PVMT LP Reissues

While living in Seattle recently I found what ranks, for me at least, as the best record store in the U.S. I went to this – and many other – record stores often. Very often – they’re everywhere in that city and two of them are bigger than any Best Buy I’ve ever been to. Each time I walked into one of these stores I checked for used copies of Pavement LPs and 45s, never having and luck. I got to know the owner of my abovementioned favorite store a little bit. He learned my tastes and often promised that that Pavement vinyl did, in fact, show up used very often. Damn liar. 

So when I heard that Matador Records planned to reissue the band’s proper five-album discography on vinyl, and on the cheap (about $12 each), I was stoked. I have the original versions of the albums on CD and all the two-disc reissues. I have the Slanted and Enchanted LP reissue and a couple of 45s and live LP bootlegs. I have the Drag City-issued EP collection, Westing (by Musket and Sextant), and I have most of the Malkmus solo stuff on LP. But proper Pavement albums two through five have long been impossible to find. I don’t have them. No one I know has them. People just weren’t buying a whole lot of vinyl through the 90s, so labels didn’t print the stuff up like they do today or did before 1990.

With each of the two-disc CD reissues Matador released they also issued somewhat limited and very overpriced (usually over $70 each) souped-up versions of the albums on LP. Rich guys bought them, I’m sure, but probably no one else. I’d go and hold the monsters in my hands and drool, never quite *stupid enough to pull that trigger.

Stupid? Yeah, stupid. I already have these records on CD, right? Multiple times over! Why buy them on vinyl then, right? Why waste that money when I could be using the bread to buy records I don’t yet have? Well … because I love Pavement. And when my love for a band or an album hits a certain level, I can’t help but want to buy every little piece of junk they issue. And re-issue. And re-issue again. Buying the proper Pavement discography for a third time gives me reason to listen to their records with a new excitement. With new ears. And these LPs do sound slightly different than the CDs, regardless of what you’ve been told. And, hey, I get to hold something I love in my hands. I get to “turn it up” all over again. Screw these iPod gadgets!

Of the LP reissues, I’d say that the Wowee Zowee is the most essential (but only because Slanted has been available as an LP reissue for a few years now). Wowee is the must-own simply because it’s the band’s most challenging record to listen to on CD. It’s 18 songs long and, style-wise, is all over the place. Split here into two LPs (that’s four sides), it’s easier to break down the playlist and give attention to songs you have surely overlooked before. And damn if sides three and four don’t come off as the slacker version of the back half of Abbey Road.

In addition to the five studio albums, Matador is also reissuing the band’s 1992 classic Watery, Domestic EP. It is, for my money, the best EP ever released. It’s short, at just over 11 minutes, but there’s not a wasted second. Maybe more than anything the band ever did, Watery is the sound of Pavement. So, yeah, it’s safe to say I’d recommend buying all six of the vinyl reissues. And, hey, you can do so for about $70. Not bad.   11/10

Written by G. William Locke