We Poll: Enjoy the Pavement "Wowee Zowee" poll

Probably my favorite Pavement album. Voted Grounded.

my favorite album, but not many tracks which stand out as a favorite.
think i'll vote for motion suggests.

motion suggests is a great one probs my #2, but Fight This Generation is my vote, sweet Yardley.

"Father to a Sister of Thought" over "Rattled by the Rush" and "Serpentine Pad."

Check that expiration date, man. It's later than you think.

we dance wins just for that lyric

stroll

past the strip

is it old?

am i clipped?

Too many great tracks. Voted Father to A Sister of Thought, but could easily have gone for about half the others.

my fav song from this session is probably easily fooled, tbh.

Grounded easily (my fave Pavement album btw)

we dance wins just for that lyric

What about Pueblo for "alright I want a cigarette!" or Half a Canyon for "Iiiiiiiiiiii can't believe I'm still going!", or Grounded for "We spoke of latent causes sterile gauzes, And the bedside morale" or Motion Suggests for "Captivate the senses like a ginger ale rain" or AT&T for "Maybe somone's gonna save me, My heart is made of gravy" or...

http://www.underconsideration.com/speakup_v2/top100/images/logo_att.gif

"Extradition" but that's cuz i had to pick ONE

Brinx Job probably... kidding! so hard this, quite a few great rockers here and quite a few great epics.

Father To a Sister if i vote right now.

Cannot pick ONE! Might vote for Kennel D (yes it's a Scott song and that apparently makes me crazy) because I love it and nobody else will, but today I'm in a Half A Canyon sort of mood.

(Maybe Grounded is a more sensible pick. This isn't an album for sensible picks, though, is it? I love it all the way through.)

Kennel D the only good Scott song. Still wondering why I ever bought that Preston School of Industry album.

wtf he has two belters on brighten the corners for a start

I never got into this album much. Apart from We Dance and Grounded, I can't remember any other songs off it!

what a shame

child

don't you know

i don't wanna let you go

wtf he has two belters on brighten the corners for a start

ok date w/ ikea is ok but passat dream is embarrassing.

see i don't even think spiral's songs are that bad, but you put 'em next to Malkmus' at this period and damn, dude, anyone is gonna look bad. i skip both date w/ ikea and passat dream, even though when i hear them on live recordings i think they're ok.

aw man this is the best pavement album! "grave architecture" ist my pick.

(also date w/ikea is one of the better songs on what is maybe the worst pavement album and honestly i don't mind passat dream at all...i mean it's certainly better than 'blue hawaiian')

worst? you gotta be kidding

This is tough. Deciding between "Rattled by the Rush" and "AT&T." I even like the miniature "Black Out," though.

i mean if brighten the corners isn't the worst pavement album what is? terror twilight? sure, i can go with that too. but wvs sorry for even bringing it up THIS IS THE WOWEE ZOWEE POLL WHERE WE TALK ABOUT THE EXCELLENCE OF WOWEE ZOWEE

probably 'grounded' but i voted for 'black out' 'cos its a under-rated little gem

if we could vote for the Super Deluxxxxx Matador version i would vote for the seven inch version of Black Out but i voted for Grrrave Arkitecture

I know I know - sad - but I gotta go with the big college radio play hitish (hmm - but I wasn't in college then - ok but my dial was there) - 'Rattled by the Rush' (they were singing about hitting a Rush show right?)

"Fear of Marriage. Fear of Limbaugh. Chorus of Lads at the end signifies stag-party peer pressure."

DICK SUCKING FOOL AT PUSSY LICKING SCHOOL

"caught my Dad cryin'!" one of the most funny/sad lines ever

Grounded - one of the best pavement somgs ever - just a bit over Motion Suggests
but,of course, almost everything here is classic.

short list:
we dance
grounded
father to a sister of thought
grave architecture
fight this generation

im gonna go with fight this generation, for the messy wowee-zowee-in-microcosm that it is

Great album on vinyl.

Magnificent album whose legend has only grown with time. Today it's "Kennel District" because I'm a softee woftee for Pavement songs with big yelly heartfelt finishes (a la "Summer Babe," "Fillmore Jive," KD, "We Are Underused.") But could easily have voted "Fight This Generation" or "Serpentine Pad" or "Grounded" or "Grave Architecture" or just about anything except "We Dance" and "Rattled By The Rush" -- and even these are great, just outshined by other stuff on this record!

Kennel District and Date With Ikea are probably two of my favorite Pavement songs ever but every other Spiral Stairs song kind of blows. Hit The Plane Down and Western Homes are the worst.

Great album on vinyl.

spritzer
on ice in
new york city

ALRIGHT I WANT A CIGARETTE

this is easy, i've got it down to "we dance" "black out" "father to a sister of thought" "AT&T" "fight this generation" "pueblo" and "half a canyon"

my favorite album by my favorite band

Wouldn't have said it when this came out, but these days I'm really feelin half a canyon (or pueblo, I always forget which is which)

half a canyon is the stereolab rip

neu rip, then? ;-)

though whoever it rips, it's a good rip. this is my fave pavement too.

By the way, is my memory wrong that when this came out people thought it was unfocused and boring and a step back from CR,CR?

there was a two-star rolling stone review saying that basically.

Graaave Architecture

Eric Weisbard wrote a nicely ambivalent takedown for SPIN (god, I hate their abhorrent archiving).

Grounded, obv.

Grave Architecture

damn i want to change my vote to grounded

when this came out people thought it was unfocused and boring

Yes. It killed any momentum they might have had in the marketplace. Critics didn't like it much either, it finished 17th in the 1995 Pazz & Jop, which is terrible for them.

lol i am reading some pavement bio and just got to the part where they're all like "man, we really liked wowee zowee, but no one else seemed to..." motion suggests or father to a sister for me, will re-listen.

The most influential critic of this record was probably Beavis, who told them to "try harder, damnit" while watching Rattled By The Rush.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Shit, I gotta vote in this. "we dance" it is

Grounded! Just cos it's the one that immediately popped in my head when I first thought about it. The more I think about it the more I more muddled I feel, I love so many of these songs.

I just wanna say that I wrote a great review of this album for Snipehunt magazine when it came out. I thought it was way, way better than CR CR and I think time has vindicated this opinion.

Voted "Serpentine Pad" for the thick guitar wall but I am kinda regretting not going for "AT&T" already.

To me this album is Malkmus' Pavement peak as guitarist.

"Kennel District" slightly over "Father To a Sister of Thought"

I really loved all the songs live. the rhythm section had so much room to breathe.

impossible poll

I've been sitting and staring at the list for like 20 minutes and I still don't even know where to start

I don't think there's a song on this album I can listen to without wanting to immediately hear the preceding and following songs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GN9a6Lg07w

they're soaking up the fauna, doing blotters I don't know which

you never know when the bridge falls apart

I'm torn between 'Grounded' and 'Father to a Sister of Thought' here. admrl and mookieproof's lyric calling tips it over to Grounded though. Just because it's such a goddamn gorgeous song with great lyrics.

the only song on here I will definitely not vote for is "Kennel District", but only because the demo on the Crooked Rain reissue is like 12x better than this version

waited to the last minute and voted grounded

same here. it's probably gonna take this

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

what an unexpected blowout!

not to me.
though i though motion suggests would get more votes

aw! poor "western homes"! no love!

would've voted Half a Canyon

i didn't vote in this but i would go with any of these.

AT&T 6
Pueblo 5
Grave Architecture 5

Motion Suggests was kinda robbed, it should be up there with We Dance and Blackout.

https://i.imgur.com/0wTXfGo.jpg

The idea of ranking/picking a favorite song from this album is bonkers to me

fuckin "Black Out" man. not a song that gets a lot of attention, but it's just so essential; the glue that holds the album together, maybe even the cornerstone

Why not? Let's rank the fucker's tracks

Saw an early version of "Fight This Generation" on a pre-WZ tour and it was one of those rare unfamiliar songs that just stopped you in your tracks.

indigo slipshod blueness

really?

Kennel District is near the top for me. Really this is one of those albums though that I just have to take as a totality.

agree

https://matablog.matadorrecords.com/2020/04/09/pavement-sensitive-euro-man-picture-disc-wowee-zowee-25th-anniversary/

Could this be the most charming and timeless collection of songs in the Pavement catalog? Wouldn’t you like to argue for hours and hours with strangers on the internet about it?

This thread prompted me to give this a re-listen for the first time in a while, and it holds up as a lumpy, disjointed whole. The shitty parts make the diamonds shine the brighter, and some of them are at least a little more amusing than annoying. I remain steadfast in my conviction that Malkmus used to be a much better lyricist, though I have trouble articulating why--it's a feeling. There's real poetry here.

Half a Canyon is so badass. When they turn into Stereolab I can’t crank it loud enough.

Yeah, love Half a Canyon!

Malkmus can't shut up, though -- he wants to be a poet. So Stereolab doesn't sound quite right to me.

I never understood the connection with Give it a Day (Half a Canyon 2) other than the reference to witch trials.

xp

Where is “Give It a Day” referred to as “Half a Canyon 2”?

Only thing I can think of is "Elevate Me Later" was written down on early setlists as "Loretta Scars 2" or "LS2"

Where is “Give It a Day” referred to as “Half a Canyon 2”?

I forget exactly; either in liner notes/inserts or setlists. But all I can find right now is:

http://www.lyrics.com/lyric/1920465/Pavement/Give+It+a+Day, which lists the first line as "Aych ay see two (half a canyon too)".

Huh, that’s interesting... I don’t see it in either the Pacific Trim or WZ (Sordid Sentinels Ed.) packaging.

"Half A Canyon" - 1995

This song is pretty sick for a couple reasons. The lyrics are meaningless, so let’s skip the lyrics. In a song like that, they’re just there for decoration. But it has a really cool guitar tone that totally blew out the speakers of the Fender Twin reverb — this hideous, over-driven sound that I had never heard in my life. So I take credit for that.

I’m acting like Damo Suzuki at the end of the song. I do this scream, and I scream as though my life depended on it, and I scream as long as I could. I passed out nearly afterwards. I thought I was going to have an aneurysm. I screamed so hard that I scared myself. I never screamed like that ever again. But at least my scream exists on an album, instead of at some gig, you know?

It is a fairly atypical Pavement song, and definitely a highlight.

sitting on the deck of a sporty bar w ESPN2 on in the background. mildly thrilled to see one of the talking heads w a WZ cover on the shelf behind her. didn’t move fast enough to capture it but apparently it’s not the first time.

ESPN’s @minakimes w/ ‘Wowee Zowee’ backdrop @pavement_band #stevekeene pic.twitter.com/29ESkFKHvt

— Matador Records (@matadorrecords) April 15, 2020

Cool – that's not the actual cover, looks like a painting or print mimicking it (another Keene?)

oh, I see the tag in the tweet now

ah duh yes

she’s married to nick sulvester iirc

or wait some music journo. oh god just delete me why do I post things

30 today

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oInYUBRjHC8

I hate the family's life
Si saben que voy por ahí
Aquí o allá
Si puedo no dormir

Buscan for my clothes
Buscan for my nose
Quieren tenerlo todo
Y no ven que no soy...

Now I won't need someone
To let me be

Se encierra en el placard
Esconde su lunar azul
No es triste ya no existe
Su lugar

Que tiene que correr
O tiene que volar
Para patear al alba
Llorando al andar...

Now I won't need someone
To let me be
Now I won't need someone
To let me go
Let me free!!!

Never understood the huge huge love of Grounded. I mean, it's a fine song but I don't know what puts it above anything else on this album or even in their catalgouee

I can think of two reasons:

the epic slow build of the intro

the lyrics are more lucid and relatable than most other Pavement songs (especially if you live in the US and must contend with our nightmare health care system--the song gets depressingly more relevant all the time), while still containing wild wordplay like "he foaled a swollen daughter in a sauna playing contract bridge"

To say a little more, I think aims at, and totally nails, an emotional register that the band usually avoids.* like, "anguish" is not a word I'd associate with most of their songs, but Grounded brings the anguish.

*this is also why I like the gloominess of some of the Terror Twilight songs, e.g. "Cream of Gold", "The Hexx"

its sort of their “hugest”, grandest sounding song, imo

What was it that Courtney Love called Stephen Malkmus?

“The Grace Kelly of indie rock”

I don't think he fucked as much.

There was more attention put into the production, right? I am an absolute novice on this but it sounds like the Single it was?

I am doubting myself this was a UK single now...

I mean, it's also fucking lovely.

Maybe just you dl.

That cover is pretty sweet.

According to ancient interview I unearthed with SM, "AT&T" was not considered for a single for WZ as Malkmus had performed and recorded the entire song solo ("Flux=Rad" was also recorded at the same late night solo session after everyone had gone home).

While Matador noted the commercial appeal of "AT&T" vs. say "Rattled...", SM felt like it seemed unfair to have his solo song chosen as a single.

"AT&T" is surprising because SM had mentioned at some point that he'd drummed on all the fast/punky songs after Gary had left but... AT&T is neither fast or punky.

Listening to the drum track with this in mind he's a pretty competent drummer, he has some competent rolls and throws in a nice shuffle/bass drum interplay in the 2nd verse...

But yeah this song speeds up like Stairway haha.

(also the bass does gets a little too wanky at the end lol).

I think it's in Slow Century that Malkmus says re: Wowee Zowee capitalizing on CRCR's minor success (paraphrasing), "I chose Rattled by the Rush and Father to a Sister of Thought as singles. They sounded like hits to me, but I was smoking a lot of pot around that time."

Why not? Let's rank the fucker's tracks

― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, April 7, 2020 8:29 PM (five years ago) bookmarkflaglink

Now rank the additional tracks on the deluxe edition

1. No More Kings

2. "It's A Hectic World" with guest vox by his GF at the time (& her twin sister) who also plays a (broken?) celesta recorded in South Williamsburg.

its sort of their “hugest”, grandest sounding song, imo

― brimstead, Friday, July 25, 2025 3:49 PM (three weeks ago) bookmarkflaglink

Yeah it’s the wide depth of field, the way the guitar on the chorus traces the dome of the sky and then erupts.
Grounded is a cold comfort. Malkmus grates and it’s one of the several Pavement songs i love unreservedly.

hm... guess I'm missing something. It's fine but it's an indistinguishable mid-tempo Malkmus plodder to my ears - I can think of several more even on that album I prefer.

"grounded" is a recycle of "summer babe":

3 chords on repeat, SM doing a 2-string alternating figure, angsty instrumental bridge

neither song are my favorite but vive la difference

bridge = chorus

you never, never know when the bridge falls apart

yeah it's a classic for a reason

https://www.instagram.com/pavementband/reel/DNlWOiLxnTU/?hl=en

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7n9lx2I3ohQ
the band doing a nice rendition of fight this generation this last weekend in tx