Fellaheen (1997)
Pavement is one of my very favorite bands and they are among the most influential that I've listened to over the years. I discovered them early in my initial toe-dipping into punk rock and indie rock in the mid 90s and they have remained a favorite ever since. It's their first three (four if you count the Drag City Westing compilation) albums that hit with me the most. Brighten The Corners is still good, but I just never connected with it quite the same way as the others. Shady Lane is a song from that album.
In Australia, several Pavement records were released on a label called Fellaheen. For the most part their versions seem to just be the Matador version with a different logo on them, but they did a few weird things. When the band released the Pacific Trim EP, Fellaheen didn't release a standard 7". They did a lathe cut version that was limited to only 100 copies. I was very lucky to have acquired one of those many, many years ago. Aside from the copy I have, I've never seen another for sale.
When it was time to do the Shady Lane single, Fellaheen decided to do another lathe cut, but this time they only did 25 copies. How the hell was I supposed to get one of these? I don't have every single Pavement variant in the world, but I do have all of their 7"s. If there's different artwork, I consider it a different version and need it in the collection. This was the only hole I had that wasn't a vinyl color or a record label logo variant.
Well, amazingly one popped up on Discogs a few months ago. It was about $100 shipped and even though that's more money than I should be spending on a one sided 7" right now, I knew I would never have another chance to get my hands on this. Thank goodness for credit cards. Getting it here was a little adventurous as the seller initially gave me an incorrect tracking number and I was terrified to see it delivered to a California address a week or so ago. Luckily it was just a clerical error and my Pavement 7" arrived safe and sound this week.
I'll probably never play it. There's really no reason to. Let's be honest, there's really no reason to even own it. But something in me is broken and I find the uncontrollable need to hunt down these weird trinkets so my collection feels more complete. Can't really explain it.
Pavement - "Shady Lane":
https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=ixncbflEqes&list=RDAMVMixncbflEqes
No comments:
Post a Comment