While the accuracy of Spiral Stairs’ prediction of the inevitable release of new Pavement remains to be seen, the inevitable repackaging of old Pavement is imminent. There’s the tour, which will include pretty much every music festival that can afford them, and there’s the Greatest Hits set, which per its advance billing “definitely digs deeper than the hits.” Not to say Quarantine The Past can’t function in part as a gateway gift for your newbie nephew — “Gold Soundz,” “Stereo,” “Summer Babe,” “Range Life” “Cut Your Hair,” and “Shady Lane” will help neophytes learn how to sing along during setbreak music at the local indie rock club no sweat — but Matador’s done a fine job touching the less brightened corners of the discog over these 23 tracks for those craving a deeper dig. Have a look:
01 “Gold Soundz” (CROOKED RAIN, CROOKED RAIN)
02 “Frontwards” (WATERY, DOMESTIC EP)
03 “Mellow Jazz Docent” (PERFECT SOUND FOREVER EP)
04 “Stereo” (BRIGHTEN THE CORNERS)
05 “In The Mouth A Desert” (SLANTED & ENCHANTED)
06 “Two States” (SLANTED & ENCHANTED)
07 “Cut Your Hair” (CROOKED RAIN, CROOKED RAIN)
08 “Shady Lane” / “J Vs. S” (BRIGHTEN THE CORNERS)
09 “Here” (SLANTED & ENCHANTED)
10 “Unfair” (CROOKED RAIN, CROOKED RAIN)
11 “Grounded” (WOWEE ZOWEE)
12 “Summer Babe (Winter Version)” (SLANTED & ENCHANTED)
13 “Range Life” (CROOKED RAIN, CROOKED RAIN)
14 “Date w/ IKEA” (BRIGHTEN THE CORNERS)
15 “Debris Slide” (PERFECT SOUND FOREVER EP)
16 “Shoot The Singer (1 Sick Verse)” (WATERY, DOMESTIC EP)
17 “Spit On A Stranger” (TERROR TWILIGHT)
18 “Heaven Is a Truck” (CROOKED RAIN, CROOKED RAIN)
19 “Trigger Cut/Wounded-Kite At :17″ (SLANTED & ENCHANTED)
20 “Embassy Row” (BRIGHTEN THE CORNERS)
21 “Box Elder” (SLAY TRACKS 1933-1969 EP)
22 “Unseen Power Of The Picket Fence” (NO ALTERNATIVE COMP)
23 “Fight This Generation” (WOWEE ZOWEE)
To refresh, the advance announcement came with a contest awarding the most accurate guess at the tracklist, and the most imaginative one. As for accuracy, the winning submission came from Flavio Seixlack of São Paolo, who hit 17 of the 23 inclusions; the more-subjective most-imaginative-tracklist award is yet to be named, but once it is, will be memorialized by being pressed into a “limited-edition double vinyl LP for Record Store Day (April 17).” That creative submission will be listed at Matador.
Quarantine The Past: The Best Of Pavement is out 3/9. Pre-order and save 15%. And there’s this tour…
03/01 Auckland, New Zealand @ Town Hall
03/04 Sydney, Australia @ Enmore Theatre
03/05 Sydney, Australia @ Enmore Theatre
03/06 Meredith, Australia @ Supernatural Amphitheatre (Golden Plains Festival)
03/07 Adelaide, Australia @ Thebarton Theatre
03/08 Perth, Australia @ Metro City
03/10 Brisbane, Australia @ Tivoli
03/12 Melbourne, Australia @ Palace Theatre
03/14 Melbourne, Australia @ Palace Theatre
04/07 Tokyo, Japan @ Studio Coast
04/08 Tokyo, Japan @ Studio Coast
04/10 Osaka, Japan @ Zepp Osaka
04/12 Nagoya, Japan @ Zepp Nagoya
04/18 Indio, CA (Coachella)
05/04 Dublin, Ireland @ Tripod
05/05 Glasgow, Scotland @ Barrowland
05/07 Paris, France @ Le Zénith
05/08 Amsterdam, Netherlands @ Paradiso
05/10 London, England @ Brixton Academy
05/11 London, England @ Brixton Academy
05/12 London, England @ Brixton Academy
05/13 London, England @ Brixton Academy
05/15 Minehead, England @ All Tomorrow’s Parties
05/18 Brussels, Belgium @ Ancienne Belgique
05/19 Berlin, Germany @ Astra
05/20 Prague, Czech Republic @ Palac Akropolis
05/21 Vienna, Austria @ Arena
05/22 Munich, Germany @ Muffathalle
05/24 Rome, Italy @ Atlantico Live
05/25 Bologna, Italy @ Estragon
05/27 Barcelona, Spain @ Primavera Festival
05/29-31 Quincy, Washington @ Sasquatch! Festival
06/25 Berkeley, CA @ The Greek Theater (Just added! On sale Thurs. Thanks for the tip, Kyle.)
06/19 Toronto, Ontario @ Toronto Island Concert
07/01-04 Roskilde, Denmark @ Roskilde Festival
09/21 New York, NY @ Central Park Summerstage
09/22 New York, NY @ Central Park Summerstage
09/23 New York, NY @ Central Park Summerstage
09/24 New York, NY @ Central Park Summerstage
But if that’s not enough ways for you to underwrite Pavement’s retirement fund, they’re also re-releasing the band’s complete Matador catalog on vinyl. They are underused no more.
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these are good songs.
Yeh for sure. These songs are great. Would love to hear them live! Wish we also had them on RouteNote.com
Closing with Fight This Generation makes a nice statement…
Neophile = Neophyte? Because someone with an extreme loathing for old things / fetish for new things would probably not want this CD
yr my fact checkin’ cuz
nicely played, amrit.
I’m all for more Terror Twilight…”The Hexx” is easily one of their best songs. And no “Old to Begin”?? What’s that about?
The Hexx does belong on this list.
I didn’t think it would happen, but this is pretty much song for song exactly what I would have picked to go on their “best of”. It would be nice to maybe see some more Terror Twilight in there. For instance “Carrot Rope…” is a notable omission.
you would pick heaven is a truck?
Carrot Rope gets on my nerves. Am I the only one?
Well. “Carrot Rope” was probably my introduction into the band, so I might have a special bias towards it. I remember back in the day playing it for my brother and having him say that he liked the band, but that the song “Carrot Rope” made them sound like they were a bunch of hippies that sat around smoking pot all the time. I don’t really know what that means, but there is at least one person that agrees with you.
Personally, I think it is a version of Pavement doing some straight warm hearted pop with smoothed out edges. Not particularly their trademark sound, but they do it well and it’s fun.
Fair enough. Not trying to be a snob. I think I liked the song at first but it didn’t age well or something…
Perhaps Matador should just get on with the Terror Twilight reissue. Is there a date yet? Wikipedia says 2010.
They should of put in more Wowee Zowie songs.
AT&T, Pueblo, Kennel DIstrict, Rattled by the Rush, Father to a Sister of Thought
I was thinking the same thing, but “We Dance” was the obvious omission for me. Love “AT&T” though too.
Good songs.
I’m glad to see there is only one from Terror Twilight.
That album isn’t Pavement.
-Farmer Ted
Terror Twilight rocked. More songs should have been taken from it, in particular,
The Hexx.
Agreed. I wish Nigel Godrich had never gotten his hands on Pavement or Beck.
People really win at MatadorRecords.com. I won this contest in 2001 (was before Stereogum existed)…
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(via http://www.matadorrecords.com/stephen_malkmus/)
Contest time! As you might have read, Stephen?s solo debut was provisionally entitled ?Swedish Reggae.? For fear of getting filed in the ?reggae? or ?world music? section at Tower, a corporate decision was made to force Stephen to call the album something really crazy. Like, ?Stephen Malkmus.? Anyhow, if you can name another practicioner of Swedish reggae, you might win yourself a pair of tickets to Stephen?s sold out show at the Bowery Ballroom this Thursday night (1/25/01). The most creative answers will be unveiled in this space.
–
I still have the free Who The Fuck Is Stephen Malkmus t-shirt they handed out.
I agree with Farmer Ted – I briefly owned that album but sold it off. And Heaven Is A Truck??? That song is filler on Crooked, and have no idea why it’s included here. No argument with the rest of the tracks though.
Its pretty hard too pick only 23 pavement songs, only wish they included “Type Slowly” and ” Transport arranged” on Brighten the corners. Pretty awesome still
“Trolls in the glen are consorting again, The liberals say they don’t exist but I know that they do”
you missed their Toronto date, with bss and band of horses so far
Yeah Amrit,
06/19 Toronto, Ontario @ Toronto Island Concert
http://torontoislandconcert.com/
I don’t really dig this list at all. Hard to decide who it’s really for. Nothing interesting enough to get old Pavement fans to buy it and, frankly not a good enough mix of the classic trax for a neophyte. I hoped it would be a power mix of all the great trax but it’s not. More Wowee Zowee please.I would still start a new Pavement fan with plain old Crooked Rain.
Am I the only one who wishes these best of comps were in chonological order?
Otherwise, good tracklist. They didn’t pay enough attention to the latter two albums, though… Terror needs more than one song, and the horrible Date w/ IKEA over any other song on Brighten was a bad choice.
Does ANYONE consider “Embassy Row” to be among their top 100 songs, much less top 23? Strange inclusion, in my opinion.
Heaven is a truck over Elevate Me Later or Silence Kid from Crooked Rain….crazy man….just crazy
I’m really excited they included Box Elder. It was the first Pavement song I ever heard somehow, and it brings back happy memories of listening to it obsessively circa 7th grade.
No best of Pavement compilation is complete without Silence KIT…or Kid is you wanna be a douche about it.
Yeah, they kinda fucked this up. I’m down with the cuts from Slanted, but Crooked Rain… I would’ve taken even Newark Wilder over Heaven is a Truck. And yeah, leaving out Carrot Rope and the Hexx was a mistake as well.
That said, I can’t wait to see newbies rocking out to “Unseen Power of the Picket Fence”
Aw, where’s Harness Your Hopes?
Insound has the release date for all the re-issues as March 9.
http://www.insound.com/vinyl.php?searchtype=Artist&searchby=pavement&submit.x=0&submit.y=0
Lorettas Scars, Harness Your Hopes, and Silence Kid should all have been on this list
Good point… Loretta’s Scars definitely instead of Two States. And I just realized… where’s Stop Breathing? One of my favorites…
If Pavement has any plans to writ something new, I really hope its an opera.
Like really, think about it. How ridiculous would that be?
No Major Leagues? Daaang.
HOLY CRAP THANK YOU KYLE
those are songs