CROOKED RAIN CROOKED POLL

Fillmore Jive, by a mile. One of the best breakdowns I've ever heard.

oh fuuuuuuck gotta bee Ell Ess Two for me. i still remember exactly where i was standing when i heard this for the first time. good poll dmr

inspired by listening to this on my roof at 2am saturday with about 10 ilxors. bourbony goodtimes.

i'll be boring and say gold soundz

I'm deciding between Gold Soundz, Elevate, and Fillmore ....

I hope "Cut Your Hair" wins in a landslide.

Stop Breathin'

Absolutely "Range Life" for me. But then I always did love their more countryish numbers.

"5-4=Unity" for me.

"range life"

i was rocking out to this song at a bar recently and some guy came up and lifted his shift to reveal a HUGE "range life" tattoo down his side.

"5-4=Unity" for me.

Whaaaaa....

Gold Soundz 4 life, because

1. Is it a crisis or a boring change?
2. It has a nice ring when you laugh
3. And they're coming to the chorus now

(3.5. Sweetest, most blissed-out summery instrumental break in the history of like ever)

4. So drunk in the August sun
5. You're the kind of girl I like
6. Because you're empty, and I'm empty

5-4

I'm deciding between Gold Soundz, Elevate, and Fillmore ....

-- dmr, Monday, September 3, 2007 8:54 PM (25 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

ooh or maybe "Unfair", that's a great one too

"Stop Breathin'" because of the ending.

gold soundz!

Fillmore Jive, but damn, what a tough choice

"Elevate Me Later", the closest they ever got to the shimmering of Reckoning (and that's a great thing to aspire to).

5-4 peeeple be crazypants

"Gold Soundz," cuz you can never quarantine the past.

Unfair

5-4 peeeple be crazypants

No!

It's sorta amazing how much I hate seeing "Silent Kid" listed as "Silence Kit" or similar. I really wish Malkmus never did that.

I'll be fancy and call it by it's real name: Loretta's Scars II

I voted for "Unfair," but honestly this is kinda impossible for me.

Why harsh on my (or Jordan's or jergïns') pick of "5-4=Unity"? It is a sweet little song, a nice melody and a good break from their lyrics which I've never particularly cared for. Very hummable.

42 MINTZ

THE PERFECT TONE YOU ACHIEVE HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH YOUR AMP

I predict Gold Soundz will win this by a country mile

One of those songs you can NEVER really get tired of

This will probably seem a ridiculous statement to many ILMers but CRCR may be the single most important album I heard in terms of what else it led me to hearing. That or Mars Audiac Quintet. I listened to it so much that pretty much every track became perfect to me and I can't possibly choose.

...That said, the Elevate Me Later option is looking pretty tempting.

Yeah Either Gold Soundz or Range Life.

Range Life! It's true, Pavement were always quite good at country.

Unfair!

"Range Life" for me too, although I agree that "Stop Breathin" has a killer ending section.

It's sorta amazing how much I hate seeing "Silent Kid" listed as "Silence Kit" or similar. I really wish Malkmus never did that.

Let it go brah.

i like songs that have two names

"Range Life" is one of the few Pavement songs with lyrics I can directly relate to.

"Silent Kid" is great, but like a lot of their songs, I have to wonder...wtf is he singing about?

Sweet that right as I'm reading this thread the Hot Chip/Stephen Malkmus remix popped in my headphones. A match made in hell?

I don't know why it annoys me so when people refer to Pavement songs by names other than the one printed on the sleeve. Is it because you know what it was called in its baby stages? Or how it's referred to on the setlists? Jeezus, that's annoying.

Elevate Me Later (Ell Ess Two or Loretta's Scars II or whatever the fuck) gets my vote.

"Range Life" is one of the few Pavement songs with lyrics I can directly relate to.

You went out on tour with Smashing Pumpkins anbd Stone Temple Pilots?

Naw, I just like the part about settling down, that's all. They are foxy to me. Are they foxy to you?

I need to sleep!

Why won't you let me! (srsly why am I still clicking on this thread it's 12 minutes past my bed time)

"So drunk, in the August sun, and you're the kind of girl I like..."

Top 20 songs ever.

out on my skateboard the night is just humming

Paul, the name printed on the sleeve isn't always the final word! I mean, if you bought CRCR on tape, it lists the songs as "Silent Kid" and "Ell Ess Two," which is how the songs were commonly written on setlists, or referred to when Malkmus mentioned them out loud. There's some margin of error, of course, and it's kinda loose and up in the air for a reason. Personally, I just love the sound of "Ell Ess Two," and think "Elevate Me Later" is far weaker title, so I never call it that. "Silent Kid" is just the name of the song though, no matter what weird pun on it got on the sleeve!

I divvn't nah that Elevate Me Later/Ell Ess Two was Loretta's Scars II.

Also, is "Silent Kid" really that cryptic? I mean, it is a bit inscrutable in parts, but in a really basic way it's about the excitement and brotherhood that goes with being in a small-time rock band. It's not all glamorous, though -- as the song ends, they've played a great show, but he's by himself and masturbating a few hours after the gig.

All I kno about silent kid is that the guitar at the end fuggin' destroys, yo!!!1

Fair enuff… yeah, it just doesn’t grab me or make me want to keep listening (or feel like it took me anywhere when I do), obviously this isn’t a universal judgment.

But, again, contrast with “Half a Canyon”… tho I guess there must be folks who find that boring and repetitive or whatever.

(I admit saying they lacked inspiration is “unfair” - no pun intended - clearly I have no idea how inspired they were or weren’t… maybe they thought it was a great musical idea… maybe they were inspired by the best hash in the city that night… etc.)

Range life and maybe unfair when you wanna get down: all you need from this album tbh

Okay Newark wilder and elevate me later are good tunes, and 5-4 unity a fun novelty track too

Not there for filmore jive. It's like pavement trying to be radiohead: the worst concept imaginable. I do like the five seconds where sm sings "every night it's straight and narrow" otherwise nah mate, bit of wank ain't it?

smdh.p.

My spittin' too truthful

I also kinda like "heaven is a truck" because it sounds like a lot of the songs on brighten the corners.

Okay maybe I like more of this album than I thought. But half of the songs I can easily do with never hearing again = silence kit, stop breathing, gold soundz (not actually a bad sing, just a cmvery short shelf life), cut your hair, hit the plane down and filmore jive

What song should I teach my next guitar student from this album and why should it be unfair?

oh my god, some of y'all are out of your friggin' minds

this thread has taken an unfortunate turn; steer it directly into the ground

there’s no survi

vors

i do like fillmore jive, it's a good closer, but there's other stuff that was cut that should have been on the album, just like every pavement record.

anyway this is the most otm thing ever said

watery, domestic is a perfect ep and the best thing they ever released

basically a perfect 11 minutes and 27 seconds of music

Anyway, I don't skip anything on this album, I dig it all

There are some very bad opinions here and I admit some of them are mine

I wouldn't say I *hate* Fillmore Jive, but I've never really vibed with it. Something about the melody irritates me. It just sounds very trite. Coupled with the arch lyrics, makes me understand more than anything why people *don't* like Pavement and find them insincere.

Raft & Coolin' by Sound are two S-tier bangers and should have been on the album. CBS might even be my favorite Scott song in the catalogue.

Sorry if I went too hard on “Fillmore Jive”… If I’m expressing a negative opinion, I like to give my reasoning (rather than just say “it sucks”); if only so others have something specific to argue against if they’re telling me I’m full of it(!)

I still invite y’all to imagine a world in which the album ends with “all my friends”… we could live in that world… together

that's how it starts...

xxp don't apologize ... i love "Fillmore Jive" but i also agree that "All My Friends" would be an even better album closer.

The story behind "All My Friends" being cut was that SM felt the melody was a little too close to Sebadoh's "Vampire" so he ended up just taking a snippet of the outro and releasing it as a b-side to Gold Soundz under the title "Exit Theory (Edit)".

I still invite y’all to imagine a world in which the album ends with “all my friends”… we could live in that world… together

― Hippie Ernie (morrisp), Tuesday, March 12, 2024 3:46 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

I'm good thanks. I might come down later

It's good for the "read it fast before the Sunday mass" line but it does sound like Sebadoh

listening to “all my friends” now for the first time in probably 5+ years…I love CRCR the way it is, but I’m team morrisp on this point

I forgot this song was called Sebadoh on an early boot

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jH3pLG_RTjs

Wow, I forgot that too…

I love “Vampire,” but I don’t think I would’ve made the connection

i totally see it, for sure

Pavement: a variety of bands in one band

I guess Malk was so hyper-conscious of "recycling" at that time that he felt the need to (alt-)title a song "Ell Ess Two" (would *anyone* have noticed it uses the same chords as "Loretta's Scars"?)

I didn't notice that until I saw the "working titles" in the liner notes, after listening to the album 4-5 times

I guess this is the CRCR thread, but I listened to the new remaster/new sequence of Terror Twilight over lunch. It’s such a strange fun album!!

Godrich is having more fun than ever before or since, acting as Roxy Music’s Eno. The way the guitars feed through an H909 endlessly to the middle of the stereo field on The Hexx is so inspired and amazing

I can’t tell if Malkmus’s lyrics have gone from skewing-slack to skewing-arch— the opening lyric of Shady Lane from BTC already feels light years away from the bleah-bleah-bleah on Our Singer, so this isn’t particular to this album— and so many couplets on TT are admirable and beautiful, but he feels closer in tone to a future Matthew Friedberger than he does to his younger self. The vocal mic choice is a big change, too, he “sounds good” which is a weird and perhaps less-effective choice for his style

Great album tho, 10/10

Oh and Spit On A Stranger was always a good opening track but it’s a GREAT closing track, love the new sequence

I love The Hexx. I'd say top 5 Pave song for me

And the new sequence does make more sense and presents TT as the adventurous "prog" album it wants to be

Only just learned that it was Spit On A Stranger released as the single outside the US whereas we got Carrot Rope, which sounds much more like a pop single to me

My questionable opinion is that Spit and Carrot should have been a non LP double A-side single, so that TT could be a darker psych rock album

I also prefer this live version of Carrot to the album one
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7rw07n6gcg

oof the other band members can barely play that

wow ... never seen that video and *never* seen the band in that configuration, with Spiral behind SM on keys and ... who is that playing guitar in the Batman shirt and standing in Spiral's usual spot?

admittedly my memory is not what it once was but i don't remember them ever bringing an extra person on tour until Rebecca in the past couple of years? was this a one-off for a TV show?

That is their guitar tech Andy Dimmack in the video playing 2nd guitar.

admittedly my memory is not what it once was but i don't remember them ever bringing an extra person on tour until Rebecca in the past couple of years? was this a one-off for a TV show?

Pavement was briefly a 6 piece with 3 guitarists (Rob Chamberlin) in the Slanted era but Rob left (!) to start his own band (Sugartime) who put out a couple good singles. Rob was an old buddy of Steve and DCB's from the Ectoslavia/UVA days.

Right, good info, thanks. I guess I was thinking more along the lines of an established band bringing along extra members to help play/sing all the stuff as the arrangements and budgets get a bit bigger. I've been intently paying attn to this band for 30 years and I don't remember ever seeing Andy's face!

Yeah, that video (and the configuration) was a new one for me too...

I might have gone too hard on my hot takes earlier. I listened to the album again with the dog at the beach and it holds up well, but I do still think this is the least interesting album by pavement. Too sentimental at parts, too "MTV" at others. But the least interesting pavement album is still a great album and I enjoyed listening to it. I will underline my filmore jive is pavementxradiohead opinion though.

Fgti so otm about TT, but i can't stand "our singer" slander. That's a perfect closer and a perfect "young man's yearning" song. Yeah whatever, the theme might be juvenile, but juveniles need music too and that's some of the best of it.

Oh no, perhaps I wasn’t communicating well: I LOVE Our Singer. “Bleah-bleah-bleah” was meant to be a compliment

fillmore jive does not resemble radiohead in any way shape or form, i am sorry

Xp Thanks for clarifying, I had all systems ready to go for defence. That's a top 10 pavement song to me

You are a light bridge/outro so damn good
"Button the strippers and quarantine nippers" best sm lyric

Agree to disagree voodoo. First minute? Sure, not radiohead, but not great. Next section? pavement does the pablo honey/ proto-the-bends, but worse. I also think it's got some of the worst soloing sm ever put down.

I'll lay off the filmore negativity now. For anyone that loves it, all the power to you.

the intro—slowly strummed upper-extended guitar chords—could literally be anything

the soloing and fuzzy guitar sounds like the soloing and fuzzy guitar from…”silence kit” and “cut your hair,” which i guess are both songs you said you also don’t like so idk if we will ever approach this album or band the same way

that "Carrot Rope" video up there is, i think, the clearest visual evidence i've ever seen of the dynamic that ultimately led to the end of Pavement: that SM could always play + was improving + wanted to chase new ambitions, and 10 years is a long time for a guy who can play to play with guys who can't really play.

What's crazy is that (tylerw will back me up on this) prior to TT, SM did 2 tiny solo shows in LA while he was workshopping the TT material (you can get an idea on the TT bonus tracks) and my opinion was that the material was quite strong and brought me back in the fold after my attention had faded quite a bit after BTC.

Then there were rumors swirling that the recording was not going good at the various studios they'd attempted... and then when TT eventually came out, it was a bit inferior/different to what the SM solo shows had hinted at.

8/12/98
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzYTDOeMb7U

8/13/98
https://doomandgloomfromthetomb.tumblr.com/post/717032058604732417/stephen-malkmus-mr-t

Elevate Me Later reminds me to The Classical