Pavement Album: “Major Leagues [EP]”

Pavement has a tradition of putting out great EPs. While this might not be the all time greatest EP ever, it does give a good overview of the band's sound. The first track is Major Leagues, a solid song from the band's final album that made for an undeniably weak single due to it's whispiness. The EP picks it up a notch with two songs by Spiral Stairs that are worth the price of admission. "Stub Your Toe" sports the trademark backing vocals and some slick guitar work. It's a fast, smooth number, and provides a welcome contrast to SS's precedding track, "Your Time To Change." It's a little bit more epic, and contains some interesting (and appropriate, given the title) time changes. This song still lives on in Preston School of Industry's live set, and it's easy to see why. The fourth track is the demo version of Major Leagues, complete with some keyboard playing that is both terribly cheesy and amazingly wonderful at the same time. One can't help but wonder if this is what Terror Twilight would have sounded like had it not been produced by Nigel Godrich. The rest of the album consists of a lazy demo sung half in French, a wonderful cover of "The Killing Moon", and then a little burst of Malkmus energy in the form of "The Classical." This EP is a great deal of fun, but it's certainly not grade A material. Still, Pavement fans will be pleased that it was even released in the first place, and while it occasionally fails to awe like the band's best work can, it never disappoints.

If you're into Pavement and want to start collecting singles, start with Spit on a Stranger, Pacific trim, and Shady Lane. Those are easily the best. However, if you have all those,Major Leagues is a great addition. Your time to Change and Stub Your Toe are excellent Scott songs recorded with original drummer Gary Young. Decouvert de Solei is a catchy little demo, half of which is sung in french, and it's great. Has kinda a surf sounding guitar and more upbeat than Terror twilight's stuff. The major Leagues demo made me actually like that song more. The two covers at the end are not quite as good as original Pavement songs, but they aren't bad.

Ok, I don't know how this guy could give this single 4 stars....This is the best Pavement single i've heard, and I have nearly all of them. It's even better than the Spit on a Stranger single. Stub Your Toe is now one of my favorite songs. What's with people not liking it when Scott sings? sheesh....and the French song is so unique and...cool....simply put: every song on this cd is good and is even LP material.

This EP isn't the work of a band ready to star in the major leagues--it's more like a fading, tired veteran about to be sent back to the minors.

Leading off is a shortened single version of "Major Leagues" from "Terror Twilight," which is a decent song (although the the tamest thing on the album) that loses something in the editing. And, let's admit it--the inevitable Steve Malkmus solo career will be full of stuff like this.

But fans buy Pavement EPs for the bonus tracks and oddities. And this one has plenty of 'em.

So who steps up to bat next? It's Scott (Spiral Stairs) Kannberg: "Your Time To Change" and "Stub Your Toe" are songs that obviously are not the work of Pavement the band. In fact, they seem to be Scott alone backed by former Pavement drummer Gary Young, whose loud, busy playing might warm the hearts of "Slanted and Enchanted" nostalgists. Scott's songs are at best forgettable, although they might have been helped by full band arrangements.

Next up, we have two demos by Malkmus (again, not Pavement the band): "Major Leagues" and the inexplicable "Decouvert de Soleil." The former is sluggish and dreadful, full of the cutesy synthesizer noises that he seems so fond of. The latter is mostly in French, and is interesting primarily for his use of the "MF" word at the end. File both of these under: "play only once."

After Malkmus strikes out twice, up steps two live tracks--Pavement the band (!) performing at a pair of BBC sessions from 1997: covers of Echo and the Bunnymen's "The Killing Moon" and "The Classical" by the Fall. The Bunnymen cover is the star of the pair (and the whole EP), although mostly because this disc is so starved of decent tunes that a real song sounds better than it probably should. In reality, Pavement's take doesn't improve on the original, although it's kind of nice to hear them trying, at least. The Fall cover is fine if you like the Fall, fairly tuneless if you don't.

And that's the lineup, top to bottom. This time, our heroes don't win. Pavement isn't a viable band anymore, it appears. And the crummy quality of the solo demos doesn't give one much reason to celebrate that. What will the next EP contain? Demos from Nastanovich, Ibold, and West? Oh boy.

Save your money on this one. Call your local radio station and ask them to play "The Killing Moon," and tape it.

Pavement is going good, I like this guys actitude, That's enough