Customer Reviews

Quarantine the Past: The Best of Pavement

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I guess Pavement fans have always been different. Maybe not the most social and certainly not the most mainstream people. Lovers of good alternative music but not necessarily sharing a need to show this to the outside world. They were called slackers, and were not wearing the designer clothing but also not wearing the metal spikes. They could easily have worked in an office or library and were never a "threat to society".

Pavement played a big role in my teenage years. My first introduction to the band was in 1994 with the single `Cut Your Hair' and album "Crooked Rain Crooked Rain". CRCR to this day remains my favorite. It still has the lo-fi wackiness of "Slanted & Enchanted" but already showed glimpses of finely tuned songs on later albums. In my case it is the same as with many other fans, the first Pavement album you heard is your favorite and will carve out a part in your personal history.

I didn't know a lot of Pavement fans in high school, in fact I didn't really know anyone who shared my taste in music, apart from the friends who I introduced it to. But I didn't care, it was good to have something you love just for yourself sometimes.

Pavement didn't seem to care about how songs should be played or written. CRCR didn't really start like `Nevermind' or `Highway 61' did. You were lured into an album that seemed to have been there for some time already. The structure of the songs was strange, the chords were strange and the two drummers were just plain weird. And the lyrics? Well, you knew they were highly intelligent but you also had no clue what Malkmus was singing about. But it seemed to work. It was how I wanted to be. Don't do a lot of things but give the world pure brilliance when you decided it was time to give it to them. And then be laconic about it.

1994 was a special year. Jon Spencer blasted away his blues riffs on `Orange', Lou Barlow showed his genius on Sebadoh's "Bakesale" and former bandmate J Mascis sped up a chorus like I had never heard before on Dinosaur's `Feel the Pain'. Shellac's "At Action Park" let me hear how music could also be made and Weezer's first album I played endlessly walking to school. It might be because 94 was such a special year for me that all these albums still rank amongst my favorites. All are still around 16 years later as well and still making worthwhile music. All apart from Pavement. After 3 more albums the disbanded.

But yay! The slacker, early 30's generation, finally has it's equivalent of Led Zeppelin reunion. Pavement are now on a comeback tour of sorts and have released a compilation album called "Quarantine the past". It has the hits and a few not-so-hits but that very much show the band Pavement was. Of course there are songs you miss (personally I think `Give it a Day' should be on there). The tracklisting is just as irratic as the band's albums, and it should be. Every Pavement fan, from the early Slanted-fans to their last albums will be happy with the CD.

A great collection, made even better by the quality of the vinyl edition and the inclusion of the download. NICE!

...with anything by Pavement. Only Terror Twilight is less than a five-star album, and even that one has its moments. I can't choose a favorite Pavement album out of the first four, because I always want to pick the one I'm listening to at the time. Same deal with a favorite song. Speaking of favorite songs, here's my personal best of (chronological order; album tracks only):

1. Summer Babe (Winter Version)
2. Trigger Cut/Wounded-Kite At :17
3. In the Mouth a Desert
4. Conduit for Sale!
5. Loretta's Scars
6. Here
7. Silence Kit
8. Elevate Me Later
9. Stop Breathin'
10. Cut Your Hair
11. Fillmore Jive
12. We Dance
13. AT & T
14. Flux = Rad
15. Kennel District
16. Pueblo
17. Half a Canyon
18. Stereo
19. Shady Lane/J vs. S
20. Date w/IKEA
21. Fin
22. Spit on a Stranger

As for this compilation, if you're new to this band, go ahead and get it. Be prepared to then acquire the group's entire catalog, if you don't have it already. Highly addictive.

This is a darn good set of quirky alterna-pop from the for-now-reunited 90's underground DIY darlings, Pavement. Of course, I have the proper releases (and expanded re-releases), but with my completists' mentality, I had to invest in this one, too.

Easy to sum this one up: If you aren't a Pavement freak, or are just curious about the band, this is a great place to start. If you're a Pavement freak and are anything of a completist, then you have to have this one as well.

The winners in all this? Pavement, of course. If novices & freaks alike are buying this one, then they stand to rake in a pretty penny, right?

Oh well . . . hard to bitch too much. If I wanted what these guys are enjoying, I should've practiced my guitar a little more.

Bottom line: Buy this one too. I know, I know . . . but the songs were hand-picked by the band, they've been remastered, and they sound great in the car. And best of all, the price is right. Especially if you're willing to go the amazon marketplace route. So quit stalling and just do it, OK?

Things to consider:
1) "Best of" albums are--generally speaking--for housewives, tourists and homebound adolescents.
2) Most great bands are ill-served by the average greatest hits collection.
3) Pavement made three jaw-droppingly amazing albums, and two that are merely excellent.
4) This album is arbitrarily, carelessly, and haphazardly sequenced.
5) Many fantastic EP, compilation and B-side tracks--like "Texas Never Whispers," "Greenlander," and countless others--deserve to be represented here but are not; this is unfortunate but unavoidable.
6) Many great album tracks, from "Chesley's Little Wrists" and "Stop Breathin'" to "Father to a Sister of Thought" and "Carrot Rope," are not found here; see point number 5.
7) There are 23 excellent Pavement songs on this collection.
8) If you buy this album, never having heard Pavement before, there is still a 94% chance that you will go on to buy all of the Pavement albums and to form your own distinct opinions about what should--and shouldn't--be included here.
9) You will enjoy this album, as long as you keep in mind point number 7.

With hindsight it was no great surprise that when Damon Albarn tired of the rat race that had become Britpop he turned his focus to Pavement possibly the greatest American band (along with Wilco) of the past 20 years. The subsequent album "Blur" did indeed caused significant tensions between one time friends Albarn and the creative genius behind Pavement, rocks answer to Einstein, Stephen Malkmus. No need to recount the feud here suffice it to say that I would give up every Blur album I own if it came down to a straight choice to retaining any one of the following three Pavement albums namely "Brighten the Corners", "Slanted & Enchanted" or "Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain" by Pavement.

Why is such an endearingly shambolic band so loved? After all some of their incoherent performances were legendary and generated such antagonism that they were often booed off stage. Indeed at one time they revelled in the self appointed label of "The Band That Ruined Lollapallooza" as a result of a particularly anarchic performance. It was because of this that they were often dubbed the American "Wire" or more precisely the American "Fall"/ These are comparisons that in this reviewers eyes can only be viewed as wonderful compliments to reputation of an already great band and you will do no wrong checking out Pavements cover of Mark E Smith's "The Classicist".

"Quarantine of the past" is a thorough if rather badly sequenced "best of" (what do you expect?) and contains enough delights to keep both old and new Pavement fans roundly satisfied. Yes there are curious omissions, not least of the truly brilliant "Pueblo" and "We Dance" from "Wowee Zowee, "Major Leagues" and "Carrot Rope" from the admittedly flawed "Terror Twilight" and that Pavement perennial and great lo fi anthem "Zurich is Stained" from Slanted. It does contain however Pavements greatest hits (oh the irony) which include "Summer babe (winter version)", Trigger Cut/Wounded kite at 17" "Cut your hair" "Here" "Stereo" and everyone's favourite "Range life" with the Malkmus showing yet again that he is best lyricist this side of Morrissey. Who else could have got away in "Stereo" with "Well focus on the quasar in the mist / The Kaiser has a cyst / And I'm a blank want list"

Clearly for this "best of" the albums compliers this must have been a terrifying task. Pavement fans are Obsessive Compulsive Disorder types of the most extreme kind (Yes your honour I too am guilty) and there is no substitute for the owning the three albums a highlighted above. Pavement never sought the big time, no great archive of MTV videos exists and on times they were truly dire. Yet like Television or the Velvets their influence is enduring and persuasive and can be heard in REM, Nirvana, Blur and Grizzly Bear et al. Never has such a shambolic and awkward band cast such a giant shadow.

Can't post my review from [...] because it refers readers to earlier reviews of Wowee Zowee, Brighten the Corners and Stephen Malkmus' Pig Lib, all GREAT albums. But this CD is noteworthy to Pavement fans because 1) the remastered tracks are well done and are yet another step to improving the sound quality of your digital library; 2) while tracks are, yes, out of order (big deal), there are some curious selections (apparantly made by Pavement themselves), which makes it more of a "Songs The Band Wants You To Remember" release; and finally, 3)I am just completely psyched that the band will tour this year. Last saw them in 19-dickety-doo (like, 1994ish in Asheville, NC) and they were a tight band.

Not much of a review, because there is nothing all that new here. Love the band, great new remastered versions of an eclectic selection of Pavement tunes. Fans should suck it up and buy it. Newcomers to the band should start from scratch in order to appreciate the band's evolution in sound and style.

Pavement was the last important band. This collection is pretty strong - how could it NOT be? It inspired me to put my own comp together & I wound up only replacing 4 cuts with 5 of my own. Also, I put it in chron order - the QTP order makes no sense. Here, IMHO is the ultimate Pavement mix:
Box Elder
Mellow Jazz Docent
Debris Slide
Summer Babe
Trigger Cut
In the Mouth a Desert
Here
Frontwards
Shoot the Singer
Silence Kid
Cut Your Hair
Unfair
Gold Soundz
Rattled by the Rush
Grounded
Father to a Sister of Thought
Fight This Generation
Stereo
Shady Lane
Date w/ IKEA
Embassy Row
Spit on a Stranger
Major Leagues
Carrot Rope

There are about five good tracks on this album, and five might be an overstatement. But the couple of songs I wanted here were worth it for the ten bucks. The statement they are trying to make about Quarantining the past is something that just about every civilization in history has ever tried to do at some point or another in some fashion, usually leads to an abrupt downfall, especially when the Bible is taken out of the picture.

If you are an foreign customer (non US) dont by this.
Mine were never deliverd and the only avalible action on Amazon.com is to return the item.