The recent re-release of a few of Pavement’s classic albums reminds me of a little story. It was 1994 and my step-brother had just purchased Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain. I was knee deep in Buffalo Tom, Lemonheads, and Dinosaur Jr records and beginning to distance myself from the grunge phenomenon of the previous few years. I had made a cassette copy of Crooked Rain 2x and played it a lot. My step-brother (however) evidently didn’t like the album as much as I did so I traded him my copy of Soundgarden’s Badmotorfinger for it. I think I came out on top in that deal. Wowee Zowee (though) is actually my favorite Pavement record. Sprawling, stoned, and totally fantastic.
As a related aside, I was listening to a small local radio station a few days ago and heard both a Nirvana song and a Pearl Jam song on the radio. Now is it just me or has the music of Pearl Jam aged a whole lot better than Nirvana’s music? I listen (even to Nevermind) and think just how bad and dated their music sounds. Nothing even remotely remarkable about them now. I mean, Dinosaur Jr and Sonic Youth were/are so much better. Pearl Jam’s old stuff (on the other hand) sounds almost as fresh now as it did 15 years ago. And (for the record) “State Of Love And Trust” is a phenomenal song. All that being said, check out the reissue of Pavement’s early stuff on Matador. That’s all I got for now.
MP3 | Pavement – Rattled By The Rush Wowee Zowee
MP3 | Pearl Jam – State Of Love And Trust Singles Soundtrack
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State of love and trust is a brilliant song. I only picked up a copy of the singles soundtrack for Drown by the Pumpkins. So when I played the disc that PJ song floored me. My mates who despise PJ love this track. Great Choice. KGD.
Merge? Don’t you mean Matador?
I don’t know…. as someone who’s never really liked Pavement, i’d have to go with your stepbrother on that trade. BMF is a bonecrushing record. Not quite as good as Louder than Love, but i like it alot.
Yeah Grubbs. I know I can count on you to catch my errors. Matador. That is what being in a hurry gets me.
I think I half agree with you. PJ is unfairly looked at by many as a Nirvana “also ran”. To my ears, they were, and remain, a fantastic band who made some pretty timeless music. That said, I still stand by my original position from 1994 that Versus was almost uniformly awful.
On the other hand, I still find Nevermind to be pretty compelling. Part of the problem is we’ve all heard the album so many times, either when Nirvana did it, or when 1,000 other bands pilfered it throughout the 90’s. Another problem is the production, which screams out “1988-1992″. But go back and listen to “Lounge Act”, and listen to the urgency of Kurt’s voice after the 1:33 mark. It always gets me. This is why Nirvana was so important. You could feel that Kurt lived his songs, and bled his anger and confusion in them. That’s why they made such an impact, and so many kids at the time identified with them.
I’m 31 now, so I don’t feel quite as much anger and confusion as I did at 16, but Nirvana still strikes a pretty strong chord with me. At least Nevermind. Can’t say I listen to In Utero too much.
(PS: Apologies if this published twice. Confusion with Blogger Beta sign-in.)
Did you ever listen to the Jazz LP “Gold Sounds”, where a bunch of jazz cats did Pavements covers?
JT
PS. I would have kept Badmotorfinger. I do like Pavement, but I fucking love Soundgarden, even now. And I am so disappointed in C. Cornell for fucking up the legacy with some mediocre solo crap. That track for Casino Royale blew, in my opinion.
PPS. The Singles soundtrack – one of the best movie soundtracks? Agree/disagree? Great mix, although sadly dated now.
AMEN on State of Love and Trust. Hands down one of my favorite PJ songs.
I dunno. I guess I agree that Pearl Jam has aged better, but I still strongly prefer Nirvana. Maybe Nevermind doesn’t sound quite as urgent outside of its time and place (and after we’ve heard it a million times), but it’s still pretty intense.
I responded to an article from the Times a few months ago that made this argument, if you want to check it out.
http://heartachewithhardwork.blogspot.com/2006/09/shed-take-me-anywhere.html
I’ve had trouble listening to Nirvana for years. I was a Nirvana superfreak from ages 11-13, a middle class, suburban whiteboy whose t-shirt hung below his knees.
I’m sure part of the reason I can’t listen to Nirvana has something to do with those awkward (pre)pubescent years. Even so, I still listen to the bands Nirvana hipped me to, like Dinosaur Jr, the Pixies, and Husker Du. I’ve come to really downplay Nirvana; I tend to think of them more as a band who was just there at the right place, right time.
State of love and trust is probably my favourite song ever! I remember I first heard it on the unplugged show they did for MTV. Its an acoustic version but it still rocks!
Nirvana is also great, but I prefer Pearl Jam!