You Know You Are A 90s Kid When...
1) You constantly look at “You know you’re a 90s kid when…” articles, mostly attributed to Buzzfeed.
2) One of the best albums of the 1990’s that you’ve never heard turned twenty around the same time as you.
I’ll elaborate on #2. On February 14th, 2014, the album Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain by Pavement turned twenty years old. Happy Valentine’s Day and Happy Birthday!
As I mentioned before, you’ve probably never heard of Pavement, so Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain may surprise or terrify you. It’s one of the best albums of the 1990’s, and it’s not Smells Like Teen Spirit? Or Ten? Or OK Computer? No. It’s the seminal album by the seminal underground indie rock punk rebirth outfit Pavement – the band that your favorite band wants to be. Pavement had the Velvet Underground aesthetic of never being commercially popular/mainstream while having its way with critics and inspiring countless musicians to start bands. The men of Pavement were experimental, poetic, and culturally in-tune, but at the same time, they didn’t care. They embodied 90s disdain. They had loads of fun. Hence, Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain.
Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain is lauded. Rock publications and critics have showered Crooked (and the majority of Pavement’s other albums) with great praise since its release. In fact, Crooked is how I became an avid Pavement fan, finding the CD in a record store in Atlanta. I loved it so much that I promised to marry the first man I ever met that shared my same passion for Stephen Malkmus, Pavement’s lyricist/singer/guitarist. That didn’t exactly work out for me, but I still love Pavement, and I especially still love Crooked.
As it goes with discovering any band, I first fell in love with their most mainstream hit/single from Crooked, “Cut Your Hair”. If you have heard any Pavement song, you have heard “Cut Your Hair”. “Cut Your Hair” is one of the more accessible songs on Crooked, along with “Gold Soundz” and “Range Life”. Take the time to listen to these three songs before you continue reading.
That’s only a slight sample of the genius that is Crooked. Catchy hooks cleverly shroud the constantly acerbic lyrics and messages of the songs. (Did you hear Stephen poke fun at the Smashing Pumpkins and Stone Temple Pilots at the end of “Range Life”? That got Pavement kicked out of Lollapalooza in 1994.) Malkmus’s whiny, frustrated voice often builds to shouts, but he is just as capable of singing gently and directly (even in the midst of shredding guitar, like on “Elevate Me Later”). Scott Kannberg, Mark Ibold, Bob Nastanovich, and Steve West, the other members of Pavement, are often overlooked, but they set the Pavement mood and scene. If Malkmus was Pavement’s director, those four were Pavement’s cinematographers. These signature aspects of Pavement’s music solidified during the making of and touring for Crooked. Crooked established Pavement as one of the most important indie rock bands of all-time.
Crooked also gave Pavement their brief brush with fame. The singles from the album received airplay on MTV, and the band even played on Leno. Crooked escalated the public identity of the Matador Records, the independent label Pavement recorded under. Crooked was also a dramatic departure from their first album, Slanted and Enchanted (a dramatically lo-fi tour de force). Pavement had become a real band by the time Crooked was born. The album even ventures into the realm of instrumentals (for example, “5-4=Unity”) and completely pulls it off. “5-4=Unity” separates “Gold Soundz” and “Range Life” on the record, but I would never dream of skipping it.
If anything makes me wish I had been a teenager in the 90s, it’s Pavement and it’s Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain. Imagine getting a mixtape with “Gold Soundz” on it, or seeing them “ruin Lollapalooza” in 1995, or watching Pavement awkwardly share Leno’s couch with Drew Barrymore. So weird, so perfect, so 90s.
(This article was inspired by this article!)