Pavement - Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain (w/ guest Jim Appio)

The cool dad himself, blogger Jim Appio (cooldadmusic.com), joins Brian and Bill to talk about Pavement's Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain (1994, Matador). The brainchild of singer songwriter Stephen Malkmus, the band grew it's reputation as indie alternative auteurs with a series of EPs before releasing their debut album, Slanted and Enchanted, and becoming a touring band proper. They followed up with this "breakthrough" album that, although it only made a small impression commercially, has gone on to be an influential and critical success. Jim talks about discovering the band shortly after this release and how their noisy alt sound conflicted with his usual love of "tight pop" music. Bill, Brian, and Jim discuss how Pavement fit into the "classic alternative" mold, the band's knowing references, guitar solos and being anti-rock, how sports are like war, where the underdog exists geographically in the US, how Pitchfork forced us to discuss Pavement's place within the pantheon of greatest songs from the 90s, how every song on every album is somebody's favorite song by that band, and of course a track by track review!