Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain
The first album with Steve West, made in a windowless Manhattan room, and the one that put Pavement on the radio.
Pavement, 1994
- Released
- 14 February 1994
- Recorded
- August to September 1993
- Studio
- Random Falls, New York
- Label
- Matador
- Length
- 42:16
Earlier attempts at Young's studio came to nothing. Most of the tracking was then done in Mark Venezia's two-room studio on 29th Street in Manhattan, which Kannberg remembered as claustrophobic, with no windows. Malkmus and West laid down most of the basic tracks, Kannberg overdubbed guitar and vocals, and Ibold played bass on a few songs. Malkmus recalled three or four sessions over a few days. Bryce Goggin mixed it, re-recorded the snare and played piano on Range Life, and the sleeve says it was produced by no one else. Malkmus said in 1994 that it had been a more worrisome record to make than the first.
It reached 15 in the UK and 121 in the US, with singles in Cut Your Hair, Gold Soundz and Range Life. Erlewine gave it five stars at AllMusic and Christgau an A. Pitchfork later named Gold Soundz the best song of the 1990s. The expanded LA's Desert Origins edition followed in 2004.
Track listing
- Silence Kid3:01
- Elevate Me Later2:51
- Stop Breathin4:28
- Cut Your Hair3:07
- Newark Wilder3:53
- Unfair2:33
- Gold Soundz2:41
- 5-4=Unity2:09
- Range Life4:54
- Heaven Is a Truck2:30
- Hit the Plane Down3:36
- Fillmore Jive6:38
Personnel
- Stephen Malkmus vocals, guitar, bass
- Scott Kannberg guitar, vocals, organ, percussion
- Mark Ibold bass, vocals
- Steve West drums, percussion
- Bob Nastanovich percussion, vocals
- Bryce Goggin mixing, piano on Range Life
- Mark Venezia co-engineer
More from Pavement
Slanted and Enchanted (1992), Brighten the Corners (1997)
Sources
- Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain, Wikipedia
- The Oral History of Pavement's Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain, Stereogum (2014-01-16)
- Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain (CD), Discogs
- Big Slack Attack: Jim Greer's 1994 interview with Pavement, SPIN (2022-07-31)