May 23 2008
Pavement’s WOWEE ZOWEE
5 Stars
When Pavement’s third official studio album, Wowee Zowee, was released in 1995 many critics insisted it was the White Album of the 90s. Detractors, on the other hand, felt that the album would be the sure death of the band that was to be “the next R.E.M.” The commercial and artistic growth heard on their previous album Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain – which Rolling Stone curiously issued a 5-star rating – had many rock fans, both indie and mainstream, wanting to buy stock in the band’s future. And then Stephen Malkmus, Scott “Spiral Stairs” Kannenberg, Bob Nastanovich, Steve West and Mark Ibold added a new, prominent element to their recording sessions: Pot (dank weed, as the rumor/legend goes.)
Most Pavement fans have never quite known what to make of the Beatles comparisons. Yes, the album feels like it was recorded in a murky garage with a damp couch and endless beer bottles. Sure, it’s a bit thrown together, and yes, it’s all over the place stylistically. Most of all, and this goes for the White Album as well, Wowee Zowee was packed to the brim with brilliant, perfectly rushed ideas and ambition – the rare breed of ideas that only work out if you’re able to quickly develop and record them before the next burst of imagination lands (or, I suppose, the next bag of weed is delivered). Would a Beatles fan like this album? Not likely. In fact, most Nirvana, Sebadoh, Guided By Voices and Pavement fans aren’t even too keen on these recordings. “Real Pavement fans,” as Spiral Stairs once said, “always like Wowee more than our other albums.” Malkmus echoes these sentiments in the liner notes of the just released expanded version of the album, Wowee Zowee: Sordid Sentinels, saying that all of his friends cite it as their favorite of his work.
Upon its release Wowee was a sprawling 18-track opus spread out over two LPs and one very long CD. In the tradition of honoring the band that forever claims to save their best material for the cutting room floor, Matador Records has reissued yet another Pavement album with three-or-so times the original material. Included on the first disc (in addition to the original tracks) are three b-sides from the Rattled By the Rush EP, two from the Father to a Sister of Thought EP, the entire stand-alone Pacific Trim EP and two never-before-heard tidbits called “Sordid” and “Sentinel.” So, basically, on the first disc alone there is an album’s worth of tracks to accompany the customary 18. Disc two’s 21 tracks compile two radio sessions, a few super lo-fi compilation cuts, a couple alternate versions of songs from the original track list and three much-loved proper compilation songs. Said loved cuts include Stairs’ signature song “Painted Soldiers” from the Kids in the Hall: Brain Candy soundtrack, the epic “No More Kings” from the Schoolhouse Rock! Rocks compilation and “Sensitive Euro Man” from the I Shot Andy Warhol soundtrack.
(Sidenote for hardcore fans: “Painted Soldiers” was originally credited to Preston School of Industry when released and featured a video depicting Stairs firing all of his Pavement mates before hiring a bunch of pretty girls to “play” instruments while filming a video. Ironically, Stairs now fronts a Pavement-less band called Preston School of Industry. There are no pretty girls in the band – which can’t be said for Malkmus posthumous band, The Jicks.)
In addition to the spirit-laced tunes, Sordid Sentinels comes complete with a top-notch packaging job. As with the previous two reissues, the (cardstock) book features rare photo session outtakes, short essays by Malkmus and engineer Doug Easley, artwork from EPs and singles, a breathtaking photo of the room they recorded the album in, never-used album artwork and, most notably, two pages that document the origins of all 50 songs.
Many times through the years Malkmus has stated that the band often left a good number of stellar songs on the cutting room floor on purpose. He has even gone so far as to claim that there is an album’s worth of unheard material from the Brighten the Corners sessions that trumps the actual album. (Such a statement might be hard for some to believe, as Corners was at one time supposed to “save American rock” when Radiohead’s The Bends didn’t hit in the States.) Certainly, such a statement is hard to believe … unless you’ve heard Sordid Sentinels or any of the band’s other non-album material for that matter. Perpetually known for their scraps and EPs, this reissue of Wowee Zowee – like the other two Pavement reissues to date – are essential for fans of … music.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Not A Member? Register for Free!
