On a day to day basis I go to Rotoworld more times than I do Facebook, Gmail, YouTube and Wikipedia combined. So last night when I awoke from my customary Tuesday evening nap I thought I had to still be dreaming when the headline on the site's home page wasn't about Eddy Curry acting like a member of the Black Lips, but an interview...about fantasy basketball...with Stephen Malkmus.
Of course, there is nothing I love more than basketball, Pavement or fantasy sports so this was huge for me. The one problem I did have was with interviewer Steve Alexander's top ten Malkmus/Pavement list (well, that and SM's team name: "Widespread Perkins," c'mon).
Now, for the sake of making a Pavement oriented list, I'm going to reorganize SA's top ten Pavement/solo SM list. I guess I could make my own top 10 list, but mine seriously changes about every hour (and I probably like "Coolin' by Sound" more than I should admit to people). Here's what Alexander had in his top ten:
10. Gardenia – Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks
9. Spit on a Stranger - Pavement
8. Greenlander - Pavement
7. Pink India – Stephen Malkmus
6. Gold Soundz – Pavement
5. Zurich Is Stained - Pavement
4. Summer Babe - Pavement
3. Box Elder - Pavement
2. Frontwards - Pavement
1. Here – Pavement
Not bad. Could be worse. Obviously "Spit on a Stranger" is a weird choice. Not to mention the hundreds of none Terror Twilight songs that could be on there in it's place, but if you're gonna pick a TT song isn't "Ann Don't Cry" a far superior choice or did Comet Gain just do a pretty rad cover of it?
The same could be said about his solo SM choices, but I guess it's hard to blame him there. If you're interviewing one of your indie rock heroes you probably don't want to make a list that says "hey, basically everything you've done in the last ten years is shit." I guess that's why I don't get to be in fantasy basketball leagues or hold interviews with SM.
Granted, "Pink India" and "Gardenia" are two of the better solo SM songs, but personally I would have gone with either"Mama" or "Post-Paint Boy" in there somewhere if I had to include the solo stuff.
(And if "Blue Arrangements" was even a consideration here shame on him for not having it make the top five.)
Okay, here's my rearanging of SA's list:
10. Spit on a Stranger - Ehh. Getting a better quality version of "For Sale: Preston School of Industry" is about the only reason I'm looking forward to the Terror Twilight reissue.
9. Gardenia – Richard Avedon would surely agree on this placement, but probably not the stupid video.
8. Pink India - A top five solo SM tune, but still light years away from...
7. Greenlander - This one has always sounded like REM doing a relaly slow cover of a Fall song to me. that's a good thing.
6. Here – I'm assuming he's not talking about the Peel Session version. I personally perfer to dress for suck. It's not that I don't love all that "Here" has to offer, but nowadays I usually just skip it and "Two States" to get to "Perfume-V"
5. Zurich Is Stained - Near perfect, but not long enough. I can definitely appreciate the genius of a short song, but this isn't one I can accept as is. BE LONGER!
4. Box Elder - the easiest Pavement song to play on guitar. Whenever I pick up a guitar the opening chords to this one are probably my go to when I don't know what to play.
3. Summer Babe - Okay these top 3 are pretty much untouchable. I have it listed third here, but if I made this list while listening to "every time, every time every time...." I'd consider it my favorite song ever.
2. Frontwards - Watery, Domestic is so perfect that "Frontwards" is the second best song here, but the third best song on the EP.
1. Gold Soundz – I was too young to "be there" for Pavement. But I wasn't too young to own a radio. Well, unless HFS was cooler than I remember it might not have been the radio, but my older sister's room where I was first exposed to Pavement. I remember liking "Cut Your Hair" as a kid, but I remember LOVING "Gold Soundz." I judge people solely on "Gold Soundz" if I pay it for you and you don't like it, it's not that we can't be friends, it's that I hope something reallyterrible happens to you..immediately.
Anyways. I love Pavement. I love fantasy bball. If you feel same do me a favor and please pray for the following:
- a Monta Ellis return this weekend.
- for me to somehow join SM's fantasy bball league...or at least one with Nastanovich or Janet Weiss.
Oh, I thought this was pretty fun to watch
that is all for now
1 comments:
Great stuff! I am the "interviewer" and creator of the list in question...Honestly, I put a total of about 30 seconds into making that list and almost even forgot Frontwards, which woulda sucked. Spit on a Stranger is catching some heat, but that is a song that has some sentimental value to me and one that I really do like, despite it not being the greatest Pave song ever - My list after all...And yeah, did I really wanna put Gardenia on there in front of Raft, We Dance, Silence Kit, etc? Well, not really, but Malk's solo stuff deserves some props too. As for Mama, I think that's like your "Here." Heard it enough, skip it, etc. as my kids always liked to jam that non-stop in the car when it came out. Anyway, thanks for rearranging my list and cking out Rotoworld - I don't known when Monta's coming back, but Steve Jax should be back on Friday - Maybe Monta will be too. If I had it to do over again, I woulda spent more time on my Top 10 list, but as you know, it woulda changed every single time I did it. In fact, I'm still not even sure why I threw it in there, but I'm glad I did - People seem to love to debate it. For me, Here is just such an epic song, the last one they played live, the first Pavement song I ever heard (covered by Indianapolis band Lovemeknots live in 92ish) and it's probably my all-time favorite song. Is it too late for me to add Debris Slide or Forklift to my list? Rock on.
Steve
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