I have them all twice.Track 3:[9:27] Yeah. And yeah, so that's kind of my pavement origin story. And yeah, and I became a super fan, I guess, around 98 or 99. Wow. So you got to experience Terror Twilight when it came out. That one you got to experience, right? In real time? Yep. What did you think of that at the time? It was very different. I did love it. I loved all the songs. I listened to it a lot back then.Track 3:[9:57] It's very different it's very different from if I really have I don't want to but if I really have to pick a favorite album it would probably be Crooked Rain Crooked Rain I really love them all but Terror Twilight is very different, has its own style unlike Wawizawi which has like 20 different styles but yeah, Terror Twilight definitely has a certain and particular.Track 3:[10:25] Integrated feel to it. Yeah, I would agree. So did you ever get a chance to see them live? Yeah. So first time I saw something related to Pavement, it was not Pavement. And it was not Malcolm's solo. It was a show in Israel, in Tel Aviv, in 2004. It was a tribute show, like a bunch of local Israeli bands played a tribute show to Pavement and Malcolm's. Really? It was pretty brilliant. Yeah. Israel has like a very varied music scene. Okay. Rock of all kinds of styles and jazz. I know nothing about it. It's not that known around the world, but it has a very rich, vibrant music scene. Mostly sang in Hebrew, but occasionally in English. So that show had bands singing mostly in English. Like I remember a band that I really loved, they performed Gold Sounds.Track 3:[11:27] And here, I think, uh, that's like, that, that's how I, that's how I found out about that show that like, there was a band that I, that I love. They, they, that band used to be called blush and lure back then. And they sang in English later. They changed the name of the band and they started singing in Hebrew, but, but back then they were singing in English and, uh, yeah. So they performed two songs there. I think it's definitely gold sounds and probably here. Here and uh yeah there was a bunch of other bands and like some of them did like very similar versions to the original some of them completely reworked them as like punk songs some of them translated the lyrics to hebrew like there was a i think it was father to a sister of thought they completely translated it to hebrew that was that was fun so anyway uh yeah that was a cool show. The second time I saw something pavement related was in 2010.Track 3:[12:23] 2010, that was the first big reunion in New York, in Central Park. That was a brilliant show. It's actually possible that you and I went to the same show. Yes, I know. Yeah. And yeah, I absolutely loved it. I think, like you mentioned a couple of times on your podcast, that, how did you describe it? That they seemed tired or something like that?Track 3:[12:48] Yeah, they just didn't seem into it. You know, the same way they did on this newer tour. Maybe, um, maybe I, I was absolutely excited about this. Oh, me too. At least, at least the part, they also seemed like very excited. Uh, the Stanowich was like ecstatic, uh, eyeballed, uh, who is like, usually very like quiet and, uh, serious. He was actually quite chatty on the stage. I remember, like, I remember him speaking to New York and how cool, like he's, he's from New York and how cool New York is and how cool Queens is. He, he mentioned Queens. I don't remember what he's, what did he say exactly, but like, he's like, are there people from Queens or something like that? Like he looked. I don't remember that. Yeah. And he's, he mentioned something like that. So anyway, um, yeah, it was, it was a fantastic show. Such a fantastic show.Track 3:[13:43] Heckler Spray, Summer Babe. Oh, wow. In the Mountain Desert. Uh, just a fantastic, fantastic show. So is the record that you go back to now, like, is it Wowie Zowie when you have a hankering for Pavement, or is it your favorite, Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain? I would probably say, it's so hard to say, I would probably say Crooked Rain and Slanted, but I love them all. I love them all. I listen to them all. There was a third Pavement-related thing I saw, and that was Malkmus.Track 3:[14:18] Malcolm's solo I think it was in 2012 or 13 it was the it was it was.Track 3:[14:26] Oh, I'm, I'm blacking out. Which, uh, which, uh, the album with, uh, uh, Senator, uh, which, which album is that? Mirror Traffic? Yes, that one. Uh, yeah. So that was, that was a brilliant show. Uh, that was a really brilliant show. Towards, towards the end, he did, uh, uh, something like, uh, funny, uh, Faith No More impersonation. Really? yeah like towards the end of the show he played he played a couple of famous so he played here and i think uh speaks he remember and uh at one of the songs towards the end they were like the jigs were getting all uh uh in a good mood and uh jamming and at some point they just started started playing um what's the famous faith no more song epic yeah yeah they just I started playing that. That's so cool. Yeah. Anyway, it was a brilliant rock and roll show. So yeah, so these are the three Pavement-related shows I attended. Nice. Well, what do you say we take a quick break and come back and talk about song number 28? Let's do that. Let's do that. Hey, this is Bob Mustanovich from Pavement.Track 1:[15:43] Thanks listening. And now on with a countdown. 28.Track 3:[20:18] Song number 28 on the countdown comes from Crooked Rain. Crooked Rain, amazingly, it's the first song from their sophomore effort to appear on this list. You can exhale now because track 28 is Stop Breathing. Amir. Yeah. What are your initial thoughts about this song? I love this song. It appears in my top 20 that I sent you. I think it's number 14 there. so it's, half of your number I know maybe I should have rated it even higher it's like it's a brilliant song it's kind of special I made a bit of homework so it has the, it has if I'm not mistaken I learned music for many years but maybe I'm mistaken about something but almost all Pavement songs have the quadruple rhythm 1, 2, 3, 4 okay this one is Because the correct term here is probably the six-eighths rhythm. Oh, okay. One, two, three, one, two, three, one, two, three, one, two, three.Track 3:[21:27] So there are not a lot of pavement songs in this rhythm. On the studio albums, it's just Our Singer and Stop Breathing. And half of Fight This Generation, the beginning of Fight This Generation. Oh, okay. The rest, and well, there's also 5-4 equals Unity, which begins in 5-4ths. And then I think actually the chorus is also in 3-4ths or 6-8ths. And the rest of the pavement, well, in all the kinds of B-sides and bonus tracks, tracks uh there are a bunch of uh um six eighths uh songs uh mercy snack kentucky cocktail so stark sagano stray fire um and yeah that's about it you did do your homework i did do my homework there's also kneeling bus uh also known as rugrat which is a very weird beat that i couldn't completely understand a very very cool one uh but it's like it's neither four neither three but yeah so that's so it's pretty.Track 3:[22:36] It's pretty unique relatively unique in that regard it's beautifully placed in the track list at the third third spot kind of a different mood between like the big rockers the, uh elevate me later and uh cut your hair yeah so that one has a different mood it has very beautiful uh guitar sound uh throughout the song and especially of course towards the end, um so yeah i absolutely love the song one of the best they the pavement has very, pretty much no songs that uh i would like say that they are bad but this this one is really one one of the best so what's your relationship with this song uh crooked rain crooked rain you said is your favorite record so what do you remember about the first time you heard this song or.Track 3:[23:33] Something like that so so this was the this was the second album i heard uh after wavy zowie and it's relatively much more uh much more of a straightforward rock straight absolutely relatively, compare it compared to wawi especially the first song like it gets a bit weirder towards the end but uh the beginning of it it's like it's a relatively very straightforward i agree.Track 3:[23:58] In a classic rock album i i i heard somewhere that uh malcolm called it like disparagingly classic rock like he said that silent kid is a is a classic rock song in like in a not very good way, but he's wrong well it's maybe he was just sarcastic i don't know it was Because Silent Kid is a brilliant song. And Stop Breathing is a brilliant song. It has this really, really beautiful guitar sound and this beat. And it may be, oh my God, this is such a cool rock band with cool melodies. And they do all these things so easily. And it sounds like they were just having fun. But the song, it's kind of somber, kind of solemn, kind of serious. Yeah, I agree. Relatively. It has this special atmosphere. Nevertheless, it feels like while they're playing it, they're having a lot of fun with these guitars. Like, that's a really special guitar sound, especially towards the end. And it gets stronger and stronger.Track 3:[25:08] And oh my God, it's just so beautiful. It's just so inspirational. Yeah. What do you think the song is about? I have no idea. I barely ever listen to lyrics, to be honest. In music, I mostly listen to the melodies and the playing and the arrangements.Track 3:[25:31] Volley. Like, volley has a... It's kind of a... Like, it probably refers to both things. Like, both to the volley in sports. ports and in the war. And that's kind of a menacing word. It's struck by the first volley. So that gets you in a kind of a tragic mood from the start. And then it says, stop breathing. And there's also this alternative version on LA Desert Origins where he says, start bleeding, like stop breathing and then start bleeding. Really? Yeah. I gotta re-listen to LA Desert Origins. My memory is so shit. Oh, well. Yeah. It's like the comment there is that it's from Louder Than You you think, 1993, and it's probably, I don't know, maybe it's a demo, maybe it's not a demo, maybe it was at some point intended to be released. But in the chorus there, he says, stop breathing and then start bleeding, which makes it even more menacing. Yeah.Track 3:[26:46] Yeah. So there's this menacing song, and right after it, there's Cut Your Hair, which is very fun. The exact opposite. The exact opposite.Track 3:[26:55] But menacing, you know, my attitude to music is embodied in a poem that I really love. It was written by a jazz musician who's very old, but he's still alive, I think. His name is Oliver Lake, a jazz saxophone player. And he wrote a poem. And in the poem, he mentions names of many musical artists that he loves. and they're very different artists.Track 3:[27:26] And he's like, and the poem is built like a conversation between himself and the waiter in the restaurant. And then he says, put all the meals in one, put all my meals in one plate. Don't ask me what kind of music I play. I play the good kind. So I like, I actually, I don't care very much about the genres of music and I don't care very much about the mood of a particular song. Like some songs are happy and some songs are sad and some songs are scary like these are all important things but uh eventually i i i judge all songs by like this is the good song or is it not a very good song and uh this song is is of the good kind uh yeah that's that's the really important thing like it like it definitely has a mood uh definitely has a very identifiable probably intentional mood and it's probably placed intentionally in that sequence uh on the album but it definitely has this character.Track 3:[28:25] So this is going to be I think I know the answer to this because.Track 3:[28:31] You've already told me what you rated it on your list but do you think this song is properly rated overrated underrated on the top 50 28 is lowish, I would be very unpleasantly surprised if it was not in the top 50 at all um i like i would probably rate it a bit higher uh maybe it's not my number one song but it's like it's pretty like it's pretty high it's pretty high on my list it's a great song it is absolutely there's nothing to shake a stick at unless it's a complimentary uh stick shaking your dick fun fun fact about uh the tennis part uh the so the song is like you mentioned it uh You mentioned that you read it from those notes that Malthus had in his own songs. And he mentioned tennis himself, so we have it from himself.Track 3:[29:28] I checked it. So I edit Wikipedia quite often in English and in Hebrew and occasionally in other languages. And I checked what is actually Malthus' relation to tennis.Track 3:[29:41] And the English Wikipedia mentions that he loves playing golf and tennis, but he doesn't, Here's where it gets funny. So Wikipedia editors, good, serious Wikipedia editors, try to fact-check everything. And the fact-check in Wikipedia is done by adding footnotes. You may have noticed that Wikipedia has lots of footnotes. So I checked the footnotes. So where it mentions that he plays golf and tennis, it had two footnotes. Both of them were not very good. One of them was a completely dead link. the other one didn't say anything about any sports so I found another source like it's actually a tennis website where he speaks about actually loving tennis so yeah so there's another confirmation that he loves tennis that other tennis website mentioned the song yeah so I improved the English Wikipedia article about Mr. Stephen Maltmes and now it has a better footnote for the tennis information, So, yeah, that's a kind of thing I do for fun. Cool.Track 3:[30:50] Well, it's been really great talking to you today. I'm curious if you have anything that you want to plug or mention for people to look at on the internet or anything that you've created, anything like that. Well not much I'm kind of I'm trying I'm trying to I moved I lived in Israel for many years and I moved to Providence a few months ago my wife is doing an academic project here so we all moved together with the kids.Track 3:[31:21] But I love as I mentioned I love Israeli music I'm, there's not much to plug I'm trying to start a band that would play covers of Israeli songs which is challenging in the united states i it's i'm slowly finding some people to do that but there's not much to say about this right now uh but uh you know you can you can find in the future there might be a band that we can look for hopefully and uh then i would maybe um i would i would probably i would probably mostly play uh covers of israeli music or maybe in the loop on that amir maybe an occasional pavement song what's that keep me in the loop on that shoot me an email when you get it going and I'll talk about it on the pod. I haven't tried that. Maybe an occasional pavement song. Yeah, that would be cool. Well, like I say, it's been a blast spending this time with you today. I really appreciate you doing this heavy lifting on a podcast that is ostensibly yours.Track 3:[32:21] So, thank you very much for that and make sure to wash your goddamn hands.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/meeting-malkmus-a-pavement-podcast/exclusive-contentAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

jD is joined by Pierce from Detroit to discuss his Pavement origin story and wax poetic about song 37 on the countdown. Enjoy!Transcript: [0:00] Hey, it's JD here, and I just wanted to throw something down, somewhat of a challenge to all you musically inclined folks out there.We are going to be doing a pod list again this year, and a pod list is simply a podcast playlist.It's a pod list. The previous four pod lists have consisted of talented members of our Pavement community submitting songs that they have covered from the Pavement oeuvre.Pavement adjacent songs are also welcome. So you could do PSOI, you could do Jicks, you could do Malcolm is Solo.Anything is fair game, truly. So get your band together or grab an acoustic guitar and just play your fucking guts out.From there, submit the song to me by email and we'll go from there.So please submit those songs, jd at meetingmalkmus.com, or even better, use wetransfer.com if it's a big WAV file. And WAV files are what I prefer.That will work out just magnificently. That's what she said.Podlist 5 coming July 8th. So get those songs in and be a part of something special. Thanks so much.Now, on with the show. Previously on the.Track 2:[1:26] Pavement Top 50. Without further ado, number 38, Date with Ikea.Daniel from Chicago. Hey.Talk to me about your experience with this song. Well, it was the first Pavement album that I was able to buy on its release date.So it has a special place.It was released, I think it's April 17th, 1997.And I went to my local mall and walked in and bought this album.Hey, this is Westy from the Rock and Roll Band Pavement.Track 4:[2:13] And you're listening to The Countdown. hey it's jd here back for another episode of our top 50 countdown for seminal indie rock band pavement week over week we're going tocount down the 50 essential pavement tracks that you selected with your very own top 20 ballots i tabulated the results using an abacus and a small group of children in the fourth grade,How will your favorite song fare in the rankings? Well, you'll need to tune in to find out. So there's that.This week, we're joined by Pavement superfan, Pierce from Detroit.[2:47] Pierce, how you doing, motherfucker? I'm good, I'm good. It's good to be here.Oh, it's great to have you, man.[2:54] How's the weather in the city right now? It's been unseasonably warm yesterday.We got close to 60. I think we got to 60.So you know every people in shorts and uh it's not going to be here forever it's going to be nice today again and then it's going to go you know it's uh we're still in february so.[3:16] It it's going to be some jacket weather before you know it yeah i bet yeah how about you how what's the what's the weather like there it's been the same here it's been unseasonablylike i wore a vest yesterday instead of a jacket right like kind of nice yeah i mean you know aside from the existential dread but we won't go there yeah i suppose you're right yeah so let'slet's get right to this let's talk about pavement uh you mean my favorite band your favorite band of all time yeah oh man yeah i uh i you know i i kind of i listened to a uh previous episodeand then i you know got my mind you know i'm always jump chomping at the champing at the bit to uh relay my pavement origin story.So, I mean, I don't even know if it's like, it's not anything spectacular, but I mean, I guess the thing that really strikes me is just how much the band means to me and how much musicmeans to me.And, you know, so I'm always, you know, looking to knock on somebody's door and tell them about pavement.[4:26] So where did it all begin? Well, I mean, um, you know, so I came, I found pavement, um, in high school um i uh you know i i was really into just like a lot of corporate rock youknow i was all about like you know back and bc boys which are still i i still like and value those but uh you know i mean it's listening to like the sublime and 311 and you know all thatand And not to say that that's not, if that's your bag, that's your bag, you know, but like I, I, uh, so then in my sophomore year, a friend got me into fish and, um, and so like fish, you know,I, I've had like, I've kind of estranged myself from fish.Um, and I realized that, uh, starting at the top of a pavement podcast, talking about three 11 and, uh, and fish, I don't know if that's the coolest start, but, uh, you know, so I remembervividly, I got an entertainment weekly fish feature magazine and, uh, I guess the summer of 2000.[5:45] Summer of 2000 and just going just before going into my junior year in high school and uh there was a fish a to z and key they had uh like a little cartoon of the guitarist treyworshiping at this pedestal with slanted and enchanted like a little a little drawing on it and uh so key he, the A to Z P for fish was pavement.[6:12] And, uh, I was like, okay, well, I'll check that out.And, um, you know, I got slanted and enchanted and it just, uh, it was like instantaneous, you know?[6:23] And, uh, and so then I think the same day I went out to another CD store, I think I bought it from either a local CD store or from Best Buy.And then I went to another local CD store and i bought the major leagues ep so like wow my first two were like you know slenderman major leagues and uh i was like wow this this iscompletely different but i love it totally so different and so then you know i think within like a couple days i had bought um wowie zowie you know and then i went on uh a week-longsummer uh like a band camp thing to interlocking and uh so i remember being in this school bus and like hearing half a canyon you know and it just it blew my mind i was like in thegarden state natalie totally right i mean the headphones was like this is gonna change you know and uh and i mean um you know the uh the ensuing years of like and even just moments oflike trying to like play it for friends and having them be like oh okay that's cool man but you know and then gradually getting more people into it but yeah I mean man you know it's so it'sjust wild to think that you know.[7:49] My musical adventure really, I mean, I don't want to like put it all on pavement, but I feel like, like that, that really was the catalyst for so many, so many things that I've, um,discovered and enjoyed in the last 24 years.[8:07] Talk to me more about that. What does that look like?Oh man. I mean, so, you know, I'm just, you know, that that was the age of Napster and Audio Galaxy and LimeWire.And so you'd connect your audio galaxy.If you connect your you disconnect the phone line and connect it to your computer and then like try to download three songs and then go to sleep.And then you wake up and like one of the songs would have downloaded and you'd be like, OK, I'm good.Now i know about dinosaur junior you know it's like they would uh that it was just uh it was a wild time and then yeah then the advent of uh you know you had like music mags like thebig takeover and you had um the starting of pitchfork and so just you know over the last however many many years, just, I mean, it's, we just, we live in a, an age of renaissance.I mean, the reissues of just classics and never heard classics.Like I'm into like light Italian library music and like, you know, world music and.[9:28] These niche like i got into vaporwave over the pandemic and i got into dungeon synth and it's just like it's this exploding cosmos of never-ending musical discovery and at the sametime i mean you know at the end of the day pavement's still my number one favorite yeah you know and and terror twilight is my favorite album of all time okay that's which is i i realizedthat that's uh that's kind of like the one of the wildest takes i could have but sure yeah yeah i mean i just uh yeah i mean i when it comes to pavement i would say every just.[10:13] Just about every song every release is like i mean there's something so special i i know i don't know if we're supposed to like lead into this or but i'll just say like you know the earlystuff you know know the the original eps and and seven inches that are collected on westing or yeah um it i mean it's just magical i mean uh yeah there's just there's such a swirling vortexof melody and dissonance and feedback and i mean it really it's it's all it's all thanks to those three individuals that you know were just like conjuring some kind of alchemy out of youknow obviously they had they had their their you know pavement they had their artists that were informing them but I mean the way that Malkmus and Scott and and Gary like.[11:19] Did that i mean it's it's still it's just they could have just done those eps and i would still probably talk with the same reverence but then you know you see you see that line uh andand so you know coming to pavement you know pretty much at the end of pavement without i did too that's So that's my story, too.[11:41] They, you know, I was able to kind of just, like, find this tome of amazingness.And, I mean, with the reissues, I mean, there's clearly still so much to be discovered.I mean, I think we're so fortunate.I mean, with Terror Toilet being my favorite album, like, that reissue, like, last year or the year before.I mean that that was like the greatest thing that matador could i i've been like on you know uh mouth miss and pavement message boards crying for this for just so long and i mean idea orsince 2008 rather yeah and um and i mean it just like it really you know minus it's it's it's missing missing you know just one or two tracks from the at home with the groove box with thegroove box comp but i mean i i have that comp so i i also think it's missing for sale the person school of industry oh right like the actual version right right and um you know that's funnytoo because i i was going to mention that later i feel like the brief slide i feel like hold on.[12:59] Let's come back because we don't mention in the first half at all oh sorry yeah no that's okay Okay.It's all building up to that. Oh, sure, sure. So, yeah, I mean...[13:13] You know, I, I, I was able to see one of the, the Central Park shows.Oh, me too. And, and, oh, awesome.Which one did you go to? I forget now. I think it was the one on the, I want to say it was on the 10th or 11th of September.Okay. All right. Yeah. I think that might've been.[13:36] So I've got the, I've got the poster hanging in the other room.We went to the third night, which was Thursday night.Um and i think the night before uh i had some friends that went and it was there was a downpour, okay so i don't go to that one so i guess i'm fortunate oh so you saw the one with the ocsopen don't worry i have a very poor memory okay well that's okay i'll just say you know pavement is my number one and the ocs are by number two really yeah and so that that that thatsung not seeing that particular show um especially that era like that was like the warm slime uh which i i did i saw the vocs the week before and i told them how excited i was for them tobe opening for pavement oh man were they excited oh yeah and and john doyer like signed my uh signed my my albums that i brought and he like gave me a poster i've got the poster thathe gave me like hanging next to the central park pavement poster um yeah but i mean like.[14:47] You know so that was my at the time my girlfriend now my wife's first time in new york and we like went right up to like we got there probably at like five in the afternoon oh wowand we're like standing right like probably like 20 feet from basically where malchmas would be standing you you know, for the rest of the night.[15:12] So like, you know, we made it through this marathon set and pretty close to the end, like, I think my wife, my now wife was like, I need to go to the restroom.Like, I've been standing in this one spot, you know, because as you're standing there, just people continue to compact.And so eventually you're just kind of stuck, you know, know especially if you want to hold on to your spot um and i was i was standing next to this dude that was like heckling malchus tolike play like deep cuts from like territory which like i'm like thinking in my head like yeah i i want that too but i'm not gonna like not right harass him yeah yeah yeah so that was uh thatwas a really amazing experience and then then we get to see, uh, the Detroit show, um.[16:12] Not last year, but the year before. 2022, yeah. Yeah, yeah. And that was also, that was incredible.I mean, just, wow, what a band, you know? Right, agreed, 100%.So what's your, okay, so just, you're in a rarefied air with Terra Twilight as your number one.What is your least ranked?What's your number five? And I mean, I know these are difficult and often sort of ridiculous questions, too, because it's more like 1A, 1B, 1C, 1D, 1E, right?Right, right. I kind of, I bring it on myself when I throw something like that out there.[16:56] Um but you know i mean i'll say my number five when i first heard brighten the corners i thought that it was my favorite uh i think over time i've come to so with terror twilight ismy number one i think my number two is uh wowie zowie just because i mean it's it's a masterpiece and then then three i think goes to slanted just because again i mean how many timescan you have a masterpiece but they apparently did and then i would say.[17:34] Brighton and then crooked rain and i i you know i know no disrespect to crooked rain because no of course not this is just you know this is just what it is yeah yeah but i mean um,The other thing is just the hidden tracks, the B-sides.I mean, I think that really is what, I mean, I don't know.I would say that the five studio albums are enough to make it like pavement, pavement.But but then this rich, rich undertow of of just amazing songs that, you know, should have made the albums or, you know, in some cases, for sure, at least, you know, at least we havethem.Um you know i i really i i heard you mention uh in a previous episode that there's like a seven inch box coming yeah and uh i'm curious what what that looks like is that me too straightsingles or i don't know are we gonna get a remastered clay tracks like Yeah, but the Secret History.[18:53] You know, they launched that first volume of the Secret History, which is, you know, it's basically just extra tracks from, you know, Slenderman, Enchanted, Lux, and Redux.Um but you know i feel like crooked rain uh uh the desert sessions and uh and what was that we sent no addition like those those are crying to be double or triple augmented yeah yeah imean you know it always it's interesting because when you're putting something like that I mean, I remember being on the Stephen Malkin's forum once.And people, you know, when they came out with the first Secret History Volume 1, they were like, I have all these tracks.But it's like, yeah, I mean, I have those tracks too.And I don't even think at the time, like, Spotify was what Spotify is.But, I mean, there's having the tracks, you know, on CD, and then having the tracks on a 45-7 inch or a 12-inch.But like the joy of being able to put down a two a double lp set or a triple lp set and like flipping it over and having i mean again um what matador did with uh the spit in a stranger ep.[20:19] Uh you know i mean like that's that was a dream come true i mean i i kind of wish that they did that for the the um major leagues one too but you know i mean that i i did get a 4lpbox set as well from them that kind of combines those two into one disc i want i want uh like you can go out and find the nicene creators uh right in the corners on vinyl yeah um like thebox set like like the reissue.But the other three are not.They didn't even issue them on vinyl. So I hope there is, like you say, a reissue of Ellie's Desert Origins and Sorted Sandals and Blacks and Redux.I sure hope that happens. And then I do hope they come out with a Bright in the Corners one again because right now you can only find it on Discogs and it's like 300 bucks.I know. And you know, when I first bought that, I bought it for like, you know, list price for like 90 bucks for Mandador, I couldn't buy it fast enough, right? Right. And then...[21:28] They sat on them for so long because again people i remember that there was a strong reaction to it was like why am i buying this i already bought this as a double cd set and i'mlike nice you're missing the point here this is amazing right yeah and uh and so i ended up buying like two copies for like 20 dollars or something liquidated from matador because theywere just like they couldn't get rid of them fast enough of the vinyl boxes of the vinyl boxes so i was like giving them i gave two out for like christmas or birthday presents what the hell iknow and you know i mean hindsight it's 2020 right i wish that i had uh built my empire but you know i mean um i mean i i can't really see them doing that for the for the first threebecause i but you know i mean who am i to you know weigh in on on what matador will or won't do i mean right we'd have to imagine they like money they're gonna keep monetizing thiscatalog in any way they can what it looks like is what it looks like is anyone's guess right yeah right right but i mean you.[22:44] Know it not to beat a dead horse here but that that tear twilight's i mean like i just i love you know because then following malchus into his solo career i mean there's just so manygreat you know demos and songs that are in with what i presume is the groove box or you know kind of proto uh groove denied and i mean i mean rooftop gambler corpus and the handgrenade those are like Two of my favorite songs. Wow.[23:17] I just love it. I love it so much.Damn. Well, I wonder if you're going to like the song that we're covering today.Oh, definitely. Should we get ready to give it a spin? Let's do it.All right. We'll see you on the other side with track number 37 on the countdown.Hey, this is Bob Nestanovich from Pavement. Thanks for listening.Track 2:[23:39] And now on with a countdown. 37. Mmm.Track 4:[25:38] So there we have it. Debris Slide is the first song on the countdown from Perfect Sound Forever.It's a 1990 EP.This song is side two, track two. It's Debris Slide. What are you thinking here, Pierce, from Detroit?Oh, man. I mean, it's classic, right?I mean, I would say, you know, know when i think about the the tracks from the first few eps the first you know perfect sound forever slate tracks demolition plot g7 you kind of have agrab bag of like just kind of wild, noisy experimental quote-unquote pop and then you know occasionally they're gonna throw in like those capital s songs to kind of anchor out you knowand kind of uh totally give it give it a little bit more substance so i think you know if if you were to be looking for the song uh to play for someone off of you know westing by musket andsextant outside of summer babe i mean that And even that, I can't really say that, because, like, Baptist Black Tick.[26:59] Box Elder. Box Elder. I mean, and so I feel like Debris Light kind of takes, like, the song, the songiness.It's not the song, Box Elder, but it's the songiness, the kind of verse, chorus, verse, chorus. Yeah.Distilled. and then it marries it with like all of the wild zany scuzzy distortion and it's got like that frantic energy which you know i'm sure you and and anybody listening to pavementrealizes but it was definitely eye-opening to me when i started first like playing records out like pavement doesn't have a whole lot of amps up tunes, you know, like, like they have, youknow, unfair and they have, uh, you know, flux equals rad.And there's, I mean, there's a host of other songs that like have a, have a, I mean, embassy row.Right. But like for the most part, pavements wheelhouse is, um, you know, just.[28:15] Uh a song that opens up and is uh is just kind of giving you this walking tour of uh milk missus uh thesaurus and dictionary and guitar traps um so like so this song is really it's kindof a weird one because i mean i feel like you know normally you're getting just these these really weird, you know, similes and metaphors and, and weird word placements.And this one is kind of like, he's just playing with like homonyms, you know, he's like, and I mean, it's great. It's, uh.[29:00] Without wanting to make a completely wrong, um, hot take, you know, it's kind of like, uh, i don't know like just just like a you know punky yeah you know kind of tossed off itdefinitely i mean that that's that's one of the attributes that's so fantastic about all these early songs is just how uh like easy it sounds to them like they're just inventing magic if you if youwere were to listen to just the music without the melody and lyrics it would sound like a pretty hardcore song you know i was gonna say like black flag and you know i just like got intoblack flag in the last year or so um and and so and i know that that that was an influence i mean uh.[29:57] It really it's it's kind of unusual for for pavement but at the same time you can see why you know it it became a perennial favorite for like setlist and also i mean i feel like it thissong maybe in particular informs so much of slanted you know i mean yeah well it's so melodic like it's got a great melody it's got the bop bop bops you know make you nod your headand throw you back to a different time uh like a music making and yet they do it so it's almost flippant like it's really it's really pretty cool that they're yeah you know almost thumbingtheir nose at this traditional pop but they're performing it at the same time yeah really really fucking cool yeah and then you know uh i was gonna mention it earlier um just the uh.[30:54] The ba-ba-ba-da-ba's kind of are referenced again all those years later by Scott with For Sale, the Preston School of Industry. I mean, I don't know.[31:09] That just came to me just before we were getting on.I was like, I don't know in the back of my head if there are any other pavement songs with ba-ba-ba-da-ba going on in them.Um well there's a lot that like have something that rings similar to that right like you think cut your hair you think um uh painted soldiers um okay just off the top of my head uh yeah youknow thinking about it quickly but there yeah there it is almost a pavement hallmark this you know this melodic sort of la la la kind of thing yeah you know um yeah obviously not likelike rock solid blueprint because there is no blueprint for this stuff.They, you know, they just, when you think, you know, the answer, they change the questions, you know? So where, so what are you thinking?This song comes in at number 37. Is it properly rated?Is it overrated? Is it underrated?Where, where should it have appeared in your mind?No, it's hard because I think, you know, I, I've participated in any number of threads, you know, your top 10, your top 20.[32:29] What are your favorite Pavement songs? And I mean, I feel like because this band means so much to me, I kind of tend to dig a little bit deeper.I mean, like, from the perfect sound forever, I mean, Angel Carver Blues, Melodjazz Duck, that would probably be my pick from here, or even Heckler Spray.But, you know, just because I love all these songs doesn't mean Cut Your Hair isn't amazing, right?Right, exactly, yeah. I would say, you know...I think this song is pretty well-rated.[33:21] I mean, again, with a band this expansive and with such awesome tunes, I mean, they're going to take you some places.So, like, I don't really feel like any top 20 or 50 is going to look, I mean, you know, I've got, like I said to you earlier, like the porpoise and the hand grenade rooftop.I mean, those that go in my top 10, and I don't think that would really, I mean, I really, I just love it. You're a big haul guy.[34:05] Uh but i mean i i i love debris slide so i i would say it's perfectly rated oh well i love it that's great well pierce it's been wonderful talking to you this afternoon yeah thanks forputting up with my uh oh shit this it's always great talking to people yeah after doing this for three years just with myself i'm like kicking myself why didn't i have people on earlier earlierit makes it so much easier no this is this is so cool and uh super you're super easy to talk to um i and and so i i really relish the opportunity i'll jump at the chance of talking about aboutthis music as often as i can uh i don't know if you you want me to uh set up my uh my, my pitch here, uh, throw it, throw in a little, so I've got, uh, a website that I started, um, um.[35:06] Just last year, and it's kind of based off of a cartoon that I drew like maybe 15 years ago.But it's like a mixtape slash comics website.It's kind of like loosely based around paranormal peanuts, kind of gumshoe ghost.And he, uh, he researches capers and it's a lot of nonsense, uh, uh, non sequiturs.And then a lot of mixes that, you know, feature pavement and the fall and Sunra and, um, all, all, all manner of things.So that the name of the website is ghostropolis.com.Ghostropolis.com. Yep. Yep, g-h-o-s-t-r-o-t-o-l-i-s.com. And it's Ghostropolis Radio.You can also do GhostropolisRadio.com.So if you put Ghostropolis in the Google machine, you'll likely get where you need to go. I think so.From the fertile mind of Pierce from Detroit, Ghostopolis.com.[36:22] Ghostropolis. Ghostropolis. Oh, shit, I just fucked it up already.Oh, you're good. no hey i appreciate it man all right buddy i appreciate you thanks so much for doing this all right thanks for having me all right wash your goddamn hands.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/meeting-malkmus-a-pavement-podcast/exclusive-contentAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

jD is back and he's with Dan from Rochester to discuss track 39!Transcript:[0:00] Hey, it's JD here, and I just wanted to throw something down, somewhat of a challenge to all you musically inclined folks out there.We are going to be doing a pod list again this year, and a pod list is simply a podcast playlist.It's a pod list. The previous four pod lists have consisted of talented members of our Pavement community submitting songs that they have covered from the Pavement Ouvra.Pavement adjacent songs are also welcome. So you could do PSOI, you could do Jicks, you could do Malcolm is Solo.Anything is fair game, truly. So get your band together or grab an acoustic guitar and just play your fucking guts out.From there, submit the song to me by email and we'll go from there.So please submit those songs, jd at meetingmalkmus.com, or even better, use wetransfer.com if it's a big WAV file. And WAV files are what I prefer.That will work out just magnificently. That's what she said.Podlist 5 coming July 8th, so get those songs in and be a part of something special. Thanks so much.Now, on with the show. Previously on the.Track 2:[1:26] Pavement Top 50 So Cam from Toronto What do you think Of Starlings of the Slipstream This is a great little song I love I love this song just as a stand alone item I love this songGoing right into the song Finn To wrap up that album But those might actually be My two favorite songs Right in the corners What a great one to punch to close things out Finn isprobably actually my favorite song on that album.Track 4:[2:05] Hey, it's JD here, back for another episode of our Top 50 Countdown for Seminole Indie Rock Band, Pavement.Week over week, we're going to count down the 50 essential Pavement tracks that you selected with your very own Top 20 Ballads.I then tabulated the results using an abacus and six boxes of M&Ms.How will your favorite song fare in this ranking? Well, you'll need to tune in to find out. So there's that.[2:31] This week, we're joined by Pavement superfan, Dan from Rochester.[2:35] I can see you right across the lake dan hey toronto oh do you remember when there was the ferry for a couple years i heard tales of that yeah yeah people were more interested ingoing to toronto from rochester and i don't think the torontans were very interested in coming here unfortunately i thought it was a cool i thought that's that's what i heard yeah yeah iwould have uh i would love if that was still a thing because uh driving to toronto you have to go all around the lake so yeah exactly it's the shortcut you know it was it was totally perfect inever used it but it was totally yeah yeah so let's talk let's talk about pavement yes let's this is this is why we're all here why we're all gathered around the fire to listen to rochester regale uswith his pavement origin story yeah so take us set the scene yeah set the scene so the scene was the the mid-90s and uh you know i was in high school and uh getting into into music anduh basically you know the internet was new um you couldn't really download songs you know if i needed if i had to if i wanted to hear a song i had to buy the cd so it was kind of uh youknow i had limited funds and limited accessibility to get to a cd store you know we had the one um one place it It was called Media Play.It was like a chain that sold CDs, you know, so it's kind of like a Best Buy or whatever.[4:02] Okay. So, you know, that was, you know, that was what I had to do.So I would sometimes take a chance on bands or CDs that I'd heard about.[4:12] And I had gotten really into R.E.M.And they were like my favorite band during that time. And so I heard about this band called Pavement that had a song about R.E.M., which I thought was so cool.[4:27] So I ended up getting that CD, the No Alternative compilation.I remember that one. Yeah, and it had Nirvana on it, and it had Smashing Pumpkins and a bunch of big bands from that time, and it had Pavement.And so yeah, I got that. So that was the first Pavement song I heard. Yeah.[4:47] And, you know, it was cool. I just loved the novelty because of, you know, a band singing about another band. I just thought it was funny, you know.Sort of meta in a way now. out yeah yeah it was so cool and that really put them on my on the map for me because i was like i was seeking out all the rem stuff all the b-sides you knowand i had a book and stuff so yeah just hearing about that i was like i have to hear that so you know and it was cool you know i loved the song i was starting to move kind of from that likealt rock um kind of scene to getting getting into the more indie stuff and, uh, whatever it was about, uh, pavement, what I had read about, you know, really piqued my interest.And then hearing that song, you know, and it wasn't, I would say like, it's not my favorite pavement song, but like, you know, it's, it's cool.It was fun. I liked it probably now. Yeah. Oh yeah, totally. Yeah. Yeah.So, um, and then, uh, and then this was probably in, I I'm guessing just cause of the release date.Yeah. 99. So So probably like months before Pavement broke up, I was doing this.[5:57] And I went to the media play and I bought one of the cheaper CDs that I could find, which I have right here, which is the Spit on a Stranger single EP. Nice.Because it was cost effective, you know? It had five songs and it was pretty cheap.So I don't remember what else they had available at the time, but I took a shot on this and I took it home.I listened to Spit on a Stranger. I loved it.[6:22] I skipped to the porpoise and the hand grenade because I liked the title and you know that song I thought it was good didn't blow me away I don't think but then I went back to tracktwo harness your hopes and that was that was really the one that that cemented it for me that song really yeah which is is awesome because as we know it's a big Spotify hit now in thestreaming era.[6:44] And uh it was back in in 99 that was the hit for me and my friends too we we all really love that that song so uh so that was the one that did it for me and then i started uh startedcollecting them all so and here we are i guess you got into it too right at the right at the point where they started to do the reissues so you were yeah able to get those yeah it was greattiming because yeah that's a good point even though like the band had broken up by that point you know a few years later i was in college and uh for the first time in my life hanging outwith people who also knew who pavement were and the slanted reissue was coming out and it was like a big deal and everyone you know some people were new to pavement so i got tobe like oh you got to hear this you know and so yeah we were it was good times for sure it's it's always cool when you get to be somebody's sherpa you know yeah right that's exactly justguiding them through this you know this mountainous uh region of songs that they don't know exactly yeah yeah and um you know i I had a, I had a radio show at school, so it was fun,uh, digging up all the, all the weird stuff to play and, uh, everyone hanging out.What was your playlist like on, on the radio?Um, you know, uh, let's see, Guided by Voices, of course, big one.[8:09] Um, I, I was into bands like, uh, there's this band, Idlewild, who had just released a record that I thought was really cool.Okay. You know, just all the class, you know, Matador stuff, Yola Tango, of course.Yeah. And, you know, I would get into some weirder stuff, too.Like, you know, I'd play the shags or like, you know, Captain Beepart or, you know, eclectic stuff.Pretty classic. Oh, that must have been fun. Freeform, like college radio.Yeah. Yeah. It was super fun.All my friends were music nerds, you know, so it was just it was a big party every week week hanging out on people's shows and just coming up with cool creative weird uh musicalthings to do so and you know pavement was like the the guiding light you know it was like the the band that united everyone.[8:58] That's so cool because that's i didn't get that experience at all i still you know that was one of the reasons i started the show initially was just i didn't get people to i didn't have peoplein my life to really talk about pavement with so yeah i was like i'll talk about i'll stand on my soapbox and talk into the ether sometimes yeah sometimes it's rare you know to to get tointeract with yeah people like like that you know i met lots of cool people doing it like including it It seems like you have.Yeah. Yeah, man.So if you had to rank the records, you came to Terror Twilight.That would have been your first record that was released in your fandom.Right, right. Where does it rank for you? You know, I always say to myself, like, they're all pretty much more or less equal, equal ranked.I mean, they're all like five star records to me. Agreed. Um, I went through a phase where, um, brighten the corners was my favorite.That was definitely my favorite. And I would say it's not anymore.[10:03] Um, I, I don't know if terror twilight has spent too much time on the top, like the, you know, the, yeah, the personal top slot, but, uh.[10:11] It, it, it deserves, it deserves a spot.You know, I've, um, I've talked to, you know, I have friends who consider that their pavement pavement record and i always say i respect that because some people some people uh viewthat one as maybe like slightly less for some reason and i don't i don't get that at all yeah i don't get that at all and uh yeah i mean we we need terror twilight you know it's just uh the factthat pavement made that record with uh nigel godrich and had that kind of cool uh shiny production production um yeah i mean that's that's so crazy to go from slanted to the back rightand then you have everything in between so it's just yeah it's all it's all good it's all great yeah yeah terror twilight spent some time at the top for me yeah um not not that much but uhbreak the corners is currently my favorite oh nice yeah yeah uh beside watery like i mean i think watery deserves a spot.[11:08] On the mantle all to itself like that's kind of like a very perfect release you know it's like isn't it yeah it's so crazy how good that fucking thing is yeah and then even the even the thesession tracks that didn't make it to the sumi jack greenland greenlander so right like they're all stone cold classics it's bonkers it is it's absolutely bonkers yeah and having those allcollected on on that reissue was just it's so great um i would always listen to those peel session things you know yeah like kentucky cocktail and all that and.[11:48] Back when they were just bootlegs you know just like a tape someone made off the radio so it's it's really nice that um they released proper you know nice sounding quality versionsof those because because westing is on final now right yeah yep yeah i don't have it but uh i i should probably get it because i've got the eps but i've got them built into my wall is likeartwork work you know oh yeah uh like um here i'll show you how cool yeah i have never i've never encountered uh one of those in the flesh um one of those actual eps you know so that'spretty cool yeah it's fun i'll turn on my light for some somehow there we go i'm an old man when it comes to this technology jesus yes right you're doing great i used to do so well i used toknow know at all internet wise and shit but now it's uh well enough about me it happens is there anything else you want to tell us about your pavement origin story should we uh take abreak and you know that pretty much covers it i got you know this again it was early internet so i was i was rocking like the uh the pavement message board back in the day there was alittle community yeah um and uh it it was it was cool it was good times you know i i met some people there that But later on, I actually got to meet in person.And for a few years, that was a pretty cool scene.[13:13] I remember the message board got bought out by another band somehow.I don't even know how that was possible. What? Yeah.So one day, you show up to the message board URL.It was like ProBoards or something where it was like, anyone can start a message board. but I think some other band somehow had the clout or the money or whatever to buy the URL.And, uh, it's like, yeah.Oh man.[13:44] How about shows have you seen any shows oh i knew this was going to come up i have never seen pavement oh that's that's fine i i have seen mulchmas um but yeah you know imissed them uh in the 90s just a little too young coming in late i missed them in the 2010s i don't know really what i was up to but i was kind of um just not in the right area like i mean ilive in rochester i i always have to drive and sometimes i'm just not not up for it and then the newest one i was i was kind of eyeing uh toronto but yeah i didn't make it so oh man i knowbut i've listened to so many live pavement uh bootlegs and shows and stuff uh but yeah my first time seeing mulchmas was on piglib tour oh right you know this is back in college erathat's really when i started going to shows a lot so yeah we went and saw him at the knitting knitting factory i think it was in new york yeah yeah and i saw him open for radiohead i sawhim open for radiohead too in montreal yeah oh sweet yeah yeah mine was uh where was it i think i want to say uh like baltimore area oh cool dc yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah well if you getthe chance i mean it seems like Like, they're on the clock.[15:06] You know? Like, I don't know that we're going to get many more.Yeah, I really should. I know it's, you know, I know it'll be amazing.Next time you get the opportunity, right? You have to pull the ripcord.Yeah, I need to. That'll be so cathartic.Well, let's take a quick break here, and we'll come back, and we'll talk about track number 39.Okay Alright Hey this is Bob Nastanovich from Pavement Thanks for listening and now on With a countdown 39.[19:08] Okay, we are back, and that was, of course, Pueblo, the 16th track on Wowie's Alley. It sits between Kennel District and Half a Canyon in a nice little sandwich there toward theback end of the record.This is the fourth Wowie's Alley song on the countdown after Best Friend's Arm at 49.Motion suggests itself at 48, and We Dance at 46.So this is so far the highest ranking Wowie's Alley track at 39.And uh what do you have to say Dan from Rochester about Pueblo?Oh man so um first of all when I I listened to this a lot this week and there's three versions so.[19:46] I did some some deep diving into comparing the different like studio versions that are out there but the first thing that surprised me was the length is relatively short it's slightly lessthan three and a half minutes And to me, that song always felt like very epic to me, maybe just because it's sandwiched toward the end of like, you know, the end of a long, epic record.It's right by like half a canyon and it kind of it vibes with that song.But I would have if you had asked me before how long it was, I would have said like five minutes or something just because it's it has a very languid pace in it.It kind of just sprawls all over the place of language. Thank you. Yes.[20:30] Yeah. So, you know, it felt bigger, I guess, longer than it really is.But, you know, it does what it does in a relatively short time. So that's cool.That really led me on the path to kind of figuring out like, hey, what's going on with the song structure, you know? And it's a simple song, but it has a kind of like spacey jam in the center.Sure does.And that's like, to steal your word, epic. Those guitar swells?Swells yeah you know they make this song so epic and then that blistering blistering is the wrong word because it's not blistering it's it's it's not languid anymore but yeah it's it's crushingit's heavy fucking great so yeah right yeah oh yeah you know um yeah so i i love that that's good mix of, you know, that's the wowie zowie like archetypal sound.It's like the noise, the, the beauty, the catharsis, the kind of surreal, you know, you don't even know really what the song's about until I listened to your earlier episode, which was geez,like three years ago when you first talked about the song on your show and you were, you told a story about how it was about like a hanging thing.[21:48] And remember this at all. Yeah. So I think it was something Malkmus said.It was like, uh, like a story about some, a guy, like a mayor of some Southern California town.And, you know, there was a, there was a guy getting, getting hung or hanged, I guess it is. And, uh, like a love interest.And he, I guess Malkmus had some, you know, story behind it, which I thought was interesting.Which is rare for him really yeah it yeah it it kind of reminds me of a song like pink india you know which he would write much later it's kind of that story song kind of vibe and the songshave similar vibes too in the sense that they're kind of slow and have this guitar part that's kind of lyrical you know and so it it lends itself to telling like some sort of narrative um but alsoSo, like, at that point, Malkmus wasn't really writing narratives that you could, like, parse just by, you know, they might not have defined words or anything.You know, he kind of has, he had a way of just singing stuff and it would be evocative without really, you know, without you being able to tell what he was really trying to communicate.[23:03] So, you know, that's Malkmus' like big talent, I think, or one of them.I do too. like just mashing phrases together that just work rhythmically and from a cadence perspective yeah but they're so obtuse you know yeah yeah um this song i love the dynamicslike i i love that like how it does go from those guitar swells to that again i'm going to use your word again that those you know the the i i called it chill guitar to start and then you go intothe main verse verse with with very slowed down lyrics it takes him almost you know 30 seconds to get the first two lines out you know before you before you get into the thick of thingsquestion for you yes you as soon as you listen to the episode and i did not uh and i have a very poor short-term memory yeah it's very funny i was with some friends yesterday and wewere talking about work uh from 15 years ago and i was naming people's first and last names that you know know we haven't seen in 15 years yeah very good long term but short term boydoes it suck it's uh.[24:10] It's uh i have a difficult time making new memories so yeah it's uh it's a shitty thing but my question here is um who is jacob right right so uh i was pondering this because of coursea few songs earlier on the album he's talking about jacob javits so i'm like you know know that's like a new york city landmark or something like that or that's right yeah um so i was likewell is that connected i don't think so um i mean pueblo so it's on the i mean, Maybe in some subliminal way, but I don't think it's supposed to be the same guy.You've also got this Spanos County, I think that he says.Right. And in the thing you quoted on the other episode, he referred to Spanos as like a person.Like it was a, you know, like this mayor of this town. Oh, okay.Yeah. So, yeah, I really don't know. No, but I think, you know, Jacob, I guess, is the protagonist of the song who's getting ceremonially or unceremoniously murdered.I, you know, I think. But again, in the context, you're not really sure.Is he like pleading? He's saying, you know, Jacob, you move, you don't move.Like, so. It sounds like, doesn't it? Like, if you move, you don't move.Yeah, right. Yeah. Yeah.[25:36] And Jacob is also mentioned in the Pueblo Domain version of the song, which is the Peel version of the song.Okay. I was comparing these two.So, you know, that one was recorded.[25:55] Uh in february 94 like a few days before crooked rain came out so you know this song we know has been kicking around for a while uh before it was eventually released and it kindof went through some some changes so the peel session version is it's he's saying like jacob you glow you you know you won't go and um but the the lyrics in there are so very abstracteven you know more so than the album version uh really yeah and it's hard to the the song the the early version is really different too it's it's longer the chorus repeats more times the umand you know there's kind of like more more to the meat of the song and less jam oh okay version yeah so i i always i always thought that version the peel version was was like thesuperior one um but i i never really realized how different they are like they really are um so i kind of i'll send you if you want or i don't know if i can do a screen share here but istructured them out it's probably not too interesting for a podcast but you know i i wrote down like you know verse one chorus one you know and mapped out the two different songs tocompare and they're pretty different they're pretty different yeah the um the wowie zowie version basically does verse chorus chorus, jam, verse, chorus, and then outro.[27:20] And then the Pueblo Domain actually repeats each of the choruses twice. It's twice as long.And then it does verse, two choruses, verse, two choruses, then a little jam, and then it ends on an instrumental version of the chorus.And it's a little louder and more boisterous and energetic. energetic so i uh.[27:48] It's on the Sordid Sentinels. It's on the Crooked Reign. It's on the Crooked Reign? Yeah, so check that one out for sure.Especially, yeah, and just anyone, if you haven't heard that, it's worth checking out the Peel session at the end.Tucked way at the end of that Crooked Reign reissue.They do also Brink of the Clouds, which ended up as a Wauwizawi B-side.[28:14] But it has a section at the end, like the kind of rocket and uh part of the song that's not on the studio version and yeah it's good you know it's cool i just you know pavement doinglike the unreleased songs on the radio sessions was just such a so cool and it's so cool it really lent to their mythos you know the yeah the mythology of the band like what you know theyhave all these songs like where where's all this stuff coming from why why does Malkmus just essentially just throw these gems away kind of thing?So, you know, which goes back to Hold on Hope and all that stuff.You know, he's just, he was so productive around this time, you know, and if you look at those reissues, you know, all the B-sides, all the stray tracks, it's just, it's amazing.[29:03] Yeah. Oh, like from 89 to 93, they were so prolific, right? right? Yeah.And there's so many songs on that Crooked Rain reissue that ended up on Wowie Zowie.So it's almost like right after Slandered and Enchanted was a huge burst of songs that ended up going out into the next two or three albums.Yeah. That's far out. Yeah.So what do you think about where this song is rated?Are you a fan of this song? I am a big fan of the song, but I think it's probably properly rated.It feels right. It feels like a song where...[29:48] Like i do really like it but i think it works best in the context of the album or at least it really shines as as a kind of almost penultimate track on wowie zowie you know it it's almostlike the climax of that album um like the emotional climax along with half a canyon you know just like i can see that yeah you know um and i also i i don't know for sure but i kind offigured that like a lot of pavement fans might not know like it by the title or something because it's not you don't really hear the title in the song no i don't think he sings it in the song hedoes on the peel version oh he does in the first line yeah i didn't realize it for a while but i was just listening and he said something about pueblo right right in like the first line but uh butyou know regardless like it seems like a song that's a deep cut but also well worthy to be a fan favorite you know because it it it's very pavementy it's almost like you couldn't really getmore.[30:50] In a certain like pavement mode of this kind of like it's almost a little countryish but it's just noisy and crunchy it's a little jammy and spacey it's just it's pure pavement yeah i thinkit would fit on watery like i i think you know i think it could like it yeah it's that good you Yeah, oh yeah.And if you hear the other version of the song on Crooked Rain, not the Peel version, but the, they call it the Beach Boys version.Right, yes, yeah. And all that is, is an instrumental. It's that pretty guitar intro and verse melody and everything.And Malkma's doing some just kind of wordless harmonies.[31:34] But just listening to that version, the way the guitar sounds is less twangy and is more sounds like, you know, In the Mouth of Desert or that kind of slanted style.Okay. And you can kind of hear how it fits into that kind of zone and how it kind of changed and fits into the wowie zowie zone where the guitar is more like a little slidey or a little liketwangy.It's really clean, right? Yeah. Like there's no distortion coming through it.Yeah. It's very clean sounding.Yeah. I would guess that, you know, the sound of the song kind of influenced the lyrical direction a little bit.It feels just like a, it feels a little country-ish, a little like desert-y or something.Yeah. There's a lot of that on Wowie Sowie, isn't there? Yeah.But yeah, and to me, that sounds like, I would connect that to sounds from the watery era too.Too, like even like Greenlander is kind of this almost like kind of stark and almost like these desolate songs he was doing around this time, like Rain Ammunition's another other one.Right.I don't know if you talk. Did you talk about like Rain Ammunition on the year first?Didn't get to it. You didn't do like the B-side stuff.Well, the initial thing was to use the bonus feed as B-sides.I think I got through 35 of them.Yeah. there's like 40 episodes on the bonus feed. Now there's the bottom 100 or the bottom 50 of this top 100 as well.[33:02] So I think, well, I can't give it away. I can't tell you that.Don't give anything away.Rain ammunition is on that bottom 50 or not.You know, I don't know. I'm just, I love all those stray songs around this era.So yeah, you know, there's a very defined vibe.Also kind of similar to like the early Silver Juice stuff that Malkmus was on I think you could connect stylistically that kind of like.[33:33] Deserty uh watery domestic slanted vibe and see how it kind of morphed into like the more country, tinged uh wowie zowie thing yeah and that's around the same time that davidwas doing starting to get a bit more twangy as well yeah yeah and i know i talked to bob recently and he you know he talked about how david pushed steve a little bit um well not a littlebit probably a lot lot right like lyrically like there was a lot of competition between those guys you have to think they pushed each other yeah yeah to like i mean how cool is it that thesetwo like amazingly talented guys got to meet and work together in their lives you know it's fucking insane this is really converged yeah and i i get the impression that you know mulchmiss everything kind of came easy to him and i think berman was someone who had to really push himself a little little more, like, you know, maybe like a little more dedication to craft orwhatever.I think he would look at Malkmus as like, you know, what, you know, like, how does he do it kind of guy, you know, just had to kind of like, you know, they had to like one up each othera little bit, you know, like a friendly, competitive kind of thing, you know?Well, I think Bob says, you know, he feels fortunate. I think I've heard him say that he feels fortunate to have worked with one of the best songwriters to ever live and one of the bestlyricists.Yeah, totally. It's so, so cool.[34:58] Yeah, Bob's had a great, lucky, you know, it's awesome for him to be able to work with those guys, I'm sure.Yeah. I can't even imagine. Nope, me neither. Yeah.So, that's what I've got for you this week. Is there anything else that you want to tie up?Is there anything that people can plug or anything that you can plug for people to look up?Sure, yeah, actually. That you're doing? doing uh i uh i'm in a band called rectangle creep and rectangle creep yeah we're pretty um pretty guided by voices influenced and there'spavement and we have 10 000 songs we have we do we have a lot of albums and stuff but if anyone you do have albums oh yeah like you know check check the band camp check theband camp and i do some i have a lot of different projects so So maybe I'll just mention that one, but it's a whole universe of bands and stuff like that. But yeah, it's fun. That's great.[36:00] You know, music is awesome. So go to Bandcamp and search for Rectangle Creep.Yeah, Rectangle Creep. And yeah.[36:08] Cool. Well, it's been great talking to you, man. Yeah, definitely.Thanks for letting me be a part of this project. It's really cool what you do.Yeah, well, thank you very much. Of course. We'll be back next... Oh, sorry to interrupt.I was just going to say how much I really love your interviews with Spiral.And it's really cool how generous he's been with talking to you.And all the other guys too but I mean I love how accessible he is and it's so cool learning about that stuff so I'm looking forward to you know whatever new pavement stuff comes out ifyou know whatever news and projects you know I appreciate that you help bring this stuff to light I'll fly the flag forever man do it yeah well, great talking to you again Dan yep thanks alot wash your god damn Sam Hance.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/meeting-malkmus-a-pavement-podcast/exclusive-contentAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

This week jD is joined by Pavement super-fan Josh in Pittsburgh to discuss his Pavement origin story and dissect song number 43 on the countdown.Transcript:Track 1:[0:00] Previously on the Pavement Top 50.Track 2:[0:02] Okay, so the number 44 track, you've just heard it.It's Embassy Row, the second song from Bright in the Corners after Blue Hawaiian at number 50 on the countdown.Scott, what do you think of Embassy Row at number 44?Embassy Row, I do love. The things I like about it is it kind of lulls you in with this.I feel Marcus kind of does quite a lot with his lyrics and his melodies.They're kind of like nursery rhymes, the way they flow. floor and the structure of the set is quite kind of nice.Track 3:[0:34] Hey this is Westy from the Rock and Roll Band Pavement and you're listening to The Countdown.Hey it's JD here back for another episode of our Top 50 Countdown for Seminole Indie Rock Band Pavement.Track 6:[0:50] Week over week we're going to count down the 50 essential pavement tracks that you selected with your very own top 20 ballots.I then tabulated the results using an abacus and strangely a change counter.And all that's left for us to reveal is this week's track.How will your favorite song fare in the ranking? You'll need to tune in or whatever the podcast equivalent of tuning in is every week to find out. So there's that.This week we're joined by Pavement superfan Josh in Pittsburgh.Josh, how are you doing, motherfucker?I'm pretty good, JD. How are you doing? i'm great thanks for asking so uh what's the weather like in pittsburgh right now cold it's been below freezing it's been snowy and icy it's a bit of areprieve today is it's only going to be about 32 but then we're supposed to get another like two to four inches in and around the city here in the next couple days oh my gosh we've beenvery fortunate here in toronto it's cold cold as hell but no snow so far like really there's been a couple inches but it's like like not staying on the ground.Track 3:[1:56] Yeah.Track 6:[1:56] It's just not as much snow as it feels like we had when we were kids. No, definitely not.It feels like there was like walls of snow when I've traveled my sidewalk. Yeah.That might be my height. I don't know.So let's not beat around the bush here. Let's talk about pavement.Let's hear your pavement origin story.Well, it starts with Malcolm's self-titled In Earnest. I'll work back a little bit.Track 1:[2:30] Sure.Track 6:[2:32] Well, I'm 46. I'm a full-blown child of the 90s.I think i was 13 to 23 in that decade so super formative years yeah um hugely into beastie boys and nirvana and primus all things less claypool all that and um definitely was hearingpavement probably beavis and butthead was maybe my first exposure uh you know cut your hair and i think i remember in college we're like maybe around 98 99 i went down to the localrecord store in burlington vermont and i got um some tapes because i i had unearthed an old walkman and i got like slick rick the artist storytelling and something else and i got crookedrain crooked rain on tape i was like you know i need to i need to get back into this pavement thing a little more and see what's going on and gold sounds became quite an anthem for mei'm um i was a huge fish I'm a big Phish fan, the band Phish.And I was in Pittsburgh, of course, because I live here, when they played here one summer, and they covered Gold Sounds by Pavement. They did?And I was just like, you know, worlds colliding in the perfect way.Yeah, Phish has covered quite a few indie bands. Trey's got a big indie thing.Malcolmus was at a Phish show recently with Jake.Track 1:[3:53] Oh.Track 6:[3:54] Wow. Up in Seattle. I know the Jicks drummer. He took him, he's a big Dead and Fish fan, and he took Malcolm to do a show, I think.[4:02] So, um, you know, they were definitely on the radar, but they weren't like penultimate for me yet. And then, um, I moved out to California after college.It was 2000 and, uh, I was feeling pretty distant from everything back home on the East coast where I'd lived and grown up.There was some family stuff going on. I started to feel isolated.I don't think nine 11 had happened yet, yet but it was just that that whole time in life and um i was feeling kind of just depressed and detached a little bit and then i saw um malchmus onletterman doing uh jenny and the s dog oh shit and i was like oh my god this is so good i was like that's not pavement what's he doing, and he's you know letterman's like he's got a newalbum out and it's great go check it out and i I think I went to Tower Records on Sports Arena Boulevard in San Diego the very next day and got the album.And it really helped me quite a lot because here I am, this total slacker out in California, no clue what I'm doing.[5:12] My network's not around me anymore. And I'm like, look at this This guy, Malkmus, you know, the slacker gentleman of our generation here is out here still doing his thing and hesounds great and he looks great.He's like, you know, I can just, I can keep being me.I can find my way back. I don't have to like, uh.[5:34] Make some grand sweeping change in life i can just you know be the aging slacker as well and you know from there i wore that album out self-titled i wore it out me too dug backinto the the pavement catalog full bore uh what was the second jicks album um uh pig lip pig lip wore it out in fact the pig lib with the japanese bonus tracks might be might be it's rightthere at the top of my uh the entire malcolm's pavement catalog that pig lib with japanese bonus tracks maybe my number one go-to yeah but yeah i mean he just he speaks to me i get it ilove it like i said he's the uh he's sort of our gentleman slacker representation for our generation i feel like totally he's the crown prince of indie rock yeah right right for sure or what didcourtney call him courtney called him the clown prince yeah courtney love called him the clown prince of indie rock i think which is fine i mean if anybody's a clown with their makeupand her antics so did you get a chance to see them on the 2010 like i'm guessing you didn't see them earlier on did you see them on the 2010 i never saw pavement until this reunion tour ihad to go to new york city with a buddy in 2010 2010, and he was an acquaintance. He was the only other Pavement fan I knew.[7:03] He was just another guy I would see at my local bar hang all the time.You were still in California at the time?[7:08] I was back in Pittsburgh by now. I was back in Pittsburgh by 06.[7:12] I was like, dude, Pavement, I'm just going to be in New York.Let's go. He's like, yeah, I'll go.But we just weren't close enough friends to formulate the plan and see it through.I should have just gone on my own or something. But no, I didn't see that 2010 tour.Where did you see them in 2022 then? I saw them in Detroit.No, they didn't play in Pittsburgh. Pavement didn't play in Pittsburgh.I saw Pavement in Detroit and then in D.C.Oh, cool. Where did they play in D.C.?Um some old theater i can't remember the name of it right now because it was a great show it was one of the uh you know his whole um uva crew his whole virginia contingent was thereoh wow so i think he really you know laid it on a little bit and you could feel something a little special i I think there was a couple of the more rare songs from the tour, if I remember,from that, database that somebody put together of all the songs that they played.Track 1:[8:15] Yeah.Track 6:[8:15] That was pretty slick. I drove out there myself. I went to Detroit with my wife. I went to DC solo.Oh, yeah. I was right in the front row. Got one of these from Bob.Track 3:[8:26] Oh.Track 6:[8:26] Shit. He's holding up a ping pong ball right now. Oh, yeah. Yeah, one of the autographed ping pong balls.Yeah, I bought a ticket myself for the second row.And serendipitously there was nobody in the seat right in front of me in the front row so you were in the front row as soon as they walked out i hopped over my seat i was right in the frontrow right in front of uh mark and rocking out burying my head in the speakers just eating it up oh that's great and i kind of hung around afterwards just kind of coming down before i gotin my car i drove all the way back to pittsburgh myself after dc how big a drive is that four hours, but so i was hanging around just kind of coming down a little bit and um, There's thisdownstairs lounge. I went and got some water, went to the bathroom and they cleared everybody out of this lounge real suddenly.And I go upstairs and you see this whole crew of people with pavement intermingled.And I was like, oh, that's his, that's his like friends and family, Virginia crew right there or something.Very neat. Yeah. You didn't, you didn't elbow your way in.I was like, I wonder if I could just sneak into that line and get back down in the lounge.And they'd be like, wait, who are you? I was like, I'm about the right age.I could probably just mix right in. They'd be like, which one are you again?Track 1:[9:42] Yeah.Track 6:[9:43] Oh, I was a major in history. Yeah, Josh from Lit, remember?What's your record? Which is the record that you go to the most often? For Pavement? Yeah.Track 1:[9:59] Yeah um you know i've got these playlists on my apple music that is just one's malt miss and it's everything he's ever done one's like malk only one's pavement only so most of thetime i just hit shuffle and let it go i'm one of those the same thing, unapologetic fans that i can't like everybody's like what's your least favorite album like what What are you talkingabout?Track 6:[10:23] Yeah. But, you know, it changes. Wowie Zowie's always near the top.Crooked Rain's always near the top. But it's really hard to say my go-to.Yeah. It's a Sophie's Choice for sure. Yeah.Track 1:[10:39] Yeah.Track 6:[10:39] I feel like they're 1 and 1A at the very least.For me, it's Bright in the Corner and Watery Domestic. Oh, well, the Watery Domestic EP is hands down.Track 5:[10:53] The best collection of songs that they you know right a little four song ep that's i mean if if we're counting that then that's the go-to that's my number one pavement recording from1990 to 92 they were so prolific yeah and so much of it was great and then they follow that up with crooked rain and it's like just what an embarrassment of wealth i know slanted and theyjust they came out swinging yeah absolutely so should we flip the script today and talk about our featured song of the week which is track number 43 let's do it let's do it okay so we'll takea quick break and we'll talk to you on the other side sounds good hey this is bob mustanovich from pavement thanks for listening and now on with a countdown 43.Track 6:[15:10] All right, that was the fifth track from Bright in the Corners, Old to Begin.It's our third song from Bright in the Corners on the countdown so far.Of course, number 50 was Blue Hawaiian.And just last week, we listened to Embassy Row at number 44.So here we are with Old to Begin, Josh in Pittsburgh.What do you think of this as track number 43?I love it. i love it it was in my uh top 20 oh wow okay yeah i was kind of sitting at my uh desk at work thinking about where i rank these songs and set you back set you back set you backjust kept ringing in my head it's not a you know it's probably lower down in my 20 but it's in my 20 for sure it's um it's great it's got kind of all of those pavement elements to it it does thesort of loud quiet loud thing really.[16:14] Well um i'm a bit of a gearhead i think you can hear probably i want to say the crowther hot cake was one of their go-to overdrive pedals but there was um um something else ithink it's called the j drive which is another drive pedal that malchus had used in pavement era early jicks maybe um you can really hear the guitars crunching yeah um and then that last30 seconds.[16:43] I you know that's that classic while we buy the ticket and take the ride kind of pavement stuff where they just devolve into that you know symphonic chaos chaos malcolm is doingthat perfectly affected kind of uh vocal whine and grind that he kind of can peel out there um that's so shrill and punky right yeah absolutely and yet the lyrics he's singing are like la la layou know so it's like this uh this um strange dichotomy of sounds going going on you know yeah it's good i mean you know juxtaposition i guess that's uh attention element yeah youknow that's good stuff uh the lyrics yeah the lyrics are um, You know, I think the easy go-to there is that it's sort of a, maybe not quite a love song, but a dedication, you know, relationship,aging, all that sort of stuff.But I've kind of always had this thought that you could view this song, if you wanted to, maybe as a relationship and a critique that Malcolm X has with art and culture.Track 1:[18:07] Oh.Track 6:[18:08] Expand on this. Well, you know, sort of metaphorically and even straightforwardly, the lyrics definitely have a lot of art sort of bent in reference to them.Sure, I can see that. Summary acts, narrative age.Track 2:[18:27] You know.Track 6:[18:28] Fixture set in 1966. I kind of have always had this low-key thought that maybe he's sort of lamenting, because I mean, we know that he loves art and culture, literature, theater,worked in the museum.You know, we know that he's quite a literate dude, definitely knows what's happening, I think, in the art and culture worlds at all times.And we also know that he's the kind of guy that is easily bored and dismissive of things that he maybe thinks are a little derivative or that sort of thing.And if you kind of think about that when you listen to these lyrics, you can kind of maybe, skew it that he's bored with theater and art, that it's in a rut, that it's stuck in some old ways thatit's, you know.Track 3:[19:22] Um.Track 6:[19:23] I don't need your summary acts to give into the narrative age.Like he doesn't want somebody just cramming the things down his throat.He, you know, he wants people to approach art differently.Track 1:[19:36] And, you know.Track 6:[19:37] Overlay their own ideas, map their own feelings and thoughts onto something that's, I don't think he likes when an artist hands it to you on a platter, certainly with his lyrics.I think he leaves a lot sort of open to interpretation by keeping it intentionally vague and distorted.So I've kind of always had this thought in the back of my mind that, you know.Track 2:[20:00] Maybe he's complaining about some art and culture going on at the time that it's just it's stuck in a rut it's too straightforward in your face, you're watching them reinvent the wheelyeah right right um and you know set your back set old to begin like you know somebody presents some new play or some new piece and it's already it's been done it's old to begin we'veseen this we have this somebody needs to move art forward forward this is good yeah that's sort of been something i always thought that's a little, outside of the going ideas about old tobegin yeah when you get to that last part and it certainly feels a little more on the nose with uh you know all those things that can get you bored with a you know a physical lovingrelationship with a partner um latent cause menopause cause.Track 6:[20:56] Stress, credit card debt, all that sort of stuff that he talks about.But even still, I mean, if you're an aging artist and you're approaching middle life and, you know, maybe you feel that you've lost that youthful exuberance and desire to dig in and find andcreate something new, you know, what slows anybody down from anything they love, be it a person, in be it their output in life it's you know it's all this getting old crap that we have todeal with.[21:28] I'm staring 50 in the in the barrel right now july i turned 50 so yeah i get it i get that yeah, yeah that's real because to me his lyrics are tough to tough to rifle through this song isprobably the most um like forward straightforward in in a sense like not not using your theory just looking at the lyrics straight ahead there's a lot of references to age age and that sort ofthing you know we hear about menopause we hear about set in 1966 we hear of course old to begin um you know a senior a senile genius uh we don't get a lot of that in malcolm is songslike i i don't find like where there's a lot of consistency with the lyrics so i can see See how you can take a surface look or go deeper like you did, and you're likely to be satisfied in eithercase, whereas a lot of times his lyrics aren't, without sounding negative, aren't necessarily satisfying because you're left scratching your head.You know what I mean? Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely.[22:53] And, you know, I do also look at the song very much on its surface because, you know, as I was saying in my little back history there.Track 1:[23:04] I was kind of dealing with getting older and.Track 6:[23:08] You know, leaving sort of the college life and East Coast life behind when I was out West and kind of unsure about what I was going to do or supposed to do. So, you know, like Isaid, his really his whole vibe really helped me kind of reconcile with all that.So I do love the lyrics on their surface, too, for that, because.Yeah, I mean, he's he's dealing with the same thing. You're almost 50. I'm 46 now.Like, I got back pain. I was laid up with back pain a couple of weeks ago for about a day and a half. I got credit card stress, you know.So it is comforting to take the lyrics very much on their surface.Yeah. But then he's also talking about, I think, a love life, if you take them like that.Track 3:[23:53] Yeah.Track 6:[23:53] I think so. And, you know...Track 3:[23:58] You want to have a partner to grow old with that helps you feel good you know that you can kind of uh buoy each other and keep each other afloat and moving ahead and you knowif you get, dissatisfied or disenfranchised with your partner like i think maybe on its surface is some of the stuff being talked about here that can be really a lot to contend with uh what'sone of those lyrics in there find your identical twin or you know that's another thing that's one of those things that line right there i can never decide if he's saying finding an identical twinor find an unidentical twin yeah it does sound like.[24:45] The the the way it rolls off the tongue uh it does sound like unidentical twin the way the way it is time we drifted apart find an unidentical twin is that saying like we're too similarand being too similar is not satisfying you drift apart you want to find somebody less like you somebody different or you know are they drifting apart because one of them's old to beginand he wants something more and maybe he wants to find somebody more like him find an identical twin you know it's uh it's it's just one of those things again with um i and i think heintentionally leaves things a little like the vocal tracks are a little low in the mix or intentionally mumbled or garbled so that you reach a little more you find whatever meaning you needyeah you hear it the way you need to hear it yeah yeah i think it's a that is a great song one of my favorites all my gear in my house is named after a piece of pavement a pavement song somy backup drive is called old to begin oh perfect yeah my uh, my fantasy football team is named the stockton hex oh nice.[26:01] How are you doing uh or how did how yeah i guess okay i've got i'm kind of uh obsessed with fantasy football i got a couple different teams they're all named stockton hex and theyall have the rooster from watery domestic as my team logo oh that's brilliant you know i do well enough i keep entertained i don't uh i win a little money here and there oh you're playingfor scratch i like it yeah but yeah i i have the same sort of tendencies to name a lot of playlists and and and items and things for you know song and music references fish pavement beastieboys yeah cool yeah well Well.Track 6:[26:40] I'm going to guess that my next question, I already know the answer to my next question, really, because you had this song inside your top 20.So my next question is, do you think the song is properly rated?And I'm guessing you would say no, because at 43, it's well beyond the top 20. Yeah.I do. That's fine. It is properly rated. I'm glad it made the top 50.You said you got over a hundred songs submitted.Track 1:[27:06] Yeah.Track 3:[27:07] Yeah.Track 6:[27:08] You know, to tell you the truth, I compiled my list, JD. I never actually sent it to you.I'm such a quintessential slacker that I, uh, I worked on it and worked on it and it was sitting on my desktop at work.And I was like, uh, you know, I never did send that thing in, which, uh, makes me feel, you know, maybe, uh, maybe I could have of bumped uh old to begin up a slot or two um one ofmy personal favorite deep tracks greenlander i wonder if it uh if it appeared at least in your 100 or so i've got a i gotta pay my three bucks and get back into the um uh bonus feed so i canlisten to 50 through 100 i think i heard you mention you're doing those yeah it starts this friday yeah um you know i feel like i should have got my list in there to do a little service to acouple of my deeper cuts personally but yeah i think as far as the general fan base i think probably old to begin is fairly rated i you know i know uh you're a brighton guy i love all thealbums almost equally but i think probably brighton is near the bottom of most pavement fans list if you ask like it yeah and so for any, any brighton song to make it in the 50 you got tofeel pretty good for them yeah i think so Well, yeah, and quite a few made it in.Track 1:[28:27] Yeah.Track 6:[28:28] Well, there's definitely a few bangers on there. Yeah, agreed.Track 1:[28:33] Well.Track 6:[28:34] Is there any place that people can track you down or that you would want to be tracked down on the internet or anything like that?I just live in Pittsburgh. I work my job. I raise my family.So if I come to town, I'll take me for a Formanti Brothers? Yeah, absolutely.[28:52] Yeah, you know what? But if I was going to stump for anything, I had tickets for the Trad Tech Tour that got canceled due to COVID. Oh, me too.And if anybody's going to log in anywhere and search for anything or leave a message, let's all try to hit up Malkness and Sweeney and those guys and tell them to get it back together andget out there and give us that Trad Tech Tour, man.I want to hear those two guys shredding the guitar together.That's a strong record. That's a really strong record. Yeah. Yeah.I had tickets too. I forget where, I think probably Cleveland and maybe Detroit.You know, I try to hit them if they come to Pittsburgh, great.And if they hit any of those sort of rust belt cities within my reach, I hit them up. So if traditional techniques tours around or if pavement comes around again, we'll try to...[29:42] Hit them up together. If you come to Pittsburgh, yeah, we'll go to Permanente's.Ah, love it. I love the ballpark there.I'm a baseball guy and you have a gorgeous ballpark. You got my email.Anytime you're going to be in Pittsburgh for anything, drop me a line. Will do. Awesome.Well, it was great talking to you today. Yeah, you too. All right, brother.I guess here comes the outro. Oh, one last thing since the outro is probably coming up. I don't know if this is the same for everybody else, but I don't hear carrot rope the same anymore.Oh, really? I hear you. you. I hear your voice.This has been Meeting Malcomus, a pavement podcast. I hear it every time.Oh, I'm sorry I ruined the song. No, it's great. I love it. I love it.All right, brother. Talk to you soon.Track 3:[30:25] Yeah, you too.Track 6:[30:26] JD. Thanks a lot, man. Take care and wash your goddamn hands.Track 3:[30:29] Yeah, wash your goddamn hands. Thanks for listening to Meeting Malcomus, a pavement podcast Podcast, where we count down the top 50 pavement tracks as selected by you.If you've got questions or concerns, please shoot me an email, jd at meetingmalkmus.com.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/meeting-malkmus-a-pavement-podcast/exclusive-contentAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

'My love of Malkmus' music first came from his solo records with The Jicks. This may be the reason why I hold them so highly.' This week Oliver explores Pavement frontman Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks' record 'Mirror Traffic'. Also, great new music from indie punk rockers The Front Bottoms. Added visuals on iOS devices thanks to Vizzy.fm. Follow @asonicyouthpodcast on Insta and Facebook. This show is part of the Free FM 89.0 YOUTH ZONE. Made with support of NZ on Air.

It's the second part of the final ever episode of The Pavement Conundrum... Paul, Chris, Mark and Emre hear from guests Clare Wilde, Craig Angus and Steve Alexander before revealing the final results of the jury. Which Pavement classic will be the one to solve The Pavement Conundrum? Thanks for listening! We're on Twitter: @ConundrumPod

After what feels like centuries, the members of the podcast reconvene in a bid to finally solve The Pavement Conundrum. In the first part of the final, Paul, Mark, Chris and Emre catch up after a long break and hear from absent (with good reason) co-host Duncan as well as friends of the pod, Joseph Goss and Eddy Walsh.There's a lot to cover but which song will take first place?Part 2 will follow very soon indeed.Follow us on Twitter: @ConundrumPod

We're back for 2023! and to celebrate, we're talking about our favourite songs from 20 years earlier in 2003, when Colin quit university to work in a record shop, In addition to the music we talk about linguistics in pop punk, and feature both the longest, & shortedt songs we've ever had on any of our playlists. We've each chosen our 10 favourite songs of the year and sent them over to Colin's wife Helen, who put the playlists together and distributed them so we were each given a playlist of the 20 songs from the other two hosts, along with our own 10. We then ranked the playlists in order of preference and sent them back to Helen, who totalled up the points and worked out the order.She also joined us on the episode to read out the countdown, which we found out as we recorded so all reactions are genuine.Now, admittedly, in parts we're a little bit brutal to some of the songs in the list as we're three separate people with differing music tastes, but please remember that to be in this episode at all the songs have to have been in one of our top 10's of that year. Bands featured in this episode include (In alphabetical order, no spoilers here!) - Alfie, Alkaline Trio, A Perfect Circle, Blink 182, Broadcast, Cult Of Luna, Cursive, The Dears, Evan Dando, Explosions In The Sky, The Fall, Four Tet, Jose Gonzalez, Hope Of The States, Jay-Z, Lamb Of God, Liam Lynch, Machine Head, Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks, Mew, Ministry, Kylie Minogue, Mogwai, Opeth, The Postal Service, Radiohead, Sleep, Spiritualized, Stars, & Patrick Wolf.Find all songs in alphabetical order here - https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4uuaF2z2giwA5OBbH7LxbT?si=ffd7a22f3065434cFind our We Dig Music Pollwinners Party playlist (featuring all of the winning songs up until now) here - https://open.spotify.com/playlist/45zfDHo8zm6VqrvoEQSt3z?si=Ivt0oMj6SmitimvumYfFrQIf you want to listen to megalength playlists of all the songs we've individually picked since we started doing best of the year episodes, you can listen to Colin's here – https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5x3Vy5Jry2IxG9JNOtabRT?si=HhcVKRCtRhWCK1KucyrDdg Ian's here - https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2H0hnxe6WX50QNQdlfRH5T?si=XmEjnRqISNqDwi30p1uLqA and Tracey's here - https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2p3K0n8dKhjHb2nKBSYnKi?si=7a-cyDvSSuugdV1m5md9Nw The playlist of 20 songs from the other two hosts was scored as usual, our favourite song got 20 points, counting down incrementally to our least favourite which got 1 point. The scoring of our own list of 10 is now slightly more complicated in order to give a truer level of points to our own favourites. So rather than them only being able to score as many points as our 10th favourite in the other list, the points in our own list were distributed as follows -1st place - 20 points2nd place - 18 points3rd place – 16 points4th place – 14 points5th place – 12 points6th place – 9 points7th place – 7 points8th place – 5 points9th place – 3 points10th place -1 pointHosts - Ian Clarke, Colin Jackson-Brown & Tracey BGuest starring Helen Jackson-Brown.Playlist compiling/distributing – Lydia ClarkeRecorded/Edited/Mixed/Original Music by Colin Jackson-Brown for We Dig PodcastsThanks to Peter Latimer for help with the scoring system.Say hello at www.facebook.com/wedigmusicpcast or tweet us at http://twitter.com/wedigmusicpcast or look at shiny pictures on Instagram at http://instagram.com/wedigmusicpcast Part of the We Made This podcast network. https://twitter.com/wmt_network You can also find all the We Dig Music & Free With This Months Issue episodes at www.wedigpodcasts.com

It's the penultimate episode of The Conundrum and Paul, Chris and Duncan run the Pavement Gauntlet in order to get closer to the final. Full disclosure: this gauntlet idea was a mistake. If anyone out there understands it, please let us know as we could really use help. Please help us.At least we know that numbers make the world go round. See you in the final.

Back in December 2021, Spiral Stairs came on the show and rated Roxy Music with us (go check out Episode 9). Afterwards, we did a great little 12-minute interview with him that's never been aired, & it's chock full of essential off-topic hilarity…such as going to bar mitzvahs with a 13-year-old Malkmus back in Stockton; a gaggle of early band names; and the best & worst song he's ever written.  It was supposed to be Patreon-only, but I s'pose Xmas came early. CONNECT Join our Soldiers of Sound Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1839109176272153 Link Tree: https://linktr.ee/discograffiti Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/discograffitipod/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Discograffiti/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/Discograffiti YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClyaQCdvDelj5EiKj6IRLhw Web site: http://discograffiti.com/ Patreon: www.Patreon.com/Discograffiti CONTACT DAVE Email: dave@discograffiti.com Twitter: https://twitter.com/DaveGebroe Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/davidgebroe/ CONTACT TODD ZIMMER: GRAPHIC DESIGN Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ToddZimmer and https://www.facebook.com/punknjunkradio Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/the_real_todd_zimmer/ and https://www.instagram.com/punknjunkradioshow/ --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/discograffiti/message

Welcome back to your Reunion Tour companion! Part 5 serves up another helping of indie rock's nicest guy and most fascinating interview, as Bob doles out the honests on the all-grow'd-up pop nous of “Brighten The Corners,” not to mention sundry gold soundz from the period. Don't miss next Sunday's epic conclusion: “Good Night To The Rock & Roll Era.” - Official playlist curated by Dave on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6GvKXu3KlfbgzZBILowD9n?si=pF7gkAI5QcSCcZsf_DI2qg - Live at the Westbeth Theater, Feb. 8, 1997: https://youtu.be/2Fl90XjbLcc - April 2, 1997, Live in Germany, full show: https://youtu.be/0iCspBnmvy0 - May 13, 1997 Toronto TV interview with Malkmus & Nastanovich: https://youtu.be/ZvegonDpcto - Pavement British TV interview, 1997: https://youtu.be/vWx4kGv7WfQ - The “Stereo” video: https://youtu.be/Z5j4W2Y7RPQ - The “Shady Lane” video: https://youtu.be/G-mQxmrZJn8 EPISODE LINKS - Bob's Twitter: https://twitter.com/BNastanovich CONNECT Join our Soldiers of Sound Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1839109176272153 Link Tree: https://linktr.ee/discograffiti Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/discograffitipod/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Discograffiti/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/Discograffiti YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClyaQCdvDelj5EiKj6IRLhw Web site: http://discograffiti.com/ Patreon: www.Patreon.com/Discograffiti CONTACT DAVE Email: dave@discograffiti.com Twitter: https://twitter.com/DaveGebroe Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidgebroe/ CONTACT TODD ZIMMER: GRAPHIC DESIGN Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ToddZimmerand https://www.facebook.com/punknjunkradio Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/the_real_todd_zimmer/and https://www.instagram.com/punknjunkradioshow/ --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/discograffiti/message

It's the first semi final of The Conundrum and Paul has made sweeping changes to the format. GONE are Chris and Duncan... but just for Part 1. They will eventually replace Mark and Emre who join Paul to undertake the most complicated and frustratingly stupid exercise yet attempted on this podcast. There's on air admin, constantly changing rules and, for some reason, dirty things. Which songs will stake their claim to make it to the final of The Pavement Conundrum? Elsewhere, Mark has a date with Ikea, Emre is still at a Godspeed gig and Paul just feels a normal amount rich. Look out for Part 2 in the next few weeks with Chris and Duncan.Follow us on Twitter: @ConundrumPod

Welcome to your Reunion Tour companion: an epic 8-hour interview in which Bob rates every last Pavement release and frequently wanders fascinatingly off-topic. Part 4 trains the microscope down on the White Album-like explosion of stylistic possibility that was “Wowee Zowee”…and sundry gold soundz from the era. Next Sunday: “Corners Brightened.” 

- Official playlist curated by Dave on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3B0G2dGlSVqIC6OUP0IoIG?si=LdmdmAjZQUe5glqeNGFtxw
 - August 1995 Malkmus interview: https://youtu.be/KcDwjp4bM9A
 - Live 1995, Winston Salem NC, Full Show: https://youtu.be/95HuoDleYa8
- Reading Festival, 1995: https://youtu.be/HubSY4gtxLc
 - “We Dance” video: https://youtu.be/GqgAo4UccDE
 - Tibetan Freedom Concert, San Francisco, 1996 (Your Host was there): https://youtu.be/-ffrdwAz_z8 EPISODE LINKS - Bob's Twitter: https://twitter.com/BNastanovich CONNECT Join our Soldiers of Sound Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1839109176272153 Link Tree: https://linktr.ee/discograffiti Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/discograffitipod/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Discograffiti/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/Discograffiti YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClyaQCdvDelj5EiKj6IRLhw Web site: http://discograffiti.com/ Patreon: www.Patreon.com/Discograffiti CONTACT DAVE Email: dave@discograffiti.com Twitter: https://twitter.com/DaveGebroe Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidgebroe/ CONTACT TODD ZIMMER: GRAPHIC DESIGN Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ToddZimmer and https://www.facebook.com/punknjunkradio Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/the_real_todd_zimmer/ and https://www.instagram.com/punknjunkradioshow/ --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/discograffiti/message

Howdy! Step into the Get Out of Jail Saloon because it's the last chance for a handful of these wonderful Pavement songs and your old pals are here to sling you some bourbon and talk crap about stupid nonsense. Chris is celebrating Black Cat Appreciation Day, Mark has just scored a hat trick of goals agains a 9-year-old girl and Paul is living among the creatures of the night. Fortunately, Conundrum icons Emre Ramadan and Duncan Robertson are here to distract proceedings with analysis of certain members of Pavement's... eh... members and contribute to this whole food packaging thing that Mark is obsessed with. Thank goodness Chris is here with on point Simpsons references but how many times can you watch Some Kind of Monster?You only get two or may be three chances to make a first impression. Follow the podcast on Twitter: @ConundrumPod and Mark is there too: @themarkedwards

Smith starts us with a wonderful invocation. It gets a little morbid, but Smith tells us about a classic country song: Bury Me Under That Durian Tree. Joe invokes Marty Robbins. Smith wants to know the difference between light and heavy petting. Good thing Joe learned about it in seminary. The guys detour into more Pavement talk. Joe's #1 fave Pave-cast is Meeting Malkmus: A Pavement Podcast. A close second: Stuff You Should Know. Smith contends that Malkmus is in the top 5 of the top 10 of something. The same goes for his favorite R.E.M. podcasts. Joe reads a reddit meme from Smith. The guys love to talk about not liking themselves. Joe has an ant update, and Smith has an update from Who-ville. Smith is not yet ready to return and report about the JS apology from last week. Joe discovers that he can see things in JS that he doesn't like about himself. Joe wants to do a proxy B for PSH. Joe pitches the idea that proxy O's should include the cause of death. Smith gets a little conspiratorial about what the LDS app is tracking and who is looking.  The guys are not good at jazz scatting. Joe shares his version of a Simpsons quote. Smith reads a headline about the church covering up sexual abuse. Smith still hasn't seen Zodiac (2007). Smith asserts that the systems in place in the church are a breeding ground for grooming. The guys quickly veer off into the Potterverse. Joe bears his testimony of the everlasting message from the Fab 4 about love, and he's not stoned.  Joe points out why it's not fun to read the Isaiah chapters on J&SP:RtBOMWU which is that JS did not write them. Is grad school regalia Satan's counterfeit of the temple ceremony? Are drugs Satan's counterfeit of the priesthood power? Joe points out that the rights of the priesthood are inseparably connected to white male privilege. Smith feels dumb sometimes, but he isn't. Joe found a scholarly article where the author asserts that JS did not, in fact,plagiarize Isaiah. Smith asserts that the author's argument is sometimes referred to in the church as ‘justifying your own sin'. Smith reminds us that morals don't come from religion. Joe tells the story “he would tell you that he is happy” about a friend's apostate family member. The talk about how some of their religious trauma involves feeling like they don't deserve happiness now because they're not following the church. Smith casually refers to himself as a trainwreck and Joe reminds him that it's the mormons who taught him that he was a trainwreck, not the gentiles. Smith still has a family member who treats him as if he was a trainwreck. Joe concedes that he had a genuine laugh a the John BTFW video on this chapter. Who's talents are being wasted on the BOM? Meeting Malkmus - a Pavement podcast Stuff You Should Know Podcast  Glenn Ostland's JS Apology (start around 19 min in) Seven Years of Sex Abuse: How Mormon Officials Let it Happen Brother Jake Explains: Book of Mormon Translation (feat. seer stone) Was Joseph Smith Guilty of Plagiarism? John A. Tvedtnes CES Letter My Search for Answers to my Mormon Doubts John Bytheway and Darryl Discover 2 Nephi 8 and Isaiah 51 Music Provided by Eric VanAusdal with permission from the artist. The Book of Mormon is publicly available at churchofjesuschrist.org  Remember who you are and what you stand for  

Life gets in the way, folks... however, after a short break (not that any of you were counting), the boys are back in Pavement town to rattle through the remaining matchups in the second round. Friend of the podcast Duncan Robertson returns, armed with some of the best insight you'll hear on a music podcast as the Gang of Four go through the remaining twenty Pavement classics. Elsewhere, Mark has an issue with smell pollution, Chris is desperate to go back and play Kid Chameleon and Paul's no longer at the Pavement Brink. Listen to hear which song could win the whole damn thing and what song is the winner of The House of Pain Conundrum. The podcast is on Twitter (@ConundrumPod) but you'd might as well just tweet Mark to be honest (@themarkedwards).

jD is back and he's butchering Portuguese addresses!Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/meeting-malkmus-a-pavement-podcast/exclusive-contentAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

After the drama of the previous episode, Paul has turned up sober and has a very important question for his co-hosts. Elsewhere, Chris has yet another appointment he needs to get to and Mark keeps talking about cowboys. Fortunately friend of the show, Clare Wilde is on hand to help the three idiots make sense of eight more Pavement songs. If you're interested in Pavement Conundrum NFS, learning who Chris and Mark's least favourite lawyer is and hearing what Paul thinks about the crime statistics of Linden, California, this is the podcast for you. Remember, if you meet Chris and Mark at Primavera, leave Chris alone. (Mark would like to sell you a signed photo.)

The Conundrum returns after a short break and there's no easy way to explain this episode other than: Paul drank too many beers, Chris just wants to get to his bed and Mark hates Picard Season 2. Fortunately, friend of the podcast Eddy Walsh is on hand to share some wonderfully intricate thoughts on eight more Pavement songs as we move through the second phase of The Conundrum. Elsewhere, Mark needs mass sympathy please, Paul has invented some dumb method and Chris feels like he's driving a runaway train. Follow us on Twitter, but please don't tweet at us (we'll explain why later): @ConundrumPod.

It's the inaugural Conundrum Summit and a chance for Paul, Mark and Chris to drill down into the Conundrum data to see how well the podcast is performing and, more importantly, how Mark and Chris are performing. There are performance reviews, calls from the listeners and a Pavement Quiz... with devastating consequences. All that plus some chat around Pavement covers and your chance to hear the only episode in existence of THE PAVEMENT EQUATION. Follow us on Twitter: @ConundrumPod

Paul, Mark and Chris welcome back honorary member of The Conundrum, Emre Ramadan for this, their silver wedding anniversary episode of the podcast. There's a lot to discuss today including eight more Pavement songs, four of which gotta go... Elsewhere, discover what the admission fee is to listen to Old to Begin, hear which Conundrum host is two steps ahead of everyone on earth and find out why you always need to keep your receipts. Follow us on Twitter: @conundrumpod

Episode DetailsEamon O'Flynn, Nathan Smith and Sonya Walton discuss “Slanted and Enchanted,” the influential slacker-era gem from Pavement. This album ranked #199 on the 2020 Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list.Leave comments on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook at @rrmusicpod or visit our website at recordroulettepodcast.com.Runtime: 47 minutesWho is Pavement?Pavement is an American indie rock band. Formed in 1989, the group recorded five full-length albums over a decade-long career before disbanding in 1999. They have since reunited for tours in 2010 and 2022. Never a mainstream success, Pavement is considered one of the most influential bands to emerge from the American underground in the 90s and is considered to be a successful indie rock band. True to their convictions, they never signed with a major label. Pavement has three albums on the Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums list, including Slanted and Enchanted (#199), Wowee Zowee (#265) and Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain (#434). What is Slanted and Enchanted?Slanted and Enchanted is the debut studio album by American indie rock band Pavement. Released in 1992, the album received critical acclaim and is seen as a landmark for indie rock. Billboard has called it a “slacker masterpiece” and “the definitive indie rock album,” and it has appeared on various top-album lists from Blender, Pitchfork, Slant Magazine and Spin. Slanted and Enchanted is on the 2020 Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums list at #199.

We're now deep into round 2 of The Pavement Conundrum and things are just getting worse. Chris is a class traitor. Paul just worked two shifts. Mark wrote his notes drunk. Thankfully, the gang can call on the talents of special guest Joseph Goss to provide insight into eight fantastic Pavement tunes along with the secrets of the barbershop and where in Scotland you need to go to get a Princess Diana haircut. The team also discusses emotional erogenous zones, the singing doll Cricket, My Radio (again) and why are we here again? Oh yeah, Pavement. Follow the podcast on Twitter: @ConundrumPod for all things Pavement and our special guest Joseph Goss: @JosephGoss for all things Barber.

Zwan Zeason is almost over, and today we're excited to present a very special episode covering some key, remaining "Oddz 'N' Endz" from Zwan's unofficial, unreleased catalogue. We had almost 50 songs to chose from! Needless to say, we were overwhelmed and turned to our Patreon members and social media followers to help us narrow it down (you're the best, Pumpkinheads!). We tallied the votes, crunched the numbers and are covering the TOP 13 "oddz 'n' endz" tracks by the mighty Zwan. It's a great batch of Zwan gems that may be new to some of you! Join us as we delve into the hard-rock-sleaze-prog-metal that is "Spilled Milk," marvel at the "Lost Boys" mystique of "Riverview," and come at you with a seriously hot take: Is Pavement a one-hit-wonder band? All that plus our utopian vision of Corgan and Malkmus burying the hatchet (with the help of The Boss and Sheila E. at Coachella 2024), the art of ruining an intimate show with an ill-timed chair squeak, Stumbleine's sister track and of course... The Cure. Clock in to your Drummer job, turn up those GRADCORE jamz and pump this 'kast! How to support the 'kast: MERCH Our PATREON buymeacoffee.com/Pumpkast Please rate and review us! Follow us on the socials: Twitter: @PumpkinsPodcast Instagram: @smashingpumpkast TikTok: @smashingpumpkast

In another BUMPER episode of The Conundrum, Paul, Mark and Chris are joined by the fantastic Steve Alexander for another chaotic, anxious and traumatic round of the world's only podcast (apart from John Rogan on Spotfly.) Steve and the boys cover another EIGHT Pavement songs, covering all the usual stuff PLUS Billy Joel, why members of Smashing Pumpkins have created a media monopoly, Chris being at war with a neighbouring country AND Chris' recent trip to the dentist. (There's a lot of Chris this week.) Oh and Mark has something to say about My Radio. (Paul is fine, by the way. Thanks for asking.)All that PLUS we reveal who one of the greatest professional, football header-teaching, music organisations of all time is/are. That sentence is a mess. Follow us on Twitter: @ConundrumPod and follow Steve Alexander on Twitter: @DocktorA

Paul, Mark and Chris return with a BUMPER episode full of Pavement chat and A SPECIAL GUEST: it's jD of Meeting Malkmus! jD rejoins The Conundrum to help run the rule over 8 songs by our favourite band, share the scoop on the final episodes of Meeting Malkmus and teach the boys what respect really means. Elsewhere, Gall shares his idea of hell, Mark's radio doesn't work and Paul has a rhetorical question. Follow us on Twitter: @conundrumpod

It's the return of the world's only podcast after a short winter break and Paul, Mark and Chris are ready to start taking this whole conundrum seriously. Mark is feline good after some happy pet news, Paul wants you to get real, but also not worry about Gold Soundz and these pretzels are making Chris thirsty. In addition, the trio have drafted in friend of the podcast and all-round good egg Craig Angus of the excellent band Savage Mansion to assist with the first episode of the second round. Elsewhere, the team discusses Wordle, the long-forgotten WCW wrestler Buzzy Fuzz, the undisputed ranking of R.E.M. albums and honestly, don't worry about Gold Soundz. Follow us on Twitter: @conundrumpod

In this week's episode of The Drop we chat Stephen Malkmus's return to the road and celebrate 2020's Traditional Techniques, share our praised for Christopher Hazard's YouTube Page filled with Grateful Dead Remastered shows, and discuss our favorite recent TV shows & Books. In addition we share some of our favorite recent Osiris Pods, while emptying our library to chat about our favorite music books. Finally, we share our favorite records from 2007.Osiris Podcast Recommendations:The Great BeyondWheels Off w/ Rhett Miller: Jeff TweedyBooks That ROCK:Dave:Please Kill Me - The Uncensored Oral History of Punk - Legs McNeil, Gillian McCainBlack Postcards - Dean WarehamSee a Little Light: The Trail of Rage and Melody - Bob Mould Brian:The Beatles - Bob SpitzOld Weird America - Greil MarcusA Little Devil In America - Hanif Abdurraqib2007 Albums:Spoon - Ga Ga Ga Ga GaPanda Bear - Person PitchThe Drop is a Production of Osiris Media. It is hosted by Brian Brinkman & David Goldstein. The Drop is edited and produced by Brian Brinkman. Theme song by Amar Sastry. The executive producer of The Drop is RJ Bee. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Interview with Daniel Meyers and Traci Sym of +&> (Plus and Greater Than), an exhibition design firm in Portland, Oregon. Intro / Outro: "Are You Experienced?" by the Jimi Hendrix Experience Cover Art: "Tubes" by +&> (Plus and Greater Than) Discussed: - Cambridge Seven - High Museology versus Themed Entertainment - Exhibition design is really “schmoopy” - Encountering conflict is part of the training of performing artists, so it's good to have a theater person on your design team - Starting with a narrative rather than a site - Experiencing things that are not algorithmically selected for you - ABOTI - Always Be on Team Insurgent - The Real Dick Nixon, the Decemberists and Malkmus are all getting together on a Revolutionary War Memorial in South Carolina

It's the final podcast of 2021 and Paul, Mark, Chris and Duncan (with the ghost of Emre) have to sort through the final 16 tracks in the Second Chance Saloon. There's an above-average amount of shenanigans and it's about time someone got fired around here. The Conundrum is taking a short holiday in January 2022. Thanks for listening. We're on Twitter: @ConundrumPod @thepaulcarlin @thegallatron @knacknud @themarkedwards

You only get four chances to make a first impression and in this episode of the world's only podcast, your least favourite Pavement fans are addressing the burning issue of The Second Chance Saloon. We've crunched the numbers and it's time to work together and against each other. Paul, Mark, Chris, Duncan and the ghost of Emre begin the mammoth task of working out which 8 of the knocked out songs get a chance to re-enter The Conundrum. It's a mess; it's a goddam mess. Follow us on Twitter: @ConundrumPod @thepaulcarlin @themarkedwards @thegallatron @knacknud Bob Nastanovich, please call us. We want to cut a deal.

Ahead of the second round of the Pavement Conundrum, Paul and Chris caught up with Pavement superfan Steve Alexander who, when he isn't doing his day job as NBC Sports EDGE's Senior NBA Editor, is often found helping the great and the good of indie rock with their draft picks, running trivia nights featuring Bob Nastanovich or being told by his kids to turn off Forklift. Steve shares his Pavement origin story, chats about the many times he's seen (AND MET) the band and takes a dive into six wonderful Pavement tracks with Chris and Paul. Trust us, this gentleman really knows his Pavement. Follow Steve on Twitter: @docktora Follow us on Twitter: @conundrumpod @thegallatron @themarkedwards @thepaulcarlin (Mark was moving house during this episode but if you ask Chris, he'll tell you Mark was in jail.)

It's the final frontier in the first round of The Pavement Conundrum and in this explosive episode, your hosts are visited by two uninvited ghosts. It's a spooky experience but one that comes at a price... Elsewhere, the gang discuss Indiana Jones and the False Holy Grail, Stormzy putting on a show for one lucky Pavement Conundrum host and would you believe it? There's prosperity in the hills of the Pavement Conundrum apparently... but what colour should you paint those walls? Oh and 8 more Pavement songs, if that wasn't already obvious. Keep up with whatever we're doing on Twitter (because we can't) - @ConundrumPod

It's almost the end of round one and your hosts are delving deeeeep into some Pavement classics in this episode with another eight tunes up for discussion. Elsewhere, the gang discusses the geography of their home towns, playing guitar in Latin and the ultimate destruction of both the UK and the USA so just normal stuff, really. Follow us on Twitter: @ConundrumPod

It's episode 15 of The Pavement Conundrum and there's a disturbance in the force. 8 more Pavement tunes are discussed in fine detail before a seismic event takes place that could rock the very core of The Pavement Conundrum. Follow the pod's updates on Twitter: @ConundrumPod

The post Rome Floyd Chamber Small Business Spotlight – Ann and Paul Malkmus with River Wellness Lodge, and Kahynan Akers with Fazoli’s appeared first on Business RadioX ®.

After 17 years as a solo artist, Stephen Malkmus still has the ability to delight, if perhaps not outright surprise, his audience. Sparkle Hard is at once his most sonically adventurous and structurally tight set of music in over a decade and easily stands among his most rewarding work with the Jicks. Since leaving Pavement, Malkmus has always favored low-key consistency over wild experimentation, but when the results are this good, you can't really blame him.An album review by Tyler Clark.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices For information regarding your data privacy, visit acast.com/privacy Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

On today's episode, I talk to musician Scott "Spiral Stairs" Kannberg. Scott grew up in Stockton, California where he met his childhood friend and future bandmate Stephen Malkmus. Along with drummer Gary Young, the two formed Pavement in 1989, and went on to release five albums and a number of EPs, eventually becoming one of the biggest indie rock bands of the time. After the band broke up in 1999, Scott went on to record two albums as The Preston School of Industry and one album under his own name. He is currently finishing up his latest as-yet unnamed record, which is his first in seven years.This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on iTunes, follow me on Twitter.