I bought this CD in late February of 2009 at the Record Exchange in Boise for about $6.50. I was with a few of my friends and Mr Brown attending the Boise State's annual theater festival for high schoolers. Brown played the album on the way back, and I didn't get it at all. I just remember that the weather was weird- it was ridiculously sunny and snow was falling? On top of that, I had to hear all 12 songs when the only one I knew was "Cut Your Hair." That trip itself was full of some classic high school memories, but Crooked Rain would be the soundtrack to a different time in my life... a few weeks later.
My senior year was coming to a close, I was Nathan Detroit in "Guys & Dolls," and I was in my annual winter funk. I had owned Wilco's Yankee Hotel Foxtrot for a whole year and I took this as a sign that I had a lot to reflect on. In my album-memory blog post on Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, I claimed that the album brought some "much needed joy into my life." I guess you can say Pavement did the same for me.
I remember spring break of 2009 like it was just yesterday... despite the fact I had all week to work on my senior project paper, I didn't write a dang thing. I spent everyday, all 7 days, on my bike, exploring Jerome. I rode down streets I never knew existed, and it was all in my backyard! I could feel that fresh vitamin D beating down on me and this slight breeze going against me as I flew past every house in the town. And I had the house to myself that week, so I always had my music cranked up. I was exploring new streets and exploring new bands. I guess I could give Crooked Rain another shot.
When people ask me who my favorite band is these days, my first response is usually "Have you ever heard of a band called Pavement?"
Pavement is a band from Stockton, California, who made LPs from 1992 through 1999. Their music is the soundtrack to riding your skateboard through the suburbs of a crappy town on a sunny day (and every day in Stockton is a sunny day in a crappy town). They're a band who smiles in all their pictures. The opening track from 1994's Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain is "Silence Kit," which is about God-knows-what, but to my hungry teenage heart, the song was Pavement's "Wouldn't It Be Nice?" A dream of running away with some chick out of this lame city, and wishing you could just stop screwing up everything. Cowbell-and-all, its a great album opener. Track 2, "Elevate Me Later," was possibly my favorite. It had this sonic guitar sound and a swaggering beat, telling stories of cinema stars sleeping with electric guitars while our hero lives in a "city we forgot to name." "Cut Your Hair," out of Pavement's 7-10 year career, was the band's only song to reach the Billboard modern rock chart, peaking at #10. It's got some sick, catchy "woo-hoo-hoo's!" with an easy, blaring guitar solo, while Stephen Malkmus emotionally yells about the sadness of being part of the modern music industry. "Unfair" is the loudest track with Malkmus's most awkward screech. In short: It's a song about how Northern California is better than Southern California (and it is... "The south takes what the north delivers!/You film-hack, I don't need your pay!")
"Gold Soundz" is my favorite Pavement song. It's (probably) about a dying relationship, but for me, it was about a relationship that just couldn't get started ("We need secrets..."). It has some of Malkmus's most clever lines, which is saying a lot ("It has a nice ring when you laugh/At the low-life opinions/And they're coming to the chorus now!") Anyways. "Range Life" was made for me riding my bike (or skateboard?) through the open spaces of Jerome, wishing I could hold it all. The album closer, "Fillmore Jive" is the perfect ending to all this mess. More talk about the music industry behind 6 minutes of the climaxing 4 slow chords, so epic they couldn't find the final words ("Their lungs- are filled- with-")... album's over!
Anyways, I was 18. The sun was out for the first time in months, and it was here to stay. I was all the sudden happier than ever. I loved everything around me. I loved Jerome. I loved my freaking bike. I loved my friends. I loved hardcore dancing. I loved the weather. I recognized myself as the 5'9'' piece of trash I was who couldn't get a girlfriend and played too much guitar, and I loved it. I was going to graduate from high school and getting nostalgic. Stephen Malkmus's voice sounded like mine, both literally and metaphorically. Even if he was singing about crap that's totally heartless and irrelevant to me, to me, it was pure emotion. All his wailing about the sucky world of music, losing sleep, being a screw-up... it was all straight from the heart, be it his or mine. The music was easy to rock out to, and it's all very joyful. Even when its awkward, you can put a smile in there. Still today, Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain invites a sense of longing and love, sunshine and skateboards. The good old days when Brian Harberd and I would smile and flip each other off at school as a greeting. I will be having my first spring break in Logan next week. Time to "Go back to those gold soundz!"
Thanks Pavement.
