A “sentimental” favorite is one thing that can’t be argued with, but no one can actually claim that WZ is better than Pavement’s first two discs. It’s just not possible it’s full of too much filler. Yes, it has some of what is arguably their best material, but it’s what 17 tracks? At least 7 could go, at LEAST. You could prolly shave 2-3 songs off of S&E or CRCR at the very most.

I beg you…. on my knees… Pavement…. get back together. We need you!

Although Wowee Zowee has my favorite Pavement song (Grounded). Start to finish the best Pavement album and my most played is CRCR not a bad track on it.

I just prematurely ejaculated in my pants.

Wha???

Wowee Zowee is their best album, precisely because of the filler!

Pavement is a ragged, shaggy beast and Wowee Zowee rules #1 for its psychadelic, psycho slacker-jams.

Half a Canyon, man, Half a Canyon!

Wowee Zowee is great..it’s Pavement, so there’s no denying that. But in terms of overall greatness, and for their impact at the time, my money is on S&E and CRCR as the very best from Pavement…

SHITE BAND! FUCK THAT EMO/INDIE SHITE!

BLACK METAL RULES!

Overated music.I think Pavement never released a great album,maybe good but far,or so very far from great.

AWFUL BAND!

Great news! But I still love CRCR better…

I think Stephen Malkmus’ solo stuff is better than any of the Pavement stuff. Am I right? Huh?

Wowee Zowee is the best. Flawless album, doesn’t get bogged down with songs like ‘Hit the Plane Down’ like CRCR does.

Come,come. Its great they’re re-releasing Wowee Zowee, but lets not lose our heads. Slanted & Enchanted is not only Pavement’s best, but quite possibly the best album ever.

Sorry all, but I barely could listen to Wowee Zowee at the time. The one I listen to the most, gulp, is still … Terror Twilight.

Pound-for-pound (or track-for-track) you know what the best Pavement disc ever is? “Watery Domestic.” (EP released between “Slanted and Enchanted” and “Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain”)

Does this guarantee that “Brighten the Corners” and “Terror Twilight” will get the Deluxe treatment in a couple of years?

I remember seeing Pavement promoting “Wowee Zowee” on Lollapolooza 95. Was that the greatest Lollapalooza ever or what?
Beck. Sonic Youth. Pavement. The total car-crash of Hole (I love Courtney Love.) The Jesus Lizard. Cypress Hill. Elastica (in the one year window when they were a great, cool, functioning band.) Give it up for Lollapalooza 95!

Brian

Who the fuck is Pavement?

You kids and your crazy Sidewalk Music!

They should tour with Jay Z and Phish. Or play Caesars! That shit died for a reason. Bank account must be diminished…

I may agree with Mr. Wallace, Water, Domestic is pretty great. I love-love-me some pavement but if s&e isn’t the most overrated indie album around than I ain’t elmer fudd…oh, wait

aCTUALLY, i DON’T LOVE PAVEMENT. i DON’T EVEN KNOW ANY OF THEIR SONGS.

Every album felt like an improvement over the last one until Terror Twilight (still better than people said at the time). CRCR got duller over time — Hit the Plane Down is a sorta lame Fall ripoff, and Heaven is a Truck isn’t exactly the band’s highpoint.

WZ is Pavement at their most lyrical. Seems unfocused at first. Jammy. But stick with it and it’s the most rewarding record they ever made. Best melodies. Best solos. Best jokes. The live stuff on disc 2 oughta be good — SM was a blissed-out guitar genius on that tour.

Depends on the mood. I listen to CRCR more than any of their other stuff, it’s a great soundtrack to many moods. You gotta put on Slanted and Enchanted in those stoned devastatingly cool Dylan moments and Wowee Zowee is when I just want to zone out and let the Malkmus-y goodness flow over me. Brighten the Corners and Terror Twilight are for sing alongs with friends because those are the songs they know and because, well, they’re just damn fun to sing along to.

not too fond of S&E. Dont know why everyone else is. CRCR is the best

S&E is the best. Malkmus’s singing is the best on that album.

Pavement, the classic case of a band that everyone wants to be better than they really are. Their records are as essential for indie rock snobs as Kid Rock is to white trash.

The best pavement records are crooked rain,crooked rain and terror twighlight. zowee has alot of shit to go with the good tunes and slanted and enchanted is the same but slightly better. I always liked pavement to a degree but i hate to break it to all of you, but pavement is really over-rated, like most indie rock bands.
Just listen to Bob Dylan instead

ummmm, steve malkamoose is cute, ok?

Its alright that y’all think pavement is overrated…genius is sometimes hard to understand for the bougie crowd.
There really is no argument…wowee zowee slays all other records. Every note is perfectly out-of-tune, every lyric perfectly tongue-in-cheek.
And SM is just like Dylan, if the latter grew up in the late ’80s in the suburbs.

all i ask for is “…and then,” the vinyl-only b-side for “spit on a stranger,” to be released in CD format.

CRCR is the best Pavement album. Note perfect. S&E is damn good but CRCR is the perfection of that album. Wowee Zowee is great but too erratic for my taste, though that is also its charm.

I love them all equally, but CRCR is the one I seem to play the most. If I must choose an order, it goes:

Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain
Slanted and Enchanted
Wowee Zowee
Terror Twilight
Brighten the Corners

I don’t really count Westing, but it would still be at the bottom.

I have all of pavements records and wowee zowee is there worst Malkmus solo albums are better. I only got it becasue it was cheap and to complete my pavement collection. The first one i bought was slanted and enchanted which i really did not like at first but it grows on you. If you have the original cds there really is no need to get the deluxe ones the only songs you would listen to more then once are the ones on the original cd.

You’re fooling yourself if you think your own personal favorite Pavement disc (Wowee Zowee, as you revealed) is the going favorite for the entire Pavement fanbase.

On the other hand, maybe I imagine that Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain is the going favorite for the same reason (i.e. – it’s mine).

Nah, nah — I’m sure of it. Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain for the win.

Wowee Zowee does rank second though (except for scenesters who like to proclaim S&E is the “only Pavement album that matters.” But scenesters themselves don’t matter, so pay it no mind.)

Signed,
An anonymous but well-known rock critic.

Personally my favorite is brighten the corners, “stereo” is the greatest pop song ever!!

I like S&E and CRCR about the same and both are great.

Least favorite is Terror Twilight, although I still like it.

Westing..ect Is shite apart from “box elder” of course!!

Ooh.. as for WZ Its also a great album. their most varied and you need to be in the right mode. I haven’t listen to it for a long time.

Will do when I get home tonight!

i’ll say “We Dance” and “Grounded” are probably my two favorite Pavement songs. I don’t think i have enough mental power right now to process the internal argument of whether Wowee Zowee or SnE is my favorite

christ. pavement. no thanks. jesus.

S&E is their best album, and in my top 10 favourite albums of all time. CRCR is good but gets way too much credit for what it deserves.

Pavement is better than metal, emo, indie (which they are essentially responsible for in the form it is now today) and any other ephemeral tosh floating around. The last Pavement tune I listened to was Half a Canyon, so I’m gonna go with WZ.

WOWEE ZOWEE is the album i go back to…so its their best for me

I’m going to dodge the question and say (with complete honesty) that I love every one of their albums for different reasons. For me, different moods call for different discs. I will note, however, that not many people seem to have mentioned Terror Twilight, and I’d like to defend it. I like precisely BECAUSE it is different. One of the reasons I respect Pavement so much is that they can go from S&E to Terror Twilight and be excellent, while changing completely.

hey to those of you who had Wowee Zowee on vinyl — how did the songs lay out over the three sides? Can’t find this info online and, gosh, I’m just curious. Thanks.

Pavement has a lot of songs that I could take or leave, but some of their work just hits the spot and does something good to my soul. Anyone who manages to create something like that deserves a little exposure.

All talented artists are overrated. BOB DYLAN is overrated. MICHELANGELO was overrated. That doesn’t make their work less awesome. It’s just what we all do when we find something that turns us on. We spread the idea feverishly, we try to turn our friends onto it, we revel in the glory of whatever it is that seems so enjoyable to us. And we overdo it every time. So what?

Before you knock a band just because you know some pretentious hipster twats who wear their records like membership rites, try to consider every song at face value.

That’s my buck and a quarter. Inflation is a bitch.

Steven Malkmus is nothing like Bob Dylan. That’s so laughable. As a matter of fact, his CD mixes are getting worst every time. You know the voice raised above and beyond the music. You know who else does that? Madonna. Learn to play your instruments boys, don’t flag us down if you got nothing to sell.

PinkLedMan | 9/14/2006, 12:25 pm EST

I beg you…. on my knees… Pavement…. get back together. We need you!
PinkLedMan | 9/14/2006, 12:25 pm EST

I beg you…. on my knees… Pavement…. get back together. We need you!
PinkLedMan | 9/14/2006, 12:25 pm EST

I beg you…. on my knees… Pavement…. get back together. We need you!
PinkLedMan | 9/14/2006, 12:25 pm EST

I beg you…. on my knees… Pavement…. get back together. We need you!
PinkLedMan | 9/14/2006, 12:25 pm EST

I beg you…. on my knees… Pavement…. get back together. We need you!
PinkLedMan | 9/14/2006, 12:25 pm EST

I beg you…. on my knees… Pavement…. get back together. We need you!
PinkLedMan | 9/14/2006, 12:25 pm EST

I beg you…. on my knees… Pavement…. get back together. We need you!
PinkLedMan | 9/14/2006, 12:25 pm EST

I beg you…. on my knees… Pavement…. get back together. We need you!
PinkLedMan | 9/14/2006, 12:25 pm EST

I beg you…. on my knees… Pavement…. get back together. We need you!
PinkLedMan | 9/14/2006, 12:25 pm EST

I beg you…. on my knees… Pavement…. get back together. We need you!
PinkLedMan | 9/14/2006, 12:25 pm EST

I beg you…. on my knees… Pavement…. get back together. We need you!
PinkLedMan | 9/14/2006, 12:25 pm EST

I beg you…. on my knees… Pavement…. get back together. We need you!
PinkLedMan | 9/14/2006, 12:25 pm EST

I beg you…. on my knees… Pavement…. get back together. We need you!
PinkLedMan | 9/14/2006, 12:25 pm EST

I beg you…. on my knees… Pavement…. get back together. We need you!
PinkLedMan | 9/14/2006, 12:25 pm EST

I beg you…. on my knees… Pavement…. get back together. We need you!
PinkLedMan | 9/14/2006, 12:25 pm EST

I beg you…. on my knees… Pavement…. get back together. We need you!
PinkLedMan | 9/14/2006, 12:25 pm EST

I beg you…. on my knees… Pavement…. get back together. We need you!
PinkLedMan | 9/14/2006, 12:25 pm EST

I beg you…. on my knees… Pavement…. get back together. We need you!
PinkLedMan | 9/14/2006, 12:25 pm EST

I beg you…. on my knees… Pavement…. get back together. We need you!
PinkLedMan | 9/14/2006, 12:25 pm EST

I beg you…. on my knees… Pavement…. get back together. We need you!
PinkLedMan | 9/14/2006, 12:25 pm EST

I beg you…. on my knees… Pavement…. get back together. We need you!

’cause i don’t have a clue anymore
maybe we could dance [x3] together
together
together
together
first time you’ll see
and then you’ll be
five times forever
and you’ll never get lost

COME BACK TO DANCE AGAIN PAVEMENT

I really don’t get Wowee Zowee hating. And not even in the “this-is-because-I-think-it’s- an-undiscovered-classic” way. It sounds like a logical follow-up to Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain to me. It doesn’t really sound like any kind of In Utero-style “fuck you” to the mainstream.

I NEED the Brighten the Corners: Deluxe Edition! Malkmus says that from ‘Brighten The Corners’ they have an entire album’s worth of material that he feels is better than the studio album!