My Favorite Pavement B-sides
Pavement has reissued their first 4 albums with a bunch of demos and b-sides rthroughout the years. Here are a few of my favorites from each. |
| 1 |  | Pavement
Slanted and Enchanted
"Baptist Blacktick"
With it's fast tempo, ever present snare roll, wacked out vocals, and even it's own little bulid-
up and release all in a little over 2 minutes, this song showcases everything I love about
Slanted & Enchanted. |
| 2 | | Pavement
Slanted and Enchanted
"My First Mine"
Chugging guitar lines, speaking/group chourus, and a synth/guitar solo that leads back right
into the chorus, this song is one of the more left field b-sides, but with a conventional
structure. |
| 3 | | Pavement
Slanted and Enchanted
"Shoot the Singer (1 Sick Verse)"
Sounds like a perfect transitional song between "Slanted" and "Crooked Rain". Has the softer
melodramatic tone of "Crooked", but with a lead guitar line and yelling vocals that are
reminiscent of "Slanted". |
| 4 |  | Pavement
Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain
"Kneeling Bus"
This instrumental ditty sounds like it could have been somewhere on "Wowee Zowee". Sounds
Beatles-esque with it's ascending synth line, fuzzy yet bright sounding guitar & just a simple
snare hit for percussion. |
| 5 | | Pavement
Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain
"Haunt You Down"
Droning bass line, stumbling percussion, ever smooth guitar, and quirky sounding synth
throughout. The song builds up and then deconstructs itself, only to build back up even bigger
than before, before finally ending with them jamming out the main bass groove until even that
falls apart. |
| 6 | | Pavement
Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain
"5-4 Vocal"
This takes the instrumental track off of "Crooked", "5-4 = Unity", and adds Stephen Malkmus'
insane screeching vocals talking about "the Dutchman's shout" atop this, along with another
guitar line that was cut out on the original version. |
| 7 |  | Pavement
Wowee Zowee
"Gangsters & Pranksters"
This song is another transitional song, however between "Wowee Zowee" and "Brighten the
Corners". It has more of the mellow-yet-upbeat guitar grooving of "Brighten" but with this
high-pitched, jarring synth that permeates the whole thing like seen on "Wowee". |
| 8 | | Pavement
Wowee Zowee
"Kris Kraft"
Weird yelling, Captain Beefheart-like vocals from Malkmus, this odd sounding guitar line, and
overall a sloppy experimental song, it reminds me of "Wowee Zowee" in all the right ways. |
| 9 | | Pavement
Wowee Zowee
"Easily Fooled"
A track they tried 3 times within the b-sides of this album, it features this country twang on
the guitar, and a usual shuffling beat from the rhythm section here. |
| 10 |  | Pavement
Brighten the Corners
"Cherry Area"
Has the negative/depressing sounding lyrics as was all over "Brighten", but with another
stumbling drum line that sounds akin to their older days. |
| 11 | | Pavement
Brighten the Corners
"Wanna Mess You Around"
Has this insanely fast beat, with Malkmus screaming over the whole track, something you
didn't find so often on "Brighten". Definitely a highlight within these b-sides. |
| 12 | | Pavement
Brighten the Corners
"Birds in the Majic Industry"
Has this Ska/Television-esque guitar line that breaks off into little instrumental tangents, very
much like what you hear on "Brighten". Freewheeling-like but with conventional styling. |
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