It must be some sort of divine stroke of comedy that made Malkums’ reflection on the cover of Pavement’s bootleg compilation Stuff up the Cracks looks exactly like Steve Perry (or maybe I’m just seeing things). There’s a hilarious contrast between the hyper-produced, nauseatingly glossy soft rock that an image of Perry conjures up and the truth of the snarlingly ugly music hidden within. This is Pavement unhinged, captured in a way even their celebrated lo-fi masterpiece Slanted and Enchanted couldn’t quite pull off. With a combination of searing Peel session recordings, a few lost odds and ends, and some wild (and possibly recorded on an answering machine) live tracks, Stuff up the Cracks is THE document for experiencing early Pavement.
I guess the best place to start is the absolutely monstrous version of “Here” from the band’s first Peel session in June of 92. “Here,” in its original form, is one of the mellower songs in Pavement’s catalog, with a laid back chorus and nary a distorted guitar in sight. Live, Malkmus and company seemed to have forgotten to turn off their fuzz boxes, warping what was a classic indie singalong into mangled sheets of distortion. But it’s actually a bit of a revelation to hear the song like this, feeling the bite of the lyrics which were lost a bit in the original.
Then there’s my personal favorite from the same Peel session, “Circa 1762.” The song is a classic bit of Malkmus (a college history major) genius, incorporating historical word play along the lines of “Conduit for Sale!” into a raucous guitar freak-out. The song also has a nice back and forth between Malkmus and Bob Nastanovich (I assume) that proves he can do more than scream wordlessly.
Finally, there’s the epic “List of Dorms” from the band’s second visit with John Peel in December of that same year. “List” is two simple parts: Malkmus bellowing “going home!” over a massive buildup and Malkmus shredding his vocal chords over a massive groove. It’s simple almost to the point of stupidity, but for me that’s the whole point of Pavement. It didn’t matter what the song was; Malkmus and gang never gave less than 100%, leaving us with recordings that still define the word “raw” two decades later.
