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Send us a textAn insecure Chinese-American teenager undergoes experimental surgery to appear white, hoping to secure the prom queen title and peer acceptance. Slanted will be screening at this year's Sydney Film Festival (SFF) on June 9th, 13th & 15th. As suggested by Amy, double feature watching of Slanted & Being ThereCheck out the video interview.Website | Rotten Tomatoes | Linktree | Youtube | Twitter | Instagram
Lisa returns with her sequel to the first novel (Slanted and Disenchanted) with a character-driven story called Welcome to Hollywood. It's a novel of two 20-somethings in 2004 Hollywood, battling with high rents, unsatisfying jobs, and a deep attraction to one another - problem is, they haven't figured out how to communicate who they are, what they want, and who they are each individually becoming. They're still a band though, even if they stopped practicing, and music has a way of making connections. … Continue...Episode 216 – Somewhere in Lisa Czarina Michaud's Hollywood
Director Ted Balaker talks about the film that documents how we've made an entire generation weak by telling them they are victims.Order Sharyl's bestseller “Slanted: How the News Media Taught Us to Love Censorship and Hate Journalism” at Harper Collins, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books a Million, IndieBound, Bookshop!Subscribe to both of Sharyl's podcasts: “The Sharyl Attkisson Podcast” and “Full Measure After Hours.” Leave a great review, and share with your friends! Support independent journalism by visiting the new Sharyl Attkisson store.Visit Sharyl Attkisson's Free Substack, SharylAttkisson.com and www.FullMeasure.news for original reporting. Do your own research. Make up your own mind. Think for yourself.
Director Ted Balaker talks about the film that documents how we've made an entire generation weak by telling them they are victims.Order Sharyl's bestseller “Slanted: How the News Media Taught Us to Love Censorship and Hate Journalism” at Harper Collins, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books a Million, IndieBound, Bookshop!Subscribe to both of Sharyl's podcasts: “The Sharyl Attkisson Podcast” and “Full Measure After Hours.” Leave a great review, and share with your friends! Support independent journalism by visiting the new Sharyl Attkisson store.Visit Sharyl Attkisson's Free Substack, SharylAttkisson.com and www.FullMeasure.news for original reporting. Do your own research. Make up your own mind. Think for yourself.
A stauch supporter and firm opponent of DOGE efforts face off. We'll hear from Independent Angus King of Maine and Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia.Order Sharyl's bestseller “Slanted: How the News Media Taught Us to Love Censorship and Hate Journalism” at Harper Collins, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books a Million, IndieBound, Bookshop!Subscribe to both of Sharyl's podcasts: “The Sharyl Attkisson Podcast” and “Full Measure After Hours.” Leave a great review, and share with your friends! Support independent journalism by visiting the new Sharyl Attkisson store.Visit Sharyl Attkisson's Free Substack, SharylAttkisson.com and www.FullMeasure.news for original reporting.Do your own research. Make up your own mind. Think for yourself.
A stauch supporter and firm opponent of DOGE efforts face off. We'll hear from Independent Angus King of Maine and Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia.Order Sharyl's bestseller “Slanted: How the News Media Taught Us to Love Censorship and Hate Journalism” at Harper Collins, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books a Million, IndieBound, Bookshop!Subscribe to both of Sharyl's podcasts: “The Sharyl Attkisson Podcast” and “Full Measure After Hours.” Leave a great review, and share with your friends! Support independent journalism by visiting the new Sharyl Attkisson store.Visit Sharyl Attkisson's Free Substack, SharylAttkisson.com and www.FullMeasure.news for original reporting. Do your own research. Make up your own mind. Think for yourself.
Add-ons are heavily promoted by drugmakers, and experts are calling for more scrutiny to ensure patient care remains the priority over industry profits.Order Sharyl's bestseller “Slanted: How the News Media Taught Us to Love Censorship and Hate Journalism” at Harper Collins, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books a Million, IndieBound, Bookshop!Subscribe to both of Sharyl's podcasts: “The Sharyl Attkisson Podcast” and “Full Measure After Hours.” Leave a great review, and share with your friends! Support independent journalism by visiting the new Sharyl Attkisson store.Visit Sharyl Attkisson's Free Substack, SharylAttkisson.com and www.FullMeasure.news for original reporting.Do your own research. Make up your own mind. Think for yourself.
Add-ons are heavily promoted by drugmakers, and experts are calling for more scrutiny to ensure patient care remains the priority over industry profits.Order Sharyl's bestseller “Slanted: How the News Media Taught Us to Love Censorship and Hate Journalism” at Harper Collins, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books a Million, IndieBound, Bookshop!Subscribe to both of Sharyl's podcasts: “The Sharyl Attkisson Podcast” and “Full Measure After Hours.” Leave a great review, and share with your friends! Support independent journalism by visiting the new Sharyl Attkisson store.Visit Sharyl Attkisson's Free Substack, SharylAttkisson.com and www.FullMeasure.news for original reporting.Do your own research. Make up your own mind. Think for yourself.
For today's episode of Revolutions Per Movie's Pavement Week (Episode #6 out #5…right?), I am joined by actor Michael Esper who played the lead role (Essem) in the musical Slanted! Enchanted! A Pavement Musical that is featured in the new documentary Pavements. We discuss how Michael first got involved in the project and whether or not he felt the musical was earnest or a put-on, the mixed bag that often is a jukebox musical, whether or not his fellow actors knew about Pavement and their music before becoming part of the musical, jamming over 40 Pavement songs into 80 minutes of stage time, Michael feeling like he was losing your mind on stage, the plot and musical theater tropes used in the Slanted musical, could this format have worked for any other band besides Pavement, Michael working with David Bowie on one of his last creative stage projects before his death, how much freedom does a stage performer have from night to night, Michael getting to share an emotional moment from the stage of the musical with his sister (who was also a huge Pavement fan), the absurd leap that an audience has to take with the performers in a musical, how the Slanted musical was an actual love letter to the band and more!So bring on the major leagues with this soon-to-be Tony-nominated podcast episode of Revolutions Per Movie & its subsidiary Pavement Week.MICHAEL ESPER:@airstreamrallyREVOLUTIONS 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.com ARTWORK 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.
Why your new meds are injectables instead of pills, and the truth about the known causes of California's recent wildfires. (Hint: It's not climate change.)Order Sharyl's bestseller “Slanted: How the News Media Taught Us to Love Censorship and Hate Journalism” at Harper Collins, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books a Million, IndieBound, Bookshop!Subscribe to my two podcasts: “The Sharyl Attkisson Podcast” and “Full Measure After Hours.” Leave a review, subscribe and share with your friends! Support independent journalism by visiting the new Sharyl Attkisson store.Visit JustTheNews.com, SharylAttkisson.com and www.FullMeasure.news for original reporting.Do your own research. Make up your own mind. Think for yourself.
Why your new meds are injectables instead of pills, and the truth about the known causes of California's recent wildfires. (Hint: It's not climate change.)Order Sharyl's bestseller “Slanted: How the News Media Taught Us to Love Censorship and Hate Journalism” at Harper Collins, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books a Million, IndieBound, Bookshop!Subscribe to my two podcasts: “The Sharyl Attkisson Podcast” and “Full Measure After Hours.” Leave a review, subscribe and share with your friends! Support independent journalism by visiting the new Sharyl Attkisson store.Visit JustTheNews.com, SharylAttkisson.com and www.FullMeasure.news for original reporting.Do your own research. Make up your own mind. Think for yourself.
Producer Mark Joseph talks with Sharyl about the behind the scenes 20 year odyssey to bring the definitive film about Ronald Reagan to fruition.Order Sharyl's bestseller “Slanted: How the News Media Taught Us to Love Censorship and Hate Journalism” at Harper Collins, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books a Million, IndieBound, Bookshop!Subscribe to my two podcasts: “The Sharyl Attkisson Podcast” and “Full Measure After Hours.” Leave a review, subscribe and share with your friends! Support independent journalism by visiting the new Sharyl Attkisson store.Visit JustTheNews.com, SharylAttkisson.com and www.FullMeasure.news for original reporting.Do your own research. Make up your own mind. Think for yourself.
Producer Mark Joseph talks with Sharyl about the behind the scenes 20 year odyssey to bring the definitive film about Ronald Reagan to fruition.Order Sharyl's bestseller “Slanted: How the News Media Taught Us to Love Censorship and Hate Journalism” at Harper Collins, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books a Million, IndieBound, Bookshop!Subscribe to my two podcasts: “The Sharyl Attkisson Podcast” and “Full Measure After Hours.” Leave a review, subscribe and share with your friends! Support independent journalism by visiting the new Sharyl Attkisson store.Visit JustTheNews.com, SharylAttkisson.com and www.FullMeasure.news for original reporting.Do your own research. Make up your own mind. Think for yourself.
A groundbreaking fusion of drum and bass, jazz, and experimental electronic music, the 1997 album Hard Normal Daddy by Squarepusher showcases Tom Jenkinson's virtuosic bass playing and intricate programming. Blending frenetic breakbeats with lush, jazz-inspired melodies, tracks like “Coopers World” and “Beep Street” highlight his unique ability to balance chaos and groove, creating an experience that's both cerebral and rhythmically infectious. Dense and detailed production reward repeated listens revealing new textures and layers bold, resulting in a genre-defying record that pushed the boundaries of IDM at the time. Songs In This Episode Intro - Conduit for Sale! 15:35 - Perfume-V 18:35 - Here (alternate mix) 24:05 - Two States 30:51 - No Life Singed Her 34:57 - Loretta's Scars Outro - Trigger Cut/Wounded-Kite at:17 Support the podcast, join the DMO UNION at Patreon. Listen to the episode archive at DigMeOutPodcast.com.
Pavement's 1992 debut album Slanted and Enchanted is a landmark in 1990s alternative music. Featuring cryptic lyrics, jagged guitar riffs, and a laid-back, DIY aesthetic that defined the band's early sound and the emergent lo-fi movement. The low budget recording contributes to its raw and unpolished sound, blending noise rock, pop hooks, and experimental structures with an ear for unusual melodies and hooks. While not everyone's cup of tea thanks to out-of-tune guitars and the unpolished recording quality, even those not familiar or fans of lo-fi might still find something to check out. Songs In This Episode Intro - Conduit for Sale! 15:35 - Perfume-V 18:35 - Here (alternate mix) 24:05 - Two States 30:51 - No Life Singed Her 34:57 - Loretta's Scars Outro - Trigger Cut/Wounded-Kite at:17 Support the podcast, join the DMO UNION at Patreon. Listen to the episode archive at DigMeOutPodcast.com.
Our guest is Aggie Toppins, a designer and educator who explores the origins, impact, and evolution of visual communication. She is an Associate Professor and Chair of Design at Washington University in St. Louis.In this episode, Aggie speaks with host Christian Solorzano about her journey from commercial design in Chicago to academia, exploring how her working-class upbringing in Ohio shaped her approach to design and education. She shares insights about her creative process—how she addresses the tensions between client work and personal expression, and her thoughtful perspective on teaching as a practice of freedom.Aggie discusses her evolution as a designer, from her early years working with clients like the Chicago History Museum to developing her values-driven approach to design history and education. She talks about the importance of creating joyful, empowering classroom experiences, offering candid perspectives on challenging conventional wisdom and finding purpose amid today's complex landscape.The conversation explores Aggie's research interests and her book "Thinking Through Graphic Design History," which examines how historical thinking can foster socially engaged, critical design practices. Her writing has appeared in prestigious design publications including Design and Culture, Design Issues, Slanted, Eye, and AIGA Eye on Design. Aggie shares how finding joy through connecting with students has influenced her creative explorations.
Dr. Aseem Malhotra is a renowned British cardiologist on the front lines of challenging bad food and Big Pharma (before it was cool) while pushing for a radical rethinking of health care. He's also behind the documentary: “First Do No Pharm.”Order Sharyl's bestseller “Slanted: How the News Media Taught Us to Love Censorship and Hate Journalism” at Harper Collins, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books a Million, IndieBound, Bookshop!Subscribe to my two podcasts: “The Sharyl Attkisson Podcast” and “Full Measure After Hours.” Leave a review, subscribe and share with your friends! Support independent journalism by visiting the new Sharyl Attkisson store.Visit JustTheNews.com, SharylAttkisson.com and www.FullMeasure.news for original reporting.Do your own research. Make up your own mind. Think for yourself.
Dr. Aseem Malhotra is a renowned British cardiologist on the front lines of challenging bad food and Big Pharma (before it was cool) while pushing for a radical rethinking of health care. He's also behind the documentary: “First Do No Pharm.”Order Sharyl's bestseller “Slanted: How the News Media Taught Us to Love Censorship and Hate Journalism” at Harper Collins, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books a Million, IndieBound, Bookshop!Subscribe to my two podcasts: “The Sharyl Attkisson Podcast” and “Full Measure After Hours.” Leave a review, subscribe and share with your friends! Support independent journalism by visiting the new Sharyl Attkisson store.Visit JustTheNews.com, SharylAttkisson.com and www.FullMeasure.news for original reporting.Do your own research. Make up your own mind. Think for yourself.
Mixing cocktails with a plastic-tipped guitar, fruit-covered nails, and more weirdness as Oliver takes a track-by-track look at Pavement's raw and experimental debut album 'Slanted & Enchanted'. 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.
The SXSW Film and TV Festival is one of the largest of its kind in the world. In a typical year, thousands of fans arrive in downtown Austin, TX to partake in a couple of weeks of great music, technology, and film. For this special episode of The Hollywood Outsider, we take you along for our annual deep dive into the heart of the 2025 SXSW Film & TV Festival portion, and even further into the films themselves. Over the course of several days, the 2025 SXSW Film and TV Festival screened numerous features, TV premieres, many from first-time filmmakers (consisting of World Premieres, North American Premieres, and US Premieres), shorts, virtual reality exhibits, AI advancements, and other works. These films were selected from thousands of overall submissions, and – while we can't see them all – we have a nice sample to share with you of what came out of this stellar lineup of independent and popular films and television series. Over 25 films are on our docket this year, and we review them all (including Death of a Unicorn, Another Simple Favor, Redux Redux, Good Boy, The Rivals of Amziah King, The Studio, Together, Slanted, Shuffle), as well as snippets from panels and a whole lot more! So sit back and relax. You're about to experience the 2025 SXSW Film & TV Festival from the comfort of your own home. Discussed on this episode of The Hollywood Outsider Movie and TV Podcast: Thoughts on the 2025 SXSW Film & TV Festival Reviews of over 25 films, TV episodic premieres, and panels screened at the festival. See titles listed below Our personal awards from the festival Listen to our true crime podcast, Inspired By A True Story, now available in your favorite podcast feed! Please support The Hollywood Outsider and gain immediate access to bonus content, including Patreon exclusive podcast content like our Bad Movie Night by visiting Patreon.com/ TheHollywoodOutsider Be sure to join our Facebook Group Follow us on X @BuyPopcorn Subscribe on Apple Subscribe on Spotify Subscribe via RSS
*This episode is brought to you by Dolly Card, the corporate card for film production that's a great alternative to petty cash. Dolly Card is here to streamline expense management, tax, and accounting. dollycard.com* Beyond stoked for this crucial convo with two producers with films that premiered at SXSW who pivoted from other careers into producing. We had a lot of fun while also contemplating how we can leverage our collective knowledge to solve some of the crises plaguing the producers' plight. Spoiler alert: We 100% got nachos after. Elle Roth-Brunet, producer of I REALLY LOVE MY HUSBAND, sits at the intersection of innovation, business, and storytelling. She's a content strategist, brand builder, and creative producer who deeply believes in the power of representation and storytelling. She has dedicated her career to helping 40+ underrepresented voices gain more equity in entertainment through content partnerships with Hello Sunshine, ARRAY, Paul Fieg's Powderkeg, the PGA, Women In Film, and the Black List. Mark Ankner, producer of SLANTED, which won the grand jury award for Narrative Feature at SXSW, is dedicated to developing and producing creator-driven stories that resonate with culture. He was instrumental at Endeavor Content, overseeing advisory business, film and television packaging and sales, and creating innovative distribution models for content creators and financiers. Prior to that, Mark was a partner at WME Global, focusing on emerging voices and building companies for established talent. Some notable film projects include the Academy Award-winning CALL ME BY YOUR NAME, FRUITVALE STATION and SORRY TO BOTHER YOU. His first film PONYBOI premiered in the US Dramatic competition at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival. Directed by Esteban Arango, it was noted for its groundbreaking narrative and representation of diverse voices. Currently, Mark leads Mountain Top Pictures, an indie film and TV production company dedicated to championing innovative storytelling and supporting emerging talent in the industry Tune in xx
KCBS Radio's Foodie Chap Liam Mayclem is here to discuss the Slanted Door while paying tribute to Chef Charles Phan.
Hamilton Leithauser is a musician most known for his band, The Walkmen. He returns to chat about a bit about his new record, This Side Of The Island, as well as a full report on the fires in Los Angeles from Jason's point of view. Jimmy Carter's funeral, air quality, nut taps, the Trump biopic, producing the music for Pete Buttigiegg's podcast, and the new Jon Hamm TV show, Dennis Quaid gave him a root beer flavored vape, what alcohol he likes to sip, black & milds, which reunion tours work and which don't, his upcoming residency at The Carlyle in New York, dealing with dinner theater hecklers, working at The Met while his hit record was out, Slanted and Enchanted, oaked chardonnay, what tickets he has to get to win daughter points, and a nasty story out of Florida. instagram.com/hamiltonleithauser twitter.com/donetodeath twitter.com/themjeans howlonggone Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
What’s Trending: What the Transit Union is trying to do to make sure Sean Yim, the bus driver who was stabbed on the job, didn’t die in vain. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced today that the media conglomerate will be making major changes as it pertains to their fact-checking and censorship policies and practices. US Fish and Wildlife is issuing a $20,000 reward for information about each of three recent wolf poachings in Washington State. // Big Local: KREM in Spokane published a story trying to help the NAACP of Spokane find individuals in alleged KKK attire, but there seems to be more to the story that we’re not being told. Meanwhile, Mercer Island leaders condemn racist vandalism at middle school. And a Seattle Times article vilifies the city of Everett over homeless cleanup. // The new Surgeon General warning on alcohol has Americans in a tizzy. Jason breaks down what the warning really means and the real health effects caused by consuming alcohol.
MMT50 - Track #6: The Pavement Top 50 Countdown In this episode of Meeting Malkmus: A Pavement Podcast, jD is joined by James from London for an in-depth discussion on the next track in Pavement's Top 50 countdown. As they reflect on the band's unforgettable impact on indie rock, they dive into stories of first shows, favorite albums, and what makes Pavement's music timeless for fans around the world.Episode Highlights:• Pavement's Indie Rock Legacy – A look at the band's influence on fans and musicians alike, and why they're still so beloved.• Pavement's First Reunion Tour vs. 2022 Reunion – James shares his impressions of both tours and how the band's energy differed across the years.• Discovering Pavement – From early 90s Britpop to American indie rock, James recalls his musical journey and the pivotal moment he first heard Pavement.• Revisiting “Slanted and Enchanted” – Exploring the songs, sequencing, and raw indie sound that make Slanted and Enchanted an enduring favorite.• The Power of Pavement's B-Sides and Deep Cuts – Why tracks outside the core albums have become fan essentials, and how they deepen the Pavement experience.About the Pavement Top 50 Countdown:Each week, jD counts down the top 50 Pavement tracks as chosen by fans. With personal stories, song insights, and Pavement nostalgia, the series takes listeners through Pavement's discography, culminating in the top fan-voted track.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. Subscribe to stay on this journey as we continue counting down the greatest Pavement tracks, and join the discussion in our Facebook group! Keep flying the flag people!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
708 Pavement - Slanted and Enchanted
In this week's episode, Dr. Jay sits down with investigative journalist Sharyl Attkisson for an eye-opening conversation about her latest book, Follow the Science. Together, they unpack the hidden influences and conflicts that shape our health care, media, and government institutions, questioning the narratives we've long been told. Sharyl reveals what she's learned in decades of investigative work, uncovering truths that challenge the conventional wisdom about health and science. Listeners can expect an in-depth discussion on a range of topics, including media's relationship with Big Pharma, the revolving door between regulatory agencies and the industries they oversee, and the implications of health censorship on public trust. Sharyl and Dr. Jay also explore how Americans can discern truth from misinformation and take control of their own health in a complex information landscape. Sharyl Attkisson is a nonpartisan investigative journalist and a five-time Emmy Award winner, as well as the recipient of the Edward R. Murrow award for investigative reporting. She's the New York Times bestselling author of Slanted, The Smear, and Stonewalled, and serves as host and managing editor of the national news program Full Measure with Sharyl Attkisson, which reaches over 43 million U.S. households each week. For three decades, Attkisson reported for major networks including CBS News, PBS, and CNN. Find all things Sharyl Attkisson Buy her latest book, Follow the Science: How Big Pharma Misleads, Obscures, and Prevails Follow Sharyl: YouTube | Instagram | X Chapters: Introduction (00:00) Success Snack (04:02) Interview (06:32) Bought and Paid For (06:50) Doesn't Work? Add More (21:56) Revolving Door with No Oversight (28:17) Potential Disruption of the System (31:17) Reflecting on the Pandemic Lies (39:23) Censorship (45:06) Parting Advice (47:20) Find all things Triple P Life by visiting the website. Follow Dr. Jay: Facebook | LinkedIn | YouTube Get Dr. Jay's Book: Change Your Mind Change Your Destiny Find all the nutrition and supplement products Triple P Nutrition has to offer here.
MMT50 - 208: The Pavement Top 50 CountdownIn this episode of Meeting Malkmus: A Pavement Podcast, jD Dew is joined by Pavement superfan Patrice from Richmond as they dive into song #8 on the countdown. Together, they unpack the nostalgia, indie rock essence, and lyrical introspection that makes Pavement such a beloved bandk. From origin stories to unforgettable live performances, this episode is a heartfelt exploration of Pavement's legacy.Episode Highlights: • Pavement's Indie Rock Impact – Discussing Stephen Malkmus's songwriting style and the band's journey from Slanted and Enchanted to Terror Twilight. • Fan Origin Stories – Patrice shares her Pavement journey, from her early days with Last.FM to traveling internationally for Pavement shows. • Live Show Memories – Reliving standout moments from Pavement's 2022 tour, including the Central Park and Iceland residencies. • Pavement Cover Bands and Indie Scene Insights – A deep dive into the 90s revival through cover bands, concert costs, and more.About the Pavement Top 50 Countdown:Each week, jD counts down the essential Pavement tracks as chosen by fans. Don't miss the final reveal of the Top 50 songs and insider stories about Stephen Malkmus and the band's journey through the indie rock scene. Episodes drop every week, leading up to the top track chosen by listeners.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. Subscribe to stay on the journey as we continue the countdown of Pavement's most memorable tracks!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 - 209In this episode of Meeting Malkmus, we're diving into the Top 50 Countdown of Pavement's most essential tracks with our special guest, Robbie from Grimsby! Join host JD as they discuss some of Pavement's most iconic songs, explore the evolution of the band's sound, and reminisce about personal stories of discovering Pavement.Robbie shares his Pavement origin story—from being introduced to the seminal indie rock band during his college years to falling in love with albums like Crooked Rain and Wowie Zowie. Together, they discuss why albums like Bright in the Corners may take time to appreciate and how the narrative around these classic records has evolved.Key Segments: • [1:57] – Robbie's Pavement Origin Story: Discover how Robbie from Grimsby found Pavement during the Twilight era and why Crooked Rain became his favorite. • [4:31] – The Slow Burn of Bright in the Corners: Robbie reflects on how this album grew on him over time, and why Wowie Zowie clicked instantly. • [7:28] – Ranking Albums: Robbie reveals his current go-to Pavement album, why Slanted and Enchanted holds a special place and the emotional connection that certain albums carry. • [23:43] – Free Association in Pavement Lyrics: Robbie dissects the free-associative lyrics of Pavement, sharing his theories on Stephen Malkmus's writing process.Join us as we geek out on Pavement songs, dissect indie rock history, and debate the Top 50 Pavement Countdown. Is your favorite track ranked where it should be? Find out as JD and Robbie hash it out!Stay Connected with Meeting Malkmus: • Twitter: @meetingmalkmus • Facebook: facebook.com/groups/meetingmalkmus • Website: dewvre.com/meetingmalkmus • Email: jd.meetingmalkmus@gmail.comDon't forget to tune in next week as we continue the Top 50 Countdown of the greatest Pavement tracks, chosen by you!This episode was a fun journey through the seminal indie rock band's catalog. If you're a diehard Pavement fan, this episode is a must-listen!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
Welcome to another episode of Meeting Malkmus, where we're counting down the Top 50 Pavement songs as voted by fans. This week, we dive into song #10 on the list, the fan-favorite “Elevate Me Later” from Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain. Join host jD and special guest Jen Echo as they reminisce about the band's seminal moments, tour stories, and the unique relationship fans have with Pavement's music.From Pavement's early days and Slanted and Enchanted to their cult status in 90s alternative music, this episode is filled with personal fan anecdotes, live concert memories, and a deep dive into why this indie rock band still resonates decades later. Whether you're a long-time fan or new to the band, this episode will give you a fresh perspective on Pavement's iconic songs.Episode Highlights: • [00:05] – Introduction to the Pavement Top 50 Countdown: Recap of the journey so far, and the importance of “Elevate Me Later” in the Pavement discography. • [01:55] – Jen Echo shares her Pavement origin story and how she first discovered the band while working at an independent record store in the 90s. • [03:22] – Discussing the mystery behind Pavement's cryptic early years and the appeal of albums like Slanted and Enchanted. • [04:41] – The story of how Pavement built their underground reputation, including details from their early singles and why they connected with indie rock fans before mainstream success. • [05:56] – Jen recounts her experience seeing Pavement live in Columbus, Ohio, in 1992, during the Slanted and Enchanted tour. • [07:24] – Fan stories from Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain tour stops, including surreal concert experiences and a backstage moment with Stephen Malkmus. • [09:06] – The history of Pavement's live performances and how the band evolved over the years, with a focus on the energy of early concerts. • [10:36] – Jen recalls attending a 1994 concert where fans encountered the band before the show, marking one of her earliest in-person experiences with the group. • [13:09] – The iconic moment when Pavement played an entire set of chronological songs from their discography in a rare Milwaukee show, surprising even their most dedicated fans. • [16:13] – What Pavement meant to the indie rock scene, with a focus on their DIY ethos and how their music resonated with both critics and underground fans. • [20:10] – Jen's personal anecdotes about being one of the few female superfans during Pavement's early years and her unique backstage experiences with the band. • [22:32] – The emotional weight of Pavement's 1999 shows, leading up to their first breakup, and how fans, including Jen, coped with the band's hiatus. • [23:00] – Discussion on how Pavement's 2010 reunion tour brought their music to a new generation of listeners and re-energized their fanbase. • [25:35] – jD and Jen explore the deep-cut tracks from Slanted and Enchanted and Watery, Domestic, and how these B-sides influenced Pavement's lasting legacy. • [29:06] – Final thoughts on the enduring popularity of “Elevate Me Later” and why it deserved its place in the Top 10. • [30:00] – Reflections on Pavement's role in the 90s alternative music scene, including their influence on indie bands that followed.Key Topics Covered: • Pavement songs: Breaking down “Elevate Me Later” and why it stands out in the Top 50 Pavement countdown. • Indie rock culture: How Pavement helped define the 90s alternative music scene. • Behind-the-scenes stories from Pavement's tours and their connection with superfans. • Stephen Malkmus and Scott Kannberg (Spiral Stairs): Personal fan interactions with these key members of the band. • Nostalgic fan anecdotes about catching Pavement at pivotal moments during the Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain and Slanted and Enchanted tours.Follow and Join the Conversation: • Instagram & Twitter: @meetingmalkmus • Facebook: facebook.com/groups/meetingmalkmus • Website: www.dewvre.com/meetingmalkmusBe sure to connect with other Pavement fans, share your favorite tracks, and stay updated on future episodes of the countdown! Don't forget to subscribe and leave a review.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 - RT2In this episode of Meeting Malkmus, JD hosts a roundtable discussion with Pavement superfans as they break down the Pavement Top 50 countdown. From their live experiences to deep dives into SM's lyrical genius, join the conversation on Pavement‘s top songs and memories from the band's iconic albums like Wowie Zowie, Crooked Rain Crooked Rain, and Terror Twilight.Time Stamps & Highlights: • [0:15] JD introduces the roundtable, where the group will discuss Pavement's Top 50 countdown from songs 50 through 11. • [0:29] Jimmy shares his excitement about scoring tickets to Pavement Live in New York and what he expects from the show. • [4:03] Highlight: Jimmy talks about his excitement for “Give It a Day” making the list, describing it as one of his favorites in the 30s. • [4:44] Chris celebrates Blue Hawaiian making the top 50, despite its unusual sound compared to other Pavement songs. • [7:00] Boston Russ discusses his love for “Motion Suggests” and his memorable experience seeing Pavement play it live. • [8:08] JD and the group reflect on the Watery Domestic EP and how songs like Greenlander would have been even better if extended into a 10-inch record. • [10:28] Discussion: The group digs into the appeal of Pavement's lesser-known tracks like Texas Never Whispers and Linden Lions. • [12:46] Chris critiques Box Elder and Easily Fooled for being too simplistic compared to Pavement's more evolved songs. • [13:07] Highlight: The group discusses Half a Canyon and how it fared on other Pavement podcasts. • [14:29] Nostalgia: The group reminisces about seeing Pavement live and how their songs evolved during their 2022 tour. • [18:33] Boston Russ shares a story about hearing The Hex in Iceland, creating a magical fan moment. • [25:15] Chris reflects on discovering Pavement in 2004 and wonders how fan age demographics affect the Pavement Top 50 list. • [27:42] Discussion: The evolution of Pavement from their early lo-fi tracks like Slay Tracks to their more produced albums like Terror Twilight. • [32:24] The group speculates which Pavement songs will make the top 10. • [35:16] The impact of Crooked Rain Crooked Rain and tracks like Range Life and Gold Soundz in Pavement's legacy. • [39:04] Boston Russ gives a shoutout to his friend Sasha, who finally heard AT&T live after multiple attempts. • [45:25] Final roundtable: Everyone guesses what they think will be the number one Pavement song in the Top 50 Countdown.Key Takeaways: • Fans of Pavement are deeply passionate about their favorite songs, and discussions like these reveal how eclectic the band's music truly is. • The band's diverse sound across albums like Wowie Zowie, Slanted and Enchanted, and Crooked Rain Crooked Rain has created lasting memories for fans.Connect with Us: • Twitter & Instagram: @meetingmalkmus • Facebook: Meeting Malkmus Facebook Group • Website: Meeting Malkmus on DewvreJoin the conversation, share your favorite Pavement memories, and stay tuned for the next episode of Meeting Malkmus!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 - 211In this week's episode of Pavement Top 50 Countdown, host jD is joined by Pavement superfan Martel for a deep dive into one of the top tracks in the band's catalog as the countdown continues to edge closer to the Top 10.Martel shares his Pavement origin story, recalling the magic of discovering the band back in 1994 when he first heard the Crooked Rain album. From teenage weekends at record shops to hearing those first iconic notes, Martel reflects on the life-changing moment when he became hooked on Pavement. He also recounts memories of the band's live performances, from major festivals like Reading to more intimate shows, including their legendary 1999 gig in Hull.jD and Martel discuss the unique melodic style and abstract lyrics of the featured track, diving into the mysteriousness and artistic creativity that defines Stephen Malkmus's songwriting. They explore how Pavement's music, much like the band itself, holds layers of meaning that reveal themselves over time. The two also touch on Pavement's other standout albums, including Slanted and Enchanted, Wowie Zowie, and Watery Domestic, appreciating how the band's work continues to stand the test of time.Listeners will enjoy thoughtful conversations about the band's place in 90s alternative music, the allure of their cryptic album artwork, and the continued fan devotion seen during the band's reunion tour.Tune in to hear the next track on the countdown and join jD and Martel as they celebrate the legacy of Pavement, one essential song at a time.Key Topics: • [00:52] Martel's first encounter with Pavement's music through Crooked Rain • [02:20] Pavement's distinctive sound, songwriting, and cryptic lyrics • [05:17] Iconic live performances from Reading Festival to their intimate 1999 Hull gig • [06:23] The enduring legacy of albums like Slanted and Enchanted and Wowie Zowie • [17:11] The excitement around Pavement's reunion tour and hopes for future music from Stephen MalkmusDon't miss the countdown as we get closer to unveiling the Top 10 tracks!Connect with Us:Follow the podcast on social media and stay up to date: • Instagram and Twitter: @meetingmalkmus • Facebook: facebook.com/groups/meetingmalkmusJoin the conversation, share your thoughts on Pavement's music, and let us know where your favorite tracks land on 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
Curtis Houck from NewsBusters joins John to recap last Tuesday's Vice Presidential debate and expose how CBS has been wildly slanted in their favor of Kamala Harris.
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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
This week Steve West calls in to chat with jD about a variety of things including song # 16Transcript:Track 2:[0:00] Previously on the Pavement Top 50. There you have it. Song number 17 is Zurich is Stained from the debut long play Slanted and Enchanted. Mike, is this song in fact slanted and or enchanted? Discuss. Yes, indeed. I love this song. This song, it really is. And it's sort of an oasis. I love where it appears on the record. it's coming straight out of the chaos of uh conduit for sale and right before the chaos of chelsea's little wrists and you get this like really light breezy but fast song i mean it's not a ballad it's not like here it is it is this breezy light almost feels like it would be, at home on the Velvet Underground's third record. Hey, this is Westy from the Rock and Roll Band Pavement.Track 3:[1:03] 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. 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 a motorcycle and sidecar driven by an orangutan. How will your favorite song fare in the rankings? You'll need to tune in to find out. So there's that. This week, we're joined by Pavement superfan. No, wait a minute. Pavement superstar, Steve fucking West. Westy, how the fuck are you? I'm doing pretty good today. Yes. It's a good day, right? Yeah. Good day. Well, let's get right into it. Everybody else has been coming on and talking about their pavement origin story. I feel like that's sort of a strange thing because we've talked about it a little bit in the past. But I'm curious what it was like for you, I don't know, getting the call or getting the letter or whatever it was, the communication, the telephone call or whatever, that they were looking to fill Gary's role or like how that looked like. What what did that look like on your end?Track 3:[2:25] Well, it was kind of a long process of, you know, knowing Bob from high school and then being in Manhattan and Brooklyn and meeting Stephen and Bob and David. And then knowing that they were having difficulties kind of with with Gary.Track 3:[2:46] I can't say that I didn't know that it might be coming. And there was a phone call, like you said. But um i didn't really you know you know it kind of blew me away when it when it happened i think it was on a pay phone in manhattan and i was working at a um at a gallery helping to put up some artwork for leo castelli oh wow and i talked to steven and he was like i don't know man just put those drumsticks in the oven and keep them worn because i don't know what it's going to happen. So, you know, he was, he was giving me a heads up, but he wasn't promising me anything and understandable because, you know, the things were up and down with Gary. And so, and then, uh, I really, when it actually happened, I don't really remember any other phone call where it was because we, Steven and I would see each other quite a lot. And we lived in Brooklyn and, And we would hang out together when he wasn't on tour.Track 3:[3:56] And, you know, we play music together with David. When Bobby wasn't around, we were I kind of sat in as a drummer for them for the Silver Dudes and those little jam sessions we'd have in Brooklyn. So that kind of was the thing that kind of eased me into the whole playing music with with Stephen as well as with David. Wow and I had a loft in Brooklyn on 1st and 1st I think it was.Track 3:[4:31] South fifth. And it was a really crappy loft and it had, you know, we can make a lot of noise and it was right next to the Williamsburg bridge. And yep. And there was a tiny room in the back that Steven and I rehearsed, all those crooked rain songs when, you know, Gary had broken up and I guess I had joined the band and then we were like there jamming he was kind of introducing me to those songs in this room you know smaller than the bedroom that you have right there it was a small room it was like 10 by 10 not even probably, and uh i remember the guys upstairs complaining and banging on the ceiling and i was like come on this is a loft this is what you do in brooklyn this is what you're here you're an artist and you're musicians, and you make noise. You get a loft, and you make art, and you make noise. Totally. Yeah, we rehearsed those a few times, and then went in to record in Manhattan.Track 3:[5:41] Wow. That's pretty whirlwind, too, then, right? Yeah, I mean, it happened over a couple of months, but over a summer, that summer of, I guess, 93, um spring when i think gary quit i'm not hard for me to remember all the logistics of that's that's cool that's cool this isn't uh uh that kind of podcast where we you know get too into the weeds yeah yeah so what do you remember about um like a first show or when did you meet the rest of the guys like you were you were jamming with steve and you guys were coming up with crooked rain stuff and you were you know laying down drums for it in manhattan at the um, at that uh oh my gosh i forget the name of it right now but that uh pseudo studio, right while i recorded that that's right yeah that's right um yes so i think what happened was that spring before we recorded Crooked Rain um.Track 3:[6:54] There was a Drag City Invitational, and it might have been late spring, early summer. And we drove out to Chicago and played that. And that was the first time I played with the full group.Track 3:[7:13] I played with Steven and his girlfriend, Alexa, and maybe Mark. And we played at a show in New York City for a matador like in reunion or something like that show but that wasn't really pavement and we just played new songs or whatever I don't know what it was but the first pavement show was at the drag city thing drag city invitational um it was at a club that was across the street from where Dillinger was uh captured caught shot and captured um in Chicago and uh you know a lot of great bands on Drag City were there and Silver Juice played and um I guess uh Royal Trucks played as.Track 3:[8:01] Well and they recorded those stood a bit of it in the basement and um I remember playing that show and we had never practiced so it was just kind of like guessing really about everything yeah I don't think we practiced at all no we just went out there and played it and i had played you know the some some of the songs with steven but you know the crooked rain songs but the old songs we had never played all together so i just had to kind of they knew them and i had to you know make sure i kind of knew them and we got through it was a short set but it was good yeah that's pretty cool that's that's pretty cool it would be a cool.Track 3:[8:43] Ticket stub to own for the, you know, the first complete Pavement Band show, you know? Yeah.Track 3:[8:53] So you getting your hands dirty with Crooked Rain, does that tend to be the record that you would go back to if you were the type of person to listen to your own content? I don't know if you do. Like, I don't know if you, you know, listen to records that you've been on or whether you, you know, sort of avoid it. Like, I don't listen to very many of these podcasts, for example, just because, you know, they're done. They're done. They're done. Exactly. Like, I got their history. Yeah. What is that like with you with records? Is there one that you go back to that you're really proud of or anything like that?Track 3:[9:30] No, I mean, technically, I just go back to listen to practice to them. So I'm prepared for whatever's coming ahead. But, you know, each one has different memories for me. And of course, Crooked Rain was this fresh guy trying to figure out how to play with Stephen as well as with the whole band live as well as the recording. Recording um and uh wowie dowie would probably be more of a band thing where i would be like that was nostalgic was a really fun recording session in memphis and everything so but you know they're all different and they all have good and bad memories so i don't go back to them to listen that way i'm not that old yet.Track 3:[10:24] But when i go to practice to him i try to practice to like our live stuff that we did this past year right as well as um the rehearsals that we did in portland and i have all like the hard drives of the breakdown of the songs and you know the tracks and everything so, i'm probably more prepared for what could be thrown at me as you know how we play the songs live as a as a six piece and how we record them over the years in different setups so right it's two different ways of you know being prepared for all the things to be thrown at you yeah i suppose so like i mean was this was this tour like the well i call it this tour but the 2022 tour was that the most you guys had rehearsed like for uh for a series of shows before.Track 3:[11:17] I think so. I mean, the 2010, I think we practiced about five or five to eight times. But this time was a much better environment. And I think we practiced at least 10 or 12 days to prepare for that Fonda show in, I guess it was L.A. Which was great. I was on that one. That was fantastic. That was fun. and we all worked really hard to you know learn a whole lot of songs and be prepared how many did you take on the road um i think it was around 60 jeez yeah 60 songs that we could somehow pull out you know yeah and do that's a lot that's a lot of songs yeah and i mean you You guys were playing like 25, 26 songs a night. So like Toronto shows, for example, I saw it back to back and it was like, they weren't completely different set lists, but it really kept it interesting, you know, to see you guys multiple times because you had this.Track 3:[12:26] You had this log of, of songs that you could just carry around. Right. And Bobby is the master of doing that. He keeps track of everything and really works hard at making the set list different every night, as well as having the standards that you should be playing, but not having those standards be the same standard every night. Yeah yeah i'll tell you what doing this top 50 countdown what i did was i asked people to send in their top 20 lists and when i when i did all the math there was 121 different songs that were chosen so obviously i'm only counting the 50 but there's that many songs in your catalog that people fucking dig like that's you know that's got to be daunting in a certain way when you know There's B-sides and things like that that you guys might not have even played once outside of recording. Yeah, recording. Yeah.Track 2:[13:27] Okay, so what do you say we give song number 16 a spin, Steve? That sounds great to me. All right, let's do it. We'll be back on the other side. Hey, this is Bob Nestanovich from Pavement. Thanks for listening. And now on with a countdown. 16 now.Track 2:[20:31] Fillmore Jive, number 16 on the countdown.Track 3:[20:35] 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? No, I'd rather pick Fillmore Jive 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 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 did it in 2010. And we hadn't done it for years in the 90s. I think we did it in 94 and maybe they did it with Gary too before me.Track 3:[21:51] So I would say it's a deep cut live but in terms of records records you know for people to really enjoy but it's a pretty great number yeah pretty historic number and it really uh puts a nice end to that album yeah i think so yeah it leaves you wanting more for sure yes like in a good way you know not not like yeah okay i was like oh is that insulting thing um what.Track 2:[22:24] Do you say we get back to film our job sorry i'm.Track 3:[22:30] We recorded that, and I don't know if Stephen and I ever played that song except for when we recorded it in Manhattan at Walleye's Place. And then we played it a few times in 94, a handful of times, and didn't really play it again until this previous past couple of years. And it was always up. People loved it. Yeah, I was looking on Setlist FM, and it's like, Like, you guys played it 79 times in total, according to Setlist FM, but probably about 20 times this last tour, maybe something like that. Okay. And I got to tell you, I found it really interesting that you picked Billmore Jive, because it's the song that you're waiting a minute, almost a full minute before the drums come in. Yeah. Right? Right. And then it's that big cacophonous, you know, like I need to sleep with the with the cymbal crash. And yeah, the song really picks up steam at that point. Right now that.Track 3:[23:39] OK, so that song, I think, is where Stephen kind of the producer or the engineer, Bryce Goggin, who. who mixed the album. We recorded it in a different place, but he mixed the album. He was giving Carl Blanc to make it as big as he wanted. Do all the tricks. Do all the production tricks. And the only thing was that there was this previous recording of the intro, like you're talking about, and I don't know if that was recorded at Bob's apartment in Hoboken or at Gary's, you know, uh, studio, um, um.Track 3:[24:24] But they had that previous recording, which he thought was great.Track 3:[24:28] But he wanted to have, you know, a different take for the rest of the song. So that's kind of how we did it. And he kind of, I know that if you could hear the raw track, you'd probably hear him saying, okay, now, you know, we're playing along. He's like, okay, now we're going to get really loud and get crazy. West, go crazy. And now we're going to go quiet. So there's no way I knew that song that well, well because we wouldn't have practiced it it's a long song it's yeah it's almost seven minutes right right it's a feel song and um i think he just kind of like talked me through it and it was just the two of us so there wasn't all that other you know instrumentation to play off of it was more just him talking singing and playing um and trying to get a i feel and it definitely got a feel good or bad it got a good it got a feel oh it's yeah it's got a great it's got a great feel to it i just i can remember going for walks when i discovered crooked rain like you know in 2000 or whenever it was uh i was way off the beaten track and um just walking around listening to crooked rain and it would get to that song and there was just i don't know there's just something about that cymbal crash into the into the you know the main thrust of the song and then bringing it down again you know as he's talking about the punks with spikes and and things like that yeah.Track 3:[25:57] Just like he's kind of narrating uh narrating a music history for like a past couple decades up to that point and um you know making it kind of bringing out the history of it you know talking about the punks and the nightclubs and where he is you know it's not real you can't put your finger on it but you feel like you're being educated in a way about some weird world yeah i agree, yeah i mean doing this has been really fun because on this half you know we talk about the song and just getting people's impressions of what you know these songs are about out is fascinating is really fascinating because you know steve doesn't leave too many breadcrumb trails for you to figure things out it's it's just sort of um these cool phrases and cool little, you know vignettes almost and uh it's just really neat to hear what people think of them and i like like your take on, you know, going through a music history. That's, that's fabulous.Track 3:[27:08] Yeah. Yeah. It was fun. Anything else you want to say about, uh, Fillmore Jive?Track 3:[27:17] Um i love film or drive for its faults as for its um its feeling just as much, because like i said you know i don't think we did it more than once and of course you can always improve if you get a chance to take a test more than once right but you have to look at it that way i have to look at it that way and i listened to it today and i was like wow that's pretty great you know i can hear the things that i would change but um you know on my part not on okay anyone else's part but um you sometimes you just you just have to go with the flow and that's kind of what, being in pavement is and was about it's kind of going out there and and playing the songs and recording the songs and recording a lot and having a lot to throw away or to be on b-sides and um And then put the ones on the album that sound the best and live with the good and the bad, because a lot of times the mistakes are the happy mistakes. And people kind of endear themselves to that. Yeah, I think so. I think so. Happy mistakes is a good way to put it. Yeah. You got to have those happy mistakes. Yeah. Go away with a happy mistake is a great thing to feel when you hit the recorder. I didn't mean to do that, but that sounds awesome.Track 3:[28:44] Yeah, isn't that what they say? When you mess up, you just do it again, and everybody thinks you're jamming. Yeah. Yeah, but, you know, the next time it doesn't have the same feel. And, you know, when you think about the different albums, like the last album, there was a lot of time put into making that album problem as really crisp and time oriented in time, you know, cleaned up a lot of the pavement sound. Right. And I've always said that. There's a good part to that because i really enjoy that album and the production that nigel did um, but you do miss a little bit of the soul of the band too agreed and then when you step back and you go yes but over the five or whatever albums we did they're all different and that's the difference in this album and it's still a pretty great album so i'm all all for it Yeah. So what does 24 bring you guys? You're going to South America.Track 3:[29:55] Yes. When's the last time you played South America? 2010. We played South America. We played one or two shows. No, at least two shows there. And this time you're doing four or five, right? You were doing four shows, one big festival, and then three other cities and like three other countries and um it's like four shows in, six days or something so after that i don't know i think we're probably going to go into hibernation but and we'll see if we'll come out like the groundhog or not.Track 3:[30:35] Well it's been awesome talking to you about film or jive and the rest uh steve you're amazing with your time that's um it really means a lot that you would do this so thanks so much well thank you jamie it's always a pleasure when i see you in person and talk to you on the phone and all of this zoom business too that's right yeah well thanks a lot talk to you soon right wash your 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
@MattBrouillette and Matt Plummer here/Art's shirt/Dave's @AggieFootball trip/Slanted media POTUS coverage/Questions That Suck/What We're Watching #LaTorreLive
jD is joined by Mike Hogan from the 3 songs podcast w/ Bob Nastanovich. Learn about the Meeting Malkmus origin story while Mike shares his Pavement origin story and dissects song seventeen on the countdown.Transcript:Track 1:[0:00] Previously on the Pavement Top 50.Track 2:[0:02] So today we're talking all about song number 18 from the masterpiece Wowie Zowie. It's the absolutely gorgeous father to a sister of thought. Vish, what are your initial thoughts about this song? Well, you know, I was so happy that we landed on this as a song to talk about because I do love Wowie Zowie. I have a sense memory of picking it up when it came out i think the day it came out this is interesting it's a really fascinating song because in some ways it's super accessible uh musically uh it leans with the pedal steel and some of the other moves it leans towards kind of country music um i will say uh as i was pondering it i i mean i i know we are in a vacuum here of people who love pavement right and who love Stephen Malcomus, but as I was listening to this in preparation for our chat, I'm like, Malcomus is like an underrated everything.Track 1:[1:04] Hey, this is Westy from the Rock and Roll Band Pavement, and you're listening to The Countdown.Track 3:[1:12] Hey, it's J.D. here, back for another episode of our Top 50 Countdown for Seminole Indie Rock Band, Pavement. Week over week, we're going to countdown 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 four-slice toaster I had fashioned into a time machine. Now I pull the blinds of the time curtain. Yesterday is totally getting a do-over. 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 Mike fucking Hogan. How the hell are you, Mike? I'm doing good, JD. JD uh it's nice to talk to you yeah it's nice to talk to you too I've listened to you you know uh over the years with Bob on the on the pod and uh we've been lonesome for you yeah I was uh you know in advance of this I was like god when did we start that podcast and I looked the first episode was August of 2017 um and we did 177 episodes the last one being December of of, uh, 2022. And I think that was the only one we did that year too. I don't know. I haven't, I haven't checked, but yeah, we were pretty, we were pretty active, uh, for a few years with some breaks in between. Um, but, uh, but yeah, um, it was fun.Track 3:[2:39] So will the podcast be dusted off at some point? Will we get the Pavement-esque reunion tour? That's kind of the open question. I wouldn't say no. We don't have any immediate plans. The last time I talked to Bob about it was probably about, I don't know, four or five months ago. And he said maybe after the new year. You know, I think we we really paused things because, you know, obviously Pavement was rehearsing and then touring and things were hectic. We actually had this I had this idea to do a different like tour diary podcast in every city. Yeah.Track 3:[3:21] Like, you know, of course, the podcast that we did was very synchronous where we would talk back and forth. We would play songs but i was i had this idea where he would asynchronously record like five or ten minutes about like i'm in kansas city and here's my experience with kansas city and then we he'd pick a song that was kansas city based and i'd pick you know but it never it never ended up working out it would have been fun maybe damn that would have been great yeah maybe on the next reunion tour maybe the next reunion tour but yeah i think you know i mean between that and you know he's had some life changes i've had some life changes we kind of just were like let's take a pause let's um maybe start fresh you know after 177 episodes it's like how many different bands can you talk about that you haven't talked about in the first 176 so uh um you know i think if we came back we would probably you know might keep the same format but allow ourselves the opportunity to revisit and almost treat it as a fresh start. Hmm. That's interesting. You heard it here first, folks. No promises, you know, but no promises either way, really. Right. That's cool. It's, you know, you're saying there's a chance.Track 3:[4:41] Cool. Well, let's get right into it. Let's talk about your pavement origin story. story? Boy, um, I think I first heard of pavement. Um, I wasn't early enough to get the first seven inch. Um, but I think maybe the first drag city seven inch, um, it was probably the first time I'd heard of them. I don't know if I even bought it at the time I was in that era. I was in college. I was at very active in the college radio station at Santa Clara University KSU. And I was a music director for a little while. And there, you know, obviously, Pavement was getting a bit of buzz. And I remember them just being this band that had put out a few singles. They were getting written up in zines. You know, there wasn't social media. So there wasn't any of that buzz at that time. And it was it was like unless you had someone that had a copy you you know It was almost impossible to even find in stores, So they had this just kind of air about them of like and and there were no photos of them There weren't even their names. It was just SM and spiral stairs, and it was just this like very.Track 3:[6:02] Mysterious like who the hell are these guys and then little bits would come out where it was like Like, oh, you know, one of them worked at the Whitney as a as a as a guide. And they recorded in this in the studio in Stockton. And, you know, the the the drummer is the guy that runs the studio. He's just this old crazy dude. You know, it was just like little bits of information would kind of come out. And I think I think really what kind of hooked me was probably the 10 inch perfect sound forever. And then by the time Slandered and Enchanted came out, it was like I was full on waiting for it. And I think the first time I saw them, the only time I saw them until the reunion tour a couple years ago, was in San Francisco at the Kennel Club a week before Slandered and Enchanted came out.Track 3:[6:56] Was released. And shit. Yes, because I worked at the radio station, we had an advanced copy. So I was I was like, vigorously listening to the record. And so totally prepared for the show. And it's funny, because I think it was written up in one of the papers, one of the San Francisco papers, because the buzz was already even big. Even though Matador was still a pretty small label at the time. It was like this local band, local ish band is kind of getting uh some attention and uh it was funny the show was sold out and gary was out front like shaking people's hands as they walked into the show like could not believe that everybody was there to see him you know he'd been trying for years and years to hit it big in the music industry and couldn't believe that these two weird college kids that came into his studio was like his venue for We're actually getting some level of success. So it was kind of cool.Track 3:[7:59] Oh, very cool. Yeah. How was that show? It was, it was amazing. It was a little, um, ramshackle as some of their shows back then could have been. Um, but I just remember, you know, because I was so excited for it. Um, I just remember being like, odd, like, wow, this is great. You know? And then I never got a chance to see them again until they did the reunion tour. Uh, it was probably 30, a little over 30 years between my first and second pavement show that's hey you know what when you see them before slant it drops you're doing pretty good right like i like i think that's phenomenal i think the article in the paper said it would be like their 20th show that they played or something like that so it was certainly one of you know because before then they were just a recording band and you know they didn't it was you know all of the i think the earlier records were just the two of them plus gary uh and so they they sort of had to figure out like how are we as a band when we're playing out live and uh you know it was early enough that i think that i was still seeing some of that evolution of what pavement would become oh that is so fucking cool i you You know, I didn't get on board until very late, very late. So they were already broken up. Like, yeah.Track 3:[9:23] So, yeah, I got on board very late. And it's just listening to all this kind of talk, which I've heard, you know, a lot. I've done a lot of these at this point, these interviews and listening to people's pavement origin stories. Uh, you know, there's a lot of people who came late, but the people who came early have really fantastic stories. Like, you know, the fact that, uh, there were a mystery, you know, and that's something when I interviewed spiral, he said they really, that was something that was really important to them. And in fact, he was disappointed when they sort of dropped the. Like he wished they could have kept going with the – I don't know how they would have done that. Played in lucha masks or something? I don't know. Daft Punk did it for how many years, right? Oh, that's a good point. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know. Or the residents. I mean it had been done before. But yeah, that was certainly part of the mystique for me. And seeing them, like, wow, they're real people when I saw them live. It was like – this is the, you know, yeah, the reveal of the curtain.Track 3:[10:31] But yeah, and that was why when slanted, I mean, perfect, perfect sound forever, too. But especially when slanted dropped, it was like felt very fresh, felt familiar, but totally different at the same time. And that's why in some ways, I think my experience of pavement is just naturally different from somebody that experienced them later when they already had this full body of work. And you could see you could see that progression because there was just this question of where were they going and what would they do next and um i can imagine the ep that came after was like oh my god these four songs are just amazing incredible like like and and it was uh.Track 3:[11:19] Yeah it was interesting it was um a very exciting time and they were like a very important band for me in that, in that period of my life. I bet. So what, um, is your go-to record at this point? Do you have one or, I mean, I know that's a tough question because it probably changes week, week over week, but you know, just think about right now, what would you, if, if we get off the phone here and you want to just reminisce about some pavement, what are you going to throw? It's hard because, you know, I think as somebody who had that level of experience about like this mystique early on and the seven inches were and, you know, the early albums were really just so ingrained in my memory. Like, I almost don't need I listened to Slandered and Enchanted before our talk today. And it was probably the first time in a couple years that I'd listened to it. But it was like, I knew every one of those songs. So in intimately, I knew every note, every lyric, every, you know, Baba Baba, you know, like every little like, like, part of the songs in a way that the later albums.Track 3:[12:38] I'm not as intimately familiar with. So when I listen to a later record, it's almost like hearing it fresh. And I can't distance myself from my experience of like Perfect Sound Forever back when it came out, or Slanded went back when it came out. But that said, I think if I were to just be like, I wanna put on a record, um well i mean watery domestic is probably my favorite piece of work that they did but it's only four songs so it's wrong but it's so fast yeah it just is over so quickly and i think i only had it on cd i only recently bought the the vinyl of it and i didn't realize that the little like you know that little like transitional piece i didn't realize it was at the end of a song i thought it was the intro of a song because i always just listened to the cd ah and it just went i never paid enough attention to it because i didn't listen to it on shuffle or anything um and so it was almost revelatory when i got it on vinyl i was like this is like the way it's supposed to be like and then i flipped the side over um so that must have been brain busting It was kind of weird. I thought that was the intro to the song, but it was really the outro.Track 3:[14:04] Well, speaking of Pavement songs, should we get into the song that you're going to cover? Yeah, let's do it. All right. We'll be right back after listening to song number 17.Track 1:[14:19] Hey, this is Bob Nestanovich from Pavement. Thanks for listening. And now on with a countdown.Track 2:[14:28] 17.Track 3:[16:10] There you have it. Song number 17 is Zurich is Stained from the debut long play Slanted and Enchanted. Mike, is this song in fact slanted and or enchanted? Discuss. Yes, indeed. I love this song. This song, it really is. And it's sort of an oasis. I love where it appears on the record. it's coming straight out of the chaos of uh conduit for sale and right before the chaos of chelsea's little wrists and you get this like really light breezy but fast song i mean it's not a ballad it's not like here it is it is this breezy light almost feels like it would be.Track 3:[17:03] At home on the velvet underground's third record you know there's this mood to it that feels, in some ways different from earlier in the record and even what comes a little later where there's a lot of like fuzz and noise it's just this light little break um that's almost this perfect little slice of i don't even know how long it is but i'm guessing it's less than two minutes it's It's just, uh, yeah, it's, it's in and out. Yeah. It's in and out. And, and the whole time Malchmus, I don't think really pauses the vocals for more than a second or two. It's just beautiful little instrumentation with his vocals kind of just strung throughout it all. Yeah. I'm singing it in my head right now. It's right. It's, it's, uh.Track 3:[17:59] I mean, you know, and it's like the chorus keeps coming back and then he ends it with the, you know, like just it is a perfect little song. It's just a perfect slice of, and if I were to play somebody that had never heard Pavement, if I would play them, what is from a songwriting perspective, what is a quintessential Pavement song? You know, there are probably a few others that might come to mind, but this is like one of those like sleeper cuts. It's just such a perfect little song that doesn't get the buzz of like the Summer Babes or, you know, some of the more hit songs. I just I love it, though. yeah it's a it's a it's a really great song it's very different from the rest of the record for for sure it like maybe even it's like more at home on crooked rain crooked rain like you know like just sonically but uh but you're right where it hits in the record is is just is just right and And it's a refreshing little wafer, you know, before the next meal. Yes. Or the next course.Track 3:[19:22] Yeah. I think because of where it hits in the record, it feels mellower, you know? Feels in contrast to some of the other songs that come before and after it. What did you say is right before it? Conduit? Conduit, yeah. Okay, yeah. So it comes out of that frantic chaos into this breezy little, there's like the twang guitar, there's no fuzz, it's just this kind of light, catchy little, very short song, song, but that feels fully formed. It's not one of those songs that feels too short. You know, it just is like an idea song. Like, like there's a lot of those on Wowie, for example. Right. Yeah. Yes. Right. Or, you know, I mean, I can even think of like Emmett Rhodes lullaby. I don't know if you know that song. It's, it's, it was used. I first heard of it in, um, I think Royal Tenenbaums, one of those Wes Anderson movies, but, um, it's a beautiful little song and it's It's only a minute long, and it just feels too short. Zyrka's Dane does not like that. It just feels fully formed, even though it's only a minute in, I don't know, 50 or something. Yeah.Track 3:[20:41] What was I going to ask you? I was going to ask you if you've got a line on what it's potentially about. And if not, that's cool. I don't know. No, I mean, I miss Malcolm. This is hard. I, I kind of try not to read in too much to the lyrics because I also don't really trust the lyrics. Um, if you know what I mean, like if the lyric sheet, um, is often or not, I wouldn't say often, sometimes the lyric sheet, Like I'm looking at the lyric sheet right now that is included in the vinyl of Slanted and Enchanted. And the one that stands out is not necessarily Zerka Stain, but on Loretta's scars, you know, the, the line from now on, I can see the sun is always what I knew it to be. But the lyric sheet says from now on, I can see the slums. And so. Really? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And so I sort of, especially with Mouthmasters lyrics, I try not to read too much into it. It's just this like, kind of catchy thing.Track 3:[22:06] You know, like a jumble of words that make sense within the music of the song. I call it word salad. Yeah. I call it word salad. You get a tasty morsel in every forkful. You know, there's a little bit of everything. There's imagery. There's, you know, these slant rhymes sometimes. Really cool phrases. Memorable phrases. Yes. I almost feel like, you know, I can't sing it strong enough is a great line. I don't know what it's about. Right. And I don't even know if it's about, I mean, the song is Zurich is Stained. I don't even think it's about Zurich. There's no other sort of mention of it. Yeah, I mean, right. Like, it's okay. It's not your fault. Cool. cool.Track 3:[22:57] Whose fault is it? Do we even care? I don't know. I just try not to. I try not to read too much into it. And I think one of the one of the things that I noticed and what I've always kind of tried to avoid when I would talk music, you know, the songs when when Bob and I did three songs, but is I would, I would try and talk about the music and not try to analyze the lyrics so much, unless there was something that really like, like stood out and grabbed me and resonated with me. Um, but yeah, I think, I think Malchmus is especially at this phrase, you know, phase of his career. I felt like each line was its kind of own self-contained mini story and often didn't even like match or connect or follow the line that came after it um so to your question what's the song about i have no idea that's cool well i'll pivot completely then and we'll go back to three songs for a minute how the fuck you know did you and bob connect yeah this is this is kind of.Track 3:[24:09] Obviously, I was a fan for a while, for a long time. And I'm thinking back in 2013, I moved to New York City. And I started working at a horse racing company. Okay. And actually, it probably was 2014 that I moved there in 2013. Probably a year later, I got the job at the horse racing company. And as I'm sure you know, Bob has always been interested in horse racing. And what he was, I was based in New York, he was based in Iowa. But he was the local representative for the Iowa racetrack for the company that I worked for. And so when I get there and I see, you know, Bob Nastanovich, I'm like, hey, man, what's up? And we started working together for work. And then I was at some point I was like, you know, I'm familiar with your band, Bandza, you know, because I was also certainly familiar with the Silver Jews as well. So good. And so we just became friends. I worked there. I think Bob got laid off because horse racing is not really a growth industry. So Bob got laid off. And then a year or two later, I got laid off.Track 3:[25:37] But we were always friendly friends. I'd consider us friends. We became friends, even though we lived a couple thousand miles away from each other. Yeah um and after i got laid off in 2017 i was like hey i got some time now you want you want you want to do a music podcast um and he was like yeah sure and so we threw around ideas of like what it would be about and how we would approach it what we would call it all of that and he suggested three songs and we just kind of bandied back and forth uh you know hey this is this is is sort of how i want to do it i just want it to be like two friends talking music and sharing music that we like with each other kind of like the way it was back when pavement started when you just couldn't find things online there was no online you just had to hear about it because somebody you knew was into it and be like oh you got to check this out you'll love it so that was sort of the spirit of it we started i think our first episode i know our first episode i didn't have a mixer it sounds like shit you couldn't really hear bob bob couldn't hear the songs um but i just left it up anyway because they were good songs and it just it was uh a good a good chat um and then by episode two i got i bought a mixer and a mic and uh we're we're off.Track 3:[27:00] Game changed. Game changed. And we, yeah, we were friends for probably two and a half years before we did the podcast. Yeah. And then we did the podcast for probably another two and a half years before we met in person. So I knew Bob and was friends with Bob for five years before we'd ever. And you guys did an episode together in person, right? We did one episode in person. Yeah. Okay. I remember listening to that one. Yeah. I mean, I've listened to a bunch, but I specifically remember that one. Yeah. It was sort of weird because we're doing this with video. I can see you, so you can see me. I can see when you're ready to talk. We didn't do any of that. Bob didn't want to be on camera. He felt uncomfortable. He's out on his back porch. He's just running around. You'd hear the dog in the background. So I didn't know when he was done talking, and we would sometimes talk over each other. So doing the one in person when we could actually see each other's cues was a little strange, to be honest. Because we had done, I don't know, at that point, two and a half years worth, probably close to 100 episodes. That's what I was going to say. I feel like it was in the 90s, that episode. But I might be wrong. Yeah. That was probably after. Because we did the 100th episode.Track 3:[28:21] Yeah, we did the 100th episode, which was the David Berman Silver Jews focus one. Which is still our most listened to episode. That was the episode 100. And I know we recorded it a few months before we met in person. So, yeah, we probably did 110 before we'd ever met in person. And the reason we met, the way we met, was Bob came to Portland in January of 2020 because there was a tribute show to David and to Silver Juice. And so Bob, so we, you know, I think there were a number of people that played, including.Track 3:[29:02] Uh, um, the woman, Rebecca from the Spananes, um, played a set. Um, there were a few others that played, but the headliner was, uh, just a duo of Bob and Steven playing, playing silver juice stuff, which, and you can find it, you can find the recording on, um, on YouTube and famously one of it's great. It's actually worth seeking out because, you know, it was, it was cool to see. Um but someone in the comments was like this sounds like shit and then bob replied and he's like sorry man i can give you your five bucks back or whatever and and then the guy was like oh i'm really sorry i didn't mean to you know it's he's like that is spectacular yeah so it's it's almost it's worth watching for sure but it's almost worth seeking out to to find that little nugget of, of exchange, um, in, in the, in the YouTube comments section. But, um, but yeah, that was the first time we met. Did you parlay that meeting into, uh, an opportunity to meet with SM? I did. Yes. So this is, this is sort of my meeting mouth story. Although I actually met him in the nineties briefly at Satyricon when, um, the Geraldine Fibbers were playing. He.Track 3:[30:23] He lived in Portland at that point, and I think I was still down in Eugene, but I was and have been good friends with Nels Klein for years and years and years, put out some of his records back in the 90s. And then he got into the Geraldine Fibbers and was playing guitar with them. They played a show at Satyricon and I was hanging out with Nels and Stephen came to the show. And so I met him briefly then in the 90s. um but then yeah flash forward 20 plus years january 2020 so that the the day before the show.Track 3:[30:57] That they played uh with a tribute to to david is the day that bob and i hung out we recorded the podcast that day we went and had lunch we had dinner i just hung we just hung out together all day. And then, um, I was going to head home and he's like, ah, just crash, crash in Stephen's basement. There's, there's two couches there. I I'm on one, you can crash on the other. And I was like, yeah, okay, no problem. And so, um, we got back there, I don't know, around midnight, everybody was asleep. We'd go down to the basement and, you know, and then I get up around eight or so to go to leave and um the basement stairs were right at the top uh or the top of the stairs was right at the kitchen and so um i went there was a bathroom in the basement i went and used the bathroom and i was about like putting my shoes on and about to leave and steven's wife jessica comes to the top of the stairs and is like bob's bob and i'm standing there, and I just say like I didn't know what to say of course I'm like uh, Bob's friend and she's like oh Bob had a sleepover and I was like uh yeah hi I'm Mike so um.Track 3:[32:17] So then, and, and so that was sort of a strange little, and then I got, you know, got my shoes and my jacket and I'm like going up the stairs and what at the top of the stairs, it's like you see the full kitchen and, you know, Jessica and Steve's daughters were in the kitchen having breakfast. And I'm like, um, nice to meet you. Thanks for letting me crash here. Even though you didn't know I was crashing here. here um uh you know like hey i'm mike and just like really sheepishly like trying to leave and the back door is right kind of at you go to the top of the stairs and to the right is the kitchen and straight ahead is the the side door um that goes to their their driveway and i'm like trying to open the side door and jessica's like it kind of sticks a little bit do you want me to help and And I'm like, oh, I think I got it. And so I'm like fiddling with the doorknob for like 10 seconds, which felt like two minutes. And then I finally got it opened and it was like, all right, thanks. See you later.Track 3:[33:25] And then later that day, you know, Bob said, come on over. We'll hang out. And so I came over later that day and then met them in earnest. And they were very sweet. She was very sweet. You know, like, I'm really sorry. And I was here and she's like, don't worry about it. And then Steven was there. And he was like, they were just kind of.Track 3:[33:43] Prepping for the show later that evening and um he was very nice he actually gave me he just finished reading lou reed's a biography on lou reed he's like i'm looking for on it and i was like yeah sure so i've got steve's steven's copy of uh the lou reed biography up in my my bedroom.Track 3:[34:01] Somewhere that's spectacular i think that's really cool yeah yeah borrowing books from steven malcolm any other uh chances that you met him or um yeah i mean i've met him briefly a few other times you know bob um would come to town when pavement was rehearsing i think they rehearsed for about almost a month before they did their their first reunion tour in 2022 22 um yeah bob bob stayed here for probably maybe not quite a month maybe three or four weeks two or three weeks and um you know i would not every day but regularly after they were done i would you know hang out with bob a little bit and we'd get some dinner or whatever and one night there was some band playing and um steven and jessica went and we tagged along and so i've met him a number of times we're i would say we're friendly but we're not friends i don't have his number he doesn't have mine you know if if i were to run into him around town which um happens now and then i'd probably feel too shy to say hi but um if i did i think he would know who i was and be okay with it that's that's.Track 3:[35:19] Pretty neat though i would say yeah you know i mean this is one of the things about portland it's like a it's a it's kind of a small town it's a big big enough city but it's also kind of a small town yeah well i want to share something with you because it's kind of funny uh you know it's in the lore of meeting malchmus i reached out to bob when i first conceived of this podcast in the fall of uh 2018 and asked him if he wanted to co-host meeting malchmus and this is the you know this is the premise and blah blah blah and uh i didn't have it all nailed down at that point um but i gave him the i gave him the highlights and he's He's like, he responded back and he's like, sounds fun, but I'm already doing a podcast. And I was like, tell me what it's called. And that's how I found out about your podcast.Track 3:[36:11] But that's also how Bob ended up not on Needy Malcomus, if he would have done it, if he would have done it. Well, so I apologize because I feel like I'm the reason why he said no. Although I would have to check. There were times, and I think that the fall of 2018 was one of those times. There were times, and if you look back through our episodes, you'll see big gaps, and it's often.Track 3:[36:37] Associated with life events. And my, my daughter was born in July of 2018. And I think right after that, we actually did probably a six month pause. Cause I was like, I don't, I'm working. And, uh, you know, I mean, I took a little time off, you know, I'm not sleeping yet. Like, uh, as priorities go, I don't know if I'll have time to talk to you for a little bit. So you, even though Bob, I mean, and I appreciate Bob being loyal to me. It was probably during a pause, and he probably could have said, hey, I've got the time right now. I am doing a podcast, but we're not doing it right away. That's funny. Yeah. So do you have anything you want to plug other than three songs at this point? What's the episode that people should grab of three songs aside from the Berman episode? Episode like what would you say is is a standout episode that gives you a real sense of what the show is well okay so those are almost two questions because.Track 3:[37:41] The standout episode of what the show is this the premise of the show was bob would bring three songs to play to me that he thought i maybe didn't know uh and might like and i would do the same for him um and so those some of those early episodes where we were still finding our footing were a lot of the songs where it was like, Oh my God, I fucking love this song so much. Like the X is state of shock. Um, you know, like some, some of these go between songs or some of these like old blue songs that, that just like really resonated with me in a strong way. I was like, I, you know, I don't know if you know this, but like, I want to play it for you and just get your reaction. Um, so, you know, I don't know. I, don't have the list in front of me and my screen saver went to sleep. So I, you know, I'm not even going to log in to figure out what some of those early episodes were. Um, but, uh, you know, I, what I, what I also tried to do, and it was never a spoken thing between Bob and I, but I, I was inherently conscious of the fact we were two middle-aged white dudes.Track 3:[38:54] Talking music and i wanted to make sure we weren't just talking about white dudes no it is very if you haven't listened to it listen to it but there are there are like i'm just going i'm making this up but like throat singers and or did you have a throat singer uh i don't know if we went quite that wild but we would do yeah it's everywhere though it's like you guys you guys covered the spectrum yes music all kinds of genres all kinds of countries we try we tried to go all around the world you know and we tried to also be very inclusive of all genders and you know because again it's just two white dudes talking we didn't want it to be like very focused on on like western western music you know that said we didn't want to make it so obscure that people would be like, there's not anything here for me, you know, like, we would try to try to walk that line where it would still be fun and worthwhile. And, you know, I think if nothing else, it was just, I hope that people came because they liked Bob, and they liked me, and they felt like they were listening in to friends.Track 3:[40:08] And they felt like they were one of of our friends that were experiencing this music and experiencing this conversation at the same time. Um, I hope it was more that and not like, Oh, I'm going to list, listen because today they're talking about, you know, Sebado or whatever. I'm going to listen because today they're talking about some band I know, and I want to hear what they say.Track 3:[40:30] I, I, I was, I hope we built enough of an audience that liked us and trusted us. So that's it. It's the trust piece. It's like you guys were sort of a modern day equivalent of like the record shop dude, you know, that trusted guy that, you know, Gary Gal.Track 3:[40:51] It's like, hey, I saw you buying these two records. Yeah. You're probably going to totally dig this. Yes. Yes. Tastemakers. I hope, I hope the unjudgmental record shop dude that wasn't like, oh, I can't believe you bought this.Track 3:[41:06] No, I don't mean that. You know some of those types, right? Yeah. We wanted it to be, you know, I also didn't want it to be a situation where I was, you know, ripping on someone's art. Or if I didn't like it, I would just be like, oh, it's maybe not my thing. But most of the time, everything Bob played for me, I was into or found some sort of way to resonate with.Track 3:[41:32] But aside from that, I mean, I'm not doing any podcasts. I don't have anything to plug. I mean, I think those that have listened to the show know that Bob runs a small record label. And back in the 90s, I ran a small record label called Little Brother Records. Records um you know uh i've got a few of the old back stock and maybe i'll send me your address i'll send you a little package of some of the old records i put out um oh wow cool yeah um you know and it's uh so but i wouldn't say i have that to plug it's just part of my it's part of my origin story yeah absolutely well i really want to thank you for taking this time with me today it's been a blast talking to you dude yeah appreciate it thanks for thinking of me thanks for including me no you're you're near top of the list when i started thinking of like people that i solicited to like on my twitter and stuff like that uh i i asked basically anybody and everybody but then i also had like the celebrity wing you know and uh you appeared on that list so i i company you're in.Track 3:[42:42] I don't know if I would even come close to listing me as a celebrity, but I appreciate the thought. In the podcast, in the indie rock podcast world, I would see you. If you want to say our top episode, which is the Berman one, that got maybe 12,000 listens, if that makes me a celebrity. I mean, you know. If you had 12,000 people in your living room listening to you talk, that would be a pretty fucking big deal. That's true. I don't know if I'd have enough food for them.Track 3:[43:14] I had a friend tell me that early on in podcasting. They were, you know, they were like, because I was like, I don't know. I don't want to put myself out there and see the numbers. And they were like, if you have 12 people that listen, like, that's pretty cool. Well, I think more than that, but the sense that you, that I get is that you approach it the way that Bob and I approached it. And, um, you know, I had the advantage of kind of tagging along to a, a, a celebrity.Track 3:[43:43] And so Bob's name helped bring in listeners, but we, we didn't, we didn't do any promotion other than maybe, you know, little like, like Twitter promotion. We didn't, we didn't solicit any, um, sponsors or anything like that. We didn't ever want to try and find a way to monetize it because if we were doing that, it wouldn't be what I wanted. Yeah. And it wouldn't be fun. It wouldn't be, it would be like work, you know, and I wanted it to be my release for like, here's an opportunity to talk to my friend about music. Um, and maybe, you know, maybe we will find an audience you know if you're if you're authentic and you're doing something for the right reasons often the audience finds you it may take a little while um but that's i think that's also about the the way i look at a lot of the music that i like you know bands like sonic youth weren't you know or or the x is another huge band that i just have loved for their whole career they're not worried about is it going to sell or whatever and they just they find the audience eventually.Track 3:[44:52] Yeah i would say i would say authenticity is a is a reasonable place to start from, yeah that's the best i can do yeah yeah hey again thanks so much and uh wash your goddamn hands.Track 1:[45:11] Thanks for listening to Meeting Malcomus, 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 Malcomus dot 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
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
Once upon a midnight dreary, we recorded the best podcast about Pavement and the 199th greatest album of all time, Slanted and Enchanted. Quoth our downloaders "Nevermore". The first half of this podcast is sponsored by Hardees, during which we discuss our favorite Summer Olympic events and the utility of wagons. Then, we dive into the most important Delta meltdown that has impacted one traveler's upgrade. Finally, we become the best podcast about literature and discuss Edgar Allen Poe's short stories, the best books of the 21st century, and a book about an erotic scene with a jazz-playing bear. Then at (50:00) we break down Pavement's debut studio album Slanted and Enchanted. We discuss Pavement's performance at Lollapalooza, indie bands, and lo-fi music. Next week, we'll keep it rollin' when we become the best podcast about A Tribe Called Quest and cover the 1993 hip-hop album Midnight Marauders.
Some say that comparison is the thief of joy, but we still think this is the best podcast about Sade and the 200th greatest album of all time, Diamond Life. And what better way to celebrate this album, than posting this podcast 40 years and 7 days after its original release! But before we get to the music we jump on a big swing and discuss the best fictional basketball players of all time. Then we chat about glazing mugs at family camp, hidden tracks on the Miseducation of Lauren Hill, and snoring treatments. We also became the best podcast about politics in 2024 with a stump speech asking Lunds and Byerlys to bring back regular donuts. Click here to sign the Change.org petition and support the cause! Then at (1:06:00) we discuss Sade's debut studio album, Diamond Life. We chat about Sade's use of space (shout out Heat Rocks), the best Sade albums, and the best titular lines of all time. Next week's episode will cover a lonesome era when we become the best Pavement podcast and cover the 1992 indie rock album Slanted and Enchanted.
jD and Brian Glaser get together this week on the Pavement Top 50 Countdown. They of course discuss Brian's Pavement origin story and then they reveal and talk about track 23 on the countdown.Transcript: Track 1:[0:00] Previously on the Pavement Top 50.Track 2:[0:02] A stone-cold classic. This is the eighth song on our list from Pavement's penultimate album, Bright in the Corners. At 24, it's in. Jamie, what are your initial thoughts about this song? I think I remember really liking it kind of when I, you know, when you buy Bright in the Corners, you put it on, you go through the album, and it feels like a sensible, good closing song. The name kind of gives it away.Track 1:[0:30] Hey, this is Westy from the Rock and Roll Band, Pavement, and you're listening to The Countdown.Track 3:[0:38] 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 result, choosing an abacus and a woman named Helen, who frankly looked kind of lost. How will your favorite song fare in the rankings? You'll need to tune in to find out. So there's that. This week we're joined by Pavement superfan, Brian from New Jersey. Brian, how are you doing, motherfucker? I'm doing alright. How are things in Canada? Things are just dynamite. the sky is bright blue the clouds are nice and fluffy it's sunny you know i'll take sunny even if it's a little bit below zero just uh rather than that gray shit that just you know ruins everything yeah how about you everything's great here yeah it's you know it's uh it's the weekend just getting to hang out i'm getting to talk about pavement yeah that's pretty good right, Well, let's do that then. Let's get your Pavement Origins story.Track 3:[1:52] So my Pavement Origins story, I feel like it is the most down-the-middle, ordinary one. But it's also, from listening to your podcast, it's essentially the inverse of yours. Okay. So I was a college radio DJ in the early 90s. And our college radio station, the music director, would call us into his dorm like once a week or once every other week uh all the djs would come in and he would have all of the recent releases and we would hit play and just see what was happening and what we might want to play on our radio shows and stuff like that and i remember.Track 3:[2:32] Slanted and enchanted dropping into this gathering and you know he hits play on summer babe um and And it was amazing. You know, I'm also, I'm a drummer, so I'm listening to this. And this great song, one of the hooks is the hi-hats. Yeah, that hi-hat wiggle or whatever you want to call it. What do you call that? I don't know. Wiggles as good as anything. But like, think of another song where like part of the hook is, you know, a little hi-hat flourish. So that blew my mind. And then, you know, Trigger Cut comes right after that. So I went from never hearing of this band to, you know, I'm in my, I'm probably like 19, sitting in a college dorm, listening to Slanted and Enchanted, and I am a billion percent in. Like, it's everything I like.Track 3:[3:30] It's everything I love. So, I was then just like, I was there for each record coming out, and I bought them as they came out. And I went to see the Crooked Rain tour, and I saw them on Lollapalooza, and I saw the Brighton the Corners tour. And I think by the time Bright in the Corners came out, I was a music journalist in Philadelphia. And I'm pretty sure I wrote a review of Bright in the Corners for somewhere.Track 3:[4:03] I bought Terror Twilight. So I bought all of them when they came out. I did not see – I missed the Terror Twilight show. I went to the other night of the matador anniversary show because the other one was headlined by Yola Tango and they're my number one I don't miss them uh and a buddy of mine went to the other one said that the pavement show that was when he had like the uh Malcolm has had the handcuffs dangling off of his microphone stand to show his displeasure um Um, And then, you know, after that, it just, it went from being a present tense thing to pavement went into past tense and I bought the reissues when they came out. Um, but I wasn't, when they got back together and we're playing in central park, I think my son had just been born. So I didn't go see that, but they were really just kind of a past tense thing for me. And then kind of two additional things happened. The first was the pandemic.Track 3:[5:16] And just because of the kind of music guy I am, when we got sent home to work remotely, I listen to music when I work from home and I like to set little projects or parameters for myself to make it interesting. I'll be like, today I'm only going to listen to songs that this drummer is on or whatever I'm going to do. Oh, cool. And since I thought we were just going home for like a month or two, I was like, I'm only going to listen to stuff I have on vinyl. No CDs, no streaming. It's just going to be vinyl. It'll make me stand up every 20 minutes and, you know, it'll just be like a fun little parameter because I have a bunch of vinyl, but it's not the biggest part of my collection. And the only pavement I had on vinyl, I had this extra live LP that Matador sold along with the Bright in the Corner, Nicene Creed's reissue.Track 3:[6:20] It's okay. But I also had Terror Twilight, which I had listened to. I bought it on vinyl, I listened to it, and I was like, eh, there's no spiral songs on here. It feels kind of clean. It just didn't connect. But by that time, I was listening to your podcast, and this was the only one that under my rules I could really listen to. So i listened to the shit out of terror twilight you know in 2020 so it had you know it'd been out and somewhere in the back of my head for a while but i really engaged with it um and so now i'm like all in on terror twilight all these years later and you know then they came back for their latter-day reunion shows. And my buddy and I turned 50 as they rolled into Brooklyn. And so we're like, and he lives not far from King's Theater, so we're like, we're going. And we went to one of the King's Theater nights in Brooklyn. And this is like the fourth or fifth time I've seen them. And, and, Suddenly, this was the best I'd ever seen them play.Track 3:[7:33] This is what I'm hearing. This is what I'm hearing about 2022. It was amazing. I guess I would describe when I went to those shows during the initial run, everyone was playing their parts as best they could, which was very good, but they were all just kind of doing their part of the band. Yeah. On this tour, they were together. I thought so, too.Track 3:[8:26] Enchanted in college when it came out. and we're looking at each other like we couldn't believe that this was the best pavement show we'd ever seen that's amazing it just didn't seem possible um right you know because that's not what reunion tours are for no not typically um and then i'll just add you know as part of my origin story it's been it's made me have a different extension of my origin story listening to you and the other people you have on the podcast who generally seem to have come in around Terror Twilight or even after the initial run.Track 3:[9:05] This may sound pretentious or silly or whatever you want to say, but it felt like you're not as invested in the narrative that popped up around Pavement in that initial run and that every record that came out was colored by the Pavement story. Does that make sense? Yeah, I think so. You know, because I think, especially with like Wowie Zowie Bright in the Corners and Terror Twilight, when those came out, They were part of like a reaction to what had happened the year before with them. And it was hard to listen to those just sort of on their own merits because you were listening to them as part of the narrative.Track 3:[9:50] And it's fun, like getting the chance to listen to them, not like that, sort of inspired by the way you're hearing them and your experience with them and the other people that you talk to. And it's really, it's changed my relationship with a lot of the records and a lot of the songs. Oh, wow. Do you have a specific example of a song? Well, I think I'll give an album example instead. The narrative of Bright in the Corners when it came out was, A, they got the shit back together after the wowie-zowie being all over the place. And also, everyone, maybe especially people who are music journalists, were very into the R.E.M. Connection because of the production. So I was sort of talking myself into hearing REM in that record, you know, because I'd heard Unseen Power, The Picket Fence, and I knew that they had REM's producers and all that. So I was like, I listened to it as their REM record. I've never thought of that. That's great. Yeah. Great. Well, and now I can just listen to it as, you know, here's some amazing Spiral Stairs songs and here's the band really playing together. Like that one might be the closest to how they're sounding now.Track 3:[11:18] That's a good call. Yeah. Yeah, I think so. So yeah, so that's an example of how it's changed here, getting out of the narrative. I'll also say something that colored my initial run through Pavement, and I don't think I've heard you talk about this before, is when they were at their initial peak, they were this huge and overwhelming influence on like indie rock so like i remember i was at maxwell's the week that crooked rain coming out not seeing pavement but just another band with you know two distorted guitars and a slacky attitude or whatever and in between all their songs they They talked about Crooked Rain.Track 3:[12:08] That was their stage banter. It was so... Are you serious? Yeah. It was just when Pavement did something, this small but invested community talked about it. And I remember getting the CD to review from this band called Number One Cup that no one's ever heard of. They didn't last very long. I think they only put out like one or two records. And the first song on the album, I remember kind of digging it, but feeling like it felt really familiar. So I'm playing it a few times. And I realized you could sing the lyrics to Summer Babe to this song. And they were essentially just making Pavement songs. They were completely ripping them off. Well, I don't think they were ripping them off. I think they were influenced too heavily. That's so nice. But that's the thing is like Pavement was this huge influence because-Track 3:[13:17] A lot of the other things happening at that time were, strangely enough, when you go back and listen to the Pavement catalog, was a lot noisier than Pavement.Track 3:[13:29] Archers of Loaf, Sonic Youth, Super Chunk, all that stuff, those are louder and punkier than Pavement for the most part. I'm not saying Pavement had a clean sound or anything like that. No, but Crooked Rain is pretty straightforward, you know, and then, like you said a moment ago, Bright in the Corners is, I don't understand how that didn't sell a jillion copies, you know? I know. It's such a good record. Not that the other ones aren't, but it's like mainstream good. Yeah i i mean i think my if i'm putting my critic hat on i think the answer to that is they chose the wrong single um stereo is a weird single right um i don't think anyone hearing that would be like get that right on the radio and you know this is my new pop thrill here right maybe start with shady lane yeah uh start with shady lane something like something like that, could have done it, but also I mean, honestly, cut your hair was a fluke, and I think it created this idea that Pavement could have hit singles, and maybe that just wasn't true.Track 3:[14:50] That's fair. Do you think it's true? Do you think they could have been a hit singles band?Track 3:[14:59] There's just some song every once in a while you hear it's not like father to a sister of thought um like i can see that being in like, like on a tv show like playing in the background near the end of the show and you know they're wrapping things up but no i suppose you're right few and far between there you know there's a There's a few that you can look at and say, okay, yeah, yeah, this has got the makeup of a mainstream hit song. But you're right, not many, because they were doing things that were very different than the mainstream. Very different. Yeah, and I remember going to the Lollapalooza when they were on the main stage. And you've seen the videos of people throwing mud at them and stuff like that. But part of the problem was that stage was just too big for them at that point. They can do it now, but I don't think they were ready for that.Track 3:[16:03] And you saw that show, you said, right? Not the one with the mud. I saw them in Camden, New Jersey on the Lollapalooza, you know, on that tour. And was it apparent there as well? Like it just. Yeah. Cause you know, I, I was sitting out on the lawn. It's, you know, it was touring those kinds of sheds where there's the seats up front and then a big lawn in the back and it's a summer day and you got your little pick a a mcbasket and your blanket and all that and it didn't really translate that far back in.Track 3:[16:35] A way that you know like cypress hill and sonic youth and even back who were on that tour like it translated into the bigger venue and they didn't wow that is wild stuff and i mean i don't mean that as a criticism no i think it's just you know it was the superpowers they had at the time it was you know it was more intimate um and it was you know again i don't think they had whatever it is that they've gathered up with age wisdom whatever you want to call it at this point where they can go out and you know jam on the hex or whatever for 10 minutes um and really make it work i don't think they had that in their arsenal yet no i suppose you're right.Track 3:[17:32] Yeah touring wasn't wasn't their strong strong point you know and yet it was fun and yet every show you saw or every every show that i've ever heard people talk about was amazing you know Because of the venue and because of the context and that good stuff. Yeah. And I mean, it could also be that part of their target audience is, you know, guys like me, guys like you who are, you know, ready to have that rush of emotion from, you know, from the experience that, you know, in our 20s or whatever was just kind of maybe we weren't mature enough for or open enough to. Yes. Yes. Well, should we flip the side here and talk about song number 23? Let's do it. Okay, we'll take a quick break and we'll be back with song number 23.Track 1:[18:35] Hey, this is Bob Mustanovich from Pavement. Thanks for listening. And now on with a countdown.Track 3:[21:47] Well, there it is on the Top 50 Countdown. Song number 23 is the Spiral Stairs Gem, Kennel District. Brian from New Jersey.Track 3:[21:59] Give me the goods. This is ridiculously underrated. I'm going to say this one's top five. Well, or I'll caveat that. Either this or Date with Ikea, which in my mind, they're kind of, they're like, fraternal twin songs um you gotta have a spiral song in the top five like the pavement founding documents say this is a band founded by sm and spiral stairs and if that top five is all, coming out of malchemist i think you've done something wrong you know and if you're gonna have a spiral song in the top five i i would do this one um it's it's amazing i mean it was It was a lot of fun on the reunion tour. Yes. And that's, you know, I remember the night I went to King's Theater, they did not play Summer Babe and they did not play Here, but they played Kennel District. And I remember having like my little list of songs in my head that I was going to be bummed if I walked out and they didn't play. And that was one of them. But they tore it up. It was like it was a highlight of the show. Wow. Yeah, that's great.Track 3:[23:17] And, you know, one of the things, you know, I mentioned earlier, I'm listening to this a little bit as a drummer. One of the things I hear in the song, and I'm curious if you hear this too, I think it's a Gary drum beat in this tune.Track 3:[23:34] Really? Yeah, it's got that little off-kilter stumble. It's not evenly distributed beats. It kind of lurches a little bit as it's going forward. I hear it as Westy playing a Gary beat rather than playing Westy style on this. You know, there's something to that, because in my conversations with Spiral, and then the tracks that ended up, I think, on the Nicene Creators edition, where it's just Gary and Spiral doing songs. Maybe it was around Terror of Twilight time, actually, where it was them doing songs. And, uh...Track 3:[24:30] You know scott's always had a a pretty big place in his heart for gary you know so i wonder if you know in in creating the song even he was like westy can you give me something garyish you know yeah that's interesting it's there and you know i think the other reason i i love the song is like even though this is you know halfway through the catalog in in wowie zowie i don't know I know that this would have been completely out of place on the early EPs. So it's got that overdriven driving guitar. It's got the Gary beat. It's got the distorted vocals, but then the sing-along or shout-along refrain that carries you out. Like, it's, you know, if you place this next to, you know, on the same seven inches debris slide, I don't think you'd be like, one of these was recorded many years later, and I can hear it so clearly. You know, I think they're akin. It's got a little bit more sheen, obviously. Yeah. Yeah, but it's like the ingredients and the style are classic pavement rather than ladder pavement or whatever you want to call it. Right, right.Track 3:[25:56] Yeah, I think if you have a beat on what it could be about. No, like this. Like any pavement song, too tough, right? Right. It's too tough. And this one is even like I was doing a little internet trolling for the lyrics. Like the internet doesn't even agree what these lyrics are. Oh, really? Yeah. I mean, I found, you know, especially the first line of the second verse, you know, I found the one I've got up on my screen right now says, I can't believe she's married to Roe, like fish egg Roe. I have too. And there's no way it's that. And I remember just in Googling a little, I found a couple other theories, but I find that hard to believe that's the lyric. Yeah, me too.Track 3:[26:53] Maybe that's why he's so incredulous. You can't believe it. Yeah, maybe. I also know that there's a lot of songwriters, and you've talked to Spiral a lot, so maybe he's given you some more insight into his process. But I know when you hear from a lot of songwriters, they talk about laying down the track first and just kind of putting some nonsense sounds or lyrics over it. And then some people will sit and write something very considered and serious when they go to do the lyrics. And then some people be like, oh, I almost said the word robe there. I guess I'll just stick with it. I wonder if that's what happened here.Track 3:[27:37] Yeah, because it's an interesting song because you're right. I don't quite know what it's about, but it makes me feel something. Because of the chorus. Um whatever you want to call it why didn't i ask why didn't i ask why didn't i ask and then going out there's something really like almost painful about that question you know like you really feel for the protagonists here like yeah what the fuck man why didn't you ask and what were you asking about and why is it important to you and all the rest but at the very least can Can you answer me the question? Why didn't you ask? Right. And then the delivery with the guitars, the beat, the buildup, you're not only singing along about regret, but you're doing it with your fist in the air. You're just like, you're all jacked up about regret. And there's nothing not to love about this song. Yeah. It's a good one.Track 3:[28:47] And I'm kind of curious. Chris, I know you've talked to Spiral a lot. Based on the sort of relationship you've built up with him over the last few years, do you have a sense of what he goes for in his songwriting, like how he's expressing himself? Yeah.Track 3:[29:09] It's really changed, I think. I think that his vocal has become much more of a tool. He used to sort of sing with that almost break, almost that pubescent break when he sang, and now his voice is sharp. It is right on. So I think he takes advantage of that a little bit more when writing a song, not lyric wise, but when he's writing a song in general, like he can be more melodic. And that's nice. Like that medley attack is a great record. It's a really good record. I'm going to listen to it today because it's really good. And then of course i i just can't help but draw the parallel between terror twilight and let it be.Track 3:[30:02] With paul and john completely shutting george out of the process and then george turns around and comes out with all all things must pass and it's holy shit it's a double record filled with some of the best songs you've ever heard and he had that in him and spiral came out with psoi and And while it's not all things must pass, it's holy shit, you were sitting on all these songs and you couldn't put one on fucking Terror of Twilight? You know? Yeah. And you know, I think one of the reasons I didn't connect with Terror of Twilight at the beginning is...Track 3:[30:39] Spiral to me is that the actual analogy i would use is lee ronaldo in sonic youth oh okay when you have those sonic youth records like you know obviously thurston and kim are the marquee and core sounds in there but like daydream nation without eric's trip and without hey joni it's not the masterpiece that it is without those and the lee ronaldo songs like Like they fit in the band, but they're a little off to the side of the rest of it. And, you know, it's super melodic and it's fun, but it's not what Thurston and Kim do for the rest of the record. And you're always like, when that, you know, when Moat or Disappearer pops up, I think those are his two on Goo.Track 3:[31:29] When those pop up on Goo, you're like, yeah, here we go. We're hearing Disappearer now. Now um did do i have that right that disappears the you're asking the wrong dude i'll have to do a sonic youth uh podcast at some point i mean initially that was my like i had a blind spot with early pavement i had a blind spot with the eps um like the three eps and so i thought well i'll do a podcast where i listen to each ep and you know talk about the ep and i was like well why don't i just do it like song by song you know and then that way i get to listen to everything thing and that's that was the genesis of this little beast yeah and i think you know with sonic youth you'd have the same experience where you know you're moving along and it's the songs you're used to and then this this gem pops up that's you know of a different color and a different tone a different palette and i think that's what spiral brings to these pavement records yeah i would agree with that and the shows like when you get that spiral break when kennel district comes out or date with ikea you're like yeah fuck yeah here we go we're doing this now yeah and we'll get back to that that malchmus thing but it's a great um like i i don't want to say interlude because that's not maybe it's like a great counterpoint.Track 3:[32:50] Yeah there's a bit of yin and yang right yeah absolutely sorry well uh i'll just repeat that my dogs are both in here yeah there's a bit of yin and yang right yeah absolutely, and you know being a fan of the Spiral songs doesn't make you less of a Pavement fan or even less of a Malchemist fan it's just, he's one of the main ingredients again it's this band was started by SM and Spiral Stairs so without him it's not Pavement right, I couldn't yeah I couldn't agree more.Track 3:[33:27] Well, Brian from New Jersey, do you have anything that you would like to plug or discuss with people on the World Wide Web? I guess the only thing I'll plug, I was playing drums in a band here in New Jersey that is now defunct. It went away with the pandemic, but we have stuff up on Bandcamp and everywhere. It's called Diecast Cars.Track 3:[33:52] Diecast Cars. Yeah, like the toy cars for kids. It would appeal very much appeal to fans of pavement we are noisy and a little sloppy but a little poppy and a little rocky and all that kind of stuff and uh the the guitars are loud and and we also have the one of the guitar players you know didn't write as much as the other but he's like he's the spiral the ronaldo of a die-cast cars and that he's got you know two or three things in the what we have on the band camp page and their gems um you know not not to take away from the other guy but you know when they come up you're like okay we're getting we're getting into a different frequency for a few minutes and then we'll we'll go back to that other one cool well check out diecast cars on band camp everybody it's been great talking to to you today brian from new jersey uh you've you've got some wild theories and um some theories that i can actually cleave on to and uh kennel district again at number 23 so this is a lot of fun man too low a lot of fun so uh take care and uh we'll talk to you soon brian and everybody else wash your goddamn hands thanks.Track 1:[35:17] For listening to meeting malchus a pavement podcast where we count down the top 50 pavement tracks as selected by you if you've got questions or concerns.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
Join Ben Kissel and Kyle Ploof as they discuss the state of Secret Security following the assassination attempt on Donald Trump.
In hour 2, Chris talks about the attempted assassination of President Trump, and the secret service's excuses like a slanted roof! For more coverage on the issues that matter to you, download the WMAL app, visit WMAL.com or tune in love on WMAL-FM 105.9 from 9:00am-12:00pm Monday-Friday To join the conversation, check us out on X @WMAL and @ChrisPlanteShow Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Send us a Text Message.The HBO film Trial 4, is a virtual hagiography for Sean Ellis. The HBO-Netflix documentary is so slanted in favor of Sean Ellis it is difficult to digest. In order to believe Sean Ellis is innocent, you'd have to believe that his uncle, best friend, and girlfriend were (are) lying. To our knowledge none of these witnesses, that tied Ellis directly to the brutal 1993, homicide recanted their testimony, why? Sean Ellis's co-defendant told the police Sean Ellis shot Det. Mulligan five times in the face, Sean's girlfriend testified Sean brought the guns to her house, she left her fingerprint on the weapon. Sean's Uncle Dave asked Sean where the guns were, Sean gave detailed information as to where and how the guns were hidden, that is exactly how the weapons were recovered. So The question is where is the mystery in this case? It is true that corrupt police detectives were involved in Sean Ellis's case, the remedy for that is a retrial, but claims of actual innocence? That is simply a gigantic leap in logic.Commonwealth v Ellis https://bit.ly/2ROmpVWCommonwealth v. Paterson https://bit.ly/3pLY3bO
These podcast episodes are like our children; we'll never admit which one we like more. But for all you Venmo cheapos that cashed at the loser table, we'll admit that this is the best podcast about the B-52s and their self-titled album. But before we get to the music, we prove that we're not completely tone-deaf and hold the final four for the best DVD tournament. Fuck you, Jobu, we'll do it ourselves. We also talk golf, tipping on a gift card, and explore life's possibilities like we are skinny and jacked! Then at (51:00) we cover one of the first albums you could have been conceived to, the B-52's. We discuss new-wave rock, the isolated vocals from Love Shack, and Fred Schneider's famous character on SNL, the Fredmeister. Freeeeeddddd. The Fredmeister. Fredalama. Freedddddddd making top 500 albums and making copies. Fredaroooonie! Fredalamdingdoing. It's called the Moon. Moonorama!! But eventually, we must say Aloha to this bit. We know it's summer, babe, but next week will be a flame throwa when we become the best Pavement podcast and discuss the indie rock album Slanted and Enchanted.
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
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