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Pavement Tuesday #8

This video’s a performance of “Stop Breathin’” from a show on March 6, 1994 in Frankfurt, Germany. The third track off 1994’s Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain, “Stop Breathin’” is a quintessential Pavement slow jam. I was kind of surprised to see it left off the forthcoming “Best Of” LP; it’s up there with their better stuff, and it was a staple of their live show.

As far as the lyrics to this song go, they’re oblique (as usual), and have been wildly misinterpreted over the years. Of course the song has no concrete meaning, but Malkmus weighed in with his interpretation of his own lyrics and said, “Although it’s about war, there’s a deliberate double entendre about volleys and tennis. The title is supposed to be being shouted by some challenger who’s losing in the U.S. Open. You know how they start getting upset at the slightest noise? Well, he’s telling the crowd to ‘stop breathing’. Literally.”

Only 31 more Tuesdays until they play Central Park (a month of Tuesdays!), and by this time next week Pavement will have played their first reunion show! [insert “freaking out” sound effect here]

purns:

soupsoup:

barelysarcasm:

5 year old kid gives Herb Brooks’ speech from MIRACLE  (the story of the 1980 Mens US olympic hockey gold medal team)

This was a daymaker.

GOD BLESS AMERICA.

USA! USA! USA! I’m sitting alone in my apartment, and this actually made me applaud.

I’ve been kind of obsessed with this song “Fallin’ & Flyin’” from the Crazy Heart OST lately. The Dude for Best Actor!

Matt Adams and I are going on The Jay Thomas Show on Sirius XM Stars Too at 5:15 pm EST today to talk about Improv Everywhere. Tune in if you’ve got satellite radio. In case you’re not familiar with Jay Thomas, check out his Lone Ranger story, which he tells every year around Christmas on Letterman.

Pavement Tuesday #7

And now a word about Wowee Zowee, Pavement’s third studio album. It’s often hailed as Pavement’s White Album, due to the fact that if you trimmed it down, you’d have a blockbuster album; but as it stands, it’s a sprawling shambles. Which is why it’s so fun, people! After the critical successes of Slanted and Enchanted and Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain, Rolling Stone announced in their two-and-a-half star review that Wowee Zowee was “disappointing.” Well, never trust a magazine started by hippies, because guess what landed in the #12 spot of Rolling Stone’s “Coolest Albums of All-Time” list in 2002? None other than Wowee Zowee.

RS got it right the second time around - Wowee Zowee oozes with cool. And you’ll be hard pressed to find a cooler song than “AT & T” — Wowee’s 12th track. The song’s a jazzy mess, and features sly hipster musings (“Spritzer on ice in New York City/Isn’t it a pity you never had anything to mix with that?”), a Jacob Javits shout-out, and a crescendo that has Malkmus appropriately shrieking wildly off-key.

Only 12 days until Pavement reunites!