Ear on TV: Week of 09.20.10: Pavement

Stephen Malkmus of Pavement at Sasquatch! Music Festival

Appetite for nostalgia seems boundless, as this week on talk shows makes perfectly clear. Nineties indie faves Pavement, Superchunk and Primus all perform this week, reminding us of the point in time when starting your band name with "the" became uncool.

Pavement announced their reunion last year, and have been both thrilling and disappointing audiences alike for a good chunk of 2010, just as it's always been. The sprawling guitar-heavy band move from chaos to pure pop climax at the drop of a hat, often requiring a few songs in the set to get 'loosened up.' They'll have to hit their stride a lot sooner this week, performing on both The Colbert Report (Monday) and Late Night With Jimmy Fallon (Thursday).

For the Fallon appearance, the indie rock legends held a contest for entrants to send in videos of them playing Pavement songs, with the winner getting a chance to play with the band on the set. The winner, Robert from Oklahoma, had the distinct advantage of his son dancing around in an ape suit. The father-son combo, shown in the video below playing "Grave Architecture," are kind of like Steven Malkmus and band mastcot/jester Bob Nastanovich when you think about it:


Meanwhile, in the other indie slack rock corner, North Carolina's Superchunk aren't so much reuniting as just deliberate in releasing their latest album, Majesty Shredding. It's been nine years since we had a Chunk joint, and even long since we've had one as unadorned and spunky as this one. The band is slated to pogo on the stage to "Digging for Something" on Fallon Monday night, and hopefully will sneak in a classic ("Slack MotherBEEPer" please?) for a web exclusive.

Finally, the wonderfully weird Primus have performing albums from their 90s catalogue in their entirety, like Frizzle Fry (1990), much to the delight of audiences. Last Wednesday in Los Angeles, the band taped a performance of songs of which a part will be used this Friday on Jimmy Kimmel Live. The small set included favorites spanning their career, including "Pudding Time," "Golden Boy," "Tommy the Cat," "Those Damned Blue-Collar Tweekers" and "Over the Electric Grapevine." If you listen closely, you can hear at least one person yelling out their classic call to arms, "Primus sucks!" (And no, they don't.)

Picks for the week
Monday, September 20
ABC: Jimmy Kimmel Live: Phoenix
CBS: Late Show With David Letterman: Chromeo
COMEDY CENTRAL: The Colbert Report: Pavement
FUEL: The Daily Habit: Dam Funk (REPEAT)
NBC: The Tonight Show with Jay Leno: OK Go
NBC: Late Night With Jimmy Fallon: Superchunk
NBC: Last Call With Carson Daly: The Walkmen
SYNDICATION: The Ellen DeGeneres Show: OK Go
TBS: Lopez Tonight: Michael Franti & Spearhead
Tuesday, September 21
ABC: Jimmy Kimmel Live: Band of Horses
CBS: Late Show With David Letterman: Maroon 5
FUEL: The Daily Habit: Fang Island (REPEAT)
NBC: The Tonight Show with Jay Leno: Sheryl Crow
NBC: Late Night With Jimmy Fallon: Merle Haggard
NBC: Last Call With Carson Daly: Nas & Damian Marley
SYNDICATION: The Ellen DeGeneres Show: Santana & India.Arie
Wednesday, September 22
CBS: Late Show With David Letterman: Tom Jones
CBS: Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson: Sara Bareilles
FUEL: The Daily Habit: Cali Swag District (REPEAT)
NBC: The Tonight Show with Jay Leno: Tommy Lee
NBC: Last Call With Carson Daly: Alberta Cross
Thursday, September 23
ABC: Jimmy Kimmel Live: Trombone Shorty
CBS: Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson: Bettye LaVette
FUEL: The Daily Habit: Vampire Weekend (REPEAT)
NBC: Late Night With Jimmy Fallon: Pavement
NBC: Last Call With Carson Daly: Janelle Monae
Friday, September 24
ABC: Jimmy Kimmel Live: Primus
CBS: Late Show With David Letterman: Jimmy Eat World
CBS: Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson: Willie Nelson
FUEL: The Daily Habit: Jemima Pearl (REPEAT)
NBC: Late Night With Jimmy Fallon: John Legend with The Roots
NBC: Last Call With Carson Daly: La Roux (REPEAT)
SYNDICATION: The Ellen DeGeneres Show: Maroon 5
Saturday, September 25
NBC: Saturday Night Live: Katy Perry (SEASON PREMIERE!)
PBS: Austin City Limits: Them Crooked Vultures (REPEAT)

Sasquatch 2010 Lineup Revealed!

Tonight at the Crocodile, Sasquatch celebrated a launch party with Surfer Blood, Atlas Sound and Fresh Espresso, but the real attraction was Sasquatch's 2010 lineup.

We has assumed that a reunited Pavement was one of the headliners, but that turned out to be a red herring, and the three Sasquatch ended up with were on hardly anyone's radar. Massive Attack, My Morning Jacket and Ween. Playing armchair festival runner for a second, besides Pavement, Vampire Weekend, MGMT, or even Public Enemy might have been better choices instead of Massive Attack or Ween, but I never usually worry who's on the main stage at the end of the night... the second stage is where I always end up.

Here's the deets, UPDATED! with day-by-day tentative scheduling:

Saturday, May 29th
My Morning Jacket / Vampire Weekend / The National / Deadmau5 / Broken Social Scene / OK Go / Wale / Public Enemy / The Hold Steady / Miike Snow / Z-Trip / Brother Ali / Minus The Bear / WHY? / The Very Best / Portugal. The Man / Mumford & Sons / The Lonely Forest / Nurses / The Middle East / Patrick Watson / Laura Marling / Morning Teleportation / Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros / Fool's Gold / Garfunkel & Oates / Dam-Funk

Sunday, May 30th
Massive Attack / Pavement / LCD Soundsystem / Tegan and Sara / Kid Cudi / Nada Surf / Dirty Projectors / The xx / The Long Winters / Simian Mobile Disco / Midlake / Girls / Vetiver / The Tallest Man On Earth / YACHT / Booka Shade / Caribou / Avi Buffalo / City and Colour / Cymbals Eat Guitars / A-Trak / Fruit Bats / tUnE-yArDs / Local Natives / Freelance Whales / Jets Overhead / Rob Riggle / Luke Burbank

Monday, May 31st
Ween / MGMT / Band of Horses / She & Him / Passion Pit / The New Pornographers / Drive-By Truckers / Boys Noize / Camera Obscura / The Temper Trap / Dr. Dog / Neon Indian / No Age / The Mountain Goats / Phantogram / Quasi / Japandroids / Mayer Hawthorne & The County / The Low Anthem / Fresh Espresso / Hudson Mohawke / Telekinesis / Past Lives / Yes Giantess / Craig Robinson

Friday Night Lights: Tomorrow Blues

While last week's penultimate episode for seemed like a metaphor for FNL facing cancellation, the finale cleverly plays it both ways -- providing a sense of closure while also setting up compelling story opportunities for next season. It wasn't until the final few minutes of this episode that I would've really felt angry if the series had failed to get renewed. Thank goodness for DirecTV ex machina.

Click through for rest of post. Music portion below...

There wasn't really much music to analyze here ("Baby I Love Your Way" as wedding music!) but I can tell you I heard Pavement's great song "Lions (Linden)" when I saw the East Dillon mascot reveal. The song is about a high school football team, the Lions, and their close in proximity rivals, and with a song from singer Stephen Malkmus appearing last week, it's only fitting to bring him back:

Twenty miles westwards
Home of the Redbirds
Team colour's crimson blue
Open up your purses
For the boys to reimburse us
With a goal line stand on 4th and 2
And that goal line stand ... Ha!

Playlist: Friday Night Lights - Episode 3.13
1. "Something Good This Way Comes" - Jakob Dylan - Opening montage
2. "Low Rider" - War - Buddy drives Eric out to visit a prospective player
3. "Beautiful" - Gary Jules and The Group Rules - Matt moves Lorraine into an assisted living facility
4. "Baby, I Love Your Way" - Peter Frampton (originally by) - Billy & Mindy's wedding
5. "Bridal Chorus" (from 'Lohengrin') - Wagner - Mindy walks down the aisle
6. "Car Wash" - Rose Royce (originally by) - Wedding reception
7. "Fooled Around And Fell In Love" - Elvin Bishop (originally by) - Lyla tells Tim of college plans
8. "Waltz Across Texas" - Ernest Tubb and Mel Tillis (originally by) - Eric has a drink
9. "Mustang Sally" - Wilson Pickett (originally by) - Matt watches Julie dance / they talk
10. "When A Man Loves A Woman" - Percy Sledge (originally by) - Couples dance

Previously: Deterministic Jitters (Episode 3.12)

Now Downloading: New Releases 12.09.08

Another week limping towards the new year, this one marked by a fourth Pavement special edition reissue, a live album from Justice, and new releases from the Sufjan Stevens conceived Welcome Wagon, Common (profiled a couple days ago) and DM Stith.

Playlist: New Releases 12.09.08

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Pavement - Brighten the Corners: Nicene Creedence Edition
Stream / Purchase [mp3]

In looking at the sequence of releases, Pavement has been zigging and zagging between slack art splash and something more mainstream. The artistic underground success of Slanted and Enchanted led to the more polished sound of Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain, followed by a retreat to the slapdash beauty of Wowee Zowee, which sounded like it should've been S&E's follow-up. The fourth proper album, reissued this week in a special edition titled Brighten the Corners: Nicene Creedence Edition, was a sharp turn back to the mainstream, sounding more like CR, CR's logical successor. This double CD edition captures some of the struggle with this zig zag, featuring plenty of left out songs that if edited together, could've made for a more WZ experience, if so inclined. The album, though, has a hint of maturity, as both SM and Spiral Stairs found themselves moving to the north side of 30 during the recording, and "Shady Lane" sounds like a reflection on that marker (and, not coincidentally, hints at Ray Davies' Kinks during their Village Green Preservation Society days). Diehard fans really need all of these special editions, that much is true, but the casual fan trying to decide if they're going "all in," you need to start at the beginning with these, as the first two in the series, Slanted & Enchanged: Lux & Reduxe and Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain: LA's Desert Origins are far more essential in their contents. As we move closer and closer to the end of Pavement in these special editions, the bonus material can try your patience a bit, but if like I said, if you're a real fan, all of these are going to be essential (if only for the great liner notes!). Notable bonus songs include the b-sides "Harness Your Hopes" and "And Then (The Hexx)" which would've both made for great inclusions on the album -- "Hexx" in fact pops up later on Terror Twilight, which begs the question: Just how much is left in the vault for that final special edition?

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More on the radar (and in the mp3 player) this week (AOL Streams rollover 11/17)
Justice - A Cross the Universe / Free AOL Album Stream
Welcome Wagon - Welcome to the Welcome Wagon / "Sold! To the Nice Rich Man" [mp3]
DM Stith - Curtain Speech / "Around the Lion Legs" [mp3]
Common - Universal Mind Control
Arrington De Dionyso - I See Beyond The Black Sun
Headlights - Remixes
Vampire Weekend - The Kids Don't Stand a Chance (Single)
The Maine - ...and a Happy New Year EP
Musiq (Soulchild) - onmyradio / Free AOL Album Stream
Paul Weller - Weller at the BBC

tags: music, album review, neil young, lily allen, indie rock, new releases, rhapsody