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album review
Unlike the double-disc reissues of Slanted & Enchanted and Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain, the expanded re-release of Wowee Zowee -- subtitled the Sordid Sentinels Edition -- appeared a year after the album's tenth anniversary, but since this re-release maintains the standard of excellence set by the previous reissues, it seems a little churlish to complain about a year's wait. Likewise, it seems a bit ungrateful to complain that there's not as much rare or unheard music here as there was on either S&E or CR, CR, because the very nature of the sprawling Wowee Zowee meant there wasn't much left in the vaults; it was structured like a classic, messy double-album, spilling over with ideas and masterpieces jutting up against irresistible throwaways that would usually be tucked away as B-sides. As such, there aren't many unheard songs here: two instrumental fragments, "Sordid" and "Sentinel," the former lasting 28 seconds and the latter clocking in at half that; the shambling, rambling "Stray Fire," as compressed and thin as a demo, that flows from laconic country-rock to a steady groove not dissimilar to the second half of "Fight This Generation"; and "Soul Food," an enjoyable goof accurately billed as a "jam session" in the liner notes and not much more than that.
This lack of new tunes -- and what new tunes that are here are relatively slight -- may come as a disappointment to some fans, but by any other measure, this Sordid Sentinels Edition is a stellar expansion of the original album. The non-LP material Pavement put out in the year following the spring 1995 release of Wowee Zowee was on par with the album. There are the B-sides for "Rattled by the Rush" and "Father to a Sister of a Thought," highlighted by the manic "False Skorpion," the moody "Brink of the Clouds," "Kris Kraft" with its overly complicated riff, and the wonderful country-rock "Easily Fooled," a song so good it appears here three times, once in its studio incarnation, once in a BBC Session for Steve Lamacq in March 1995, and once for an Australian radio performance from the summer of 1994. Those two radio shows make up for the bulk of the second disc, and there is some wonderful material here, too, including a medley of "Golden Boys/Serpentine Pad" for Lamacq and a version of "Box Elder" that opens with a ZZ Top-styled boogie then crashes into steady rolling version of one of the band's standards. There's also the Pacific Trim EP, with its priceless "Give It a Day" -- as lovely a song as Pavement ever cut -- and "Gangsters & Pranksters," a joke that retains its punch after a decade. Their contributions to the I Shot Andy Warhol soundtrack (the slow-churning "Sensitive Euro Man") and Brain Candy soundtrack (the bright, incandescent "Painted Soldiers") are here, as is "It's a Hectic World," their contribution to the Homage: Lots of Bands Doing Descendents' Songs tribute album, and "No More Kings," their contribution to the Schoolhouse Rock! Rocks tribute album which sounds as if it should have been included on the second half of Wowee Zowee itself. Finally, there's a previously unreleased alternate mix of "We Dance" and "Dancing with the Elders," an acoustic version of "We Dance" with a rocking coda that was originally released as Pavement's half of a split single with Medusa Cyclone. By any measure, this is a generous reissue: not only is it a lengthy 50 tracks, but the music is all good. For those who already have the singles and tribute albums, perhaps even the bootlegs, this is a handy way to round up the rarities, and for those that have never heard this stray slack, they're in for a treat: this is Pavement in its prime. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide
This lack of new tunes -- and what new tunes that are here are relatively slight -- may come as a disappointment to some fans, but by any other measure, this Sordid Sentinels Edition is a stellar expansion of the original album. The non-LP material Pavement put out in the year following the spring 1995 release of Wowee Zowee was on par with the album. There are the B-sides for "Rattled by the Rush" and "Father to a Sister of a Thought," highlighted by the manic "False Skorpion," the moody "Brink of the Clouds," "Kris Kraft" with its overly complicated riff, and the wonderful country-rock "Easily Fooled," a song so good it appears here three times, once in its studio incarnation, once in a BBC Session for Steve Lamacq in March 1995, and once for an Australian radio performance from the summer of 1994. Those two radio shows make up for the bulk of the second disc, and there is some wonderful material here, too, including a medley of "Golden Boys/Serpentine Pad" for Lamacq and a version of "Box Elder" that opens with a ZZ Top-styled boogie then crashes into steady rolling version of one of the band's standards. There's also the Pacific Trim EP, with its priceless "Give It a Day" -- as lovely a song as Pavement ever cut -- and "Gangsters & Pranksters," a joke that retains its punch after a decade. Their contributions to the I Shot Andy Warhol soundtrack (the slow-churning "Sensitive Euro Man") and Brain Candy soundtrack (the bright, incandescent "Painted Soldiers") are here, as is "It's a Hectic World," their contribution to the Homage: Lots of Bands Doing Descendents' Songs tribute album, and "No More Kings," their contribution to the Schoolhouse Rock! Rocks tribute album which sounds as if it should have been included on the second half of Wowee Zowee itself. Finally, there's a previously unreleased alternate mix of "We Dance" and "Dancing with the Elders," an acoustic version of "We Dance" with a rocking coda that was originally released as Pavement's half of a split single with Medusa Cyclone. By any measure, this is a generous reissue: not only is it a lengthy 50 tracks, but the music is all good. For those who already have the singles and tribute albums, perhaps even the bootlegs, this is a handy way to round up the rarities, and for those that have never heard this stray slack, they're in for a treat: this is Pavement in its prime. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide
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- Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain: LA's Desert Origins
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- Slanted And Enchanted: Luxe And Reduxe
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- Brighten The Corners
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- Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain
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