The Hard Quartet - The Hard Quartet 2xLP

Matador (2024)

With all of the Pavement-mania the last few years as they were going on their reunion tour victory lap, it was difficult to avoid imagining the potential release of new music.  But I kept reminding myself that it probably wouldn't be that great.  None of the Steven Malkmus solo records are anywhere near as good as any of the Pavement records.  Even the last Pavement album, Terror Twilight, isn't all that exciting if we're all being honest with ourselves.  It has a few moments for sure, but it can't compare to what came before.

So to say I was skeptical of The Hard Quartet when they were announced would be an understatement.  Here's Malkmus again, this time playing with a new cast of characters with respected indie rock pedigrees, but none from bands I really listened to all that much (Chavez, The Dirty Three).  Still, I'm an obedient fan and I always give every Malkmus project a courtesy listen or two before lamenting that it isn't 1995 anymore.

Imagine my surprise when I found myself being kind of intrigued by the sounds I was hearing.  There was something here drawing me in, asking me to listen to it again.  And I found that the more I listened to the album, the more it grew on me.  I started picking up on little things that just made the songs.  There's something interesting going on here that combines the ramshackle nature of Pavement with the more polished work that Malkmus has been doing with The Jicks.  It sort of sits perfectly in between the two.

That's not to say I couldn't nit pick a little.  The songs that Malkmus doesn't sing are still good, but for me they always kind of feel like interludes that just make me want to hear the next song where Steve gets to stand in front of the microphone.  The album's also a bit too long.  It would probably be better if it was tightened up a little with maybe three or four less songs.  That said, this is the best album that Steve Malkmus has been involved in since the 90s.  It rewards repeated listens and and is engaging in a way that a lot of his solo work hasn't always been.  

The Hard Quartet - The Hard Quartet:
https://thehardquartet.bandcamp.com/album/the-hard-quartet

Pavement - Terror Twilight: Farewell Horizontal CD

Matador (2022)

Your eyes do not deceive you.  I have, in fact, purchased the CD version of an album that was also available on vinyl.  There were multiple reasons for this, not the least of which was the $80 price differential between the two.  But on top of that, only two of the super deluxe Pavement albums have been released on vinyl.  If Slanted & Enchanted, Crooked Rain or Wowee Zowee were available, I probably would have picked this up on vinyl as well, just to keep the collection complete.  Since I have all of the other deluxes on CD, it made sense to keep up the consistency there.  Lastly, Terror Twilight has always been my least favorite Pavement record and after delving through all of the demos and B sides of the era I can still say that to be true.

When Terror Twilight came out I wasn't impressed.  I know that's a feeling shared by many, but unlike the vast majority of people out there, I hadn't liked Brighten The Corners that much either.  The peak to me was always Wowee Zowee, though I adored everything that came before it as well.  I felt then, as I do now, that Terror Twilight is just kind of boring.  There some nice songs like Major Leagues and Spit On A Stranger, but nothing that really jumps out as being unique in the way I always felt Pavement was.  One of the reasons I didn't like Brighten The Corners as much as the other albums was because it felt too safe.  It was straightforward.  But if you compare it to Terror Twilight, it's practically avant garde.

When it comes to bonus material, there's not really anything particularly exciting here either.  One of the new unreleased songs, "Be The Hook," is pretty fun, but not remarkable.  And since they stuck it on a reissued 12" single of Spit On A Stranger, I'll probably just grab that so I can have it on vinyl.  Most everything else is demos that don't really differ too much from the final product aside from fidelity and a few B sides that I already have on a bunch of singles.  I am glad that they finally put this out, just so the collection is complete, but it's probably not something I'll listen to very much.  I have the main album on vinyl if I get the urge, the odds and ends are mostly just the sort of things that sit on a CD rack.

The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion - Extra Width LP

Matador (1994)

I'm not sure I will ever make it and replace all of my Blues Explosion CDs with vinyl, but I do want to track down some of the key pieces if nothing else.  While I have always been a disciple of Orange and never adored any Blues Explosion album quite as much as that one, I have always liked everything else.  Even the albums I would rank on the lower part of the scale still have their moments.  Extra Width, however, probably ranks higher than that for me.

I'm not sure what album is my second favorite one from Blues Explosion, but Extra Width is in the running.  While it's not as slick and catchy as Orange is, you can definitely see the building blocks that would make Orange great being put to use on this album as well.  Slinky guitar riffs, shouting random non-sequiturs and just starting to get into that vibe that would become the Blues Explosion's trademark.

The stand outs for me have always been "Aftro," "History of Lies," "Soul Typecast" and "Inside the World of the Blues Explosion."  Those would be solid standouts on any album.  The rest of the record isn't filler, but I don't think the other songs reach quite as high.  It would take Jon and company one more album to perfect their potion, but once they did...hot damn was it ever perfect.

The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion - Extra Width:
https://shoverecords.bandcamp.com/album/extra-width

Pizzicato Five - Happy End Of The World 2xLP

Matador (1997)

In 1997 I was in college writing music reviews for my college news paper.  I was lucky to have decent relationships with a bunch of labels and publicists and Matador was a label that pretty much sent me everything they released.  One of those records was Happy End Of The World by Pizzicato Five.  I don't know what it was about this record that caught my ear.  It was so very different from anything I was listening to at the time, but from the very first moment I heard it I was onboard.

I think what keeps me coming back to it are the lush soundscapes of the album.  The production is upbeat and full of warm inviting sounds.  The vocals are somewhat secondary to me, but when they are present they just make everything seem bright and sunny.  I've always been particularly obsessed with the song "It's a Beautiful Day."  With its fast percussion and chant along spelling of the band's name in the intro, it's a song that always makes me smile.

I've had that promo CD I got at the newspaper in my collection since the day I got it, but decided that I also wanted to be able to listen to this on vinyl.  While patrolling Discogs I came across someone in Europe selling a copy that was still sealed.  While the price tag I ultimately paid was somewhat high, about a third of it was postage, so I still don't think it was a terrible deal.  Plus it sounds so amazing spinning on my turntable.  I'm glad to have a copy and I'm not even sure why it took me so many years to finally procure one.

Pizzicato Five - Happy End Of The World:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09Ie6pM6ZJk&ab_

The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion - Orange LP (Matador Pressing)

Matador (1994)

I've posted a few times about my goal of finding a pristine copy of Orange, as it is one of my very favorite albums of all time.  It's been a tough road, but I think I'm finally content with this version.  It isn't perfect, but it's pretty darn close.

This was actually a sealed dead stock copy that I bought from Japan, I got to be the first person to open and play the record after releasing it from its shrink-wrapped tomb for the first time in twenty-seven years.  Unfortunately the record had moved around inside the sleeve over the years and there was some minot scuffing, but for all but one song, it plays about as good as I could possibly imagine.  No crackles, no pops and rich, full sound.

The only exception to this is that there is a particularly deep scuff int he middle of "Flavor."  It doesn't affect the play too much, but you can hear the slight repetition of static as the needle plows through that section.  It's not a deal breaker, and I probably wouldn't notice it as much if I had not been listening to it so intently.  For now, I'm calling this quest over.  If I ever stumble across another reasonably priced sealed copy, I might take another chance, but for me this copy is finally good enough.

The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion - Orange:
https://shoverecords.bandcamp.com/album/orange

Pavement - Sensitive Euro Man Picture Disc

Matador (2020)

Twenty-five years ago in 1995, Pavement released Wowee Zowee.  It was the first album I heard by them and to this day it remains my favorite.  I'll always be thankful for my friend Scott in high school playing the record for me.  In my opinion it is just an absolutely perfect record.  For its twenty-fifth anniversary, Matador has reissued the record on vinyl, and while I don't need another copy of the full length, I did need to pick up the little bonus record they put out with it.

This shaped picture disc is meant to mimmic the speech bubble on the cover of Wowee Zowee and the flip side image on this is all yellow and says "PAVEMENT?" across it, along with the track information. It contains two songs.  The A side is "Sensitive Euro Man" originally from the I Shot Andy Warhol soundtrack.  On the B side is "Brink Of The Clouds/Candylad."  This was from a 1994 radio session that was recorded in Australia.  Both songs are interesting and showcase the weirder side of Pavement, but I don't think either really warrant a standalone shaped picture disc.

These tracks were both collected on the special edition 2xCD Wowee Zowee set that came out some years ago, the Sordid Sentinels edition.  That release contained a ton of B-sides and rarities.  I really wish that rather than creating an expensive picture disc with two songs, Matador had gone forward and released all of that material on vinyl.  They started that process awhile ago by putting out Secret History Vol. 1, focusing on the extra tracks from the Slanted and Enchanted era, but the project never went past that release.

I for one would have taken Vol. 3 over this release any day.  While this picture disc is neat looking, it's mostly just a fancy trinket to add to my collection of Pavement records.  There's no way I wouldn't have bought it as I need to keep my collection as complete as I possibly can, but it's not something I'd ever listen to all that much.  Now Secret History Vol. 3?  I'd listen to that all of the time.

Pavement - "Sensitive Euro Man":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFDbhqkr4iw

Pavement - "Brink Of The Clouds/Candylad":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGTzHvMOUa4

Pavement - The Secret History, Volume 1 (1990 - 1992)

Matador (2015)

Even though I wanted this record from the moment it was announced, from the get go I've been trying to contain any disappointment concerning this release.  I knew from the second the track listing was revealed that this particular record would essentially just be the bonus tracks from the CD reissue of Slanted And Enchanted from 2002 on vinyl for the first time.  And that is what it is, no more no less.  Yet I'm still somehow a little let down.

I think the real tipping point for me was opening this guy up and seeing all the liner notes were still dated 2002.  They refer to Slanted and Enchanted as being ten years old.  I realize there probably aren't any new songs to add to this, but some new liner notes couldn't have been that hard, could it?  All of this only matters if you bought the deluxe CD reissue back when it came out.  If you didn't, why this record is essential my good friends.  Early Drag City 7" tracks, some compilation rarities, Peel sessions and a live performance pack this double LP.

I could take or leave the live show.  I've never been much of a live album or bootleg guy.  But everything else is either a great song or just something fascinating to listen to in order to see where the band was at during this time frame.  I'm admittedly much more eager to see what comes out in further volumes of this series.  The rumor has it that everyone is aware this first volume is mostly just to give a vinyl release to these songs, but going forward there are more unreleased gems to share.  We'll see how that goes, but at the end of the day this is Pavement.  It's unlikely that I won't buy everything that comes out no matter what it is.