Pavement (fltr: Stephen Malkmus, Mark Ibold, Bob Nastanovich, Scott Kannberg, Steve West)
Introduction
Both The Smashing Pumpkins and Pavement are the best that 1990s rock has to offer. The second Pavement album would bring both bands together, unfortunately not very harmoniously.
Pavement
Pavement is the ultimate 1990s band. Formed in 1989, the band would release five albums and ten EPs during its 10 year existence. Their first show took place on December 14, 1989, and their last on November 20, 1999. The band would reconvene two times and tours successfully.
Following their formation, Pavement debuted that very same year with their first EP Slay Tracks: 1933–1969. After the EPs Demolition Plot J-7, Perfect Sound Forever and Summer Babe, the band decided to take things more seriously. Almost at the same time, one of the band’s EPs was handed to the influential English BBC Radio dj John Peel, who immediately turned into a vocal fan for the band (and would remain throughout their career). He frequently played the band’s music in his radio show, thus giving the band a lot of continuous exposure in England and the European mainland.
Pavement – Slanted And Enchanted
In 1992 the band signed a deal with the small independent record label Matador, the label the band was faithful to for their entire career. On April 10, 1992, debut album Slanted And Enchanted was released. It led to immediate highly enthusiastic reviews. Later that same year the EP Watery, Domestic was released. At the end of the Slanted And Enchanted tour the band’s drummer was replaced, resulting in Pavement’s classic line-up.
Pavement – Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain
Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain
Op February 14, 1994, the second Pavement album, Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain was released. The lo-fi recordings of the debut album were replaced by a more professional and slower sound. Once again, the album was lauded by the international music press and this time the album sold reasonably well, in part due to the relative success of the single Cut Your Hair.
The new album inaugurated a new Pavement to the world, as the band sounded more mature. The (post)punk was traded in for a looser rock sound, that fit the band like a glove and made singer Malkmus shine even more.
Nowadays, Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain is widely regarded as one the best albums stemming from the 1990s. It usually ends up high on several ‘best of all time’ lists. The song Gold Soundz, coming off Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain, was voted best song of the 1990s by Pitchfork.
The previously mentioned link to The Smashing Pumpkins stems from the song Range Life.
Out on tour with The Smashing Pumpkins
Nature kids, I, they don’t have no function
I don’t understand what they mean
And I could really give a fuck© 1994 Stephen Malkmus
The Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan was offended and demanded that Pavement be removed from the 1994 edition line-up of the travelling Lollapalooza festival. According to Corgan the Range Life remark was “rooted in jealousy” and stated “People don’t fall in love to Pavement… they put on Smashing Pumpkins or Hole or Nirvana, because these bands actually mean something to them.”
Whether or not this is the truth or not, is unknown. In 1995, one year after the release of Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain, Corgan told Rolling Stone magazine:
I had no problem with Pavement. When I met the guys from Nick Cave’s band, they said they were told that I’d tried to kick them off the bill, too. I’m totally a Nick Cave fan. That was astounding to me, maybe Pavement didn’t start the rumor. Maybe it was some industry insider.
Given all that would follow, Corgan presented himself a lot more forgiving than he really was. In 1999 Malkmus told NY Rock magazine:
A lot of people claim we dissed them. We never did. I only laughed about the band name, because it does sound kinda silly… Smashing Pumpkins… And well, their status, that they were the indie darlings, the heroes of the indie scene. I never really dissed their music. I like their songs – well, most of their songs anyway. Especially “1979”, that’s a cool song. As I said, I never dissed their music. I just dissed their status. I never really cared for the rock’n’roll lifestyle or being “indie”.
In 2010 Malkmus said he didn’t want to sing the lyrics anymore, let alone write anything like that again.
I played some Pavement songs when I was in Holland, and when I got to the part at the end of “Range Life”, I just didn’t feel like singing those words. It seems so dated now. At the time, it was an attempt to be topical, kind of like an ironic rap song and a way to make fun of the whole indie “We’re cool, you’re not cool” thing. But I probably wouldn’t do that now.
© 2010 GQ magazine interview with Stephen Malkmus
And Corgan? He was still mad in 2010: “Just found out SP is playing with Pavement in Brazil. It’s gonna be 1 of those New Orleans-type funerals. I say that because they represent the death of the alternative dream, and we follow with the affirmation of life part. Funny how those who pointed the big finger of ‘sell out’ are the biggest offenders now… Yawn”.
All of this because of a name-drop. The Stone Temple Pilots were also mentioned in Range Life. Consequences: none. And to think that Malkmus had used the name because it just sounded great within the song. Malkmus later said that the name could have just as easily been something like The Spice Girls. In 2008 Malkmus reported “Billy’s gotten over it”. During their 2022 reunion tour the name Smashing Pumpkins was replaced.
Pavement – Live 1994
Review
Of course, controversies boost sales, but Pavement really didn’t need that. The music, the lyrics and the way they are recited by singer Malkmus is addictive. The lethargy is all over the place, but it all gels, to this very day. It never tires, instead it elevates.
The cover contains the text “Luck on every finger”, as if luck has anything to do with what Pavement had to offer on Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain. Just the way the band opens the album alone, is a truly wonderful feat. The first 20 seconds sound like a band in search of their mojo, leading into the riff of Silence Kid, which introduces Pavement Mark-2: sloppy, lazy, sleazy rock that sounds nothing like the highly popular grunge rock at the time.
And, the band demonstrated they could write and record catchy songs as well, like Cut Your Hair. Malkmus:
It begins with me imagining some girl bummed out on her boyfriend. ‘What am I going to do?’ she’s asking herself. ‘Cut my hair!’ It could be anything, really – whatever you try to do to get a man or woman to like you. It never works. Someone’s always got the upper hand. Then it goes on to how the music world’s the same, the way it concentrates on little outside things that seem cool, like your thrift-shop clothes or the amount of stubble on your chin. These are the things that seem to make one band different from the next – how long their hair is.
© 2004 Stephen Malkmus liner-notes Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain: LA’s Desert Origins
The beautiful Gold Soundz is “a self doubt song”, according to Malkmus. The country-folk-rock like song Range Life, containing the legendary Smashing Pumpkins text, is one the many highlights on Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain. Next, the album holds songs that are all different from everything that came before, making the album ever more eclectic. Piano enters the fold, ‘normal’ song structures are out of the window.
I may be biased, as I hold Pavement in very high regard, but the band shows they are able to be catchy, but completely on their own terms, on Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain
N.B.
The song 5-4=Unity contains a sample of Dave Brubeck Quartet’s Take Five.
Pavement – Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain – Singles
Singles
The album produced 3 superb singles.
- Cut Your Hair
(released in February 1994) - Gold Soundz
(released in June 1994) - Range Life
(released in January 1995)
Pavement – Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain – Back cover
Songs
All songs written by Stephen Malkmus, except Hit The Plane Down, written by Scott Kannberg.
- Silence Kid
- Elevate Me Later
- Stop Breathin
- Cut Your Hair
- Newark Wilder
- Unfair
- Gold Soundz
- 5-4=Unity
- Range Life
- Heaven Is A Truck
- Hit The Plane Down
- Fillmore Jive
In 2004 Matador re-released the album, supplemented with outtakes and live recordings, using the moniker Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain: LA’s Desert Origins.
Pavement – Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain – Credits
Musicians
- Stephen Malkmus – vocals, guitar, bass
- Scott Kannberg – guitar, vocals, organ, percussion
- Mark Ibold – bass, vocals
- Steve West – drums, percussion
- Bob Nastanovich – percussion, vocals
Pavement – The last three
After Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain
In 1995 Pavement followed their second, successful, album with an album that was nothing like Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain. Wowee Zowee was released on April 11, 1995. The following tour also deviated from what was expected of the band: many long jams instead of hits. The EP Rattled By La Rush was released that same year, one year later followed by another EP, Pacific Trim.
1997 saw the release of my favorite Pavement album Brighten The Corners, an album with more song-structure and even containing two hits with Stereo and Shady Lane (which was also released as an EP). On June 8, 1999, the last Pavement album, Terror Twilight, was released, the result of tiring recording sessions. The group was nearly dead. Following two last EPs, Spit On A Stranger and Major Leagues, Pavement played their final show on November 20, 1999. The bad mood within the band was manifested by the handcuffs dangling from Malkmus’ microphone stand. Malkmus told the crowd “These symbolize what it’s like being in a band all these years”.
Two weeks later the English NME published a message of the record company “Pavement has retired for the foreseeable future”. Malkmus officially ended Pavement early 2000.
Reunions
After several musical sidesteps, the band reunited in 2010 for a tour and the release of a compilation album, which came with a warning “Please be advised this tour is not a prelude to additional jaunts and/or a permanent reunion”. In 2019 the band announced concerts, which were postponed to 2022, because of the Covid-19 pandemic. The band also played Amsterdam, where I was one of the lucky ones to see the band at work: unforgettable!
In closing
What’s your opinion on Pavement and Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain? Let me know!
Video/Spotify
This story contains an accompanying video. Click on the following link to see it: Video: Pavement gains true steam on Crooked Rain Crooked Rain. The A Pop Life playlist on Spotify has been updated as well.
