Pavement:Classic or Dud

Bonus Enhanced CD
2-1 Audio Introduction By The Band (CD Audio) 3:45
Multimedia Section
2-2 Track By Track Commentary (Video)
2-3 Home Video Section (Video)
2-4 ...And Carrot Rope (Video)
2-5 Stereo (Video)
2-6 Shady Lane (Video)

...in very late 90s digital technology (think realplayer codecs while your CDROM drive was absolutely drowning out your computer speakers with its whining spinrate)

Do you guys remember the “Pavement Chat” on the Matador website in like ‘95 or ‘96?

The only time we used a producer was with Nigel Godrich, who all engineers and studio people rightfully are in awe of. He’s pretty much the alpha of new-generation producers. He was interested in Pavement. He and Radiohead were fans of [Pavement] and Wowee Zowee. He told us he had time off and would like to do [Terror Twilight]. He also did Beck’s Mutations which he was really proud of. He played me some of that. So that’s when we used one and I didn’t know what that was going to entail. But he was cool. He was like “I just want my percentage points, you don’t even have to pay me a fee. I’m free and I’ve already made a lot of money and I want to work with you guys, so we’ll carry this to the end.” We paid for the studio time of course, which started to get expensive. Because he had his own, uh, standards.

First we started at the Sonic Youth studio. They also had a nice Neve board. When we got there the faders were upside down. We recorded three days and Nigel was losing his mind trying to figure this out. He couldn’t get the “Nigel” sound so we had to stop. The headphone mixes were dubious at best. There were a lot of reasons why we left [the studio]. Then we went to this place by Washington Square Park where the Beastie Boys recorded. It was on the 14th floor of this really nice apartment building. It was a small room because it was New York, but it was really nice. Super fancy. Nigel said “We’re going to do it here.” A few thousand dollars later we had 7/10 of the album. Then we still had to do overdubs. We went to England where he lives, and we went to RAK where he started. RAK is a great historical studio that Mickie Most owned. He was a hit-maker with Hot Chocolate. He knew the Yardbirds and Jimmy Page. There were three studios there, and we were in the cheaper one.

We had to get a new drummer for a couple of songs. Steve West couldn’t play these songs in time that needed to be in time. So we got the High Llamas drummer. And I drummed on one song too, but that wasn’t the one that needed to be out of time - in the right way. That was a real, classic rock, overproduced, $100,000 record. With that much money you should be able to make something good. We made some things that weren’t as good as they could’ve been. There was a big argument about the order of the songs. No one really cares about this album that much. [Nigel] had a certain order that was with a difficult song first, like Radiohead’s OK Computer that had a longer more challenging song to set the tempo. Scott in our band, and the other ones, not only did they not like that song, but they barely played on it. They wanted this easier song first, like the hit song. So Nigel was like “I’m done with this. This is the wrong move. We made a stoner album and you’re going halfway.” He’s right probably.

Haha the whispered part is SO "The Beautiful People", I'm assuming it's parody. Never noticed that before

xp Wasn’t that the podcast Interview that started that weird flap, where Nigel tweeted like “I slept on floors” etc.

funny thing, they had already made their stoner album 2 albums before

there's nothing really stonery about major leagues

worst pavement album track!! (okay maybe 'cept some spiral songs)

Kennel D
Date w/IKEA
Passat Dream

Worst SM track in Pavement?

For me maybe Newark Wilder

re: Albert's post, that's from a Pitchfork story that had the headline Stephen Malkmus Opens Up About Recording “Overproduced” Terror Twilight With Nigel Godrich

Godrich saw it and responded with this.

Stephen Malkmus saw Godrich's tweet and responded with this, and Godrich replied.

Actually let me try pasting in the links raw - they should show up, right?

I literally slept on a friend's floor in NYC to be able to make that album.. https://t.co/0NeMT1Q0AV

— nigel godrich 🌈 (@nigelgod) February 18, 2017

Love you too dear Stephen.. one of my fav people ... just wanted to point out what a lame headline that was... :)

— nigel godrich 🌈 (@nigelgod) February 18, 2017

Agh, Malkmus's tweet got lost. Here it is:

@pitchfork I love Nigel and can't even believe I got to record with him!!! Towering skills and fucking fun to hang with.

— Stephen malkmus (@dronecoma) February 18, 2017

Kennel D
Date w/IKEA

noooooooooo

Passat Dream
ok yeah prob

this godrich tracklist is pretty bad

I could see the Godrich tracklist working if Platform Blues did something different when it kicked in. . . it's pretty great before it does.

I like it but don’t know if it’s just b/c it puts the album in a new light (don’t know if it would have “worked” as the main tracklist)

a big part of the problem here isn't that the songs are bad per se, it's maybe just the weakest Pavement collection of all, so it's hard to get excited by a lot of it.

Both TT and Brighten are made up of too many sluggish to midpaced songs, the official sequence of TT definitely did not help in that area

I will not tolerate Major Leagues or Newark Wilder hate ITT. What is wrong with you people

PO5: Worst Pavement and Malkmus tracks

I've warmed to Gold Soundz a bit.

contentious list indeed.

i'd agree w black book though. woof.

Stephen Malkmus >>> TT

^ deffo

question for the old heads: were "My First Mine" & "My Radio" on Westing originally from Drag City comps?

"My Radio" came out on this comp, but it wasn't a Drag City one

"My First Mine", iirc, was from some British magazine flexi

ah nice. thanks!

xp note: "My Radio" was put out on former ILXor Mike McGonigal's excellent Zine Chemical Imbalance.

"My First Mine" came out on this flexi:
https://www.discogs.com/Fluff-3-Pavement-Us-My-First-Mine/release/1558792

I have that flexi, found it in a charity shop years ago

Thanks for filling in the rest of the info, I was impressed enough with myself remembering the Chemical Imbalance comp! Had no idea an ILXor was involved.

Newark wilder is the best song on crcr

Definitely a highlight

On some days I concur with brimstead on this

Never realized - until now - the debt that the "Half a Canyon" outro owes to Swell Maps' "Full Moon in My Pocket"... particularly the "Full Moon (Reprise)." That is all.

shit baby

Why do these guys tour/play Europe (only)? Are there really more Pavement fans there than the US?

I'm hoping a US tour will follow. To be fair, they haven't toured anywhere since 2010, have they?

Not toured, but I think they've played (or at least scheduled) a few Euro fests. Hopefully a US tour is TBA, yeah.

They toured all over 10 years ago and haven't done any shows since.

My guess is they will do some US dates either next summer or maybe spring/summer 2023.

Remember, those NYC shows 10 years ago were announced first (4 nights I believe) and a bunch of people bought tickets

A few weeks later *then* the US tour was announced

Primavera has been on the books since a little before pre COVID

If I recall correctly, they said when they originally announced Primavera 18+ months ago that further touring was coming in 2021. No question they'll tour America in 2022. This is just a normal first leg announcement.

With that said, I'm tempted to fly over for a London vaca around that four-night stand. Wish I could feel assured of a different set of songs every night, but that seems unlikely given the circumstances. Four nights of 15 of the same songs plus switching in and out another 7 or whatever is less appealing.

£50! is that normal these days & i'm just old? oh well, plumped for the last night of the london shows.

They added another Dublin date such was the demand. Got a ticket for their second show -60 euro

Songkick.com lists a few SF dates in 2022 (Sept. 12, 13, and 14, at the Masonic); but they’re not on the official tour page, and a Mon.–Wed. hometown run sounds unlikely. Maybe a weird glitch?

Interestingly, Primavera Sound Los Angeles (2022) is Fri, 9/16 – Sun, 9/18 (a friend has a “theory” they’ll play that fest). The dates do line up…

That'd be great if Pavement's at PS LA. Makes sense given their first shows back will be at Primavera Sound in Barcelona.

The dates are up: https://pavementband.com/#tour

https://pitchfork.com/news/pavement-announce-slanted-and-enchanted-30th-anniversary-reissue/

Anyone ever hear the two non-LP songs on the cassette – “Pain Smiles” and “Pillowjack”?

(I mean, anyone here)

Maybe they should just wait until the 100th anniversary and include everything. Please and thank you.