Pavement's "Kennel District"

Been listening to a lot of Pavement lately in anticipation of seeing them at Pitchfork this year (anyone else seeing the Pavement reunion train?) and discovered this previously overlooked gem:

"Kennel District" from Wowee Zowee


I've always found Wowee Zowee to be the unfairly overlooked album in Pavement's catalog. Something about it's bizarre song fragments really appeals to me for the same reason I have an irrational love for Todd Rundgren's A Wizard A True Star album. And it's highs (Rattled by the Rush and Grounded primarily) are just so, so good. But somehow I've overlooked this song in the past, and I am the worse for it.

I love the combination of My Bloody Valentine-esque guitar with (dare I say) almost Wilco-style poppiness. It sounds very un-Pavement to me, but is just fantastic, and helpd remind me why this band still holds up, and why I can not wait to see them.

Countdown to Sonic Youth

There's a new Sonic Youth record on the way-- although it's still 3 months off. I read about this one on Pitchfork a few weeks ago (I still value their news reporting, which seems to be independent of their reviews). It's not out until June 9, but I'm still very excited.

I've been listening to a lot of the 3 most recent Sonic Youth albums-- defined by when they suddenly decided they care about melody again. Great records, all. The first two, Murray Street and Sonic Nurse, featured Jim O'Rourke as a full-on member and I sort of credited him for their renaissance. But then he left before they made their most recent record, Rather Ripped, and that one was awesome too. (Not to mention that O'Rourke was already a member on the awful NYC Ghosts and Flowers, so his contributions had been overemphasized in my mind.)

Oh and also, Thurston Moore's most recent solo album, Trees Outside the Academy, is dead-on gorgeous at times. (There are a few noise tracks in there as well, but there are 9 true pop songs that form the core of the record.)

And now former Pavement bassist Mark Ibold is in the band. I saw Pavement live once and didn't think much of anyone's instrumental prowess beyond Malkmus himself, but I'm still intrigued by this combo.

If you haven't heard any of the 3 most recent albums, you owe it to yourself. I'm attaching "Stones" from Sonic Nurse. Awesome song, goes into some jammy stuff in the middle and the end, but never into the noise freak-outs that dragged down would-be cool albums like Washing Machine. It also helps that while Thurston and Lee Ranaldo are at the top of their game, Kim Gordon is as palletteable as she's ever been. (Her songs are still the worst on their respective albums, but there's not the same compulsion to press "skip" that there might have been in the past.)

Here's "Stones"

Malkmus

Funny that Drischord mentioned the new Malkmus album as I just picked it up and was coming here to discuss. I have never listened to his solo stuff for some reason. But as of late I've been listening to a lot of Pavement, and I liked the song the AV Club included in their review, so I decided to give it a shot.

So, first things first, this is most defnitely NOT Pavement. I'm with D on that. It seems that Malkmus has really established his own thing with the Jicks now, and that thing is distinctly different from Pavement. Although his voice and guitar style is so distinct that it can't ever get 100% separated from Pavement. But purely on it's own merits I think the album is pretty fantastic. It's very jammy - there are a bunch of songs that clock in over 5 minutes (and one 10 minute one) and usually that's because the songs end in a giant rock out. So if you're looking for the tight little songs from Slanted, or the weird experiments of Wowee Zowee they're not here. What replaces them are these crazy freak out jams. Here's the first track, which is suitably odd, but then finds this great groove at the end that Ijust love. Check out the guitar stuff around the 4 minute mark that sounds more like Queens of the Stone Age then Pavement.



So this makes me curious to check out his other 3 solo albums to see if this is a new rock out style or if this is what he's been doing ever since Pavement.

Anyone else pick this up yet? Do you like it, or is it too over-indulgent, which, I'll be the first to admit, is something that defintely does not scare me away.