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WIZARDS OF THE DELTA

Revisiting a '90s Indie Rock Classic

BILL WOOD | DECEMBER 26, 2024

The 1990s were a personal high water mark when it came to popular music. There were so many remarkable musical styles and trends; grunge, Britpop, gangsta rap, industrial, trip-hop, revivalist punk… hell, even the techno bands were killing it. Eventually nü-metal came along and screwed everything up, but it was still quite a run.

For this indie stalwart, Pavement were what The Replacements were in the ‘80s: the one special band you wanted to believe in, even when they tested your faith. The ‘Mats eventually compromised that faith simply by attempting to live up to expectations, whereas Pavement… well, remained Pavement, steadily maturing their sound while stockpiling hipster cred and only threatening to become R.E.M. To this day, three of their LPs are among my all-time favorites, and that’s not counting Watery, Domestic. I even wrote them fan mail, with postage stamps and everything.

I snatched up every Pavement release I could get my hands on, first on cassette and later on compact disc. This was no small feat since the band tended to crank out loads of EPs and extended singles with killer B-sides. Not only that, but the Internet as we know it was still in its infancy. There were no targeted advertisements or point-and-click purchases, if you wanted something you had to get out there and find it. Having said that, walking into the local record store and stumbling across that fresh new CD maxi-single that you didn't know existed always felt special, an Indiana Jones moment for indie nerds.

Like their alt-rock peers the Pixies, Pavement have experienced quite the renaissance in the decades following their initial demise. We now have theatre plays, movies, documentaries, and yes, reunion tours. The deluxe edition CD reissues were always my faves, each one a self-contained love letter to their original LP release. Alas, compact discs are virtually extinct, and in their place is the ever-convenient digital download. Following a fourth purchase (one cassette, two CDs and this cyberspace collection), now seems like a perfect moment to spend some quality time with the expanded Wowee Zowee: Sordid Sentinels Edition, an album that only improves with distance and reflection.

Released in the post-grunge implosion of 1995, Pavement's Wowee Zowee is a sprawling, meandering record that ignored the success of their previous release, Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain (still the band's biggest seller with its KROQ-friendly single “Cut Your Hair,”), challenging listeners with an eclectic selection of radio-adverse tunes. Slack-paced and unfocused, the album was a critical and commercial comedown; there was no major label onboarding, no Bleach-to-Nevermind leap toward megastardom, no eyeliner photo shoots (in fact, the band seemed to go out of their way to find their most unflattering pics for the album design). At a time when their alternative peers were becoming increasingly accessible and arena-friendly—all the while complaining that they were tired of clichéd rock star trappings—Pavement seemed to be bucking a trend simply by staying the course.

Music listeners largely avoided Wowee when it was released, effectively killing off any opportunity for future mainstream appeal. Since that time the LP has experienced a Pinkerton-esque resurgence, the songs are now highlights of the band's live sets and many fans declare it their finest hour. I'm sure this sounds like hipster revisionist history but I never had any reservations, it was a perfectly awkward record for a perfectly awkward moment. The raw fury of grunge had peaked and burned itself out within the space of four years. Alternative was being distilled into a palatable commodity, a fashion plate for aging metalheads and a fastlane pass for industry-groomed newcomers. Wowee was a coda, a dimly-lit beacon for guys like myself who wanted to fight this generation but couldn't find their way out of the mosh pit. When I bought my first decent stereo system (also in 1995), Wowee Zowee was the one album I purchased with it. Honestly, there wasn't even a backup option.

Bucking the trend of bombastic fuzz-rock openers, the album kicks off with the haunting acoustic ballad “We Dance.” Raw, majestic, and perhaps even mildly sincere, it’s as much of a departure as anyone could expect. “Rattled By The Rush” sees the band drifting into familiar alt-rock territory, but with a decidedly laid-back groove. The song's fuzzy country rock vibe is a theme that runs throughout, as if Dinosaur Jr. smoked a bunch of reefer and decided to become the Eagles. That's not to say Pavement are a completely different band on Wowee Zowee; there's plenty of noisy warble throughout, not to mention a direct connection between “Father To A Sister Of A Thought,” Slanted And Enchanted's “Zürich Is Stained” and Crooked Rain’s “Range Life.” But for the most part it's a diversion from what many fans—including myself—were anticipating.

If Crooked was the first record to feature Pavement as an honest-to-God rock group with “Newark Wilder” a glimpse into untapped potential, then Wowee delivers on that potential by being their first fully-matured record. The rhythm section—literally an afterthought on their earliest recordings—is solid, the guitar work dense and sublime. “Black Out” is a prime example of the band's newfound strength, a song that probably couldn't have existed a year prior. It's a major step up, and a trend that would continue through their next two offerings, Brighten The Corners and Terror Twilight.

One advantage of the modern listening experience is that it brings the contributions of multi-instrumentalist, lead screamer and noisemaker Bob Nastanovich to the forefront. Nastanovich supplemented their sound with everything from güiro to Moog to that vaunted staple of Southern rock, the second drum kit. Whenever you hear something out-of-left-field yet perfectly natural within the confines of a Pavement song, odds are it's Bob handiwork.

The original Side B of Wowee simply doesn't get enough credit. With its '60s lounge vibe and a chorus that hearkens back to Slanted And Enchanted, “Grave Architecture” is one of the album's brighter tunes. “AT&T” underscores Malkmus' talent for pop songcraft, composing melodies that could make Rivers Cuomo blush while espousing his trademark poetic chicken scratch (“my heart is made of gravy, and the laps I swim from lunatics don't count”). And while Spiral Stairs can be hit-or-miss, I have to admit that “Kennel District” is a damn fine piece of songwriting.

The album’s centerpiece is “Fight This Generation,” a rambling four-and-a-half minute alt-opus that drifts from waltzing lullaby into droning fuzz-rock before finally dissolving into a wacky space jam. Malkmus interrupts the mid-section to lazily repeat the title over and over, sounding like he has no intention of fighting anything. It's probably just another case of mish-mashing syllables that work well together, but the lyric comes across as a cynical battle cry. This is also the closest the band ever came to prog, arc-welding several oddly-timed musical components into a single unit while somehow remaining true to form. It may or may not be their “Stairway To Heaven,” but if someone were to ask me to celebrate Pavement with a song, this might be the one I’d play.

While it is a decidedly mellow album, Wowee Zowee still contains its fair share of arty dissonance. “Flux = Rad” and “Serpentine Pad” are basically laminated punk credentials, ear-splitting testimonials that these guys used to listen to Black Flag. “Brinx Job” and “Western Homes” are the closest thing to filler. The extended edition adds tons of quality B-sides, many of which could have supplanted the more clamorous tunes to create a cohesive experience if only they had been given a bit of focus. “Kris Kraft,” “Easily Fooled,” and the wonderful “I Love Perth” are all excellent candidates, but then again, Wowee wouldn't be Zowee without its sharp left turns.

Pavement were branded with the slacker label early in their career, smart-aleck college students who could cobble together a catchy song but couldn't be bothered with finding a bassist, keeping time, tuning their guitars or singing in key. They penned their own epitaph on their very first LP (“I was dressed for success / but success it never came”), and while they may have wrinkled their noses at the notion of joining their peers on the altar of alt-rock royalty, Wowee Zowee: Sordid Sentinels Edition proves exactly how dedicated S.M. and Co. actually were at the peak of their creative prowess. They kicked off the '90s by releasing singles and agreeing to not become a band; they ended the decade with studio sessions, world tours, press interviews and music videos. They also crafted several of the decade’s finest albums, a perfect sound forever. - BW

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