PAVEMENT – WESTING (BY
MUSKET AND SEXTANT) (BIG CAT)
With my entry point to
Pavement being Wowee
Zowee this compilation felt something of a rude awakening when picked up
and sampled. These weren’t songs, they
were jams. And I did not yet know what
jams were.
For the longest time I
worked with this record, attempted to force myself to like it. I borrowed it from my local library, copied
it onto a cassette (with Green
by REM on the other side) and played it in my Ford Escort trying
desperately to uncover some hooks and/or rhythms. My friend Metal Dan
also borrowed it from the library and openly mocked me for liking the band and
I could not defend my decision based on these tracks alone.
Gradually a few songs
began to shine through (such as “Debris Slide” and “From Now On”) but on the
whole it was too meticulous and playful to intricately examine. I had barely discovered The Fall and had yet to learn that such obstinance
was permissible. Certainly when I tried
it on at home with my mother in earshot it was deemed not right. That said I had heard Guided By Voices by this stage (Alien Lanes) so short songs
were beginning to make sense to me.
This was actually the
album I listened to in the car on the night that I met my future cohorts in Gringo Records. I was driving up on my way to a Urusei Yatsura gig
at the Colchester Arts Centre
still trying to get a handle on lo-fi. Indeed during the
gig I would find myself disagreeing with Tom later of Hirameka who insisted
that Urusei sounded like the Pixies when they blatantly ransacked “Spizzle
Trunk” on their own track “Pow R. Ball”.
Westing is a
collection of the band’s first three EPs and its first single and b-sides. Offered in chronology it is Slay Tracks
(1933-1969), Demolition
Plot J-7 and Perfect Sound
Forever. Originally just Malkmus and Kannberg, Slay Tracks was recorded
while the band members lived on opposite sides of America before
the band even had its name. Gradually
drummer Gary Young
was roped in but by the release of the 10 inch Perfect Sound Forever Malkmus had left the
band to be a museum guard in Virginia where he had gone to university and met Nastanovich and David Berman of
the Silver Jews who they
initially backed and played in. Of
course finally they got back going, got back on the horse.
It begins with the
hiss of “You’re Killing Me”. This could
be the sound of a Disney snake. With
this the next track “Box Elder” expresses the desire to “get the fuck out of
this town”. From the off this was not a
normal band. And “Maybe, Maybe” gives
off the impression that it is using Coke bottles for drums.
Throughout distortion
and feedback is the rock. “She Believes”
emerges like the beginning of the Nirvana lost
track “Endless Nameless” without actually going anywhere. Indeed more than once the band gives off the
impression that they do not know how to finish a song yet. And on that note “Heckler Spray” is best
described as the sounding like the beginning of something great without
actually getting there.
As they continue to
mess around “Mercy: The Laundromat” sounds like a cack-handed drunk nursery
rhyme while “Krell Vid-User” resembles the tuning of a radio.
Towards the end we
arrive at “Summer Baby” (also known as “Summer Babe”) which is probably the
first sensible song/track the band recorded.
Sat chronological it is distinctly noticeable how the songs of the band
have developed by the end as “Baptiss Blacktick” offers the most vibrant and
lively atonement while “My First Mine” with its Fall crossed with Beefheart plod actually holds a chorus and
a hook. It sounds like “Gramme Friday”
from Grotesque. Well done.
Listening to this
collection is not an enjoyable experience.
Thesaurus moment:
jejune.
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