Adolf Noise (aka DJ Koze) - Wo Die Rammelwolle fliegt

The I Don't Cares (Juliana Hatfield & Paul Westerberg) - "½ 2 P" from their forthcoming album Wild Stab. "Your voice always makes me have to pee..."

I really don't like Kurt Vile. Like The War on Drugs, he apes the most boring styles and sounds from some of the most boring rock stars of all time. It was boring when Dire Straits did it. It was boring when Tom Petty did it. Springsteen's most boring years were spent doing it. Vile and WOD sound like sonic sleeping pills. Every time I hear a new song by either artist I feel like I've heard it thousands of times before, dripping from the speakers in of department stores and dentist's office waiting rooms.

There's just no excuse for music that boring.

I know a few groups that have managed to use similar influences to a much more interesting effect. Blank Realm, for one. Milk Music, even better. Milk Music solves for X by adding Meat Puppets' blistering countrifried irony to their equation. But Vile seems perfectly comfortable sounding like an ambien.

In Kurt´s gig he really seemed to me he was thinking he´s really cool. But to me he sounded & looked just lazy & boring. I have listened also some of his songs from YouTube, haven´t find anything from them.

Well, for what it's worth, I saw a twinkle of "something" in Kurt Vile back when he released Constant Hitmaker. But there are other slacker folkies out there who hold my interest much more. Chad VanGaalen, for instance. Jack Name. Nat Baldwin. Just to name a few.

not bad. I've always believed that if you're a child of the '80s and you claim *not* to enjoy at least some Duran Duran, you're either lying or there's something wrong with you.

I'm not saying they're objectively awesome, far from it. But they wrote some seriously fun songs, and I think part of growing up is being able to admit that you aren't too cool for fun shit.

I'm partial to "Girls on Film" myself.

"Rio" is awesome. And "Ordinary World."

The crackpipes, put 'em down... There isn't a single sound molecule able to redeem Duran Duran's wretched dismal putrid songs. I hope they get ass cancer.

Not to be a dick, but I'd rather listen to Duran Duran than Kurt Vile. I don't necessarily want anyone to get ass cancer, much less a homely musician who has like nothing going on for him, but I certainly hope the guy's music gets better.

It's interesting that artists who have spent a great amount of their lives subverting the song format and playing downright "unlistenable" ;) music —like Kim Gordon and Jennifer Herrema, among others— enjoy, admire and exalt the virtues of Vile's art and stance, while mooks dump their sorry-ass prejudices of conventionalism on the guy. Kurt "has like nothing going on for him"? Check yourself into Bellevue.

Chill man, I'm just bustin' balls. I don't hate Kurt Vile... Not the way you seem to hate goofy '80s pop, and I already admitted to enjoying Constant Hitmaker. I even liked the first couple of War on Drugs releases OK (yeah, I know he's no longer in the band, but you get me)...

I just think most of his music is boring, and I think he's capable of doing a great deal more. Honestly, I initially saw some solid influences in his work (early '90s jangly Flaming Lips, and Meat Puppets for example) and I'm a bit annoyed that he's chosen to go for a more ordinary sound.

No mistake- everything he's done has been better than that goddamn terrible War on Drugs album from 2014. Lost in the Dream indeed.

I was just kinda puntzin around with you. I have nothing against him other than the fact that his music has been mostly narcolepsy inducing. I want him to succeed. I saw him open for Thurston Moore a few years ago and it was pleasant enough.

Now man up and admit that you love Duran Duran ;)

(Btw: no offense, but whether or not "cool" folks like Kim Gordon like someone or something. If I don't like it, knowing that they do is not going to change a thing, nor should it. Though Kim is, of course, absurdly cool.)

Right now I'm listening to the reissue of Sun City Girls' Torch of the Mystics. Song: "Space Prophet Dogon" ... What an insanely awesome LP.

Before that it was the second half of GY!BE's Asunder, Sweet and Other Distress. Because, y'know.. Godspeed you! Black Emperor did in fact release an album this year, quickly forgotten though it may have been.

It's a good little album. "Piss Crowns Are Trebled" has a classic Godspeed feel to it. Could have been on Skinny Fists. I like the bagpipes and the crunches that makes up so much of the songs first half. The build is pretty basic GY!BE, but "basic" GY!BE can only really mean "familiar in its excellence" can't it?

I don't know if I gave Asunder... a fair go of it the first few times around. I loved Allelujah! Don't Bend, Ascend! even though a lot of crusty record store owners thought it was "demo quality". I'm going to make a point to listen to this album more over the next four weeks, because GY!BE deserves full consideration after all they've done for music, and for me in my sad little young adult hipster years.

Next up: Young Fathers - White Men are Black Men Too.
Then I'm gonna give a spin to some of the year's "comeback" albums (Blur's The Magic Whip, Faith No More's Sol Invictus, and Flying Saucer Attack's Instrumentals 2015)

I'm guessing they all deserve second chances. FSA doesn't need one, necessarily, but I love listening to that album.

Got a long article to write by morning, so I need to keep my brain feelin' good.

I think you already did.

Ha.

I agree. Never been Duran Duran-fan, but never also had nothing against them. My aunt had Rio, listened it some time through in the eighties and quite enjoyed it, never wanted it to myself. And I don´t believe Vile´s music will ever get better, but of course I can be wrong.

I love "Starlings of the Slipstream" ... Seriously. Where the hell does anyone get away with writing such a beautiful chorus and outro to a song about spying on sororities and other pieces of nonsense? It's glorious.

And "Fin." Possibly just as beautiful.

Overall, definitely my least favorite Pavement record, but those two songs are goddamn incredible.'

I hate Kurt Vile.....

I feel in love with Pavement when Slanted & Enchanted came out and I had heard absolutely nothing quite so sloppy yet amazing, then I got Westing by Musket and Sextant and that shit was AMAZING.

Misfits: Beware and Earth A.D./ Wolfsblood.

So great!

I'm good at summing up what makes Pavement great :) I think that if I posted my favorite Pavement tracks, y'all would be like, "word."

I'll always love Pavement. I won't always listen to them voraciously as I did in my teens, but their best moments hit me just as hard now as they ever did when I was younger. That's the mark of a truly great band, I think.

and in the morning light/ i hold my ashtray TIGHT!

Jesus Fuck. Can you see Stockton, CA from your high horse there? Arrogance has to be earned.

Bite the bullet for last year's outstanding box set:
http://www.allmusic.com/album/sun-zo...2-mw0002746971

Really? That offended you? I was being deliberately absurd.

Forgive me, nobody would say "word" to my list of favorite Pavement songs. How could I have been so presumptuous.

Can we get back to not being assholes now?

How is that a possibility for you?

Anyway, speaking of Pavement, I'm listening to this "it-band" that's been garnering more than a few comparisons to them... and the Strokes... and Deerhunter...

The band (artist) is called Car Seat Headrest, and even though the name is super 1996 and the cover art is super early '00s MERGE recalling Trail of Dead's baroque Source Tags & Codes inky veneer, the music itself (culled from 11 bandcamp releases over the past couple years and released by Matador in October) is some of the most genuinely exciting lo-fi indie rock I've heard all fucking year.

It sounds derivative at first, but then that shit kinda stops mattering, and it starts to sound less like Is This It? and more like golden era Guided By Voices at their layered, scathing best.



I'm astonished at how good this music is. It's classic indie rock, with power poppy hooks that don't dissolve into embarrassing Weezeresque radio pleas. The lyrics are whipcrack sharp, and the Velvet Underground is alive in this shit, more than they ever were in the Strokes.

Here's hoping they don't turn to shit like most of the other promising nostalgic indie rock bands of the past few years. Seriously, this might be my rawk album of the year. Less musically mature than Viet Cong or Sleater-Kinney, but fresh and fun.

Someone listen to this and agree with me.

Seriously? I feel like you absolutely must be joking.

I don't think I treat anyone poorly here. I was just having a bit of fun, patting myself on the back for a stupid non-achievement because what I said seemed to resonate with p-green.

I don't really think I'm "better at Pavement" than anyone. I was just being weird. I don't see how that makes me an asshole.

Actually, I probably do prefer BTC to Terror Twilight. Both great albums, but Terror was a weird one to go out on. A bit anticlimactic.

As for songs, I really haven't thought about it in forever, but off the top of my head in rough order it would probably go like this:

1. Texas Never Whispers
2. Kennel District
3. Starlings of the Slipstream
...
Silence Kit
Fin
Summer Babe (winter version)
Grounded
Trigger Cut…
Loretta's Scars
Frontwards
Greenlander
Home
Shoot the Singer (1 sick verse)
Spit on a Stranger
Perfume-V
Carrot Rope

I need to listen to Westing again. It's been a while. I've also always liked Gangsters and Pranksters, though why? I don't know. Mostly the ones I picked are the ones that made my heart ache for nerdy art school girls back in the day. I think "Texas Never Whispers" is just a triumph of chaotic fuzz rock. A more intense song, I don't believe they ever wrote.

I always loved Terror Twilight. "Spit On A Stranger" is one of the prettiest songs of their career. And what about "The Hexx"? "Major Leagues"? "Folk Jam"? "You Are A Light"? "Ann Don't Cry"? Just a solid solid album that gets slept on. I mean it sounds like Malk's first solo album in reality... but it's fucking stellar. (All the TT bsides were great too)

"Spit On A Stranger" might be my fav Pavement song of all time tho. Serious.

S&E is total classic. I adore that album. OMG. "Summer Babe," "Perfume V," "Loretta's Scars," "Unfair," "Zurich Is Stained," "Here", "In The Mouth Of a Desert" - everything!!! I mean I could just name every song and put "!!!" after it.

Westing... is alright. Fun lo-fi companion, but nothing amazing to me. Except "Box Elder" Holy shit great song.

Crooked Rain is fantastic. "Cut Your Hair" was the first track I ever heard by them and I was in love. It's not my fav Pavement album, but I probably return to it more than most others.

Wowee Zowee is kind of hit or miss for me. I love a lot of it, but it feels like a longer album than I need it to be. But I mean, "Grounded" and "Father To A Sister Of Thought" and "Rattled By The Rush".......... ugh. This band! THIS BAND! I love this band so so much.

Brighten The Corners is like... I don't know. It sounds like radio Pavement. Which isn't bad by any means. I think it sounds bad when I say it but I love this record. This is like poppy Pavement that you can expose people to. It's just so good and fun. This album has so many classics... "Shady Lane," "Stereo," "Type Slowly," "Embassy Row," "We Are Underused" - see another album where like every song is worthy of mentioning...


Pavement to me was always way up there w/ SY. One of those bands I gave a fuck about tracking down bsides and all.

Well, I got Straight-version, not original, but the next pressing, I think it´s sounding great. I have heard there are version where are no vocals, just instrumental versions of the songs (maybe that´s also in that box Soup recommended?).

Albums are hard for me because basically the Watery, Domestic EP plus S+E is where it's at. But if I had to go by LP's (and Westing) alone, it would probably look like this:

1. Wowee Zowee
2. Slanted & Enchanted
3. Westing!!
4. Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain
5. Brighten the Corners
6. Terror Twilight

But that doesn't seem right either. Crooked Rain had quite a life changing effect on me, but it's hard to appreciate it if I'm not fully immersed in it at the time, and that's a record I haven't listened to in ages.

Brighten the Corners obviously has some of my top songs, but it has some weaker moments.

Wowee Zowee has plenty of highlights but mostly it's just a great album, a record for start to finish listening. Too weird to be taken in bursts.

Well, I'm glad liking Pavement hasn't become completely a completely forgotten pastime.

I liked them, then didn't, which I did independent of the zeitgeist which seemed to follow the same trajectory. What happened? Was it all the shockingly mediocre SM albums that took the shine off? Anyway, people do seem to be re-warming, and maybe I am too.

A few days ago I came across some CDs I haven't seen in a decade, two were Slanted and Terror. Slanted was so refreshing. Thanks to computers, every amateur nowadays can make a perfect record, but it takes real skill to play this poorly (mostly thanks to the drummer). This album clearly has staying power.

Terror wasn't as bad as I remembered, but I can go another ten years without hearing it. Didn't the producer do this right after Ok Computer? What a joke. Some pretty moments, but putting a lo-fi band into a hi-fi context seems to bring out the defects and obscure the charms. The lyrics are full-on stupid.

By the way, "Grounded" is vaguely "about" doctors. Beyond that, I can't say what any song is about, which is fine and fun for the "early" stuff, but grow up man. Even by Reckoning, Stipe was starting to actually say something with his words while still giving us the lyrical weirdness we crave. To date, SM hasn't matured past Pavement's very first song.

A special band, because they were at their best when they sucked.

I don't know if I've ever shared this with anyone, but in college I took a few throwaway classes at the attached interdisciplinary studies college, and in one of them (something about song or poem writing, or folk music... I forget) I was asked to bring in a song or spoken word poem for group interpretation.

Because I was lazy, and considered the class a no-stakes break from my pretty rigorous studies in behavioral science and political philosophy, I brought in "Shoot the Singer" just because I wanted to watch people struggle to find meaning in it.

I was surprised when the teacher (who, ostensibly, was an expert in this kind of crap) actually managed to thread together a cohesive and believable narrative to the song, line by line. No small feat when dealing with a track that begins:

"Someone took in these pants
Somebody painted over paint painted wood"

But whatever she said made sense, and thought I cant remember a word of it, she did offer a pretty interesting interpretation of the lyrics, which she believed combined to create an overall sense of unexpected change, and the sad nature of how it affects the individual, couples and society.

May have been total Bullshit fluff. But my point is just that there are people out there who believe that SM was writing meaningful songs all along. And if he was doing it in '92, he was probably doing it in '95.

To me Grounded is kind of straightforward for a Pavement song. Doctors, yes, but moreso doctors enjoying the comforts of their lifestyle, worrying about their own kids doing acid, but not so concerned with actually doing their jobs. But I could be wrong. It could be about a documentary SM saw on ants or something on the learning channel.

But one thing's for sure: Grounded has a absolutely phenomenal guitar groove to it. One of the few moments of melody prevailing over chaos and absurdity on Wowee Zowee. That chorus, and the riff that follows (simple as they are) are so powerful that they don't need to have a deeper meaning or significance. They make your stomach drop like you're on a rollercoaster, and the feeling is awesome.

To me that's what music is about more than anything else. I'm more of a music guy than a lyrics guy, really. The lyrics are just a vehicle for the vocal instrument to join in and be part of the music.

Plus lyricists who take themselves too seriously almost always suck.

wasn't "In The Mouth Of A Desert" about Sonic Youth?

can you keep it like an oil well?
when it's underground, out of sight?

I feel like I read that somewhere years ago... don't know where or how true.

But yeah, Terror Twilight sounded way too precious for a band that made their name with sprawling feedback romps and and a sound like jelly.

It ended up feeling more like a Blur record than a Pavement one. Too much emphasis on individual instruments and background sounds, not enough of a squall. You can hear the "Britishness" of it... the attempt to organize and define the sonic elements that are really supposed to be smashed together and smeared all over your brain.

But I do love the absurdity of songs like "Billie" (oh, pretty folk song... what's this about fetuses? Ahh now they're just yelling for no reason!) and "Carrot Rope"... I swear, this song absolutely must be about exactly what it sounds like it's about... a pedo trying to get a of to touch his dick. And yet, what a gorgeous and uplifting moment it is musically. I can't hear that song and not turn it up and sing along and bounce around. It's physically impossible for me.

But still, "Texas Never Whispers" represents the most compelling and powerful sound the band ever achieved. I wish there were more Pavement songs in that vein.

Oh, and I don't think all SM+Jicks albums have sucked. Real Emptional Trash was quite brilliant in my opinion. But yeah, the rest is mostly pretty forgettable. Not as forgettable as J Mascis sans Dino (snore), but yeah- forgettable.