Pavement’s Latest Double-Disc Reissue: Rather Sweet
December 8th, 2008 by Cooper Levey-Baker in Arts, Editor's Desk, Music
If you feel even the slightest affection for the electric guitar and all the wonderful varieties of noise it can produce, you basically owe it to yourself to run out tomorrow (or log on to your computer thing-y) to purchase the latest double-disc Pavement reissue, Brighten the Corners: Nicene Creedence Ed.
Yep, Matador Records is pulling out all the stops yet again, taking Pavement’s fourth studio disc and ladling on the goodies: remastered sound, a 62-page luxe booklet, 32 bonus tracks culled from session outtakes, B-sides, radio performances and live dates. For Pavement fetishists (i.e. yours truly), picking this guy up is a no-brainer, but these two discs deserve wider renown, for the original 1997 album’s innate quality, sure, but also because all those accumulated extra songs reinforce the conclusion that this is the album where Pavement just decided to fucking shred.
Eight years after the band broke up, Pavement is still often classified as some kind of avant-noise terrorist group, the kind of band music critics love and that most listeners simply cannot stand. Reviews often compare Pavement’s LPs to work by abrasive post-punk bands such as The Fall or Wire. But while Pavement began life as a feedback-humping anti-rock band, that didn’t last beyond its early EPs, and by the time Brighten rolled around (and even earlier, but hear me out) it was clear that these guys were more pop-oriented than any critics were letting on.
The new reissue only reinforces the point. Fuck art; these guys wanted to rock.
It starts with the six-string. Guitarists Stephen Malkmus and Scott Kannberg basically offer an electric guitar tutorial over the course of these 44 tunes. On original album opener “Stereo” (video below), they play the song like they just plugged in, incorporating brief snatches of trademark-Pavement detuned guitar quirks until the song coalesces around an explosive chorus. Three tracks later (on “Date w/ IKEA”), Malkmus and Kannberg are kicking it power-pop, with floating arpeggios and Big Star crunch; three tracks after that, they support punk burner “Embassy Row” with brittle chords and wonky solos.
What this new reissue proves is that these guys’ cup runneth over during the era in question, because the bonus tracks are just packed with monster jams. “And Then (The Hexx)” was originally plotted to open Brighten, but instead got placed as a B-side (and also included, in a watered-down and retitled version, on Pavement’s fifth and final disc, Terror Twilight). Presented in its entirety for the first time here, “Hexx” builds slowly, until it becomes a raging stomper, with riffs worthy of AC/DC. Notes fly up and down the fretboard on “Westie Can Drum,” while “Roll with the Wind” features a loose, country-ish feel and air-guitar-worthy solo runs. “Wanna Mess You Around” punches things up with Minor Threat tempos and string-mangling high notes.
Underground rock fans have always known that Pavement was more than a bunch of art pranksters out to irritate everybody, but the public perception persists. Brighten the Corners: Nicene Creedence Ed. is a powerful argument that the band was not just one of the leading lights of ’90s indie rock, it was also one of the great guitar bands of all time.
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