Meeting Malkmus - a Pavement podcast

jD is joined by Pierce from Detroit to discuss his Pavement origin story and wax poetic about song 37 on the countdown. Enjoy!

Transcript:

[0:00] Hey, it's JD here, and I just wanted to throw something down, somewhat of a challenge to all you musically inclined folks out there.

We are going to be doing a pod list again this year, and a pod list is simply a podcast playlist.

It's a pod list. The previous four pod lists have consisted of talented members of our Pavement community submitting songs that they have covered from the Pavement oeuvre.

Pavement adjacent songs are also welcome. So you could do PSOI, you could do Jicks, you could do Malcolm is Solo.

Anything is fair game, truly. So get your band together or grab an acoustic guitar and just play your fucking guts out.

From there, submit the song to me by email and we'll go from there.

So please submit those songs, jd at meetingmalkmus.com, or even better, use wetransfer.com if it's a big WAV file. And WAV files are what I prefer.

That will work out just magnificently. That's what she said.

Podlist 5 coming July 8th. So get those songs in and be a part of something special. Thanks so much.

Now, on with the show. Previously on the.

Track 2:

[1:26] Pavement Top 50. Without further ado, number 38, Date with Ikea.

Daniel from Chicago. Hey.

Talk to me about your experience with this song. Well, it was the first Pavement album that I was able to buy on its release date.

So it has a special place.

It was released, I think it's April 17th, 1997.

And I went to my local mall and walked in and bought this album.

Hey, this is Westy from the Rock and Roll Band Pavement.

Track 4:

[2:13] And you're listening to The Countdown. hey it's jd here back for another episode of our top 50 countdown for seminal indie rock band pavement week over week we're going tocount down the 50 essential pavement tracks that you selected with your very own top 20 ballots i tabulated the results using an abacus and a small group of children in the fourth grade,How will your favorite song fare in the rankings? Well, you'll need to tune in to find out. So there's that.

This week, we're joined by Pavement superfan, Pierce from Detroit.

[2:47] Pierce, how you doing, motherfucker? I'm good, I'm good. It's good to be here.

Oh, it's great to have you, man.

[2:54] How's the weather in the city right now? It's been unseasonably warm yesterday.

We got close to 60. I think we got to 60.

So you know every people in shorts and uh it's not going to be here forever it's going to be nice today again and then it's going to go you know it's uh we're still in february so.

[3:16] It it's going to be some jacket weather before you know it yeah i bet yeah how about you how what's the what's the weather like there it's been the same here it's been unseasonablylike i wore a vest yesterday instead of a jacket right like kind of nice yeah i mean you know aside from the existential dread but we won't go there yeah i suppose you're right yeah so let'slet's get right to this let's talk about pavement uh you mean my favorite band your favorite band of all time yeah oh man yeah i uh i you know i i kind of i listened to a uh previous episodeand then i you know got my mind you know i'm always jump chomping at the champing at the bit to uh relay my pavement origin story.

So, I mean, I don't even know if it's like, it's not anything spectacular, but I mean, I guess the thing that really strikes me is just how much the band means to me and how much musicmeans to me.

And, you know, so I'm always, you know, looking to knock on somebody's door and tell them about pavement.

[4:26] So where did it all begin? Well, I mean, um, you know, so I came, I found pavement, um, in high school um i uh you know i i was really into just like a lot of corporate rock youknow i was all about like you know back and bc boys which are still i i still like and value those but uh you know i mean it's listening to like the sublime and 311 and you know all thatand And not to say that that's not, if that's your bag, that's your bag, you know, but like I, I, uh, so then in my sophomore year, a friend got me into fish and, um, and so like fish, you know,I, I've had like, I've kind of estranged myself from fish.

Um, and I realized that, uh, starting at the top of a pavement podcast, talking about three 11 and, uh, and fish, I don't know if that's the coolest start, but, uh, you know, so I remembervividly, I got an entertainment weekly fish feature magazine and, uh, I guess the summer of 2000.

[5:45] Summer of 2000 and just going just before going into my junior year in high school and uh there was a fish a to z and key they had uh like a little cartoon of the guitarist treyworshiping at this pedestal with slanted and enc...

This week on the pod I'm thrilled to be joined by Rebecca Clay Cole motherfuckers! We talk about her Pavement origin story, to joining the band on key, and breaking down song number 29!

Transcript:

Track 2:

[0:00] Previously on the Pavement Top 50.

Track 1:

[0:02] At track 30, we have Spit on a Stranger. What the hell do you make of this song, Devin? I'm really glad I got this song because I love this song. And the thing about this song is that there's a real tension within the song that truly appeals to me. because I believe that musically and in the verses, this is the most romantic song that Pavement has ever recorded.

Track 2:

[0:31] Hey, this is Westy from the Rock and Roll Band, Pavement, and you're listening to The Countdown.

Track 3:

[0:39] 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 count down the 50 essential Pavement tracks that you selected with your very own top 20 ballads. I then tabulated the results using an abacus and all my fingers on my left hand, except for my thumb. Fuck you, thumb. How will your favorite songs fare in the rankings? Well, you'll need to tune in to find out. So there's that.

Track 2:

[1:06] This week, we're joined by Pavement superfan, well, not Pavement superfan, Pavement superstar, Rebecca fucking Clay Cole. Rebecca, how the hell are you?

Track 4:

[1:17] Hello, I actually, I'm a fan. I don't know if I'm a super fan, because I've met some super fans. And I don't know if I have the level of technical knowledge. But I'm a fan and in the band. So nice to meet you.

Track 3:

[1:30] Nice to meet you as well. You definitely have the technical knowledge. I saw you guys play on the 22 reunion tour eight times, I think. And it was tremendous. I had so much fun. I was at the Fonda show. I saw two shows in Toronto and then like six shows in London.

Track 4:

[1:48] Oh, great.

Track 3:

[1:49] Or not London, but UK.

Track 4:

[1:51] Cool.

Track 3:

[1:52] So very, a lot of fun.

Track 4:

[1:54] A good range of shows there.

Track 3:

[1:55] Yeah, I think so. I was pleased. I wanted to go to Iceland really bad, but that didn't fall on the cards.

Track 4:

[2:02] Well, maybe we'll be in Iceland again someday.

Track 3:

[2:04] That would be cool.

Track 4:

[2:05] Join us if that happens.

Track 3:

[2:07] I will do that. So let's get right to the punch here and talk about, this is sort of funny to be talking about something, Sort of funny to be talking with somebody in the band about their Pavement Origins story, but obviously you came late to the band, and we'll talk about that. I really want to know what it's like to join a band that's an established band, but hasn't been on the road in a while. I want to know that as well, but I really want to know your Pavement Origins story.

Track 4:

[2:36] My Pavement Origins story. Well, I think the first time I was aware of Pavement was when they were opening for Sonic Youth. It was maybe Sonic Youth Mudhoney Pavement at Red Rocks.

Track 3:

[2:52] Oh, really?

Track 4:

[2:53] They were the first band to play and I had never heard of them. I hadn't heard of much because at this point I think I was six months in Denver. And before that I'd lived like on a farm and on an island. So I had no cultural touchstones at all for a teenager. I was really, I wouldn't say ignorant, but I just sort of formed my own musical education. I'd never been to a punk show. There were no punk shows in the Virgin Islands, you know, or in the farm in Kentucky. So all of that is to say some friends took me to Red Rocks to see this show. And Pavement was the first band. So that was my first introduction to Pavement.

Track 3:

[3:29] And what did you think?

Track 4:

[3:31] I did not understand it. I didn't understand it at all. But Gary was in fine form, and I remember not spending a lot of time behind his kit. And I just was confused what the performance was. I didn't understand it. I didn't have the language to understand it at the time.

Track 3:

[3:49] That's phenomenal. And Red Rocks, to boot. I've never been, but it's supposed to be just a fantastic venue, right?

Track 4:

[3:59] Maybe Pavement can play it again with me.

Track 3:

[4:02] Oh, that's awesome.

Track 4:

[4:04] I'll just plant that seed out there to the universe.

Track 3:

[4:06] Yeah.

Track 4:

[4:07] We'd like it to grow.

Track 3:

[4:08] So where did it go from there? Did you... At what point did you click? Did it go, oh, yeah, I get this?

Track 4:

[4:17] You know, not much later. Maybe a year or two later, I was... I found myself joined into an indie band. And ...

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 hea...

jD is back and he's joined by Patrick from middle America to discuss the 48th song on the Top 50 countdown.

Transcript:

Track 2:

[0:00] Previously on the pavement top 50 track number 49 best friend's arm dan what are your thoughts, oh man well this um this this this track was really my introduction to wowie zowieum i didn't own it at the time and um my friend andy used to have it and uh out of all the tracks i used to make this and put this on repeatedly uh say we used to sit on the floor and listen toit and i I used to roll around kind of, I wasn't exactly laughing, but it's just like, I just couldn't get over how mad and how fun that track is.

Welcome.

Track 4:

[0:43] Nustanovich from Pavement and now on with a 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 count down the 50 essential pavement tracks that you selected with your very own top 20 ballots.

I tabulated the results using an advanced abacus, and all that's left is for us to reveal this week's track number 48.

How will your favorite track fare in the ranking? You'll need to tune in, or whatever the podcast equivalent of tuning in is to find out.

This week we're joined by pavement superfan patrick from middle america so there's that, how are you doing motherfucker i'm doing so well thank you so much for having me uh youryour podcast helped me through the pandemic for sure so oh dude that's so nice to hear you say uh you know sometimes i feel like i'm just talking into a microphone because it's i don'thave a i I don't have a co-host for this podcast, but now I do now with the top 50, I've got a different pot, a different podcast co-host every week.

And that's kind of cool that I'm getting to meet some people, but I appreciate that.

Happy to be here. I like your beanie.

[2:00] I'm wearing a black one. You're wearing a bright, like it's almost a few shop. Is it red? It's orange.

It's orange. Yeah. Orange. Yeah.

I like it. I have several because I live in cold areas. so.

[2:16] So whereabouts in middle America do you hail, if you want to reveal it?

Yeah, currently I'm in Des Moines, Iowa.

Oh, okay. I recently just vacated from St. Paul, Minnesota.

So I was tricking myself into believing I could have an apartment in two different towns.

[2:38] So now I'm just in Des Moines right now. But Minneapolis, St.

Paul is probably where I would want to be, I guess. Yeah, it's a nice city.

Yeah, nice twin cities, I suppose.

It's the best up there. So but I'm in Des Moines currently. Is Des Moines where Bob was? Yeah, former home of Bob Nesanovic. Yeah.

Okay, I thought he was from there. Yep, I was. I've been, you know, if you're a pavement fan and you're in Des Moines and you're running sound at a music venue and you go down thestairs and then you see a guy from your third favorite band standing at the bar uh you uh you definitely go and buy him a beer and then if you buy yeah if you buy bob mistanovich a beernext thing you know you're over at his house hanging out and he's telling stories about the beastie boys or something so i have no fucking way yeah yeah so um yeah my origin story withpavement is strange because they were my favorite band when I was 16 years old.

And then, you know, when I was in my lower thirties, we were getting to open for them on their reunion tour.

And Bob's singing on my old band Seven Inch because he just is in Des Moines.

And if you're a Pavement fan in Des Moines, you're bound to bump into Bob and then you're bound to be buddies with him.

[4:02] Dude, you got to tell me more about this. Let's go. Dig in. All right.

You're opening for Pavement.

Let's talk about this. And he's singing on your seven inch. Let's talk about this.

Okay. Uh, well, I, when, like I said, when I was 16 years old, 15, 16 in the mid nineties, uh, you know, payment was one of my favorite bands.

You know, they've, they've always been in my top three favorite bands ever.

And I finally got to see them on the last tour in 99 at the Vic theater in Chicago.

Chicago, and I drove from Ames, Iowa of, and I was seven hours early to the show, hoping that I could be, uh, first in line.

Uh, I was not first in line. I was third in line.

Uh, but I met some really cool people, uh, standing in line for seven hours and I got to meet everybody in payment cause they were walking out from their soundcheck and everything.

So, uh, but it was hilarious. I was just telling this story the other day to somebody, buddy.

The girl who was first in line had just gotten a star tattoo, like the stars that are on like the terror twilight, uh, album cover on the inside.

[5:13] And so she had a star idea. And of course, ...

jD is joined by Dan from London to discuss and dissect the 49th song on the Top 50 countdown.

Transcript:

Track 2:

[0:02] Hey it's jd here back for another episode of our top 50 countdown covering seminal indie rock band pavement week over week we're going to count down the 50 essential pavementtracks that you selected with your very own top 20 ballads i then tabulated the results using an advanced abacus and some test tubes and all that's left for us is to reveal this week's trackhow will your favorite song fair in the rankings?

Well, you'll need to tune in, or whatever the podcast equivalent of tuning in is, to find out.

This week, we're joined by a Pavement superfan, Dan from London. So there's that.

Dan, how you doing, motherfucker?

Track 1:

[0:46] Hi, JV, I'm doing okay, thanks. Yeah, all is good here, I think.

Track 2:

[0:50] Nice to talk to you again.

Track 1:

[0:52] Yeah, it's good to be back on.

Track 2:

[0:54] Yeah. So, um, let's get right to it.

Talk to me about your experience or your pavement origin story.

Like what was that experience like?

Track 1:

[1:09] I think when I was at art college, a lot of people were playing snippets of pavement stuff, you know, I didn't necessarily know what it was.

Um, I remember hanging out with a guy in his car and he used to have like speakers off an actual stereo in the back of his car, you know, like speaker cabinets, wooden speaker cabinets.

And I remember him blasting, um, a bit of Westing through there as well and feeling pretty interested in that.

But it was really when i went to university and i was at um i was at this girl's house you know and we'd been sort of drinking all night and she put on this tape and one side was gentlemenby afghan wigs and the other side was crooked rain and crooked rain just blew me away you know i think that that had impacted me on first listen more than any other record ever has ithink you know holy shit yeah i think that just the the way it builds up those first two tracks are are just amazing you know there's nothing else like it and then of course it goes into stopbreathing and it's like oh my god okay this is too much man yeah um but after that i actually um.

[2:14] I got back into them and had a load of stuff on tape and i was playing along with it on my as well but i actually worked at um glastonbury in 1999 just so i could see pavement aswell you work um yeah yeah yeah so what were you like a usher or something uh yeah you you work on the the gate so you take people's you know tickets and exchange them for thewristbands and then in the evening well it was actually um ultra violet sort of um stamped and um yeah you know and then you'd have to check people in and out at the at the night timeyou do three eight hour shifts so you do 24 hours at the festival but my shifts lined up nicely so that i got out of went pavement wrong and um perfect it was it was it was a crazy goodafternoon yeah yeah yeah, Um, and then after that, yeah, say I saw them on the reunion tour and then, uh, the rest is when I kind of saw them with you, basically Primavera London. Yeah.

Track 2:

[3:13] That was great. Talk to me a little bit more about, talk to me a little bit more before we go into the London shows.

Cause those were really special, but talk to me a little bit more about Glastonbury.

Like what was the set like for that? What I was 99. So they were on the last leg sort of, of, of terror twilight.

Track 1:

[3:32] Yeah yeah yeah so there was there was a lot of terror twilight i mean um i can't find any footage of this but basically when they when they came on stage they were introduced bythis dude it just came on was a friend of theirs and i think he was like either like a pub landlord or like some, bookmaker from brixton you know this random guy that they loved and heintroduced the band, and they came on um yeah i think it was it was there was a mixed bag but it was it was quite very twilight heavy but i just remember the outstanding thing from thatwas just like folk jam was amazing really i've i've a folk jam or platform blues yeah i still i need to look at that set list now and just to remember but the thing about that is that i um i stillhave the 35 uh millimeter sort of camera film undeveloped from that western experience yeah it's been sitting there for what nearly like 24 years now so i've still got to get that done so ihave Where do you even get film developed now?

Places will do it, but I just never got around to it. I've got about 14 rolls of camera film from my life.

I get to look. Yeah, well, it's a time capsule, yeah. But I'll do that, yeah. I'll do that.

Track 2:

[4:45] I want t...