MMT50 - 234

Meeting Malkmus - a Pavement podcast

This week on the program, Alex from Portland talks about his Pavement Origin story with jD before they gab about song 34!

Transcript:

Track 1

[1:00] It's Half a Canyon. Ryan, from Soundtrack Your Life, what are your initial thoughts about this song?

It's a great song. I really like this song.

For some reason, for a long time, I thought this was the last song on Wowie Zowie.

It kind of has that epic, you know? Yeah, it has that epic finale,

you know, with how it ends and just this big jam of chaos.

Hey, this is Westy from the Rock.

Track 3

[1:33] Roll Band, Pavement, and you're listening to The Countdown.

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 countdown the 50 essential pavement tracks that

you selected with your very own Top 20 ballads.

I then tabulated the results using an abacus and a pool cue I broke over my knee in a moment of rage.

How will your favorite song fare in the ranking? You'll need to tune in to find out. So there's that.

This week we're joined by Pavement superfan Alex from Portland.

Alex, how you doing, motherfucker? Fucking great, JD. How are you?

Oh, man, I am stellar right now. I am feeling good. Yeah.

How about you? Feeling good myself. I apologize if my vocal cords crack.

I decided to sing karaoke last night. Oh, nice.

Yeah. What'd you sing?

Rocks Off by the Rolling Stones.

Oh, wow. I went really, really hard in my Jagger mode, too.

So if I sound like a mid-pubescent boy, that's why.

Track 3

[2:50] That's great. Well, what do you say we talk about pavement? I'm so ready.

All right. Hit me with your pavement origin story.

It goes like this. So I am a millennial. I was born in 1990.

So when they were doing their initial, when they were an active band recording

music and touring originally, I was way too young to be a part of it or even know about it.

But how I came to Pavement is, I was 15. This would have been 2005.

We had a local coffee shop where I'm from, a small town in Indiana.

And you would walk down there on a given night, and there would be live music.

It was usually acoustic bands.

And we were there, me and a couple friends of mine.

And we're watching this like i don't

know kind of like weird sort of indie

band they were acoustic but they were still kind of like doing

heavier stuff and they were catchy and interesting and weird

and the lyrics didn't really make any sense and i

was fascinated like at 15 years old the shit was blowing my mind and i was like

hell yeah dude this band's great and i look over and we see Matt the cool kid

and Matt's like this mysterious kind of you know all the boys want to be him

all the girls want to be with him he's shout out to Matt that kid was just the coolest kid in our town.

Track 3

[4:17] And I remember going up to Matt after the show and

saying like man that band we just watched was really

cool and he he takes like you know a probably a

five second drag of a cigarette just goes they're just

ripping off pavement man oh wow

and i uh i had never i didn't know

who that was but of course i'm trying to be cool for cool matt so

i'm like yeah dude totally totally ripping off

pavement yeah they're they're way better so i

i rushed home i open up lime wire

of course yeah i've been pavement into

the search bar and and by the way i did want to

uh i wanted to reiterate something i wrote into

you when you were doing your old show uh in

2005 if you opened up you know

a peer-to-peer illegal downloading app

uh and you typed in pavement harness your

hopes was by far the top thing

that would come up really even on limewire even back then it wasn't even close

like it was harness your hopes with however many thousands or hundreds of thousands

of downloads And then I think cut your hair was like number two,

but it was down by quite a margin.

That's wild. So harness your hopes has been the fan favorite for a lot longer

than people have noticed.

Track 3

[5:37] I wonder if that's because people were looking, you know, if they're looking

for pavement, like the idea of a B-side is so savory, you know,

and B-sides weren't always easy to get.

Yeah it's it might just be their

like you know undisputed best song and everyone

just knows it or something i don't know but i heard

it and i just i walked away with two thoughts after listening to that which

is one this doesn't actually sound anything like that band i just heard at the

coffee shop and number two this is definitely my new favorite band the the word

blew my mind the The guitars were kind of jangly,

but also kind of grungy, which like jangle pop and grunge are pretty much my whole wheelhouse.

And they sort of combined them seamlessly into one thing. And I'm like, yeah, dude, I'm all in.

And from then on, they've, you know, my favorite bands shift,

but they've been in the top five ever since. Wow.

Track 3

[6:36] So when you when you finally decided to jump away from LimeWire and purchase

your first record, what was the CD or cassette?

What was it? What did you end up with out of the shoot? dude?

Oh, wowie zowie. That was the one that I was just like, my favorite,

you know, my favorite record is definitely wowie zowie.

So when I had the chance to purchase it, I had the vinyl.

I used to have a picture, but I was wearing, I was wearing a shirt of a band that's now canceled.

So I deleted the picture off social media, but I had a picture of me holding

up the smooth blank fourth side of that record yes if you know that record is

uh it's it's two and a half side wow.

Track 3

[7:23] Or three sides yeah yeah yeah you know

what i'm saying it's it's a record and a half yeah absolutely

it's yeah yeah i was

so fascinated by that and uh yeah i i'm i'm now a completist i've got all the

i've got all the reissues i've got all the you know lux and redux and and all

that basically everything that i could get my hands on and yeah i'm the same

i'm the same every Every time I come up with something new,

it's like, man, and we're recording this,

you know, uh, in February right now.

So we've heard of this seven inch box set coming out, but we don't know what

it is, uh, and what it will entail.

I'm very curious about it, if it's going to be a must purchase or not.

I mean, it's going to be just because I'm a completist. Even if it's not my

favorite or whatever, Terror of Twilight is my least favorite pavement album,

but you better believe I bought that thing when it came out a couple of years ago.

Yeah. Well, we waited so goddamn long for that.

Track 3

[8:31] So they really over-delivered, I thought. I thought we waited a long time for

it, but it was completely worth the wait once I put the records on my turntable.

And so, you know what else I waited a long time for and finally got in,

I think it was September of 2022, was I got to see them live for the first time.

Oh, I was just going to ask you about shows. September 2022.

So where was the venue? In Portland. Well, in Troutdale, which is like northeast

of Portland, but they have a venue out there that was big enough to kind of

suit the size of the show.

Gorilla Toss opened for them. I'm a pretty big fan of them.

We're in their like hyper pop era, which is really fun.

I think I saw them on the road with Gorilla Toss as well.

I think I'll have to ask Tim from Portland because he's got a way better memory

than me, but we saw them in Toronto.

Track 3

[9:29] And I'm pretty sure Gorilla Toss was one of the opening bands and I enjoyed it.

Yeah, yeah, I had a blast at that show. Also, one little funny tidbit,

when they played Rangelife,

Malkma found a way to work in All Cops Are Bastards into the Run From the Pigs,

the Fuzz, the Cops, the Heat.

He somehow worked that lyric into there, and the crowd went absolutely apeshit.

That was the most excited the crowd got on it. He definitely knew he was playing

to a Portland crowd. It was really neat.

That is cool. Cool. Well, I mean, he's a transplant now, right?

He's part Portlander at this point.

He's been here a lot longer than I have. Yeah.

Also, I wanted to mention another cool thing that happened much more recently,

about a month ago on my birthday, actually.

Dinosaur Jr. played Portland at the Revolution Hall.

All and what i don't know if you've been following their tour or not or if you're

even a fan um i didn't catch the band sorry dinosaur jr oh okay yeah dinosaur

yeah yeah yeah so they've been like.

Track 3

[10:48] And they've been getting like a local musician from whatever city they're playing

in to like join them for a song on stage their whole tour.

And like, I think it was I think when they were in Philly, they got Kurt Vile

to go up with them, stuff like that.

And when they were in Portland, you know, guess who the special guest was that

came out and sang a song with them.

I fucking saw that. I saw some video. Yeah. How spoiled were you that night?

It was amazing. It was like two of my favorite 90s bands getting up there and

jamming out together on one of their best songs.

And it was just a lot of fun, and I enjoyed it.

To see J and SM dueling guitars would be fucking so cool.

They're both so different, but so good, you know?

Oh, yeah. With the guitar.

Track 3

[11:45] Yeah, it was phenomenal. phenomenal also they're they're

doing uh where you've been in its entirety and that's

my favorite dinosaur album so and it

was my birthday and i was like yeah the the universe kind

of gave me this as a present like you know got

to see malchmus get up there so it was a lot of fun

dude that does sound like fun god damn it that's fun well what do you think

should we get into to track 34 i think i'm ready to get into it then let's do

this we'll be back on the other side with track 34 hey this is bob nastanovich

from pavement uh thanks for listening.

Track 1

[12:23] And now on with a countdown 34.

Track 3

[15:23] Okay, we are back. You heard it here first.

The first song from the original version of Slanted and Enchanted to appear

on the countdown, Loretta Scars.

Alex from Portland, how are you feeling about Loretta Scars?

It's a great song. I've got all kinds of thoughts on it, but,

you know, it's on Slanted and Enchanted, which is a great album.

It's slanted and enchanted is the least uh varied album in my opinion like,

most of the songs on it are kind of of one vibe and this is definitely no exception

um i think it's a great vibe i i enjoy it but uh yeah um i guess if i can start.

Track 3

[16:14] Out the gate with With my only really negative take on it. Sure.

It kind of feels like. Like the meme of like. Hey mom can we stop for summer

babe. No we have summer babe at home. And it's this.

Track 3

[16:30] They're different chords. But they're played in the exact same structure.

And the drum beats the same. It's that classic Gary Young. Boom boom.

You know. Kind of thing. But it's still a great song. I'm definitely not shitting

on it at all, and I'm ready to say all good things from here on out.

I just figured I would get that out first.

Well, hit me. Hit me with some good stuff. Hit me with your best shot, Pat Benatar.

So, when you... Okay, how do I put this?

When you're listening to the bulk of the lyrics are just, how can I,

how can I, how can I make my body shed for you? you body shed around your little scars.

If you're listening to the how can I, how can I part, it sounds like he's like

drunk or something, like he's slurring it, like he's not keeping up with the rhythm.

Yeah. So just earlier today as a fun little exercise, what I tried to do was

sing it myself in a way that would fit the meter and it's impossible.

Really? Yeah, you can't do it. There's no way. I don't know if it's because

How Can I is three beats and the song's in 4-4, but for whatever reason,

you can't really make it go with the beat.

And yet, when it gets to...

Track 3

[17:52] Make my body when he comes in on body it's

always perfectly on beat again even though he like every time he does it it

gets a little bit slower and more drawn out kind of drunker sounding uh he nails

it every time so i i really respect the way that the words are delivered from a standpoint of

like this shouldn't work but it

does right yeah i

can i can see that it's very sparse lyrically very

sparse lyrically it's funny because uh

like one of the things i love about malchmus and

it's the same thing i loved about david berman same thing

i love about bob dylan dan behar sometimes neil

young and joni mitchell is like you'll be listening to

a song and you're so like emotionally invested and

you feel the power of it and it's such

a great song and then you're singing along and you stop and you're like

i don't know what the fuck i'm singing about right now at all and that that's

most if not all malchus lyrics but yeah i would agree with that but this one

i'm like you know and i i even did the thing where i went to genius just to see what they would have.

Track 3

[19:08] To say and uh you know it's

just i think it's one paragraph that someone

wrote in that just says like the narrator clearly doesn't know how to help the

person named loretta and it's like okay thanks for the information yeah that's

really gets us nowhere but that but that's all you're gonna get you're gonna

get nowhere if you like i gave up a long time ago trying to like.

Track 3

[19:33] Grab any serious meaning from a lot of Pavement's catalog, if not all of it.

Maybe Grounded is like, you know, doctors are these rich assholes that don't

give a shit about people.

You can grab that from Grounded, but most Pavement songs don't really...

I don't think they have a meaning. I don't think that's the point.

Track 3

[19:56] Yeah, I think there's bits and phrases that you can glean something from,

you know, thematically in a song.

But few and far between is there like a narrative, which was so different when

he released his first solo record.

And all those songs had like total narratives, like protagonist,

beginning, middle, end.

And like, there's so many songs on SM's debut that showcase that he's not just

somebody who's just throwing phrases at a wall, but he's really got it.

So I don't know, you know, like he told me when I spoke to him that he can compartmentalize

Pavement and his solo stuff.

Track 3

[20:40] But there's, to me, there's a little bit of bleed. There's a little bit of bleed on some songs.

And I, of course I don't have them in top of my mind right now,

but, uh, I tend to agree with you, but I think that there are some that,

you know, yeah, no, for sure.

And, and I'm, I'm just, of course I'm overgeneralizing, but like,

so you're thinking about Loretta scars though.

Like that's the, that's the song we're talking about right now. And I mean, I,

I, I don't have, I don't know what your thoughts are

on what the lyrics could possibly mean but i've gotten nothing yeah well what

is the deal with metal scars at one point he says metal scars how can i shed

around your metal scars like is this a robot is this like what the fuck man

well if it's a robot it's probably not loretta lynn.

Track 3

[21:32] Oh right yeah only only loretta i know of so yeah it's a not a common name.

Track 3

[21:39] Or cleveland's ex-wife from family guy

i never watched family guy so you're

you're better you're much better off for it

what else

have you got on loretta scars i anything much

else i mean it's a tough this is a tough ask it

there's literally six lines you

know and then they're repeated it i like how you broke down

the music though there's about three chords

for most of it there's the gary drum beat

that he does on summer babe um we could

talk about gary's drumming though for a minute because i i understand me too

i don't i like and this has been said a million times by a million people including

people on your podcast um but you know westy is probably the more like.

Track 3

[22:33] Technically proficient and varied drummer

but gary's got this like

certain style of playing this

swag this kind of like vibe that he creates with

the way he hits the drums and it doesn't

sound like anyone else and i really appreciate that

for what it is and you can tell gary's song right

away yeah you're right you can tell a gary song right away oh

yeah and this this is a great it like

this would be a good song to demonstrate that point if i was going to play a

song for someone and be like this is gary young drumming you know yeah this

would be the one you would choose it would be it would it would be close i mean

like i said there it's the same drums on summer babe and then you've got uh.

Track 3

[23:22] What's the, what's the song after a flamethrower where it's only one like line

that he says over and over again?

I can't remember the name of the song. Yeah, me neither.

But that song is basically the same drum pattern.

So whoever's going to be listening to your podcast is going to scream at the

phone, whatever the name of that is.

And good for them. I do that too.

But, uh, yeah, no, it's, it's a good.

It's a good example of that Gary Young drum sound, and I'm not a musician,

so I can't explain it in technical terms, but because I am like a diehard music

obsessive, I know when I hear it and I know when I don't.

Gotcha. And you like it. I love it. Yeah.

I love it. I mean, I don't know if there's like a bad pavement song,

even their like fuck around, throw away B-sides are usually funny.

Track 3

[24:18] Agreed yeah i i totally agree with you you know uh there's a lot of a lot of

good stuff on the b-sides my question my next question for you though is where

does this song fit in the top 50 is it rated properly should it have been higher

should it have been lower what do you think yeah Yeah,

because I only know what like 47 through 50 are,

it's difficult for me to like, it would be so much easier for me to come up

with my own top 50 if I knew if I could like argue yours, you know? Right.

But yeah, just as far as it being fairly rated, no.

Track 3

[25:01] Yeah because i don't even know if it makes my top five

on slanted but but it's

also a great song so agree yeah

so would i put it in

the top 25 no but what i put it in the

top 50 yes so 33 sounds about

right sounds about right yeah that's what i think it's

a top it's a top 40 song because it's from

that debut record you know uh which

turned so many of us on to pavement

not me because i came so late to

the party and you you came late to the party but those

cool fucking mark kids matt it

was matt you said right yeah yeah his

his his cohort you know we're probably

into slanted like you know not him specifically but his cohort we're listening

to slanted you know when it dropped and reading zines and whatnot every every

like town every city has got at least one of those mats and probably some of them are named mark and,

yeah yeah they're they're always going to be a little bit cooler than you and

uh when you're a teenager i think you need that that's like your north star

you know and then you sort of use that as a branch to find your own way and

pave your own path and uh i'm grateful i'm grateful I'm grateful for that kid,

and I'm grateful for his little comment that made me go search out Pavement

and fall in love right away. Really cool origin story.

Track 3

[26:30] Well, that's what I've got, so I'm not sure if there's anything else you want

to say or if there's anything you want to plug.

Track 3

[26:39] Well, premature plug, but I don't know when you're releasing this,

so maybe it will be out by then.

I am starting my own podcast. It's going to be a music-obsessive deep dive,

and I'm going to attempt to connect a bunch of dots between bands.

Track 3

[26:58] Themes, record labels, the culture around it, tracing back from 60s stuff until.

Track 3

[27:05] Now, 90s, everything in between.

Uh it's gonna be sort of

like the charlie day meme where he's got

you know the he's in like the post office basement he's

going through his whole conspiracy with that's right all the

string and shit it's it's gonna be like a music

version of that so if you're

yeah if you're a music obsessive

like me and you think i'm funny

or crazy or interesting then yeah uh i'll have

jd plug this when it's ready

to go cool awesome if you don't mind of course i just volunteered you to plug

my show at some point absolutely well alex totally all right brother well that's

what i've got and that's what alex from portland has so we thank you for tuning

in and wash your goddamn hands.

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