Before I get to the subject of today’s post, I think we should get into the background of another Pavement song. ‘Two States’. Now, that’s a number from the band’s debut album, Slanted and Enchanted. Sounds a lot like The Fall. Written by guitarist Scott Kannberg, usually referred to as ‘Spiral Stairs’, the track expresses a desire to split the state of California into two separate ones. ‘North and South’. I don’t know if there’s some historical context there. Any readers from California, please enlighten me on the subject if you have the time. ‘Two States’ is a fun track. A little primitive. Tom-tom heavy with a swinging tempo and chants of ’40 million daggers’ for a chorus. It’ll get the crowd involved when Pavement bring it out live, which they can do now since they’re a functioning act again. Saw them in Barcelona at Primavera 2022, myself. Was a fantastic night. That’s something I can tick off my metaphorical list of things I want to do in this life.

Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain followed as Pavement’s second album a couple years after. On there as its sixth track is ‘Unfair’, which sees Stephen Malkmus addressing the North / South California divide this time round. While Kannberg asks for the complete split in his song, Malkmus makes note of the disparity between the two areas here and outlines his disgust for the southern half of the state. Pavement originate from Stockton, Northern California. I think it’s something they pride themselves on. Because of Hollywood and the glitz and glamour found in the South, the North usually becomes the forgotten part of the entire state, hence the song’s title. “The South takes what the North delivers” is probably the lyric that sums up the song’s entire sentiment. Starting off as this sort of unassuming, catchy, upbeat indie rock song, it takes a turn when Malkmus declares to “burn the hills of Beverly” with a yell and the band then launch into the roaring chorus where Malkmus wails about swinging credit cards in the air and sucking sour kisses. Goes back and forth between the “quiet” / loud dynamic. Makes it another one of the thousands to make that classic move in a rock song during the ’90s.

I enjoy this one a lot. I’ve been made aware I listened to Crooked Rain… in bits and pieces around 2012/13, which sounds about right. But I don’t think I really got into the album as a whole until 2014, when there were a lot of 20th anniversary celebration articles going around for albums released in 1994. I think it’s cool that the two songwriters in the band each gave respective takes on the same overarching topic, coming up with completely different results. ‘Unfair’ is much more fiercer and a little snotty, which I think pins Malkmus down as a person. Probably more so as a person in the ’90s. The ending is chaotic. Malkmus, again, wailing all over, dismissing someone or something as ‘Bakersfield trash’ amongst siren-like-sounding guitars and the bass guitar doing some crazy work. If you were still into vinyl back in the day, this closed out the first half of the record before you’d have to flip it around. Very emphatic statement to end a side of music on. And that’s it for Crooked Rain… on here too. We’ve had some good times together.