Pavement - Wowee Zowee

Pavement – Wowee Zowee
Matador, 1995
Acquired: Love Garden, Used, 2007
Price: $12

Oh man! INDIE FUCKING ROCK. I don't know why I bought this. I must have had a lot of student loans, seems like something I would buy with $5000 in the bank. I don't know WHY I've ignored this record either, because I really like Pavement. I do dig the cool Steve Keene cover art, and the gatefold is pretty rad, featuring a piece of writing entitled “Dick-Sucking Fool at Pussy-Licking School.” According to Malkmus, this record is different or “more experimental” than Crooked Rain due to “excessive marijuana consumption.” I don't smoke weed regularly, or at all even, but I think that is pretty funny because I can't do anything when I'm high, much less write songs. I've tried. We used to smoke every once and a while during Kite Tails recording sessions but that usually meant the end of the recording and playing and just relaxing. Malkmus seems like the kind of guy who would write awesome shit while stoned. This record is pretty fucking rad. It's got “Rattled By the Rush” and “Grounded.” Boo and Boo Too used to cover “Grounded” but I don't think they'd ever play it again and if they did it probably wouldn't work. I think I saw the Dactyls cover it too, one time, and it was pretty rad, yet despite their best intentions, the Dactyls will always kind of seem like a Pavement tribute band. Enjoyable, sure, but every time I see them opening for some band I'm like “Oh yeah, Pavement Tribute band.” Local music aside, oh yeah, this record. It's cool, I guess. I don't know why I do these write ups at 4 AM when I'm drained, because I can't think of anything to say about this other than that “Grounded” is a monster jam and that there's a wizard on the back saying “Pavement is Rad.” I guess I'll just note the songs that are rad as I listen. “Serpentine Pad,” that song is fucking rad as hell, and is a nice follow up to the high they hit with “Grounded.” “Father to a Sister of Thought” was apparently a single, and it's compared to “Range Life” because of “alt-country” elements which basically means the way the guitar is strummed and the lap steel. It is nowhere near as engaging as “Range Life” and kind of boring. The second side was pretty forgettable except for “AT&T,” which was pretty good. Annoyingly, this is on 2XLP but only has three sides. Yeah, I know it's a reissue and all, but if it's a reissue shouldn't there be some B-sides tacked on that fourth side or something? I mean, c'mon! It's just dead wax and you could have probably just saved money by putting it all one one record without sacrificing too much in the sound quality. It's just gonna make moving all of my records that much harder. JEEZ Pavement and Matador, you should have thought of that! I think listening to the third side I know I'm probably not meant for Pavement superfandom. It's all good, I just don't feel like any of it demands my attention and none of it is making me say “fuck yes, this is great!”