musicbriefs
Artist

Pavement

3
briefs
9:49
average
29 min
in total
On music.briefs3
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9:56

Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain

Pavement · 1994

Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain is Pavement’s second studio album, released February 14, 1994. It moves toward a more accessible rock sound than their lo-fi debut Slanted and Enchanted. Steve West replaces original drummer Gary Young. The music grafts 1960s–70s California folk-rock and psychedelia onto the abrasive, Fall-inspired noise of their earlier work. It uses guitar feedback, fuzz, and wah effects. It incorporates country rock—including cowbells—and pop elements. Production strips away hiss and fog but retains the band’s fractured sound and spirit. Vocal harmonies and mood-setting are emphasised over lyrical primacy. Critical reception highlights its dynamic shifts, inventive arrangements, and status as a defining underground rock album of the 1990s.

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8:52

Slanted and Enchanted

Pavement · 1992

Slanted and Enchanted is Pavement’s debut studio album, recorded across three locations — South Makepeace Studios in Brooklyn on December 24, 1990; Louder Than You Think Studios in Stockton from January 13–20, 1991; and finally over ten days at drummer Gary Young’s home studio on a tight budget. It is the only Pavement album to feature Gary Young on drums. Released April 20, 1992, on Matador Records, it features a stripped-down sound and heavy distortion, with bass present on some tracks and detuned guitars substituting for bass on others. Malkmus played a Fender Stratocaster through a borrowed small boutique Epiphone amplifier; Kannberg played a Fender Mustang and a Gibson SG through a Fender Silverface Twin Reverb amplifier; both used ProCo TurboRat and Boss DS-1 distortion pedals. The recording process was relaxed. Alternate tunings (CGDGBE, DADABE) were developed partly out of necessity due to the absence of bass in early recordings. The album’s sonic character includes fuzzy, noisy guitars, feedback, noise, and pop-oriented hooks, with Malkmus’ vocals described as languid and lyrics as stream-of-consciousness.

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10:40

Wowee Zowee

Pavement · 1995

Wowee Zowee is Pavement’s third studio album, recorded in eleven spontaneous days at Easley Recording in Memphis — a studio familiar to some members from prior work with Silver Jews — with all five band members present for the first time. The sessions yielded numerous tracks, including re-recorded outtakes from Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain and long-standing live staples; Scott Kannberg sang his own compositions for the first time, encouraged by Stephen Malkmus. The band prioritised looseness and sprawl over cohesion, per Malkmus’ directive that 'the less it fits together, the better,' and immersed themselves in Memphis’ laid-back culture between takes. Final mixing and overdubbing occurred at Random Falls in Manhattan in February 1995. The album showcases experimental, eclectic songwriting — ranging from acoustic ballads to noise rock and punk — with lyrics oscillating between cryptic, humorous, and deliberately nonsensical, and marks Pavement’s longest studio release at nearly one hour, sequenced entirely by Malkmus across three vinyl sides (with side four left blank).