PAVEMENT "WOWEE ZOWEE: SORDID SENTINELS EDITION"

Pavement Wowee Zowee: Sordid Sentinels Edition

Maybe I’m projecting here. But upon this re-release, all gussied up with b-sides and Peel sessions and whatever other farts were lying around, I can’t help but think this is the deepest Stephen Malkmus gets lyrically.

Beginning (and on the bonus disc, ending) with “We Dance” it feels pretty clear that SM was experiencing a shift in his romantic relationship. “There is no castration fear,” addresses an assumed loss of masculinity associated with marriage. These are the first words sung on the record. The “dance” is a reference to matrimonial obligation of the reception ceremony.

But his position changes from a “we’ll dance” to a “maybe we can dance” just as one can imagine the mental see-saw of “I must marry this woman,” to “I guess I could marry this woman.” The call to “sing a song of praise for your elders” is the family, grandparents, stinky old aunts, all the fools who’ve jumped into the marriage pool headfirst without checking to see the depth.

“Pick out some Brazilian nuts for your engagement” cannot get any more straightforward, a cheeky rib on the perverted minutiae consumed by so-called Bridezillas. “Check the expiration date man, it’s later than you think,” feels that there’s more bachelor life still available, yet to be used, buried down inside with all kinds of potential.

“You can’t enjoy yourself, I can’t enjoy myself” is every argument ever recorded between male and female from the beginning of time.

Or maybe it’s sung from the point of view of a father, speaking words of advice to a son on the cusp of taking the plunge, a hymn to calm down an overreacting mind, especially with “I won’t be there to give you up because I don’t have a clue anymore” An old man, dumb-ened by the years of marriage, left mentally vacant, clueless. “We Dance” is Pavement at it’s peak, clever lyrically, melodic and tender all without compromising the curiosity that leaves the listener picking, looking at the layers and trying to figure it all out.

As an addendum, you also cannot ignore the hugely significant line in “Rattled by the Rush” of “I don’t need a minister to call me a groom.” Why do we have to get married? We love each other, we know how we stand, this entire pomp and ceremony is just for everyone else. Lest we not forget the title of this song, repeated ad infinitum in a eye-scratchingly catchy way, it’s clear someone is left shaken at the speed of events.

Let me just make a disclaimer that I really have no idea what anyone’s lyrics are about 99% of the time. And even now, it’s all just a guess. I cannot fucking stand it when a reviewer makes a claim like “xyz song is about abc.” Really? Who told you? Try saying “I think” and then make whatever hare-brained claim you want. Lyrics are so damn personal and can very well be meaningless.

The b-sides are all great and this is easily my favorite Pavement album. I’ve read this is the hipster’s choice in their canon? Still find that hard to believe. Any excuse to come back and listen to it again is welcomed. Bonus material (Disc 2) leaves me in the exact same mindset as the bonus discs from “Slanted and Enchanted” and “Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain” did. The mindset is bored.

Pavement opened with “Grounded” at the 40 Watt in Athens, GA and the opening guitar line, all delicate and spare, resonated with me while some fans tried to climb a lighting rig to grab a band t-shirt the Malk had tossed from the stage in a fit of some sort of promotional foresight. Ibold had the beard, I sold merch next to Lance Bangs selling Pave’d gear. Grabbed two of the setlists and then gave them to bigger Pavement fans when I got home. Nastanovich used my leopard print Third Man-upholstered drum seat for the occasion. SM was aloof. There was a party in a huge mansion afterwards. I skipped three days of school to do it.

Anyway, those lace-like guitar lines in “Grounded” bring all those memories straight to the forefront of my mind. I could listen to just that song (and/or “We Dance”) and intrinsically feel the rest of the album. That’s an emotion you cannot fake.

Bootleg Reviews...

These are the last of the long-unused Creem features. Everything after this will most likely be written with this specific page in mind.

The Rolling Stones “We Were Falling in Love” Bootleg 7”

Such a wonderful story…a Dutch record collector buys a batch of acetates that’ve been languishing in a garage in England. Unbeknownst to him, there’s a one-sided lacquer of “We Were Falling in Love” in the heap. The fact that it made it onto a bootleg 7” is a testament to the collector spirit, seeing as proper record labels hardly even make singles any more, let alone the illegitimate ones.

The song itself was recorded September 29^th, 1964 at Regent Sound Studios in London. Ignore the fact that Mick would already sing the title lyrics in the Stones cover of “Under the Boardwalk”, this track, with typical Jaggerian prose of stealing some other bloke’s lady, would fit nicely on “Metamorphosis.” I find Charlie’s “boom-chika-chick-boom-boom” drumming particularly enchanting in a Phil Spector/Shangri-Las sort of way. But $14 for a single is a bit outrageous, especially when the song is kinda brief. I say this is only for the diehards, but probably would’ve been a hit if they’d released it.

Iggy Pop and Sonic’s Rendezvous, Helsinki, Finland, May 22, 1978

Dan Kroha told me a story once. He said that one of Iggy Pop’s solo records (“American Caesar” or maybe “Naughty Little Doggy”) had an address where you could send letters to Iggy. Dan, in only the way he can, said he asked Iggy why everytime he came through on tour he had nothing but a bunch of bozos as his backing band.

Surprisingly, Iggy replied, and if I recall correctly, even admitted to Dan’s bozo claim. But he also said that he had a good backing band once. And this is the recording to prove it.

Backed by Fred Smith, Gary Rasmussen and Scott Asheton, better known as the heart of the Sonic’s Rendezvous Band, Iggy did about a three week tour with them in 1978. While a quick check at an Iggy tape trading website shows more than a handful of those shows as being available, this particular radio broadcast from Helsinki seems to be the only one to have been properly bootlegged.

The audio quality is alright…not too terrible but not crystal clear either. There’s a peculiar phase shift that occurs a few times during “I Wanna Be Your Dog” that keeps it from really kicking ass. Either way, it’s a cool peak into a somewhat forgotten collaboration between the two most important Detroit rockers of the Sixties. Iggy berates the crowd, Fred holds the groove and Scott Thurston’s keyboards add a level of fun to it all, particularly on “Dirt.” Too bad the song cuts out just under three minutes. There’s gotta be some proper recordings of this tour somewhere, right?

Velvet Underground Ultimate Mono and Acetates Album (3xCD)

The main attractions on this are the previously unheard alternate versions of “Heroin”, “Venus in Furs” and “I’m Waiting for the Man”. Taken from Moe Tucker’s acetate of their 1966 sessions at Scepter Studios, a similar acetate made news last year when it was announced that it was found at a yard sale for 75 cents.

The amount of excitement I had leading up to hearing these versions was incalculable. “VU and Nico” was the first album I really got nuts into. When I was barely 17 years old my family took a Caribbean cruise I brought my copy of the CD which I listened to almost exclusively. I would just stare out into the black ocean night and totally engross myself in “European Son” and taking inspiration from “Heroin” wondering what the hell that ocean would’ve looked like a thousand years earlier, wanting to be a gnarly pirate or wench or anything, just anything but living in the 1990’s. And I just couldn’t get over the weird little violin loop that John Cale hits on in “Black Angel’s Death Song”…I’ve had dreams about being able to accomplish that same riff with guitar feedback. It manages to be almost atonal and yet totally catchy. That’s the best part of the Velvet Underground.

In spite of my excitement, the acetate tracks aren’t too crazy. The differing versions of the three above-mentioned songs are neither better nor worse, just different. (sidenote: supposedly there’s an alternate version of the first Saints album that fits the same criteria (not better, just different) anyone have it?) I think I caught some slightly altered lyrics in “Heroin”, but I might be mistaken. “Waiting for the Man” actually feels like it’s missing its balls…Lou’s riffing a little more white-bread than what appears on the album. And it’s also safe to say Ms. Tucker doesn’t have the best storage techniques…pops and sizzles are abundant and there’s even a full-on skip or two.

“Femme Fatale” has what seems to be a slightly different mix with the backing vocals a little more quirky. The bass on “Run, Run, Run” has a few more runs and feels a bit louder. The acetate version of “European Son” clocks in at nine minutes while the album version is a mere 7:46. Still, I’d be hard pressed to point out any obvious differences other than overdubs. And I knock off a few points for a botched track edit that leaves the first 10 seconds of “All Tomorrow’s Parties” tacked on to the end of “Euro Son”. If you’re gonna make a boot, you gotta be on top of that shit. Shame on Nothing Songs Ltd. for goofing up the track list too. Jeez.

Disc one is rounded out by mono versions of the two singles from the album, but those tracks can be found on the two-CD deluxe edition of the album.

Disc two contains the promo-only mono mix of the “White Light/White Heat” album. I’ve had too many record collectors tell me how otherworldly mono mixes of albums (Beatles “White Album”, Pink Floyd “Piper at the Gates of Dawn”, etc) are or can be. I’ve yet to be impressed. “White Light/White Heat” is no exception.

Also on disc two are four tracks from an acetate found in Sterling Morrison’s closet after he died. “Jesus”, “I’m Set Free”, “Beginning to See the Light” and “After Hours” are claimed to be alternate mixes, but you know…I’m just not buying it. How do these bootleggers get records that personally belonged to Sterling and Moe anyway? I’m sure the story behind that is infinitely more interesting than these supposed alternate mixes. And I could really give two shits about the mono single mixes of “What Goes On” and “Jesus” that round out this disc.

Disc three is a test pressing mono version of “Loaded” only sent out to a few AM radio stations. At this point, who in the hell cares? Wasn’t the two-CD “Fully Loaded” enough? I don’t even like that album anyway.

So I was initially excited and brimming with all kinds of wonderment I hadn’t felt since that Caribbean cruise in the summer of ’99, but now I just feel like I blew $75 that I’m not gonna get back. Caveat emptor.

Singles Column Volume Three...

Standard Tribesmen “Picture Take” Borox Records

I listened to “Picture Take” twice in a row and each time I thought my phone was ringing somewhere towards the end. Shouldn’t there be a word for that? A-side is gnarly rock spooge, all lo-fi and sloppy, like the riff to Suicide’s “Ghost Rider” amp’d up and dumbed down. The bass sounds so wonderfully outta tune and I love it, like the strings are just all limp on the neck, barely holding on, you know…ploooong-plooooong-ploooong! B-side kinda lost me though. Spray-painted cover has a dude with a big afro on it? Is this standard among Tribesmen?

Arthur Lee “Unissued 1965 Demos” Norton Records

After being one of the ultimate reissue labels for around twenty years, you wonder if such gems just land on Norton’s doorstep? In regards to this single, it did not. They still hunt and dig and canvass the country for all kindsa rock and roll artifacts. These two jams supposedly surfaced in the collection of an old record promoter from LA. A-side “Stay Away” by the American Four is an alright tune particularly saved by it’s wild(esque) guitar break. The flip “You I’ll Be Following” presents more of a proto-Love sound in a song that lazily goes nowhere. Cover photo of Arthur Lee (and Love/American Four/Grass Roots co-conspirator Johnny Echols) in Beatle wigs is truly hilarious. In-depth sleeve notes by Echols give the ENTIRE pre-Love rundown of what he and Lee were doing. Paid $15 for this super-limited version on marbled vinyl from www.thelovesociety.com with the proceeds supporting Arthur Lee’s family. If yer a cheapskate, I think Norton has a proper lame ole black vinyl version coming in a few months.

Order “Kickball” Blood of the Drash

I can’t remember why I bought this. I think I just wanted to hear a song called “Kickball” or “Strokes vs. New York”. A little bit of hipster-ish attitude never hurt anyone. “Hang the bankers by their ties, for letting African’s babies die” is clever and snide lyric sung with a laugh interrupting, perhaps because of it’s audacity? I like asking questions in reviews that no one has an answer to. No real reference points for this one, barely original and a bit like rock music. But if you like kickball…

Home Blitz “Live Outside” no label

Wow. Recorded live on the corner of Mercer and Hibben streets in Princeton, NJ, the A-side “Stupid Street” actually gives a running commentary on cars you can hear driving past and how the amps are battery powered and wearing gloves because it’s cold and it’s hard to play guitar in them. Rudimentary at best, it flows along with a poppy, Jonathan Richman “aw shucks” air about it with a louder-than-everything-else-in-the-mix guitar solo like VU’s “I Heard Her Call My Name” or the Who’s “Out in the Steets.” With lyrics like “I feel like riding bikes tonight” on the flip, you should pop on down to the soda shop and grab a malt with your steady. “Live Outside” is a modern classic.

Rat Traps “Complication” Ken Rock

Three songs on a one-sided single means it’s fast and quick like the one time you lost your virginity. I dig it…songs that clock in at about sixty seconds are pretty hard to screw up. My copy came a CD-R of Cheap Time (Jeffrey from the Rat Traps new band with Jemina from Be Your Own Pet). I was originally told Cheap Time was supposed to be a sort of Brentwoods/budget rock tribute band, but after listening to it, Cheap Time sounds like a slightly more-sedate and slower version of the Germs. Can’t wait to hear it on wax.

Angry Angles/Digital Leather tour single, Shattered Records

The Angry Angles finally falter and release something short of amazing. “In My Room” would be better as a cover of the Beach Boys song of the same name. Decent enough, but I find myself just waiting for the full-length on In the Red. It’s gonna be so good you’ll pee yourself. Digital Leather’s “Ruby Queen” serves an Ian Curtis-ian vocal with a backing track decidedly more cheery than Joy Division. The Farfisa sounded annoying at first listen, but now I get it. From now on, reviews of split singles will declare a winner. Digital Leather bends the Angry Angles over on this one. Kudos DL.

Wooden Shjips “Dance California (Radio Edit)” Sick Christ Records

Slow, droning laziness that owes something to the Spacemen 3. Sounds a little thin to me, but that could just be the panic talking. I’m not as geeked about this band as everyone else seems to be, just waiting for something to totally blow me away. Off to a good start, they will probably get much better. Would write more but I got a plane to catch.

Listening to Pylon Trying to Figure Out This Shit...

No big windbagging from me here. I guess I only started this because Creem stopped posting my updates. So this is the first thing Creem didn't run...volume two of my singles review column. More to come.

The Come Ons “Lullabye” Red Lounge Records

Import single with a remix as the A-side. Guitar rocks on a solid Paul Maroon of the Walkmen swath of reverb as the drums lock on the Bonham specter. Vocals kinda put you to sleep, but then again, maybe that’s the point? The flip is a cover of the VU’s “Who Loves the Sun” using only voice and bass. The close-mic placement for the vocals lets you hear all the saliva rolling around in the back of Deanne Iovan’s throat. I’d be lying if I said that wasn’t hot. Actually, I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t hott because that deservers two t’s.

the Carbonas “Lost Cause” Rob’s House Records

I’ve still never really loved any Carbonas records and still keep buying everything they put out. So who’s the fool? Uptempo Atlanta punk as a much better version of the Dangerhouse stuff re: X or the Avengers. I think I saw them open for the Black Lips once, but I probably don’t remember them because they played with the Black Lips (they’ll make you forget your own damn name they’re so good). Recorded live and you can actually hear everything. Still, my response is “Eh.”

Om / Six Organs of Admittance, Holy Mountain Records

Ben Chasny, the brainpower behind SOoA, is what I imagine Fonzie would be like in real life. So badass that he not only haunts you with mind-melting black folk burnings with Six Organs, but also slays dragons with Comets on Fire. Juxtaposition of smooth harmonic voice over seriously twisted geetar freakout is much-appreciated. All that aside Om still totally skullfucks the shit out of this single. Holy hell…all kinds of heavy bass groove like when the Melvins still had Shirley Temple’s daughter in the band. Me likee Om…are all their jams this tight?

Submarine Races “Talking Loud” Shit Sandwich Records

Ian Adams was infallible with Happy Supply and played the sideman position perfectly in the Ponys. The Races don’t really sound like either of those bands. It’s definitely the least fey I’ve ever heard Ian…which different people will take different ways. Best song on the single is the cover of the Minutemen’s “Party With Me Punker” as the two originals just seem to be missing something I can’t put a finger on. Typical sixties-type song structures with little bits of tangential junk tossed in to spice it up? Do I need to hear their album to understand it better? I’m left scratching my head. Please give me more time.

Black Time “Girls in the Garage” Bancroft Records

First thing they’ve done that I’ve actually played more than once. Their other stuff feels a tad bit more touched with effort while this rocks without pretension. “Girls in the Garage” not only oozes with hand-clappy goodness, but is also the title of a top series of garage compilations. “Link Wray” is raw enough to make you think the song’s namesake actually wrote it. Rumble on you UK roughnecks.

Justice Yeldham and the Dynamic Ribbon Device: Live in Beirut, Chondritic Sound

Even if you don’t like pure noise you should still keep reading. Whoever this is (I don’t really care to read-up) has managed to amplify a jagged piece of glass, grease it up with some KY and “play” it with his face. Much respect. Sounds like the stomach gurgling of pre-historic beasts whose diet of dirt and fear cannot be explained to those alive in this eon. Apparently side-b features Justice cutting hisself with the glass and creating an unholy goo of blood and lube. Still not sure IF I believe that it was recorded live in Beirut (as I would imagine such a thing being shut down in even the most liberal of places, let alone Iran) but I definitely WANT to believe it. Just make sure you have the band-aids ready…and some KY too.

The Touch-Me-Nots “Hey, Television” Roach and Squirrel Records

Two-piece Oakland punk-blues. I hope they’re kids because any adult doing this stuff nowadays would be sad (Don Howland excluded, who should demand royalties for these songs). Go buy a Bassholes record instead.

The Makeout Party “Wreckless Epic” Kapow Records

Unsolicited singles package from Kapow Records arrived at the Heavenly Joy headquarters and I think it’s safe to say I’ll review any 7” sent my way. A-side is a cool VU mix-up of equal dollops of “Sweet Jane” and “Waiting for the Man”. And I can’t ignore the silver-foil stamp of a jalapeno on the sleeve in the same fashion/angle as the peelable banana on a record y’all are familiar with. B-side “It’s All Right” more like Big Star? Definitely poppier and the kind of thing you’d put on a mix-tape for your ladyfriends. Big up’s.

Almighty Do Me a Favor “Won’t Be None” Kapow Records

This is a curiously-named one-man-band. Can’t say I’m a fan of the genre, but this manages to keep my interest. The artwork makes it look like a Billy Childish release…complete with band logo and woodcuts (or what appears to be) depicted in brown. And it sounds like Billy’s solo stuff too. Not terribly bad, but also nothing to lose your dong over.

The Dansettes “Oh My!” Les Disques Cosmic Groove

I was impressed with the ‘settes opening set for the Dirtbombs in Hoboken. Bought the single for $6. I understand it’s an import, but there’s no reason to charge import prices at a band’s merch table, especially when you’re getting one song with an instrumental version of the song as the flip. So I just paid $6 for one song? Come on.

Anyturd, they were pretty smoking live. Three cute mod-looking girls singing soul with four nerdy guys backing them up. I started to think about all the bands with a similar foundation…the Headcoatees, the Detroit Cobras, the Pipettes, Sharon Jones/Dap Kings, the Fondas, the Bellrays, etc. It bummed me out. Beautiful women with these amazing voices backed by record collecting dudes who look like it. I built up some kind of manifesto in my head…I think I just wanted these women to write their own songs, to play an instrument more substantial than the tambourine, to just take more charge. Seeing this dedicated subservience, under the guise of “fronting” the band was just kinda sad. Maybe this is just my problem. Maybe no one else sees this as weird or wrong or anything. I could totally be over-analyzing this. And I may be totally wrong about some of those bands…I just know most of the women in those acts weren’t writing the tunes.

And to make good use of my American Studies class at Wayne State over three years ago, I referred to my copy of John Berger’s “Ways of Seeing”, particularly all of his #3 essay. Some selections:

“To be born a woman has been to be born, within an allotted and confined space, into the keeping of men.”

“Men survey women before treating them. Consequently how a woman appears to a man can determine how she will be treated. To acquire some control over this process, women must contain it and interiorize it.”

“One might simplify this by saying: men act and women appear. Men look at women. Women watch themselves being looked at. This determines not only most relations between men and women but also the relation of women to themselves. The surveyor of women in herself is male: the surveyed female. Thus she turns herself into an object – and most particularly an object of vision: a sight.”

Those few selections, more than anything else, seem to convey my whole hang-up with bands like the Dansettes. Berger makes it clear: men act, women appear. It’s the entire basis of this band’s existence. No one would give two shits about the Dansettes if the three singers looked just like the backing band. In that, we not only find the crux of the band’s composition, but also the crowd and its perception thereof.

Beyond that, they seem to be over-playing the whole retro angle. The write-up on the back cover of the single just reads so terribly and seemed to echo how the keyboardist spieled onstage…lots unnecessary verbiage. I think my tastes would appreciate this band being much more understated and low-key. In the end, “Oh My!” was nowhere near the best of their songs and the production feels stilted on the “vintage sixties” angle. I’d still buy a new single of theirs if I saw one.