20 best pavement songs ever
The kings of indie rock, the best band ever from Stockton, California, and one of my favorite bands of all time: Pavement. They were an incredible band, with a range (life) that stretched between power-pop, slow indie jamz and even (in their later, forgettable years) jam band-age. Their first three albums are musts: Slanted & Enchanted, Crooked Rain Crooked Rain and Wowee Zowee. But some of their best songs were often relegated to B-sides, now collected on the reissued versions of those three albums, and so, for many years, the crème de la crème was somewhat scattered.
To help you navigate the many, many songs they have recorded and released, we present to you the twenty greatest Pavement songs ever. Here’s the complete list, all in one spot.
xoxoxo
20 “She Believes” | Westing (By Musket and Sextant)
Early recording, much of the song pretty much a throwaway, but it’s that Daydream Nation chorus, “but she believes,” Malkmus sings razor-thin, and the guitar pensive and hoping that makes the song so great. It totally falls apart (purposely) in the last 40 seconds — maybe the boys weren’t comfortable yet sounding purty? — but the rest of the song more than makes up for it.
19 “We Dance” | Wowee Zowee
Somewhere, sometime, someone from Pavement said something about how there was no set order to Wowee Zowee, that the random button on your CD player (’member those?) was just as good a sequencing. There’s some truth to that, but it’s also true that “We Dance” is a spectacular opening song, a statement of purpose, a rock critic might say, for WZ itself: content to stay in place, no direction forward, relaxed and stoned. Oh and of course that opening lyric, so prescient from a white-dudes-with-guitars-indie-band in a particularly socially aware moment: “There is no/ Castration fear” as water starts pouring in the background. Funny stuff!
18 “In the Mouth of a Desert” | Slanted & Enchanted
The first in a long line of Pavement almost-ballads, those mid-tempo numbers where Malkmus sounds bored, the band sounds tinny and uninterested, the whole reason why they got stuck with that slacker tab and seemed determined to live up to it. They are also, pretty much across the board, the best Pavement songs. So maybe there’s something to that after all.
Here’s the band in 1992 at the Reading Festival playing “Desert:”
17 “Shady Lane” | Brighten the Corners
So I have a really, really hard time with Pavement post-Pacific Trim. Brighten the Corners totally bummed me out, and Terror Twilight I just couldn’t deal with at all. Pavement got so technical, sounding almost like Steely Dan with how orchestrated the songs suddenly were, as if they were playing connect-the-dots with some sheet music that fell out of Spiral Stairs’ knapsack. Still, I have to give it up for “Shady Lane,” which is a very sweet song, goofy in the right places and it’s really, really damn hard not to coo along with Malk, “Dutch! Dutch! Dutch!”
Here be the music video:
16 “Greenlander” | Slanted & Enchanted: Luxe and Redux
Originally included on the Born to Choose comp in ‘93, “Greenlander” is in the vein of Slanted & Enchanted, very muffled with lots of dramatic mini-pauses, stuttering drums from Nastanovich (or is that Gary Young?) and that omnipresent bass-heartbeat. A spectacularly understated tune.
15 “Silence Kit” | Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain
Like “We Dance,” another album opener, this one beefier and broader, the first song they unleashed to the world after they “mattered.” What’s funny is that I don’t think it’s that much better than any of the songs I mentioned before, but it’s wrapped in more meaning being the first song on Pavement’s best-selling album and so evocative of a particular moment.
“Silence Kit” live in Cologne, 1994, with a fantastic alternate ending:
14 “Strings of Nashville” | Crooked Rain Crooked Rain: LA’s Desert Origins
Man did I love the “Gold Soundz” single. That might’ve been the moment when my interest turned into scary fandom, those three B-sides so good: “Kneeling Bus,” “Exit Theory” and this track. The resignation in “Nashville” is otherworldly: every aspect of the song is performed with the least amount of effort possible. Malkmus sounds like he’s singing from the bottom of a well, and the guitar is played so slowly and laconically it’s as if Kannberg is trying to transcribe the tablature as they record. Taken as a whole, it’s hypnotic, and a perfect, self-contained song.
13 “So Stark (You’re a Skyscraper)” | Trigger Cut
Though I dunno what it means, I’ve always found one lyric from this song awesomely snotty: “Stunnin’ the bureaucrats/ So fucking lost/ Stark as a skyscraper/ Letters embossed.” This is a rare Pavement song that heavily emphasizes the low-end, providing a pissy edge to the song’s placid, lackadaisical feel. Malkmus does his typical follow-the-bouncing-ball vocal melody, but his howl towards the end is totally unexpected and great. Recorded around Slanted & Enchanted, this really encapsulates the sound of early Pavement well.
12 “Give It a Day” | Pacific Trim EP
Veering close to Brighten the Corners-era, “Give It a Day” is so wordy it’s like Malkmus-as-self-parody, with its Cotton Mather namecheck, “small pox in the Sudan” and “gentrified your Alzheim clan” lyrics. But the melody is irresistible, loopy, catchy and really large. I remember this EP being a huge deal when it came out — only 5,000 copies manufactured on its initial run (it might have been my first-ever pre-order — thanks Blacksburg Record Exchange!) — and it really did signal a new direction for Pavement, with the ridiculous “Gangsters & Pranksters” and “Saganaw,” maybe the worst song in the band’s history (soooooo bad).
11 “AT&T” | Wowee Zowee
I originally had this song at the #3 spot — a sign of how close the next eleven songs are in terms of quality — but I had to keep dropping it as I returned to some old favorites. Still, this is an incredible song, especially its opening lyric, which I have always adored: “Maybe/ Someone’s gonna save me/ My heart is made of gravy.” (Is there a medical procedure for that, like doing a biscuit transplant?) If it weren’t for the last minute, which gets a bit silly in its epic-ness, this would’ve stayed top five, for sure. Although, listening to it on repeat right now, I can’t help but to feel like I’ve made a mistake for ranking it so low. Oh well.
Here’s a video someone on YouTube created of “AT&T” synced to a kung-fu movie:
10 “Stop Breathin’” | Crooked Rain Crooked Rain
Sitting here staring into space, I just realized that I have every lyric to this song memorized, and I can recount them sans music. Look who has talent! “Stop Breathin’” is such a beautiful song, so frank and sincere. The guitars shift in and out of each other, flirting like preteen fingers in a darkened movie theatre. “Dad they broke me.” “Stop breathin’ for me now.” I love it when they care.
Live in Germany, 1994:
09 “Range Life” | Crooked Rain Crooked Rain
Freshman year of college, stumbling through Colonial Williamsburg late one night with my two best friends, all of us intoxicated (on life!), the Colonial Cops patrolling through, driving up and down the cobblestone streets, the three of us ducking behind picket fences, mazed gardens and blacksmith shoppes. One friend, perhaps the most intoxicated of all, takes the opportunity during one particularly tense moment to begin singing/yelling, “the PIGS, the FUZZ, the COPS, the HEAT!” (a lyric from “Range Life”) at the top of her longs while we try to shush her. We get off scot-free.
Also, I don’t think Lupe Fiasco’s masterful “Kick Push” could have existed without this song. Just sayin’.
A video.
08 “Here” | Slanted & Enchanted
I’ve gotten to the point where I think I prefer the live version of this song (captured below in a YouTube clip, as well as in their Peel Session, heard here (waaa-waaaaaaaah) in track 24) to the album original. It’s a tough call. The original is introspective and resigned; the live versions are angry and defiant. And yet the lyrics work perfectly for both:
And I’m the only one who laughs
At your jokes when they are so bad
And your jokes are always bad
But they’re not as bad as this
Apropos of nothing, that verse has always reminded me of the opening lyric to Dylan’s “Positively 4th Street:” “You’ve got a lot of nerve/ To call yourself my friend/ When I was down/ You just stood there grinning,” which is the greatest opening lyric ever. FYI.
Anyway, the real key to “Here” is the guitar line. It plays a perfect harmony/counterpoint to the vocal, at times echoing Malkmus’ despair back to him, at others responding to it, as if it were the voice of the unnamed target of the song. Also, that little guitar hitch (dadadaddooooiDOY) sounds like Mario Brothers. Man, I am just full of Top Notch Insight today, aren’t I?
“Here” live in Belgium, 1992. Dudes, what’s with the shorts on stage? Are you the Chili Peppers???
07 “Box Elder” | Westing (By Musket and Sextant)
Because making shit up/half-remembering it is more fun than researching, here’s the history of “Box Elder:” Malkmus wrote the song, and it was released on a cassette called Slay Tracks, which I believe was Pavement’s first-ever release. It came out in ‘89, I think. David Gedge, dude from Cinerama (who suck) and Wedding Present (who were sometimes awesome; buy Seamonsters, pls), heard the song somehow, and covered it on Bizarro, an album of theirs from the early ’90s. Pavement had yet to really put anything out aside Slay Tracks, and yet Wedding Present were moderately big in the UK, and so there was interest generated and then John Peel loved Gedge and loved the song and this transferred over to Peel loving Malkmus and then History Was Made.
Most of this might be false. I dunno. I do think I might like the Wedding Present cover better — they rightly recognized how great the crazy-simple guitar line is while Pavement buries it — but it’s the kinda track that’s awfully hard to screw up. I think a lot of folks consider this when Pavement really started. But who cares what a lotta people think — I gotta lotta good things comin’ my way, and I’m not afraid to say that they’re not some of them. Oh snap!
Also, here’s Malkmus playing this solo a couple years ago in NYC. Killer.
06 “Summer Babe” | Slanted & Enchanted
So I think this is pretty much unanimously considered the best thing Pavement ever did, and for once it’s a conventional wisdom that’s hard to argue with. But I will anyway. “Summer Babe” is spectacular, for sure. It’s totally effortless, feels like it might have been written on the spot, excited sideways glances between the band members, too fearful to wonder if this is it because they don’t want to jinx it, like a pitcher getting too excited in the 8th inning of a no-hitter. It also contains what I am reasonably certain is the first Swisher Sweet reference in song (”mixin’ cocktails with a plastic-tipped cigar”). It also contains a McCartney-worthy bass line. To repeat: it is spectacular. One of my favorite songs ever — by any band — and one you should download if you have never heard. But there are five Pavement songs I think are better. Come back tomorrow to find out which.
05 “Frontwards” | Watery, Domestic
“I’ve got style/ Miles and miles/ So much style that it’s wasted.” It is, above all others, the definitive Pavement lyric, even though most folks would have trouble pinpointing the song from which it comes. But even without that line, “Frontwards” would belong here. The song straddles the rough amateurism of Slanted and the pop maturity of Crooked Rain, a very attractive combo. (Watery, Domestic came out between the two albums.) (Also, it’s ridiculous that AMG gives this a bad review, as this is maybe the best thing Pavement ever released. Anyway.) There’s a great hint of finality to the song, from the opening chord on. It’s always felt a bit like a eulogy to me.
04 “Grounded” | Wowee Zowee
The closest Pavement ever got to grunge — that post-chorus riff-build — another real fun downer, lots of tension, a sense of purpose. The best I can do to advocate for this song is implore you to watch this performance, which is stupendous:
03 “Zurich Is Stained” | Slanted & Enchanted
We need to start by quoting the lyrics to this one in full. (Maybe think of “Zurich” as being a white cushion on his and his gal’s brand new, crazy expensive couch. Maybe that will help.)
I can’t sing it strong enough
That kind of strength I just don’t have
But if you watch the light change
Don’t hold them hangingYou think it’s easy, but you’re wrong
I’m not one half of the problem
Zurich is stained and it’s not my fault
Just hold me back or let me runSo what does it mean, a mistake or two
If it’s the kind of mistake no one can trace
To the fountain where we sold it
And held them hangingYou think it’s easy, but you’re wrong
I’m not one half of the problem
Zurich is stained and it’s not my fault
Just hold me back or let me run
You think it’s easy, but you’re wrong
I’m not one half of the problem
Zurich is stained and it’s not my fault
Just hold me back or let me run
The simplicity and directness of these words are great, as is the fact that Malk sings them so plainly, real flat, not a lot of feeling, just getting it down on paper. It lends the song a lot more credibility than some wrought performance might (fortunately for the song, and us, I’m not sure if Malk even has that in him). The song is really short — 101 seconds — and throughout there’s this great, really bad slide guitar squeaking and squirting in the background, which I’ve always heard as kind of an id to the vocal’s ego. Which probably sounds ridiculous, I realize, but what do you expect from a liberal arts education?
02 “Texas Never Whispers” | Watery, Domestic
More Watery, Domestic goodness. Reason why this song ranks so high:
a) The song title, which is just a spectacular bit of wording. It’s like some phrase that Peter Bogdanovich or even John Lennon would think of, and then do their best to repeat at every instance (I know I would).
b) That opening overblown guitar bit, the pedals and guitar shrieking out this almost ceremonial melody, like announcing the arrival of a foreign head of state.
c) After that drops out, Malk opens with, “Here we go/ She’s on a hidden tableau.” It just sounds cool, folks.
d) “She’s so lackadaisical/ Should have been a West Coast bride.” I feel that, ya know?
e) The song is huge. There’s a spaciousness to it, an expansiveness to the arrangement. It’s wide and tall (I feel like most Pavement songs are tall but not wide). The arrangement is very impressive and mature.
f) The coda at the end with the flirting guitar solo/drum fills and the fuzz bass.
g) “This tunnel is a Tex-as mile.”
01 “Pueblo” | Wowee Zowee
So this one ain’t even close. For me, there’s “Pueblo,” one of the last songs on Wowee Zowee, and then there’s everything else. From the first moment I heard it, I was dumbstruck. Pavement never played around with tension/release — too good for it! — but here they succumbed to the temptation, concocting these really subdued but foreboding verses that would just explode into a chorus so impossibly huge, almost never-ending in its breadth thanks to two sustained guitar notes that clash and then harmonize with Malkmus’ vocals. Kicking into the chorus is this out-of-nowhere piercing guitar dropping three notes fast — “duh-duh-duuuuuuuh” — and then it all comes rushing forward, like a stampede at 45rpm.
And yet there’s not a really strong structure to it. It basically works like this: intro, verse, pre-chorus, chorus, post-chorus instrumental noodling that lasts for well over a minute, sorta-verse only more like a middle-eight, chorus explosion, explosion, explosion, fragments, fin. It’s just a really long tease, except with two tremendous payoffs, the second of which still astonishes me ten years later.
When I was 17 and living in the boondocks of Virginia, I had a tape that I would listen to repeatedly when driving around. I can’t remember what all was on there. I remember Pavement, Stone Roses, Breeders, Nirvana, Archers of Loaf, Oasis, things like that — the Pavement song was, obviously, “Pueblo.”
One of my closest friends at the time lived on top of a mountain, and had a two-mile long gravel driveway down to a slightly larger road. Well, one night I was driving down that road and rocking out to “Pueblo” in my stepmother’s Taurus at a pretty good clip. Singing along, pounding the steering wheel, that sort of thing. But as I got to the end of the driveway, I noticed at the last second that the gate that was almost always open — a really long, white, solitary pole — was partially closed, and was pointing into the road. I slammed on the brakes, but it was too late: I shut my eyes, and heard the sound of shattered glass and an awful tearing sound.
When I opened my eyes, I was confronted with a large white object pointing across my face. As I got my bearings, I realized that this long white pole had gone through the windshield, coming so close to my head that it had ripped the headrest behind me IN HALF. Somehow I still had my wits about me, so I very slowly backed the car up so the pole was out of the interior, and I stopped at a nearby trailer to use their phone. My family was obviously none too happy, and it was the closest I have ever come to death. And it’s all “Pueblo”’s fault. Thanks Pavement!
Really good job, guy(s). Totally enjoyed this all week. I linked to it on my own Web site, and this handy all in one link is definitely appreciated.
The fact that you left out lots of Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain and left out ‘no life singed her’ proves how amazing pavement are. I’m a huge fan, but i wouldn’t know the b-sides or Wowee Zowee that well. Where’s ‘Stereo’?!?, i’m not arguing with your choices, it means I’ve good to reason to get off my ass and find these other gems. Great Blog!
“Slay Tracks”, on which “Box Elder, MO” appeared, was a 7″ release. Lots of people I know (including myself) bought it when it was released, so it’s not too surprising that Gedge got wind of it as well.
reading some of the tunes on your list, anticipation for your number one came to a fever pitch. most of my all-time favorites are represented here: “grounded,” “strings of nashville” [!!], and the missing link between pavement and lupe fiasco.
i was reading down the list expecting for your number one song to be one of two extremes: either “cut your hair,” or something completely obscure, but i actually got goosebumps when “pueblo” jumped out of the page and smacked me in the face. the chorus-explosion of this song is likely better than 80% of everything else recorded in the 1990’s.
Thanks for doing this, Pavement are one of those bands that, based on what I’ve read and my other likes etc, I ’should’ like but have never gotten into.
This is hopefully a good jumping on list.
you went to william and mary?! sweet! i’m a freshman there now and i still rock out to “range life.” however, i’ve never done it in cw. perhaps it should be included an extra leg of the triathalon?
Nice job,
Best ever. Though no mention of gary young who made a lot of the list, list worthy. And I have to defend Brighten the Corners, being the most underrated of Pavers albums. Get’s better with age, though I liked it when I got it on valentines day ninety whatever.’harness your hopes’ could be added to rep all era’s. but whatever.
kudos. sweet old footage not on the dvd. ist rad.
You know what I love about Pavement…? I could come up with a top twenty and probably overlap 5 songs….that’s a deep catalouge…
I grabbed a couple live recordings from SF, CA from Feb-97…powerful performances and garunteed sing-a-longs for any Pavement fan.
Honorable Mentions: ???
We Are Underused (oh yeah I know you care)
Father to a Sister of a Thought
Transport Is Arranged (Better find your way out, you better learn how to run…great opening lyrics)
No “Shoot The Singer” ? I realize there was a lot of Watery, Domestic content in the top 10, but that’s just cause it’s the best 12 minutes of music ever put out on one EP… I mean, besides the da-da-da-da’s and the hard thumping bass portion, there are some lyrics there that hit you solidly “in the morning light, you hold that ashray tight….you can put it out, or I can put it out.” I named the book after you! Slow it down, song is sacred! Don’t expect…don’t expect, don’t expect.
-TK
While I hate to make a petty argument over such a brave and well-constructed list, I can’t help but point out your gross underestimation of “Silence Kit.” At least for me, that song belongs well in the top 5 on the merits of Malkmus’s opening vocal alone That moment when the fumbling guitars finally come together and build into a steady, delicate rhythm, and SM breathes out that long, shakily serene “Aaaahhh” is for me one of the most powerful in all of music, evocative of everything all at once. That revelatory moment, coupled with heart-wrenching shift from bliss to emptiness of the SK’s ending, when both the song and the singer fall apart, render CRCR’s opener in my mind more of a 1 than a 15.
Strange Choice For No.1, Which Makes It A Good Choice, There’s So Much To Choose From Though, Which Definitley Makes Them The Best And Most Unique Indie Band Ever. I Really Love Transport Is Arranged, Starlings Of The Slipstream, Grave Architechture, Unfair, Loretta’s Scars To Name A Few Too Which Are Gr8 Also….Gr8 Job Though :}
Good call on Greenlander, I would’ve chucked in Kentucky Cocktail as well. I don’t agree with your number 1. But hey, that’s why it’s you’re list and not mine.
great stuff – just saw slow century and remembered again how amazing pavement was… “it’s a brand new era, but it came too late”.
Seriously tho, no “Conduit for Sale”??? I’m tryin! (to convince)
I agree with a lot of your list…which is weird I would say, for pavement fans. I’ve got this playlist on my Ipod, (80 mins long) where i try to rank pavement’s best songs. We probably overlap about 10-12 in our top 20.
I definitely have a bit more of a balance (not that that’s better), with all of the albums actually getting at least a few songs. Oh, how hard it is to pick out 80 minutes of pavement!
So anyway, I tinker with it all the time. My top 5 is soo hard to sort out. Pueblo is my number one, too. Goodness that song….the way it just all comes together without really being cohesive at all. Beauty, from perhaps america’s greatest homegrown band.
GREAT list
I just don’t get Pavement. They’re not made for my ears, I guess.
Good list, i think summer babe should be number one tho it is an incredible song, trigger cut aswell. Also one of my favourites is the song Jackie false grips: the lonesome era, really psyceldelic and different to most other pavement songs
Wow, great list, and totally agree with the No 1. Though my 2 and 3 are nowhere to be seen … Father to a Sister of Thought, with that outstanding steel guitar, and “and then …” the Carrot Rope 7inch b-side, which must the best version of the Hexx.
Good list…I would only take issue with the (relatively) low ranking of In the Mouth of a Desert–probably my #1 pick. No doubt that Frontwards (probably my #2 favorite) has one of the ultimate Pavement lyrics with the “I’ve got style” line, but let’s not forget the equally definitive (and, if nothing else, descriptive) chorus of Mouth of a Desert, where Malkmus exhorts us to “Wait to hear my words, and theyre diamond sharp.” Musically, I think it stands as the most complex and sophisticated example of the layered, occasionally clashing riffs and unexpected twists and turns that the early Pavement became famous for.
Oh, and its opening line–”Can you treat it like an oil well, when it’s underground, out of sight?”….well that might very well be the coolest first sentence in the history of rock.
really nice list. good call on so stark and give it a day. the way that song falls apart at the end bugs me so much but it is too infectious to dislike. you’re missing ‘trigger cut’ ’shoot the singer’ and ‘father to a sister of thought’ though.
oh and best track title goes to ‘angel carver blues/mellow jazz docent’.
yeah, ’shoot the singer’ should be on here. i can never get enough of the guitar part when it kicks into “and in the morning light, you hold that ashtray tight”… never gets old.
Is Gold Soundz too obvious?
Okay, you like Pavement? Kudos for you.
But the thing is, few Pavement fans will agree on a list like this. Sites are there where fans have voted, and there is no consensus. It’s all over the board.
What that means is if you’re going to list your own, you better have some damn good reasoning why you choose what you did. With yours, I only made it past the top two and had to say something.
Pueblo? Good call, definitely among their best. So you were driving in your mother’s – sorry, stepmother’s – Taurus, and almost put a long white pole (I won’t even get into the phallic imagery here) through your mouth – er, head, and that’s a reason for this being your favorite Pavement song?
Man, seek therapy. That’s seriously fucked up. And – I mean this – lay off the Pavement. For your stepmom’s sake, if not yours.
Oh, and people who drive a Taurus are kinda losers. People who trash them are kinda cool, but if you do it by accident that doesn’t count. Doesn’t matter what the soundtrack is.
Next comes “Texas Never Whispers”. Not a terrible choice, but second best? Okay, the opening guitar rips all else to shreds, but after that? There’s a reason S.M. chose Box Elder over this in concert. But okay, I’m open to a new argument, so let’s have it.
“some phrase that Peter Bogdanovich or even John Lennon would think of, and then do their best to repeat at every instance”
I have no fucking idea what the fuck that even means, and neither, I’m gonna bet, do you. Bogdonavich did one truly great film, maybe two or three others that were pretty good and then acted on the Sopranos. Maybe you mean “The Last Picture Show?” That was Texas whispering. And John Lennon? in Texas? Shit.
Blog posts like this give blogs a bad name. Please don’t do that anymore.
this is a great list. bold too, for taking on the kings of this style, considering how critical indie rock fans can be.
i’m not sure about a few listed/missing, but i had to keep reading your stories. they remind me of myself at that age.
driving around (in mom’s car?), listening to Pavement…surviving accidents with a cool head – that’s the gift this music will bestow on you.
i also love the part about the mix tape – the track listing sounds like the tapes i used to make. let me know if you feel nostalgic and we’ll make a swap – tape or cd. i grew up in Raleigh, NC, so my mixes tended to lean heavy on the mid 90’s NC indie of Archers, Superchunk, Ashley Stove, Polvo, etc.
yer awesome.
hey … great list. i really agree with your list. pueblo is epic. good job fellow pavement lover
It’s a solid list, an excellent list. Something like this is beyond me since I am such a huge Pavement/Malkmus fan that I would literally need at least 5 songs per full length record (way more from Wowee since it had 18) and this does not include Westing, B-sides and miscellaneous releases (Strings of Nashville, Greenlander, The Unseen Power of the Picket Fence, etc.)
I love your highlight of Pueblo, a low profile Pavement tune. But listening to Crooked Rain now, Fillmore Jive must be on the list!
I live in Orange County and this Wednesday (the 18th) I decided to ditch about ten hours of school to drive to San Fransico to see Malkmus live. I didn’t figure out until I made it to the box office that I had screwed up and the tickets I bought were for the following week (the 25th). I can’t afford to miss the same amount of school next week, and I’m really pissed off. I’m on this huge Pavement/Malkmus listening binge to compensate and this list helped me find some new tunes. Great work.
Missing:
- Harness Your Hopes
- Fin
- Fillmore Jive
The way lo-fi veresion of Pueblo, compiled on the CRCR re-release (second disc, part of the Cali out-takes) is by far my favorite Pavement song. The quality of the recording, the crackling, the hisses, that constant “woooooooooooo”, the tension, the quiet release. OMFG.
Pavement are the greatest band ever. Period. Some of my song thoughts:
Shoot the Singer is my second favorite song by them. Every time I hear someone praising Texas Never Whispers, I am slightly dumbfounded. As cool as that song is, and it is harmonically and structurally interesting, to me, Watery Domestic rests on Shoot the Singer and Frontwards, the former being about as perfect as Pavement could get.
Fillmore Jive – that guitar “solo” is moving. Nothing else to say. It almost brings me to tears. Sappy and emotional. “I need to sleep, why don’t you let me…”
Rain Ammunition is from the 2nd John Peel session on the Slanted & Enchanted re-release. In fact, that whole session is astounding. The guitar work is astounding – they were no slackers! Way catchy, and filled with expression.
Best Friend’s Arm – about as giddy as shouting can get. The version on the Wowee Zowee re-release (live in Australia) is also badass.
Half a Canyon (Live in Australia) – Man, Pavement could really rock the fuck out, and how. The two drums at the end… this came on shuffle with headphones on a while back, and for the third time in my life, I was dragged headfirst into a Pavement binge.
Spiral Stairs had some amazing songs. I love Mussle Rock (b-side to Father to a Sister of Thought) and Painted Soldiers (released on the soundtrack to a Kids in the Hall movie, Brain Candy; there’s also live radio version they did for Steve Lamaq, compiled on the Wowee Zowee re-release). Serpentine Pad is one of their best blistering/hardcore songs, and Forklift is one of the catchiest early Pavement songs, PERIOD.
Finally, why Pavement could’ve been a hardcore pop band: Serpentine Pad, False Skorpion, Wanna Mess You Around.
Good list! I would add “Circa 1762″, easily their best “rarity”, IMHO. The octave riff in the verse, Spiral/SM trading off vocals…greatness. Major kudos for “Zurich is Stained” and “Frontwards”, both great songs. Fuck, I would just put the first 10 songs of S&E, probably. “Loretta’s Scars”, the way it kind of slowly builds up, unintentionally almost. And Malkmus’ vocals are so damn awkward! For once, he actually sounds like he understands how ridiculous his lyrics are. And the chorus is so dry and catchy. “Home” is another gread build-up-er, the lyrics sort of make sense, even, and they’re good “No I cannot do it myself, stick your fingers in my mouth, pull my lips back and watch me smile…I’ll go to sleep and wait for my number to come,” pretty great summation of the Pavement aesthetic. “Perfect Depth” maybe….it’s so earnest! And “Best Friend’s Arm” is so goofy and catchy. “Grave Architecture” is another example of them being really impressively mature/good songwriters. And finally, “Western Homes” is the song everybody hates, but I think it’s great, the flanged vocals are just ridiculous. Maybe it shouldn’t have been right after “Half a Canyon” but oh well.
That’s funny… I was just listening to Wowee Zowee just today and thinking about how I have always undervalued Pueblo, and how it may be one of their best songs.
I think Black Out is by far the best song I’ve ever heard by them. They are a great band, but that song is way better than they are.
Good list, good list….but it really hurts me that you left off Loretta’s Scars! How can you, how can you leave this song off this list. This is the first pavement song I ever heard and I still get chills from it after 100000000 plays on my ipod. Maybe its like when a baby thinks the first person he see is his mom or something. I love the mix of excitment and lack of trying I get from this song and to me it might be the quintessential pavement song. I mean give it a day is a cute song, but it has nothing on Loretta, so maybe you could put it in at 12, or even 1b? (I understand your connection with pueblo so its ok.)
I think you hurt Scott’s feelings by not putting in one of his songs. He really tried, and I think Kennel District is deserving of some praise.
Great list, but it could have been much shorter. My list of best Pavement songs has always consisted solely of which ever Pavement song I’m listening to at the moment.
Great band. Great songs. They can do no wrong.
NYC 9/21/2010
great list.
i concur…with the “shoot the singer” peeps.
that should be a top 5 joint.
and “unseen power…”
but “texas never whispers at #2. genius.
although i totally get it…it’s a bummer that terror twilight didn’t have a single jam on here. “major leagues?”
harness your hopes is my favorite song i’m not a big fan of much else
great list man. although you forgot to include grave architecture. it’s ok, we all make mistakes. anyway i’m curious about three things-
1. what are your thoughts on the btc rerelease? I’m pretty sure this list was written before it came out. like you, I never liked btc or tt until i got the btc double. and for me the second disc in particular is amazing. chevy, the live type slowly, harness, the really cool version of the hexx. any of the songs from this release make your list?
2. thoughts on the reunion?
3. are you reading comments from a 2 1/2 year old post?
missin trigger cut: “lies and betrayels, fruit-covered nails”
elevate me later: “does he sleep with electric guitars, rang rovin’ with cinema stars”
harness you hopes: “show me a word that rhymes with pavement and I will kill your parents and roast them on a spit”
Thanks for the nice pics.
Very good writing. I am glad your posting that. I hope you can accept my apology for my less good English Skills, I am from France and English is sort of new to me. I will bookmark your blog and keep reading.