MMT50 - 246
jD is back with Keith from New York to discuss song number 46 in the countdown.
Transcript:
Track 2:
[0:00] Previously on the Pavement Top 50. The song that we are, of course.
[0:04] Talking about, if you haven't put it together yet, number 47, is Greenlander.
David from London, Ontario. What do you think of Greenlander?
I really like this song. This is one that I only came across, again, not to keep repeating myself, but over the kind of COVID lockdown days, where with my extra time, I was going throughsome of the more back catalog, catalog uh some of the extra kind of bonus songs that were not included on the albums when they first got released uh and as well through listening to uhyour podcast and the pavement conundrum podcast uh they also helped to introduce me to some other songs that i was kind of not aware of as well as getting the the westing uhcompilation album as well uh but yeah this song i enjoy a lot and uh one thing that hit me as well on this one is it has that kind of little more slow reflective reflective kind of pace to it,vibe to it.
It's not a heavy rock band. Really chill, right? Yeah, exactly.
Welcome to the.
Track 4:
[1:10] Pavement, and now on with a countdown.
[1:15] Hey, it's JD here, back for another episode of our Top 50 Countdown for Seminole 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, of course, tabulated the results using an advanced abacus and my fingers and toes.
All that's left for us is to reveal this week's track.
How will your favorite track fare in the ranking? You'll need to tune in or whatever the podcast equivalent of tuning in is to find out.
This week we're joined by pavement superfan keith from new york so there's that how are you doing motherfucker i'm doing great i'm doing great how how are you how are you doing ahi'm fantastic i am i am just raring at the bit to to learn from you and about you blind um so yeah do you want is what do you want to start off where i uh well let's start off at the start wheredid you where did you um first experience the band so i think the first time i saw them was at the tibetan freedom concert i think that was in 1997 it was in new york city at uh randall'sisland um i didn't really know who they were so i don't know i'm not sure i paid that much attention to them i remember watching them um and.
[2:44] And then I saw their album in HMV. They used to have the listening stations.
Yeah. And I think it was Bright in the Corners. It was one of the albums.
That would make sense. 97. And I didn't like the cover art, and I just kind of dismissed it.
Oh, wow. Yeah. But then I was in a dollar bin.
A few years later, it had to be 1998, somewhere around there, 1999.
And i picked up a copy of wowie zowie along with built to spill is perfect from now on i hadn't heard either of the bands and i started listening to it and i really liked them um so i got intothem i started listening a lot more and then i got to see pavement for the first time at uh the matador 10th anniversary party in new york it was at irving no yeah and that was my firstexperience and seeing them, paying attention to them live.
Paying attention to them where you went to see them. Well, talk to me about this show. How was it? Oh, it was great. It was a fantastic show.
I always wished they would release it because I know they recorded it because it was on the website for like a week afterwards on the Matador website.
So I know that there was some kind of archive of it somewhere.
But yeah, it was great. There was a bunch of bands. I think Cat Power was there also.
[4:08] What else was there? Maybe Guitar Wolf, someone else.
But yeah, it was great. David Cross, I think, was the host. It was a really great show. Oh, man. What a show. Yeah.
[4:19] Um yeah it was a lot of fun i had a great time um two big concerts like i mean the fact that you can say tibetan freedom uh that you were there for that uh you know you weren'tpaying attention necessarily but you got to see them it bled into you some way talk to me about how much you found those records for the built to spill and the uh they were in a dollar sothey were a dollar yeah and i couldn't believe it like because i didn't i wasn't acclimated with either of those bands and then after i listened to them i was like holy cow this is fantastic takeme through that you you go home you put wowie zowie on which is well no that actually that was slanted that was slanted and enchanted i bought in a dollar bin sorry i bought wowiezowie after i might have said that no that's okay um yeah so sorry uh so actually it was slanted and then i listened to that and yeah it just blew me away i thought it was yeah it would itwould and where i was going to go is wowie zowie is a little more divisive like people are either like super fans of that record or it's like third fourth or fifth you know so yeah wowiezowie is my favorite out of all the albums i think it just there's just so much going on it's just all different kind of directions and i like it.
[5:33] Take me through that a bit more um i don't know i feel like every song on an album just has like a different flavor to it so um i mean you move from i guess the beginning thebeginning of the album is you know we dance and then rattle by the rush just completely different um i don't know it's just fight this generation it's just such a i don't know it's differentstyles and then you have the spiral songs on there it's just yeah it's a great album i honestly feel like it's a record that could have been done um um.
[6:10] As like seven inches like where there's a where there's an a side and a b side like each each sort of normal for lack of a better term i'm sorry pavement fans but uh you know moretraditional three and a half minute songs are followed by you know sort of sonic bursts of ass kickery.
[6:32] And uh you know songs like fight this generation and serpentine pad and um gosh what other ones i i don't have the track listing in front of me and my mind is going blank but youknow what i mean so yeah 100 wowie what a great yeah what a great record what a great record yeah but that's always been my favorite i think of all the albums i think it's proper i thinkit's properly rated For me, it's a three, and I think that's proper, but that's me. That's my list.
You did your top 20 lists, and that's how you landed here.
So you go and see them at the Matador 10th. Yeah.
Did you happen to go to the 2010 Central Park shows?
I did, and I actually had tickets to the Las Vegas Matador 20th where they were playing. Oh, my God, the catastrophe show.
Yeah but i actually sold my tickets in in retrospect i guess that was a good thing um but yeah i went to all four central park shows that year in 2010 you son of a bitch yeah i rememberbecause we bought the tickets a year in advance and yeah i bought them the night my daughter was born oh wow like uh i bought them the night she was born she was born at 11 o'clockand i think they went on sale at like.
[7:53] Five o'clock in the afternoon or something like that like something weird maybe it was yeah that time was one o'clock or something i i don't know but uh it was it was something likethat and yeah i bought them and then i had to wait an entire year i think it was the same of the last shows too right and they were they went on sale good good uh time ahead of the otherconcerts uh the this past run um because i saw him at king's theater when he came back last last year or the year before i guess okay yeah it's been they've been on the road for a long timenow yeah yeah i also went to barcelona saw them when they came back at that primavera sound show so i was in porto oh you were okay that's yeah yeah because i uh did you buy thetickets way in advance and then have to wait through the pandemic like me three years right yeah it was almost three years in advance so like i i sat on those tickets and then i followedthem in the uk last year as well Oh, I went and saw all the UK shows.
I saw three of the four London shows and all but one show in the UK. Fuck.
What was your favorite show? Do you have a memorable one?
You know what? At the Fonda.
[9:10] I went to the Fonda in LA to see their warm-up show before they went to Porto and Barcelona.
Oh, cool. primavera sound shows they did a they did like a a date at the fonda theater in la and it was.
[9:25] The anticipation i had because prior to that i had seen them in central park so it had been 10 years since i had seen them 10 or 11 years since i had seen them 12 years i guess um andand.
[9:41] They were pulling out all the stops. You know, they've got that big, they've got the big video board behind them. You know, they've got a better light show this time out.
Uh, they rehearsed a buttload of songs and their set lists were sprawling and amazing.
And, you know, unique almost every night. Bob did such a great job.
Uh, you know, that show was just out of this world. Oh, that's fantastic.
Yeah. What do you think of the shows, if you compared them from the 2010 shows to the later shows in 2020?
[10:15] Well, I don't know how much you remember about your Matador show.
My guess is that's sort of my experience with the Central Park shows. I was just euphoric.
I almost didn't absorb what was happening.
I love New York City. to be in central park seeing my favorite band play with that sparse setup with those lights behind them you know those stringed lights behind them yeah um it wasso sparse and loose and jangly and uh it just didn't seem like they were having a ton of fun that was my only that was my only sort of down to the whole thing whereas on this leg like thisyou know this last couple couple years it really seems like they're enjoying themselves like by and large yeah i felt like that too um i felt like the last show i saw at where was it atbrooklyn steel i felt like you went to steel shows too i went to those two and i felt like the last show they kind of started it felt like they were running out of steam but i guess it was the endof the whole run so like all the other shows are great yeah that was a little and i was like i feel like i don't know maybe it's, time to give it a little more time time off or something.
[11:35] So you went to all four? I went to not all four Brooklyn Steel.
I think I went to three of them. Damn.
Are you going to go to South America? I am not going to South America.
I wish I was, but no, I'm not. Yeah, I was talking to Spiral a couple episodes ago, and he was like, so are you going to come down?
And I was like, because I did that UK thing, maybe they think I made a money now.
I don't know. know but but that was definitely done you know it was like a bucket list trip yeah um so you know what i feel like spiral like i went to see preston school of industry whenthey opened for the tears like mercury lounge like a long time ago and i thought they were great and then i saw a spiral a few years ago uh when he came to new york and there maybe waslike 20 people in the audience and i thought the music was so good that like he should just i don't know i feel like he doesn't get to do as a solo artist sometimes and it really annoys me.
I'm with you 110%. That last record, Medley Attack, was really, really good.
[12:43] It would be like being in a band with Paul McCartney or John Lennon.
You could be George Harrison but you're going to get.
[12:56] Dribbles and drabbles rather than the big chunk of steak that those guys get, right?
Mm-hmm. Yeah, no, but I really enjoy his stuff, yeah.
Yeah, me too. Okay, so Bright in the Corners was the first record that you were sort of cognizant of the band for.
Then you went, you got slanted, you listened to that.
Were you up to date by the time Terror of Twilight came out?
I was, yeah. By the time, I believe I was, yeah.
Terror Twilight, I think, yeah, I'm pretty sure I was up to date by that point, yeah.
I can't remember exactly when Terror Twilight came out now, I'm trying to remember.
99. Yeah, then I was up to date, yeah.
So you got that one in real time. Yeah, yeah.
I remember because when Terror Twilight came out, I actually had bought a Terror Twilight poster off of eBay with all the band's signatures.
Signatures and it was one of the one of the from matador it was like a promo someone won and i think they sold it on ebay and i bought it and i had it in my closet for years and i had aleak and it destroyed the poster and i was so upset oh my fuck that's terrible news yeah yeah, oh you should have had that baby framed i know i know i was uh poor traveling.
[14:20] Into chintz and running around trying to um but yeah oh we've all made those kind of mistakes yeah that's too bad it's too bad that you have to suffer though as a result.
[14:31] But i really like that that album as well i mean i don't think they have a bad album that they've ever put out so i mean it would be nice to hear another one but i don't know if we'llget uh yeah i asked spiral about that when i talked to him and he seemed like sort of okay with the idea of them doing new music i don't know how i feel i think five records a couple greateps one masterpiece ep uh some seven inches and a 10 inch and you know like in in a 10 year span they put out a lot of material and a lot of it like you said is really good for this for thisthis podcast we got over 120 songs no not over 120 it was 100 it was 121 uh i believe is the final number 121 or 120 songs like different songs were chosen i don't know how big thecatalog is i'm gonna guess maybe 200 songs 175 so that means almost you know two-thirds of the catalog log got a vote in this fucking thing that's crazy town yeah that's great i mean butwhen you look back at it you're like oh that totally makes sense so yeah there's not much filler no there's really not and uh but even on the remasters are the.
[15:58] The ones that came out like you you can all the b sides and everything that.
[16:02] Came out i remember back in the day you had to find them on like like LimeWire or some kind of weird service, and now they're all available.
[16:10] So it's nice to hear that. And they're coming out with a 7-inch box set.
Oh, really? I didn't know that. This year, yeah. That's what Spiral was saying.
So it's going to be a collection of all the 7-inches.
Wow, that's true. I don't know if they're going to re-release, like remaster Slay Tracks for that. I have no idea.
But save your pennies, Pavement fans.
[16:32] Sounds good. well it's been great talking pavement with you what do you say we get to the main course and uh reveal the track sounds good okay we'll do that right after this nowon with the countdown 46.
[19:45] So there you go. At number 46, it's the third Wowie Zowie song to chart behind Best Friend's Arm at number 49.
And Motion suggests itself at 48. Here we are at 46 with We Dance, the first track off the 2005 masterpiece Wowie Zowie.
Keith, what do you think about We Dance?
[20:16] So yeah i love i think it yeah it's a great song um i love how it leads off the album it's got like um i feel like it has this ethereal quality to it like that kind of just i don't know it seemsit just kind of dreamy sort of for me i don't know if that's how it comes off to anyone else at the beginning of the song it sort of reminds me right yeah um i read i i read it i don't don'tknow what i read into the lyrics so much but um it's tough it's the same with a solid with malchumus right like yeah it's the same with a lot of his songs but i i love the lyrics i just i can't idon't know what i'm actually reading into them i think they're notebook songs and you know there's phrases here and there that you know mean things but contextually when you put themtogether it doesn't like run a narrative if that makes sense no that's totally true yeah Yeah.
And, you know, this song right off the bat with no castration fear in a chair.
Like, what in the Christ is he talking about?
I think I sang that part wrong for a number of years. Oh, what was the lyric you sang?
I don't know. I think in here. For a while, I didn't know it was in a chair.
I just sang it somewhere else.
[21:35] It always reminds me of, do you ever hear that Bowie song, Letter to the Mariani?
Rainy uh it always reminds me of that kind of quality at the beginning of it it's like this i feel like alone right i don't know that's what it always reminds me of, interesting yeah it's alwayslike the way it starts out i don't know it's that's how i always think of it maybe i just listen to them i might have listened to them around the same time and it just kind of caught on um andit reminds me of like a time in my life also because i remember when i was listening to the album and the people i was around and and just i guess all music does that, but that's kind ofalso the feeling it gives me.
[22:15] Yeah. I was listening to it today on The Good Cans, and I had it pretty cranked.
And I don't know that I've ever heard in the left channel, really low in the mix, it sounds like a fucking bong.
It sounds like somebody's drawing bong hits.
Like I hear like a bubbling sound, like that you would hit, you know, before you pull the chamber.
Yeah. um or before you pull the whatever it's fucking called the carb you know uh yeah.
[22:48] Uh yeah i don't know if anybody else has heard that or or whether it's the joint that i smoked that's making me hear that i i don't know but i heard it so if you want to tell me i'mcrazy or i'm damn straight right send me an email jd at medium alchemist.com would love to hear from you yeah i think you better listen i want to check that out now yeah you got it yeahyou got to hear it so musically westy's pretty soft-handed in this song right like uh there's a lot of restraint on the drums um and you know it makes it makes sense it's a lower tempo songuh really doesn't do a great job of setting the table for the record uh and i don't mean that in a a disparaging kind of way because i don't know what kind of song you could put as your firstsong that would set the table for the record that would leave the listener going oh yeah that's what this record is going to be because this record is so diverse well yeah that's for me that'swhy i like how it starts off that way um i just i like the just the juxtaposition between the song that follows so i don't know i kind of always liked it the way it started yeah um Um, yeah,that's a good song.
[24:06] So where do you think it, where do you think it, uh, it lands on the scale?
It comes in at number 46. Is it properly rated?
Should it be rated higher? Should it be rated lower? Uh, like, what do you think?
I think that's, it could be a little higher maybe. Yeah.
I'm thinking, um, I'm trying to think how many albums, how many songs.
I could see it being maybe around 40 39 somewhere around there but yeah okay but it's not too far off so it cracks your top 40 absolutely yeah yeah okay that makes sense i dig it um doyou have anything you want to plug or is there anywhere that people can find uh any of your work that that you want to share or anything like that? Not at the moment. No.
[24:59] I don't really have anything to plug. I wish I did. That's cool. That's cool.
Well, it's been great to have you here. I thank you very much.
Thank you for having me. I really appreciate it. Yeah. No, thanks.
Thanks for being here. Wash your goddamn hands.
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