MMT50 - 235

Meeting Malkmus - a Pavement podcast

This week jD is joined by Ryan from the Soundtrack Your Life podcast, to discuss song number 35 on the countdown. Will it surprise you? Download and let me know! [e-mail]

Transcript:

Track 2

[1:00] Previously on the pavement top 50.

Track 1

[1:02] So there it is track 36 on the countdown is

harness your hopes from the june 22nd release

of the spit on a stranger ep and then

later on the bright in the corner nicene creators edition

reissue chad from

los angeles what are

you vibing with this song talk to me it's funny i i like this i mean let me

preface it with i like this song a lot um is it my favorite pavement song no

you know um it's probably not in my top,

25 or 30 favorite pavement songs but that is that doesn't mean that it's not

a good song it's obviously it's it's a really good song i really enjoy it.

Track 2

[1:51] Hey this is westy from the rock and roll band pavement and you're listening

to the countdown countdown.

Track 3

[1:58] 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 ballots.

I then tabulated the results using an abacus and 10 metric rulers and a box of rat poison.

How will your favorite song fare in the rankings? Well, you'll need to tune

in to find out. So there's that.

This week, I'm joined I'm joined by pavement superfan Ryan from Soundtrack Your Life.

Ryan, how the fuck are you? I'm doing great.

Excited to talk about pavement. That is good to hear. Yeah, and you came to

the right place then, because that's what we're going to do.

And we'll kick it right off.

We won't mess around. We'll kick things right off with your pavement origin story.

Track 3

[2:48] So I was in high school, and I have an older sister.

I have many older sisters, but

I have one specific older sister who was working in the music business,

and I think she had a big hand in telling me, like, there's more to music than

just what you hear on the radio. Right.

And I don't know exactly how that conversation came up, but Pavement was definitely

one of the bands that she recommended for me.

And in 97 she was working at Capitol Records and Capitol Records co-released

Brighten the Corners I did not

know that yeah so they did a few different albums with Matador they did.

Track 3

[3:38] Um, a couple of the John Spencer blues explosion records. Um,

and they did, I think Liz fairs, white chocolate space egg album.

Whoa. Okay. And so my sister sent me bright in the corner. So I think that was

my first pavement album.

Um, and I think I'd been exploring them, you know, through music videos on MTV.

And, um, I think there was a website called like the pavement internet archive.

That's some guy at some college hosted where like he had like some of the,

uh, BBC sessions and stuff like that. So, you know, since I was on a high school

budget, I couldn't just go out and buy all the records.

So I was trying to figure out how to listen to Pavement without owning anything.

Track 3

[4:21] But, I mean, eventually I got them all, but that's kind of how it all started.

It was a good time to look for free music in the late 90s.

I mean, with Napster and LimeWire and that kind of stuff, it was easy to track

down. Was there a lot of pavement out there on those types of services when you were looking?

I think the albums were out there. I think as far as like the,

you know, the single B-side tracks, I don't think those were as available.

I mean, once Napster got really into full gear, like everything was available.

Yeah. But, you know, in like 1998, I was going to this guy's website and I think

he just hosted it through like some, his college.

And he just had all the B-sides and all the BBC and John Peel sessions.

That must have been like a treasure chest when you found that.

Oh, yeah. I remember not having enough hard disk space on my computer,

but I just kept downloading them.

Track 3

[5:24] Oh. Did you ever get a chance to see them live?

I did. So I saw them on the Bright in the Corners tour.

And I lived in San Diego at the time, and a lot of bands like Pavement,

they only played like 21 and up venues.

Oh, really? But Pavement, because they were bigger than the average indie band,

they played an all ages show, so I was really excited about that.

Oh, wow. Tell me a bit about that show.

Track 3

[5:57] So they were on tour with Royal Trucks and Biss.

And my sister got me

into the show because she was working at the label and i

remember like i had like a hard curfew at like 11 o'clock and pavement had only

been playing for like half an hour um and i remember they they kicked things

off with father to a sister of thought and he sounded great and uh yeah i mean

i wish i could have stayed for the whole show i had to leave of early,

but at least I got to see a little bit of pavement.

Did you make, did you make up for it and any of the reunion tours and see them again or?

Yeah, I saw them three times on the 2010 reunion tour. Oh, whoa.

And I saw them. What, where did you see them? I saw them twice in the LA area.

And then I went to one of the Central Park shows in New York.

Awesome. Yeah, I was at one of those shows too.

Yeah, I met up with an old roommate from college, a couple of my roommates.

We all met up to go see Pavement. Oh, that's a lot of fun.

And then you were about to say that you saw them on the 2022 reunion as well?

Yeah, I saw them two of the three nights that they played in LA.

Track 3

[7:17] What venue did they play? They played the Orpheum. Oh, okay.

Like a 3,000 seat theater. Okay.

Yeah, it was sort of strange. Like, I saw them at the Fonda,

and then I went to Europe to watch a bunch of shows.

And it was interesting to see them in theaters, like to see people starting,

I guess it's our age, right?

Like, starting sitting down and then having them, you know, sort of make their

way to get us on our feet sort of thing.

Right. I think L.A. was pretty good at just being into it from the beginning.

Yeah the fonda show was in la and it was tremendous it was it was absolutely

tremendous uh do you want to shout out your sister for um for hooking you up

with this pavement knowledge yeah uh shout out to my sister amy she's not in

the music business anymore but,

um if i have to talk about my musical taste usually she um gets a shout out

because she She has a big part in that.

That's really cool. She's actually credited on that Tibetan Freedom concert record.

Track 3

[8:28] What? She's in the credits as an assistant A&R.

Really? Yeah. Oh, that's fucking cool.

That's really cool. Yeah. Is there anything else about your origin story that you want to share?

Or anything else about pavement in general that you want to share?

Track 3

[8:48] Um i have a little funny story uh sure

a couple months ago i was uh taking my kids to lego

land which is in san diego okay and there was you know just some like teenager

selling me an icy and i was wearing my pavement shirt and he goes oh what's

that shirt mean i said oh it's uh for this 90s band called pavement and he goes

oh yeah that's what i thought harness your hopes right,

and i was like yeah and he was like yeah that's a good song cool like that's a cool band,

oh and like yeah my mind was totally blown but i guess that you know that song

had a moment on tiktok so like a new generation of like kids are like listening

to pavement now my 14 year old knows it as well like she's like yeah dad i know

pavement and i'll be like what what do you know No. She'll be like, harness your hopes.

So funny that that song has had a life of its own. Right.

Yeah. Well, shall we flip the record and talk about the song of the week, track number 35?

Yeah, let's do it. Let's do it. We'll take a quick break and we'll be right

back with song number 35.

Track 2

[10:00] Hey, this is Bob Mastandovich from Pavement. Thanks for listening.

And now on with a countdown. 35.

Track 3

[16:13] All right, song number 35 is the fifth song on the list from Wowie Zowie.

It's the penultimate song on that record. Yep, it's Half a Canyon.

Ryan, from Soundtrack, Your Life, what are your initial thoughts about this song?

It's a great song. I really like this song.

For some reason, for a long time, I thought this was the last song on Wowie Zowie.

It kind of has that epic, you know. Yeah, it has that epic finale with how it

ends and just this big jam of chaos.

Jam of chaos. I love it. But it's one of my favorite Pavement songs where you

can't really hear the vocals that well. Agreed. Yeah.

And from a Bank for Your Buck perspective, it's six minutes and ten seconds,

and it's only got two paragraphs of lyrics.

Like it's it's very sparse on the uh on the vocal part but you're right it is

like a jam of chaos as it continues yeah and there's been times where like i'll

just have that uh beginning riff like stuck in my head and i'll have to like

remember like where it's from.

Track 3

[17:31] Like i'll know malchumus wrote it and i'm like where's that

that riff from like it's so catchy and

it's kind of bluesy but in a very malchemist way yeah i agree so what is your

relationship with this song you got you you jumped on for bright in the corners

how did it look going backwards at what point did you start to go backwards

and look at wowie zowie and records like that,

and um and what did you think of this song when you when you first heard it

so you know once i I got Bright in the Corners, I immediately went back to try

to get whatever Pavement albums I could find.

I think Wowie Zowie was maybe the last one I was able to pick up.

Track 3

[18:15] And I think at first the album in general didn't quite grab me the way,

you know, like Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain or even Slanted and Enchanted did.

But this was definitely one of the highlights early on because,

you know, that riff is so catchy and because it's such a visceral sort of rock song at the end.

And so it was definitely one of my highlights of Wowie Zowie.

And Wowie Zowie is one of those albums where I feel like your favorites from it always change.

There's so many tracks, right? Yeah.

I feel like what I liked at 20 and what I liked at 25 and 30 and so on,

if you were to ask me my five favorite songs from Wowie Zowie,

I'm sure it'd be different every time. Oh, that's funny.

Track 3

[19:12] Um, yeah, it's a, it's a, it's a dense record and, and it varies in styles.

Like, whereas Crooked Rain is, you know, Malcolmist has called it his classic

rock or their classic rock record.

It's tough to summarize what Wowie Zowie is in like a short sentence.

Yeah. It kind of just goes all over the place. Yeah. But it still is a cohesive

album. Yeah. I agree. Yeah.

So talk to me about a little bit about what you think. This is tough.

This one's going to be real tough. What do you think this song is about? Any ideas?

Well, he does bring up witch trials quite a bit. That's true, yes.

I cheated a little bit, and I went to Genius to see if there was an actual meaning

for the song. Oh, what did they have to say?

They pulled up a snippet from a Malcomus interview from 2018 where he's like,

yeah, the lyrics are just there for decoration.

Track 3

[20:19] I feel like that's so many songs you know

that he would he would say it that way even though you know we enjoy the songs

and look for content in his word salad uh it doesn't surprise me that he would

say that that it's just sort of a costume for the skeleton of the song Yeah.

And my friend who I went to one of the Central Park shows with,

he says that sometimes that he just feels like Malcomus is just like rapping.

Oh, that's interesting. I hadn't really ever thought about that.

Hmm. Well, I gotta ask the question.

Do you think this song is overrated, underrated, properly rated?

And I realize it's tough to do when you don't have the whole list in front of you.

But this comes in at number 35. Should it be higher or lower, or is 35 about right?

Track 3

[21:19] Like I said, with Wowie Zowie, I think it's an album where even the deepest

cut has its fans, so I can't say that it's overrated. Right.

I'm going to say properly rated. Okay, I'll take that.

I'll take that. Yeah, I think so. Around 35, it's a memorable track off Wowie Zowie.

Track 3

[21:49] Yeah, 35 sounds about right to me as well. Well, Ryan from Soundtrack Your Life,

do you have anything that you would like to plug before we button this sucker up?

Sure soundtrack your life is a podcast that

i host with my friend nicole we talk about awesome soundtracks

uh with guests we've had different musicians um we've had like lou barlow from

sebado on the podcast get out uh correct legend from shutter to think cool um

we've had a daniel ephraim who put together the steve keen art book and he's

the manager of the apples and the stereo. He's been on a couple episodes.

Um, so, uh, we just talked to people about soundtracks and needle drops.

And, um, obviously we've done an episode on brain candy.

Cause yeah, I have to do an episode on that one because of, uh, soldiers is so good.

Track 3

[22:44] Um, but you know, it's, uh, we released two episodes a month and it's a lot of fun.

I think if you're a pavement fan, you'll probably like a lot of our episodes.

Episodes so find that at soundtrack your life

is it is it.com or dot

net for that on your dot net and then if not

search for that on your podcast app yeah and

you'll and you'll likely find it yeah where you can find this

podcast you can probably find a soundtrack your life as well cool well

thank you so much ryan uh it was a pleasure to meet you today and i'm real happy

that we got to do this yeah um it is an honor to talk pavement on the meeting

alchemist podcast oh thanks dude that means a lot uh take good care we'll talk

to you soon and don't forget wash your goddamn hands thanks.

Track 2

[23:31] For listening to meeting malchus 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 meeting malchus.com,

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