MMT50 - 226

Meeting Malkmus - a Pavement podcast

This week on the pod. jD welcomes his buddy, Jeremy from Niagara Falls on to discuss his Pavement origin story and reveal song 26!

Transcript:

Track 2:

[0:00] Previously on the Pavement Top 50.

Track 1:

[0:02] Stephen, what are your initial thoughts about this song, The Hex? The Hex, well, it's a really cool song. I think it's completely different to anything else that Pavement does. I think it's very unique. It's got a style which isn't really there in any... I can't think of any other song that looks like it.

Track 2:

[0:19] Hey, this is Westy from the Rock and Roll Band Pavement, and you're listening to The Countdown.

Track 4:

[0:25] Hey, it's JD here, back for another episode of our Top 50 Countdown. For seminal indie rock band, Pavement. Week over week, we're going to count down the 50 essential Pavement tracks that you selected with your very own top 20 ballads. I then tabulated the results using an abacus and a girl named Shannon that might have played bass in an indie rock band. Sigh. So there's that. This week, I'm joined by Pavement superfan, Jeremy from Niagara Falls. How's it going, motherfucker?

Track 3:

[0:54] It's hot. It's hot.

Track 4:

[0:56] It's really hot.

Track 3:

[0:58] It's been hot all week. Yeah. So sorry if there's fan noises in the background. They're here to cheer me on.

Track 4:

[1:04] Yes, of course they are. And that's very good that they are doing that for you because it will give you adrenaline and strength that you need and require to get through this next question. Jeremy, from the Falls, what is your pavement origin story?

Track 3:

[1:20] Story um my origin story for the band pavement is a little um stranger than most i i did not come to them by way of their music i i came to them by way of uh discussions about just how cool their uh their albums the the song names were, so i before i ever heard a pavement track which was years uh uh it was it was uh i had a friend who was in a band named uh cindy and they before they were called cindy they they were racking their brains about what they wanted to call themselves and we just got in this deep discussion one night i have heard we started talking about i don't think i've heard of king cobb steely, There's probably a good, I bet a good amount of this audience would really dig King Cub Steely because it's kind of in the same vein. But they had awesome song names.

Track 3:

[2:21] Luckily, I keep my feathers numbered for just such an emergency. That's a song name, Time Equals Money and Money Equals Pizza and Therefore Time Equals Pizza. Just stuff like that. And we got talking about it. And I was like, yeah, that's really cool. and we're talking about the band Head. Lowercase and an uppercase. Head with a lowercase h. That's right. And an uppercase, yeah, just because it was the 90s. And then my friend turned to me, he's like, I just wish that I could have an album title as good as Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain. And he just, he went on for like half an hour on that. I was like, that is a really cool album title and who is this band? And he's like, Pavement, check them out. And of course, being the 90s, I mean, being dirt poor, I couldn't. That's right. That's the only way you could do it. I couldn't purchase an album. Because they weren't being played on the radio.

Track 3:

[3:15] Well. That's right. And it was pre-internet. And yeah, they weren't being played on the radio. But, and this is, I like hearing the stories of people out here saying like, yeah, my first experience was like I got onto a torrent site and I ripped all their albums over the course of like a week or however long it used to take. But before that we used to have this thing and it doesn't exist anymore rarely does that's right of uh compilations you remember yeah and there was a big one in the 90s it was really big because of the secret hidden track that i think everyone only bought it for the secret hidden track it was called no alternative and nirvana did uh of uh at the very end wasn't listed everyone who was there It wasn't listed, but they did – it's sappy, but it's also called Verse Course Verse. It was an unreleased track, and it kicked. It was so good. But also on that album was Matthew Sweet, Goo Goo Dolls, and Pavement did Unseen Power and Picket Fence. And who was the second one you named? Goo Goo Dolls. Yeah. Goo Goo Dolls? You know, like rather funky band until, you know, Twister. No, it's not Twister. Until that Twister song.

Track 3:

[4:41] They did a song on the Twister set. No, it was the Asteroid one. No, it wasn't the Asteroid one. Fuck. Oh, yeah. Dude. It's called Angel or something like that. No, they did a song on the Twister set. It's like Alanis Morissette did a song. On the record, you came uninvited. Yeah, anyway, this is riveting conversation for somebody who tuned in for Pavement. I know.

Track 3:

[5:13] Beastie boys was also on the alternate and breeders did a really good live live track but but really it was like you could get uh like that was if you did not have a lot of money and you wanted to hear and this is backwards thinking because nowadays you'd be like why would you buy a whole album for one song well everybody did everybody bought it for that nirvana song and uh and then you got a little a little sampler of all these other bands that you could get into And that was my first. Hold on, let's talk about this for a second. So what did you think of On Scene Power? Yeah. It was good. And in comparison to everything else on the album, it's like, oh, this is top ten. This is really fresh and inviting. And I dig the sound. It was kind of rare. It wasn't overproduced. and it didn't have that, you know, that pastina. Am I using that word correctly? You know, patina. Sorry, patina. It's fucking boiling. It's hot. Did I mention it's hot? It's like 55 degrees in Canadian. 55? Celsius. But yeah, I think it's like 40. I was like 55. Your skin would be melting.

Track 3:

[6:35] Anything after 35, I'm like, it's all the same. I like the heat, but it's not like this muddiness. Yeah. I can't handle it. Really? Yeah, it's the thing. It's not the heat, it's the humidity. No, oven's dry heat. Anyway. Yeah. Again. But yeah, no, I really, I like the sound. And I was also big into Sonic Youth, but I had a bit of a bone to pick with Sonic Youth because their stuff never really seemed to get me to the place where I was like, yeah. Yeah and it felt like pavement was like they got it it was it was kind of this it's like a visceral, sort of song yeah but it's it's it rocks i totally know what you mean you know i mean yeah i've been i've been uh nose deep in in pavement's catalog for almost five years now so, like i mean obviously i enjoyed it prior to that but you know just looking at it week after week week after week you know it's it's been asked me to name a fucking song um title though and i'm usually stumped or or where it falls on a record and there's people that will be able to do oh yes it's right after this and before this and it's like i just can't do that i'm just because that's part of the culture though that's part of like the like we when we lost physical media, like it's like remembering your best friend's phone number do you even know it now i don't Oh, I know my wife's. I don't know my wife's. I don't know my kids.

Track 3:

[8:03] Oh, really? Yeah. Yeah. But yeah, so that, like that compilation. And then you'd think I would have rushed out and I would have bought, you know, a pavement album, but I didn't because a scant few years later, the Brain Candy soundtrack came out and being the massive kids of all fan I was. Okay. All right. Is R. I was and I still am. Yeah. And will continue to be. And you know who was on that soundtrack oh matthew sweet fuck me really, he followed yeah he follows you around doesn't he yeah but pavement like painted soldiers is, like it's in my top five songs it's in my top 15 for sure no my top 10 and it's the best spiral There is. Other than the unreleased Preston School of Industry. For sale, the Preston School of Industry. But yeah.

Track 3:

[9:09] And another breakout track on a soundtrack album that has like... They are? Yeah. They play Butts Wiglin'. Yeah. They might be Giants, I think, did a track. Uh, stereo lab and like a real, Oh, and of course the odds were on there, but yeah, it's kind of five. I think there was even a GBV guy by voices song on there. I think that might, it was by first exposure to guided by voices. I got into a lot of music through compilations, something that does not exist. And I wonder how we can rectify this. Yeah.

Track 3:

[9:57] Well, we have to change the industry one person at a time. Starting at this moment in time. And this is the... It's 66 degrees. Good things are forged in heat. This is... Hey, listen. This is the closest I've ever recorded an episode to drop date. Like, most everything else is done. Oh, yeah? I did it in the spring. You know? So, this is... What is the date? It's June 20th. And this goes out on the 28th. Yeah. Or whatever next Monday is. Wow. Look at me. Look at me knowing fucking calendars. 24th. Okay. Fair enough. Yeah. Yeah. Sure is. Yeah. It's sooner than you think. That's right. No. Into that editing bay. This one doesn't get edited. This podcast doesn't. But yeah. Oh no. All my secrets. Okay. Back to the matter at hand here. There's a lot of... So if you haven't noticed, Jeremy and I are buddies and we're doing some catch up at the same time that we're um that we're doing this so that's why we're getting a little distracted i apologize for that and i hope this is acceptable for your pavement listening uh enjoyment yeah it's a forgiving crowd have you ever listened to the episode of meeting malchus called uh hate mail.

Track 3:

[11:17] Oh you should look that i haven't heard that one i got a hate mail letter oh yeah i just decided to do an episode on it because it is like a screed it is like it is like martin luther knocked you know nailed something to my door you know and it was like it was like oh deep cut wow yeah now it was type was it written or was it typed oh then you know it's serious yeah listen to that one oh wow if you're just getting into to this because of the top 10. There's a whole other podcast out there where I go through each of the songs. It's called Meeting Malchmus. That's the feed that you're on right now. And there's lots of good... I can only hope that this generates at least one more hit. It might. So from there, you finally buy a record? Or do you get into the torrents?

Track 3:

[12:11] I bought, oh, and this is shameful, and now I wish you do edit it. I bought Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain through another form of dead media, the Columbia House Records Club. Dude, Columbia House was money. It was so good. It was so good. It was. 12 CDs for a penny? You're paying 30 bucks afterwards, but hey. And it was one of those auto ship deals. That's where they got you. That's where they got you on the lazy. It just shows up, right? Because it was $30 a hit, and you would be like, fuck. But if you played your cards right, you won. The house did not always win, but they must have won enough.

Track 3:

[12:51] Yeah. I mean, and you could send them back and say, you know what? Liz Fair just isn't my cup of tea. I'm going to exile Guyville. Yeah, this one, I think it was her follow-up. I was like, eh. Never sent me Matthew Sweet. So Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain. Do you know where the title comes from? It comes from, apparently, it comes from Purple Rain, Purple Rain. And Stephen just liked the rhythm of that. Or it may have even been David Berman who suggested it. And, yeah.

Track 3:

[13:26] If I'm wrong, shoot me an email. JD at meetingmalchmas.com. Would love to hear from you. So you put that one on the old CD player, I'm guessing. Not a turntable. about this point and yeah it starts with silent and that song just melts your brain like right off the bat it is i i that album for me is like a textbook like this is how you start an album like this series of songs like this is how you do it this is how you you break it in so you lay the frown the foundation for the listening experience you're about to undertake and man i yeah i listened to that album a lot. It's a masterpiece for sure. I will fully admit, I thought he was saying Silent Kit for the longest time. I thought it was about drummers. Well, nobody really knows. It's got multiple titles. People will say Silence Kid, and people will say Silent Kid. People will say Silent Kit, and people will say Silence Kit. So I think on the liner notes, it's Silence Kid. So, yeah. Oh, interesting. Yeah. Did you ever get a chance to see them live?

Track 3:

[14:45] So, jury's out on that. It was the 90s. I was young. I got around a lot. And a friend of mine was like, no, I don't think we do. We did see them. And I was like, I distinctly remember being at, like, the Cool House. Did you go to Lollapalooza in 95? At one point.

Track 3:

[15:08] Okay. No, I've never been to a Lollapalooza. I was just going to say, because they played that, and that might be something that you saw and forgot. Because I can't imagine, you are going to generate some hate mail. That you saw them live and you don't fucking know that you saw them live? What kind of fucking planet is this? This is so different than the other interviews I've done for this program. I know. I know. But you know what? If I did, I enjoyed it. Well, there's that. that and if i didn't then you know so there's that i i guess i never will do we want i mean somebody had to somebody had to remind me that i've seen wean like several times and somebody was like you know i was like oh i wish i could i wish i could see wean and they're like you've seen like eight times like oh that's oh yeah that's a really shitty superpower to have dude, i know i know i have a very bad short-term memory but my long-term memory is near You're fucking impeccable still. Well, see, my short-term memory was bad at the time. You didn't, yeah. See, I don't create new memories. Yeah. I have a very difficult time creating new memories. Yeah. I still have them, but yeah. Oh. Yeah. It's ever since I got zapped. Okay. What do you say we flip the record over and start talking about song number 26? You up for that? Yeah. Let's do it. We'll be right back after this.

Track 2:

[16:34] Hey, this is Bob Mustanovich from Pavement. Thanks for listening, and now on with a countdown. 26!

Track 3:

[21:05] This week, we are celebrating song number 26, Fight This Generation. What do you think of this one, Jeremy from the Falls? This is probably, it bridges the best run, I think, that Pavement has on any album, starting with AT&T, going right through to the end of Wowie Zowie. I started AT&T, I just listen to these tracks over and over again. And Fight This Generation is definitely a staple in that run. Yeah, I think so. And it's a staple of their live show as well at this point. Even when I saw Malcolm on the Traditional Techniques tour, he played a guitar and computer version of it. And it was really quite fucking cool. Oh, really? Oh, I would have loved to have seen that. There's got to be a video of that. I'm sure there is on the old YouTubes. Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised. Yeah. Like, I love the demo version in that enhanced Wowie Zowie release. Oh, right. Yeah, yeah. Nice and Critter's Edition. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Track 3:

[22:24] But yeah, no, this track does that thing that I like so much in every song I hear it in, where you start listening to it and then halfway through it turns into a different track also. Absolutely. Two different songs mashed together for sure. Yeah. So in listening to this again for this I couldn't believe this track is only like four, it's under four and a half minutes. This feels to me like an epic six, seven minute long track but it's not. It's a tight 4.23. Yeah. Tight 423. That's funny.

Track 3:

[23:04] I mean, long for a pavement track, but it feels like, it feels a lot longer. Doesn't it? Doesn't it? Maybe I'm just thinking of the demo version. It does because, okay, so not in a bad way for me. No, no. No. But because it feels like two different songs, I think that might give you the illusion that it's long. Yeah. You know? Plus the repetitive outro, like just that jam at the end. That always feels too short. And yet it feels like a day. It feels like a good day. Punching in, punching out. You're friends with the coyote. You're not friends with the coyote. Or the sheep rather no i, you know so there's been like three matthew sweet references and now like two looney tunes all right well um what else do you have to say about fight this generation, This, um, like all, all lyrics are interpretive. Yes. Like, and, and I, and I hesitate because I've listened to everybody else talk and they're so. Erudite.

Track 3:

[24:27] That's a great word. And I think that's what I'm trying to say. But they, they, they're very, they, they've got very strong opinions and they're very, they're very knowledgeable and they've obviously put a lot of pen to paper and sorted this out and, you know after 18 cups of coffee and and i i'm still i grapple with this one because it's like seeing shapes and clouds and you know you know that old um oh man it's a charlie brown comic from years ago uh and and they're like all sitting on the grass and they're looking at the clouds and the one one i think linus is saying like oh look that's like that cloud looks like washington crossing the delaware and and that one looks like uh rodan's the thinker and and that cloud looks like the the the stoning of saint peter and and they're like what do you see charlie brown he's like i see a ducky and a horsey but you know so i think you can i think you can do that with this track i mean just the the title alone evokes like uh an emotion yes and and the The way that it's, like, the way the song is constructed, how it starts off in 3-3, moves to 4-4 time in there, you get the sense of, like, there's two sides clashing. I'm still trying to figure out, like, for you.

Track 3:

[25:55] Wait a minute. 3-3. There's no 3-3. 3-4.

Track 3:

[25:59] At the beginning? Yeah. There's no 3-3. Oh, yeah.

Track 3:

[26:09] I'm not a music student, but it sounds pretty waltzy to me. Anyways, what is this song about to you? What viewpoint do you see this from? Because I think there's a couple different ones. Is this punching up or punching down? Oh, I don't think it's punching at all. I think this is a jumping up and down song.

Track 3:

[26:36] Um it's just anthemic and it's just you can get behind the the idea of fight this generation but i don't think any of the other stanzas um support any information about which generation it is who's doing the fighting you know that sort of thing and to me that's what makes it an anthem because you know the kids listening to it right now can feel like they're fighting the gen xers whereas like we were fighting boomers you know um but is it ever like the gen xers fighting the millennials well i suppose a few years ago it may have been because that's that's where i kind of landed on it's like it's the song itself feels cyclical in the way that it's it's like you could probably put it on repeat and it's just this constant like the the themes in it are are such such that it is like there's always going to be this realization, like the fight is part of the progress. It's part of the identity. So therefore it has to exist, but you're in it on one side and then you're on the other side of it. So you're constantly at odds with the generation before you and the generation after you. Absolutely. Yeah. It's very funny that that's the way it's turned out, you know, or keeps turning out.

Track 3:

[28:04] It's like Battlestar Galactica.

Track 3:

[28:08] New or old the new one all right the good one the really good one i liked the old one as a kid but it doesn't hold up well the old one had a robot dog and yeah and action figures yes i had a star buck with one arm did it come that way no no i pulled it off i wanted to make him a star wars was villains so that's what i did so listen it's been great talking to you today about your pavement origin story uh fight this generation and uh you know just a basket of other things uh hope uh you enjoyed yourself i know i did and uh that's what we've got for you this week next week we'll we're getting into the top 25 man so we we start to kick out the top 25 next week we're halfway way fucking home. Can't wait to hear it. I'll talk to you then. Wash your goddamn hands.

Track 2:

[29:05] Thanks for listening to Meeting Malcolmists, a pavement podcast where we count down the top 50 pavement tracks as selected by you. If you've got questions or concerns, please shoot me an email. JD at MeetingMalcolmists.com.

Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/meeting-malkmus-a-pavement-podcast/exclusive-content
Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands
Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy