MMT50 - 242
On the podcast this week jD is in conversation with Pavement super-fan Alan. Listen in as they discuss his Pavement origin story and analyze song number 42 on the countdown.
Transcript:
Track 1:
[0:00] Previously on the Pavement Top 50.
Track 2:
[0:02] All right, that was the fifth track from Bright in the Corners, Old to Begin.
It's our third song from Bright in the Corners on the countdown so far.
Of course, number 50 was Blue Hawaiian. And just last week, we listened to Embassy Row at number 44.
So here we are with Old to Begin. In Josh and Pittsburgh, what do you think of this as track number 43?
I love it. I love it. It was in my top 20. Oh, wow. Okay. Yeah.
I was kind of sitting at my desk at work thinking about where I rank these songs and set you back, set you back, set you back. Just kept ringing in my head.
It's not, you know, it's probably lower down in my 20, but it's in my 20.
Track 3:
[0:52] Hey, this is Westy from the Rock and Roll Band Pavement, and you're listening to The Countdown.
Hey.
Track 1:
[1:01] It's J.D. here, back for another episode of our Top 50 Countdown for Seminole Indie Rock Band Pavement. Week over week.
Track 4:
[1:08] We're going to countdown the 50 essential pavement tracks that you selected with your very own Top 20 ballads.
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[1:14] I tabulated the results using an advanced abacus and my toes, and all that's left is for us to reveal this week's track.
How will your favorite song fare in the ranking? You'll need to tune in.
Track 4:
[1:26] Or whatever the podcast equivalent of tuning in is.
Track 1:
[1:30] To find out. This week we're joined by Pavement superfan.
Track 4:
[1:33] Alan.
Track 1:
[1:34] So there's that. Alan! Hello. How are you doing, motherfucker?
I'm very good, motherfucker.
It's a bit cold here. Yeah, brother. Yeah, man. It's good to have you here.
Thank you. It's lovely to be here.
Where where are we talking to you from right now so i i am a glaswegian i'm a scotsman but i, uprooted to finland uh eight years ago so we live on the west coast of finland so kind of likein in the glasgow of of finland i would say the glasgow of finland glasgow finland yeah man so it's a very cool very cool place then because glasgow is very fucking cool Yeah, this is very,very cool just now, literally, because it's minus 25.
So what is the closest city?
Next biggest one here is probably Vasa. Okay. Population size.
My Scandinavian geography isn't what it should be, but... We're about...
[2:34] Three and a half hours on the train from helsinki so oh okay we we are we're quite quite probably about two thirds of the way up if you if you drive for another three hours thenyou're starting to hit like the arctic circle okay wow yeah that's that's wild that is so wild yeah well let's talk about pavement absolutely talk to me about your experience with payment oryour pavement origin and story yeah so i was one of the people that first heard pavement uh on the john peel show on radio one would have been um i don't know if you know who johnpeel is he was like a seminal he's a really really important dj in the uk um he just had the most eclectic eccentric taste of music so it'd be a bit of heavy dub reggae one minute some youknow post-industrial the next and And then he basically would just.
Track 4:
[3:32] He would put anything on and he just.
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[3:35] He was a massive pavement fan as well.
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[3:37] So I would have heard him on his show. I had a great friend called Mark Porchani, who was, in those days, he was an avid cassette taper of all the radio shows.
I believe that he still has his archive stretching back then.
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[3:52] So he might be someone that would be good for you to speak to.
Holy shit. Yeah, man. That would be cool to get digitized. Yeah.
Track 4:
[3:59] Man.
Track 1:
[3:59] Well I can we can speak after this but I'll I'll yeah I think he would be someone really fascinating for you to speak to as well anyway digressing so yeah so I would have heardPavement on John Peele but then I missed their I think it was 92 they toured Slatted and Enchanted, and they played at Strathclyde Uni Strathclyde University in Glasgow, but I missedthat gig by a couple of days oh man yeah man yep same thing happened to Nirvana when they played the QMU in Glasgow I missed it I bought the single, three days after they playedyeah, good luck but I mean I got to see Pavement on all the other tours after that you did?
Yeah yeah so oh you're a turbo fan man awesome man yeah yeah so Crooked Rain, and then yeah Breaking the Corners and.
Track 4:
[4:55] Hi what do you think it is about the uk that that really um they adopted pavement in a way in a way that the rest of the world just didn't you know like they were popular in the us ofcourse and popular in canada but it seems like the uk and scotland like it's much bigger than that yeah it's it's exactly that it's almost the same way people are about like the rocky horrorshow.
[5:25] So i'm i'm a huge fan of the rocky horror show huge fan of pavement and it's kind of like it for a long time like in the mid 90s it was certainly it was like a barometer you know touse of okay these people seem kind of cool do you like pavement yes awesome you know so it's like like not not being like you know cool and elitist but just kind of okay these are peoplewho are obviously switched on they're probably into the same kind of literature and other bands that we would like so then it's just i think they were just such a are they still are they're justan amazing stepping stone into so much other you know literature and and architecture and psychology just the the subject matter of the songs once you actually delve through the lyricsit's yeah it puts you on a lot of different nice paths i would say yeah but i think especially like so i'm from glasgow so as you've experienced a glasgow audience we're very vocal and wereally we really attach ourselves you know it's the cities you know there's a lot of uh emotion there a lot of it's centered towards football teams but it's also bands we really really love ourbands.
I'd say the next kind of Samoan city is probably like Manchester or Liverpool where it's the same kind of vibe as Glasgow.
Track 1:
[6:45] Wow. I visited both on my UK tour when I followed Pavan.
I didn't tour, but I followed their tour. I went to Manchester.
I was only there for like 30 hours, so I didn't get to see much, but I saw a show.
So that was cool. What was your favorite tour that you saw them on?
Track 4:
[7:06] It would have been Brighton and the Corners because they played at the Glasgow School of Art.
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[7:16] Okay. So I was studying just around the corner from it at the time.
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[7:20] So I went up to the art school and I knew the guy called Simon Fox.
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[7:27] Who was the entertainment officer there.
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[7:29] So he was the one responsible for booking all the bands for that year.
And I said to him you know like I'm obviously a massive fan is it possible to maybe see the guys before the sound check you know just just to say hi and stuff and he was like well wecan't do that but because we knew each other as well so he was like, do you want to come to the after show and I was like yeah, so yeah so yeah so there was a bunch of us went and Ithink it was five of us that went there and then And watched an amazing gig, a really, really great gig.
And then we went to the after show afterwards and got hung up with them.
I had a chat with Malcolmus for about two hours and just such, such engaging people.
Track 1:
[8:16] You know.
Track 4:
[8:16] And like met the whole band. Yeah.
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[8:20] I had on like an old.
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[8:21] It was a t-shirt that it turns out that Mark Ibold designed it.
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[8:29] So I got it on the I got it on the Crooked Rain tour so it's like this kind of cross stitch thing, and then at the gig at the art school like, I bowed I was like can I buy that t-shirt off youbecause we don't have any left and I was like nah I love this man but they were just I mean I think they spent, easily five six hours just chilling with the fans in the after show and justbeing just really really nice guys and, And you nailed Malcomus down for that long. Yeah, yeah, man.
Nicely done. I think I really annoyed, I don't know if you know.
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[9:06] There's a really kind of very important band from Glasgow called The Pastels.
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[9:11] So they were both on Geographic Domino at the same time.
Track 4:
[9:17] Okay.
Track 1:
[9:17] Yeah, Domino. So Pastels were the support band.
Track 4:
[9:20] Oh, okay. For that gig. And then Stephen.
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[9:24] The singer, so he was talking to Malcomus and I came down the stairs was in Spotted Malcomus and I think I kind of interrupted him being a bit of a fanboy and I think Stephen gota little bit annoyed at me Stephen Pastel got a little bit annoyed at me but you know I think I've, we've made up since then I'm sure so well I mean.
Track 3:
[9:45] Man yeah so what was it about that show other than meeting the band or was that was that why that was the the show is it because you met the man, no i mean i think i bumped intohim again after other gigs as well and like, i just think it was uh it was that i think that that was peak i think that was just it was like they were just completely riding the zeitgeist and yeahthey were they were on their absolute a game you know and just yeah i just i just felt like they could have you know i can, thrown out a can down a set of stairs and it would still theywould still have got something really musical from it and you know just create some wonderful piece of music so what's your record which which is your record the one that you cleave tothe most right, tough call right sophie's choice yeah totally man but the track that i always go back to is here, like yeah but actually that's just my go-to and i was actually i was playing i'vegot two kids i've got a nine-year-old and a seven-year-old and uh i was playing it and my daughter was like is that your band and i was like no no this is uncle steven and his band it's uhit's not us but we would maybe aspire to being a tenth of that or even 1% of that.
Track 4:
[11:09] I think that's I think it's the same for a lot of people who've got so much attachment to that track but it's the same as any song really I mean it's for me having grown up you knowthat was my kind of teenage formative years.
[11:26] Late teenage formative years in the early 20s and, just so many memories memories on you know when i bought that record or you know any of the records and you knowremembering being at different friends at their house and sticking vinyl on and listening to it for the first time and people there was a a guy uh i think his name was dawson he was acomplete metalhead uh he was a friend of a friend and he was like what is this you know and i was like oh this is paving this is a new record and he was he was hooked you know fromfirst listen yeah man we we just put it on.
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[12:01] I think it was.
Track 4:
[12:02] Um, it was crooked rain put on and just, you know, play that four or five times in a row.
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[12:08] And he was, he was like, this is awesome stuff. And then from that, that's a fucking record.
Track 4:
[12:12] Yeah.
Track 1:
[12:12] Yeah. I mean, that's fine.
Track 4:
[12:14] It's that they are just such a good, great gateway band.
Track 1:
[12:17] You know?
Track 4:
[12:18] I think they're like now I would say, the band that I'm probably equally as passionate about after them would be the Super Furry Animals Oh cool.
Track 1:
[12:31] I'm doing a podcast about them next week. Awesome man Awesome.
Yeah It'll be out in the fall, that podcast will be out in the fall but I'm doing it next week It's like anyone who's never heard them before they're so lucky because they've got such a,beautiful back catalogue you know such a wealth of material there as well well we'll have to talk about them when we get off the get off the podcast yeah definitely because i would like toget your take what do you say we get to the main course and we we listen to track number 42 no no no all right just like all right we'll come right back after this break with more from alanand we'll talk Talk about track 42.
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[13:23] Hey, this is Bob Mustanovich from Pavement. Thanks for listening.
And now on with a countdown.
Track 2:
[13:31] 42.
Track 6:
[13:34] Hey, do you need a reason? Is there a separate season?
Track 1:
[16:37] Okay, track number 42, Easily Fooled, comes from the Rattled by Da Rush EP, and it's the third track on that EP, and it later appeared on the Sorted Sentinel edition of WowieZowie Reissue, along with its EP bandmate, False Scorpion, and it was track number 22 on that second disc of the Sorted Sentinels collection, the reissue.
So Alan yeah my man what do you think of Easily Fooled love it love it love it love it it's on like I said to you off off air it's, probably one of my favourite tracks alongside here yeah it'sjust such an amazing track love the, the meandering nature of it just really.
[17:26] Acerbic lyrics and yeah like it's awesome awesome track to jam along to, yeah I bet I bet it would yeah because it is very, jammy isn't it yeah absolutely and it's it's one of thoseones most of their stuff the more you listen it's like a lovely painting it's like an an aural painting it's the more you listen to it there's a new layer there's like a little little piano in the leftspeaker then there's a little guitar scrape in the right and you don't really notice maybe the first couple of listens and you hear these lovely, almost I think it's Malcomus kind of doing somekind of faux, mick jagger kind of high you know like vocal harmonizing rooms it's just it's just all these love you can just imagine them in the studio you know like or you know anothertrack another track another track you know and it's rare for them right yeah well yeah i think yeah apart from when like stanovich putting on they don't seem like studio builders to methey seem like one one take wonders you know yeah yeah i think it depends on the record so the fact that he's singing backup vocals with himself is wild.
I love it. That whole single EP.
[18:40] Awesome awesome yeah it has my it has my favorite line as well but yeah uh it takes centuries to build in seconds to fall oh just lovely lovely poetry yeah so yeah it is there'sthere's some real lovely uh and i love the rhythm yeah i love the rhythm of his lyrics i don't need a time i don't need an internal cuter yeah right like and the timekeeper part strikes mebecause the song starts with just bass guitar and vocal and then in the like third line of the song the drums come in yeah and it lifts the song like it just lifts it even more yeah that's just thestunning i think you can also hear in like the the latter parts of it it's like it's almost like like it's the kind of genesis for folk jam as well.
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[19:39] Especially some of the vocal deliveries and some of the guitar phrase and the drums.
It's like, I only noticed it like last night when I was listening to it.
I was like, fuck, that sounds a lot like, I think it's more about the bit of, in folk jam when he starts talking about Irish folk tales scare the shit out of me.
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[19:57] It's that.
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[19:58] Those kind of phrases, you can hear like the, almost as if it's like a quick sketch and that then developed into that track.
Track 1:
[20:08] That's a...
Yep, sorry, everyone froze there, sorry. No, it's okay. It's part of doing this with people from all over the world, right? Yeah.
The United Family of Pavement. Yeah. Yeah, like I say, it's so nice to talk to somebody, because I did the whole first part, the whole first season of the show by myself.
So it's so cool to hear people's pavement stories and what they think of these songs. Yeah.
Track 3:
[20:41] Where do you think um what do you think about where it falls easily fooled number 42 it's your favorite song so i'm guessing you wish it were a bit higher top top three and it's topthree for you oh fuck yeah i would say grounded grounded here and easily fooled would be very very tough top three place for me wow so you must be a bit disappointed that it's 42 no it'sif someone here if someone's introduced to it that they've never heard of before then that's what matters it's pavement doesn't matter where it goes they're all fucking number one so youknow, yeah man there is no, bad pavement track even Westing by Musket and Sexton there's a lot of difficult pieces on that but even then there's no bad track on that either no I agree Iagree.
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[21:38] Those first EPs are very different.
I like more melodic stuff, but you get that. You get Box Elder right away.
Which is fantastic. So dude, you're in a band. Yeah, yeah. Hi.
I'm going to do a Pavement pod list again this year. Yep.
Where I get people to cover Pavement songs songs and send them in and then i release i release it yeah as awesome as a podcast yeah that's going to come out in july so get cracking onthat.
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[22:23] I'm trying i i'll need i'll need to get in touch with andrew graham and then pass if he doesn't know about you already then i'll connect you guys up um but i think he's he's he's afascinating guy he's got such a yeah again a very um broad musical taste as well like you know he's a thanks i find that pavement fans usually do have pretty broad musical taste yeah yeahyou know they're they're more accepting and they're more open to listen to new and different things yeah yeah but i think i mean i think it's lovely now seeing them because i went to thethe the reunion um yeah gigs on 2010 and that's like it was just amazing to see this new at least one new generation coming up you know and you're going fuck you know like as as cultishas they were the first time around it's great to see them kind of getting their juice you know and like actually you know, making a bit of money off it you know and like just agreed 100 likei hope this is fun in their retirement absolutely man but i don't know if you know the story but well one of the rumors of why why they did the whole reunion concerts, was apparentlyBob.
[23:47] Stanovich was like a fucking degenerate gambler and he got in deep to the wrong people for a lot of money and then he approached the guys and went the only way we can makefast cash is if you know these concerts, and he went fuck it we'll do like five to begin with and that'll cover it and then we'll see how it goes and then just snowballed from that holy shityeah but again you don't know if he's, obviously he's a bit of a character so I mean that was it came from his mouth in an interview so you know you don't know if he's the king of bullshitor not so, that's rad yeah man, anything else you want to add about Easily Fooled?
Track 1:
[24:31] If you've not heard it before go and listen to it and if you've heard it before go and listen to it five more times and just absorb absorb absorb yeah and just and read read the lyrics it'si mean read the lyrics on their own and their own merit and then and you know really listen to them and the kind of cadence and the delivery and and the track when they're when it'splaying yeah Yeah.
Lovely, lovely messages. And yeah, it's been great talking to you. Yeah, you too.
Uh, that's all I got for you this week.
So without further ado, stay cool and wash your goddamn hands.
Track 3:
[25:12] Absolutely, man. Hey.
Track 1:
[25:14] As we say here.
Track 3:
[25:15] Thanks for listening to meeting Malcolm. This a pavement podcast where we count down the top 50 pavement tracks as selected by you. If you've got questions or concerns, pleaseshoot me an email. JD at MeetingMathemist.com.
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