Pavement - Wowee Zowee: Sordid Sentinels Edition

I'm going to start this out with full disclosure, Pavement is my favorite band not named the Beatles and are the greatest indie band of the alternative explosion.

There, that feels better.

So, in reviewing this large-and-in-charge special edition of Pavement's most confusing album, I must lay my biases out on the table.

Wowee Zowee is a weird album, and it's no place for a curious young Pavement fan to be alone late at night. It's full of really stupid, ahem, songs that probably had no place being put on a record.

But let's put some context on this. It was 1996 when Wowee hit shelves, and the band was fresh off their mixed-results-bid-for-stardom record Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain. The next step, as Malkmus mentions in the documentary Slow Century was to make a commercial, sell-out record.

So they made Wowee instead. It's got 18 tracks, full of oddball one-offs (Think Brinx Job), as well as a few really great Pavement tracks (Think We Dance).

A lot of record-reviewing folk refer to this as indie rock's White Album and in some ways, that is pretty accurate: Both are chock full of semi-succesful expiriments mixed in with moments of pure brilliance.

But really, I have to go to another lazy Pavement-ization to really get to the core of what makes Wowee so great. Pavement is the ultimate suburban band. Tell Rivers Cuomo and Weezer to go take a meditation break, because there isn't any band that beats Pavement on driving down Shady Lane on a blissed out Saturday afternoon. Pavement is the Pete & Pete of indie rock (Which is to also say, awesome).

It's not that Malkmus and compatriot Scott Kannberg are studied NY hipsters trying to replicate a sound either, these are flat-out suburban dudes, decked out in collared shirts and t-shirts, back from nice universities

So, back to Zowee (I burned out on calling it Wowee). If Pavement is the ultimate suburban band, this is the ultimate suburban stoner record. Most tracks have that slow burn feel of a hazy day, and well, Malkmus has pretty much said they were smoking a lot of grass during the making of the record.

So, while tracks like the melancholy sweetness of We Dance and the CR, CR toss-off Kennel District hold up pretty well, others don't. But then again, they don't have to. Put it on in the background while you're washing your car. Watch the sun sink down. Like Malkmus said, "No worry, we're in no hurry."

The extras here are lovingly preserved. There's the Schoolhouse Rock classic No More Kings and a handful of other really swell stuff that sounds pretty much like Pavement goofing off in the studio, which is to say, it sounds like Pavement.

Slanted & Enchanted's re-release was far better, though. Having Watery Domestic on disc two is a pretty big draw, and Zowee doesn't have such a big gun, but, for $14.99, it's a worthwhile purchase.

I also think Malkmus is getting a little tired of writing liner notes, since his write-up in this book is pretty disjointed, with insights like, "Recorded in Memphis." Oh. Kannberg doesn't even contribute a write-up.

But, I digress. I could fill up a blog on Pavement musings. The point here is, if you don't already own this album - the special edition is a good place to start. If you've never heard of Pavement, wait for the Brighten The Corners special edition.