Charfs Blog

So I bought this CD in 1994 and I am just now getting around to writing my very first official review of it.   In the 14 years that I have owned this collection of singles, b-sides and e.p.’s from the early years of my all time favorite rock-band, I have gone from one end of the spectrum(complete garbage) to the other(pure genius).  The time it took for me to realize the songs on this CD are pure genius wasn’t exactly 14 years.  I think I realized it was pure genius sometime in 1996, maybe 1997, but since then, my love for these songs has continued to grow.  Just last week, I flipped this Album on in my ‘Zune’ player and reflected upon my love for these songs for the first time in 2008 and I decided I need to blog my opinions of each and every song on the album. 

1. “You’re Killing Me”  - Not an original favorite on the collection but now I can’t listen to any other song on this CD without listening to this song first.  In fact, I need to listen to this CD in its entirety just about any time a song on it either pops into my head or onto my ‘Zune’ player randomly when I decide to go on an all out shuffle fest.  The song starts out with just some guitar fuzz effects and then lays under the entire song.  The guitar onto of the effects is brilliantly simple with lyrics just as plain until about 2:19 into the song where Malkmus beats his guitar into submission and just goes off on an almost barely audible solo hidden behind the rhythm and fuzz effects.  As the fuzz continues to get louder the solo ends as well as the song.  The first time I heard this song, I didn’t get it.  It wasn’t until the 3rd or 4th time that I listened to this collection that I really started to understand this track.  Now I simply cannot get enough of it. 
2. “Box Elder” - I loved this song from the very first time I listened to it till now.  This was the song that kept me coming back to the entire collection to try and pick out other gems.  This song actually makes my list of top 10 Pavement songs of all of time(a blog post for another time).  It’s very ‘normal’ when it comes to a Pavement song and has some really catchy one-liners perfectly delivered by Malkmus and his patented Lou Reed like lazy slacker like voice.  In High School, College and even as recently as last week I will shout along with the following lyrics: “I’ve got allot of good things coming my way, and I’m afraid to say, that you’re not one of them” and “I’m taking the next bus outta here, I’m gonna head to box elder, m.o.”.  This song is usually the song that pops into my head randomly that makes me kick off a ‘Westing By Musket and Sextant’ session.  If you are going to go away from this blog and listen to just one of the songs I’ve described in this post, make it this one. 
3. “Maybe Maybe” - This is probably my least favorite song in the collection and depending on my mood, can sometimes find myself actually wanting to skip over it.  There are times where I find this song to be too loud and too chaotic.   In the early days of listening to this collection I would have most likely have skipped it just about every time.  However, over the years, I have found so many wonderful little nuisances in the song that I keep listening each time it comes on.  The repetative off beat drumming and whatever the hell instrument they rattle during the refrain just really intrigues me.  This song is not for close minded individuals and if you are new to Pavement you may find this song flat out annoying.  I for one, while admitting this is not my favorite song on the collection, can still appreciate the song for what it is.  
4. “She Believes” –  A great song with some really great guitar fuzz.  This is the exact type of song that makes Pavement so great IMO.  Just ridiculous repetative simple drum banging, guitar fuzz effects and a wicked almost hidden guitar solo going ‘ape’ behind it all. 
5. “Price Yeah!” – This one has really grown on me over the years.  Wild guitar work once again.  Malkmus just does some weird stuff in this one.  There’s also a really interesting underlying guitar effect in this one that kind of buzzes along during the whole song.  This is another song I wouldn’t recommend for the Pavement ‘newb’.     
6. “Forklift” – To this day, I’m still not quite sure what to think of this song.  I often find myself just singing along with the guys that are just saying ‘bop,bop,bop,bop’ over whatever the hell it is that Malkmus is rambling on about.  There are days where I think this song is genius and there are days where I think this song is absolute nonsense.  I’m going to leave this one alone for the time being.  I’ll re-visit this song on a day where I can hear its genius and try to comment then. 
7. “Spizzle Trunk” – The name of this song says it all.  If ever a song title could possibly describe my exact feelings of a song without actually making any kind of coherent sense, this would be it.  This song is a Spizzle Trunk to a phucking T.
8. “Recorder Grot” – A great punk influenced Pavement core root song.  This is where Pavement truly began. 
9. “Internal K-Dart” – This song is really out there.  One of my absolute favorites.  Starts off with a lot of noise, noise I really like btw, and then just at about 1 minute in, they just break it down and slowly finish it off.
10. “Perfect Depth” – Could be my favorite song in the collection.  Malkmus starts off with ‘Slow-Mo….’ and then gets drowned out by all the other music and you can’t really make out anything he’s softly singling.  Later in the song he starts to come back and you can hear him and says in a scratchy regretful voice, “I wasted it all on you” which is then followed by some simply awesome guitar feedback fuzz effects until the just about the very end of the song. 
11. “Recorder Grot (Rally)” – 20 second interlude to a truly wonderful instrumental.
12. “Heckler Spray” – I want to use this song in a movie.  Maybe a driving sequence.  Or some scene that is just really mind blowing.   This song makes me think. 
13. “From Now On” – A good ole fashioned Pavement rock-out song.
14. “Angel Carver Blues/Mellow Jazz Docent” – This one has its very own flavor going on.  A nice rowdy intro that then abruptly stops and mellows out(hence the title?).  It then just kinda slides along til its finished.  This song, like quite a few others in this collection has a nice almost hidden little sloppy malkmus guitar solo.  You really have to be paying attention to catch his brilliance.  Often times I find myself begging for more of what he has created and he just leaves you hanging.   
15. “Drive-by Fader” - Self explanatory title.  28 seconds of guitar fuzz effects into Debris Slide. 
16. “Debris Slide” – Instant Classic.  A song that will have you singing along in the first time through.  The lyrics don’t really make any sense and I have no idea what a Debris slide is but it’s still a lot of fun to sing along to this one. 
17. “Home” – Malkmus sings this one with his ‘talking’ voice and just kind of rambles on about some nonsense, brilliantly I might add.  And I really like the underlying almost completely blended guitar in this one.  This song’s unique as it might be the only one in the collection where the vocals are louder and more towards the front than the other noises in the song. 
18. “Krell Vid-User” – Just seems like they put a quick guitar jingle then some guitar fuzz effects together and gave it a song title.  Honestly, this type of thing would typically be tacked either on to the beginning or end of a regular pavement song. 
19. “Summer Babe” – Absolute Classic!!  Could be the best Pavement song ever.  “Everytime I sit around I find I’m shot”.  This is one of the truly great ‘Driving’ Songs as well.  Summer Day, windows down, headed to the beach type of driving songs. 
20. “Mercy: The Laundromat” – An interesting song with an awkward tempo that then trudges on with some ‘banging’.  I can’t say I’m in love with this song, but I can’t say I hate it either.  Actually, I may hate this song.  There’s a good chance I do.
21. “Baptist Blacktick” – This is a fun little rocker.  I really like this song.  This one falls into the category of I didn’t like many years ago but now I find it to be truly awesome.
22. “My First Mine” – Decent, kind of different tune.  Starts off slower and cleaner than most of the collection.  A much more structured start and finish.  This song could easily be on the Slanted and Enchanted Album.   I find this song getting stuck in my head from time to time and can often spur a ‘Westing By Musket and Sextant’ session. 
23. “My Radio” – A very nice finish to the collection with a little fading song about his radio being broken or something.  I don’t know. It’s a pretty simple song really. 

To sum things up.  If I told myself 14 years ago today that I would someday be ecstatic to write down my thoughts about every song on this album I would have kicked my own ass and been mightily frightened of the future.  I guess maybe it’s worth going back and listening to something(or someone) a 2nd, 3rd or even a 4th time before you decide you don’t like them. 

This entry was posted on Friday, February 8th, 2008 at 4:19 pm and is filed under Music. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.