Why ever raise indolence to a fundamental aesthetic category?
If you have made it your artistic signature, perhaps.
With bitter lyrics: poetry halfway between the sub-proletarian suburb and college; but where is it going and directed?
Restrained guitars, compelling low-fidelity structural awkwardness, which does not mean unfaithfulness, hollow chimes, nibbled melodies, drums and bass bouncing without emphasis, trembling more than anything out of fear of living "where the fog is rented, if there is".
Why not? You make indie rock!
Slackers have always been underrated. But they’ve taught a lesson. What would the '90s be without the "Sidewalk"? Malkmus, unaware of '80s hedonism, reincarnates the existential malaise of post-punk but gives it a new, tolerable form; he fights and wins his battle (pointless to fight, but even more pointless to lose!). He comes out pure. As if mocking, between clashes and beatings. A semi-serious hero, bearer of a humble yet not miserable art, grand but shrunk to the minimum, in the urgency of expressing itself reluctantly yet effectively, how it's done, well, only he knows. And with a phantom, distant beauty. But it's beauty! Hesitant, in slow motion, hidden. But beauty it is. Which makes Pavement enchanting. Shimmering above the exhaustion that has possessed them, and above every philosophical ailment.
Which side to choose, then? Pavement draw a line, willingly or not, you either jump in or you don't. Then, when you’re on their side, all you need to do is walk. No flying, no falling. You make do with what you have. And, a few steps later, with what you are. If you see a lesson in this, perhaps, there is. A bit like a Zen impresario. Improbable, all of a sudden. But soon you find yourself having to think before you speak or act! Whether you eat the bear or it eats you, you don’t care. That's how it must be.
"Watery, Domestic" is the EP with the well-known backyard bird embossed on the cover among little signs, darts, and titles engraved with very white reliefs and, at first glance, elusive. Four tracks that cut the legs starting with "Texas Never Whispers" to close with "Shoot the Singer (1 Sick Verse)". You have the impression of piercing noise, of the exquisite melody, that something immense is about to happen. Nothing! If at least Medusa's glance petrified you! But nothing. No jolts. No revolutions. No suspicions. Yet subversion. As if to say: Were you looking for liberation? Are you blind? You’re already free to begin with. Do whatever the hell you want, but don't bother. Shall I lend you the eye stolen by Perseus from the Graiae?
A tad more aggressive than what we are used to, but still kind, neither ungainly nor elegant. They sing about "dry and dirty summers", motels and car trips, "souls crumbling like a clod of earth". In "Weatery, Domestic" they show us the rubble of their work. Not achieved through sludgy waters, but domestically indeed. As if to say: we’ve left them here, if you want to come and see... If you want to call it "aesthetic avant-garde"...
A random group of guys, shabby, with flashes of genius. Stephen Malkmus and Scott Kannenberg/Kannberg from Stockton, a lost town: not too far from San Francisco, yet light-years away from Seattle. And, in particular, they tried to go against the current, for a little while, the rock more beautiful than it was.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 Texas Never Whispers (03:08)
Here we go
She's on a hidden tableau
Just a 2-for-1
And the 2-for-1
Is right down my alleyside
I'm just a wasted behind
Don't you know
It's an easy thing
When it's lost
Doesn't show when
The ends are frayed
And it's tossed out
Lined with silver thread
I've seen you(r) wasted behind
She's so lackadaisical
Should have been
A west coast bride
Back seat on electric glide
Pilots flying
Drive by fades
Dont hold your breath too long
This tunnel is
A Texas mile
Callow teasing yellow eyes
Bleacher dates the second prize
Cherry pickin' favorites
My dash was locked
I guess I feel fine
The way the river bends
The woman's bending over me
Ba-da-da-da ba-da-da-da
(Texas Texas Texas Texas)
02 Frontwards (03:04)
I am the only one searchin' for you
And if I get caught
Then the search is through
And the stories you hear, you know they never add up
I hear the natives fussin' at the data chart
Be quiet, the weather's on the night news
Empty homes, plastic cones
Stolen rims, are they alloy or chrome?
Well, I've got style
Miles and miles
So much style that it's wastin'
So much style and it's wasted
So much style and it's wasted
Now she's the only one who always inhales
Paris is stale and it's war if we fail
And in the migrant hotels, they never sleep
They never will
Their souls are crumblin' like a dirt clod
Hold- your cigarette cuts to the inside
Empty homes, plastic cones
Stolen rims, are they alloy or chrome?
Well, I've got style
Miles and miles
So much style that it's leavin'
This pattern's torn and we're weavin'
This pattern's torn and we're weavin' in it
03 Lions (Linden) (02:00)
Every building same height
Every street a straight line
Team colour's yellow and blue
Cheerleaders single file
Perfect smiles unaffected
And you won't forget
Our colour's blue
No you won't forget it
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!
Summer's dry and foul
Resevoirs are shallow
Spillways unexposed
It's never been inspected (expected?)
When the government's elected
And the field's will turn to yellow too
And the field's will turn
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