i can't stand them.

they sound so... whitebread

in the best kind of way

They made a few masterpieces, haven't done anything relevant in nearly 15 years though.

it sucks that an amazing band's work can be compromised because they're talked about too much. I wish I could go back to the first time I heard Slanted, when I didn't really know anything about the whole Pavement myth.

I really really like Wowee Zowee, but after that they lost something. I don't know. Brighten the Corners is quite okay but boring. It feels uninteresting, there's nothing with it that stands out. The same with Terror Twilight.

Exactly, Wowee is where it stops for me.

That being said, I do like some of the Jicks stuff. Some of it's quite dull, as well, but I think Malkmus got his "weird songwriting" groove back a bit with that stuff.

All of it's pretty cool, you know, I dunno.

Pavement ist RAD

Buying slanted & Ebnchanted and Westing By Musket & Sextant on the same day back in 1992-93 was an epiphany, and there is no way for anyone to know what that was like, what hearing those skreeskronk lofi masterpieces did to my brain. It was a breath of fresh air and was cryptic and insane.
they sounded like two dudes recording crap on a 4-track in their garage, which it turned out to be,

pavement ruled all

then they got rid of Gary Young.

Then they added their "classic rock drummer"

I always say, the drummer can change the tone of a band more than any other member except maybe the lead singer.

I like pavement after gary left, but it was not the same. his shambolic drumming perfectlyfit their slack-ass attitude.

I saw them play opening up for sonic youth opn the Pretty Fucking Dirty Tour and it was AMAZING
\
Gary did handstands

and before the show handed out cabbage/lettuce to the fans in line.

Love it

DEBRIS SLIDE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3BUCHMPd3hY
eyes in the socket, eyes in the socket

BAPTISS BLACKTICK
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eaDoOz78JgM

BOX ELDER
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZfMW7VjqgU4

An epiphany!?!
No less!!

I'm kind of tired of hearing about this, what does that have to do with the music? Gary was often too drunk to play properly. If I didn't know better, it sounds like you went to see a circus, not some music.

Gary Young was a pretty shitty drummer, which made him and the rest of the band quite awesome. I liked Pavement when they were wild and unrestrained. After Gary left, a lot of the energy and mystique left the band (which you can see not only in the songwriting but in the lyrics -- the album art was still pretty weird, though, for a while). Still, Crooked Rain was a great album, though it did reach a bit into excessive at times (a few too many guitar solos, I think. You guys can play better now -- we get it!). But... I think Wowee is cool because it was experimental and pretty wild and out-there but they had some actual, um, "chops" behind it, so it's just this total mindfuck of an album. Corners and Twilight are like Crooked Rain with shitty boring songs.

Like I said, I think Brighten is one of their strongest and most consistent works the whole way through. Wowee just has too much on it that isn't all that great... Best Friend's Arm, Serpentine Pad, etc. I'm not saying these are even bad songs, and while they do make Wowee different, it still could have been a much better record if Spiral would have cut some stuff from it.

I think CR,CR is awesome though because it shows how much they (By they I mean Malkmus) have improved, which continued with each record. Honestly, CR,CR really is where they became Pavement as people know them once you think about it.

~Jeremy~

rock n roll IS a circus, and the stageshow of pavement at the time (Gary doing ahndstands, forgetting what song was next, the band as lackadaisical as a band can get, etc) all fit perfectly what I expected from having absorbed Slanted and Westing. It was AWESOME

people go see bands perform (PERFORM) their songs. otherwise you'd just sit ion your car listening to the CD. boring performances are the WORST.

and Gary nailed all the drum parts too. beautiful shambles.

Yr crazy. serpentine pad and best friend's arma re in the top 5 of songs on that LP!!!!!

Serpentine Pad's the best song on the album, definitely.

Wowee Zowee's more or less perfect, no song should be cut out. And that they become Pavement "as people know them" with Crooked Rain means nothing really. That's just because they became more accessible and had songs that fit better as singles than before and so on. I mean, Sonic Youth probably didn't get to many plays on the radio before Kool Thing, still who cares when EVOL, Sister and Daydream Nation are the albums that most fans prefer. It's the same with Pavement and Slanted.

I love Crooked Rain, but I'm just saying.