Pavement reissue improves on an already-great sound

Spencer Patterson

Thursday, July 3, 2003 | 8:47 a.m.

Artist: Pavement.

Title: "Slanted & Enchanted: Luxe & Reduxe."

Year of release: 1992 (Matador) (re-released 2002).

Tracklisting: Disc 1: ("Slanted & Enchanted" LP:) "Summer Babe (Winter Version)," "Trigger Cut / Wounded-Kite at :17," "No Life Singed Her," "In the Mouth a Desert," "Conduit for Sale," "Zurich is Stained," "Chelsey's Little Wrists," "Loretta's Scars," "Here," "Two States," "Perfume-V," "Fame Throwa," "Jackals, False Grails: The Lonesome Era," "Our Singer." (Slanted sessions:) "Summer Baby" (7" version), "Mercy Snack (The Laundromat)," "Baptist Blacktick," "My First Mine," "Here" (alternate mix), "Nothing Ever Happens. (John Peel Session #1:) "Circa 1762," "Kentucky Cocktail," "Secret Knowledge of Backroads," "Here." Disc 2: ("Water, Domestic" EP:) "Texas Never Whispers," "Frontwards," "Feed Them to the (Linden) Lions," "Shoot the Singer." (Watery sessions:) "Sue Me Jack," "So Stark (You're a Skyscraper)," "Greenlander." (John Peel Session #2:) "Rai n Ammunition," "Drunks With Guns," "Ed Ames," "The List of Dorms." (Live, Brixton Academy, London, Dec. 14, 1992:) "Conduit! for Sale," "Fame Throwa," "Home," "Perfume-V," "Summer Babe," "Frontwards," "Angel Carver Blues / Mellow Jazz Docent," "Two States," "No Life Singed Her," "So Stark," "Box Elder," "Baby Yeah," "In the Mouth a Desert."

I'll admit, when I first heard that Pavement's debut album was scheduled for reissue, I was skeptical, to say the least.

One of the unquestioned indie rock masterworks of the early 1990s, "Slanted & Enchanted" was perfect as originally released: 39 minutes and 14 tracks of quirky lo-fi goodness.

When Matador Records' long-rumored "Luxe & Reduxe" edition hit stores last year, however, I was shocked to discover that the label actually found a way to make Pavement's best CD markedly better.

To my ears, the original album cuts remain unchanged. Any remastering that may have been done did not strip gritty songs such as "Conduit for Sale," "Fame Throwa" and "Perfume-V" of their fuzzy charms.

Better still, "Slanted" has been beefed up to more than twice its original length, supplemented with an extra disc and a whopping 34 bonus tracks. Taken together, the new version presents a more complete look at a band that influenced countless indie acts before splitting up in 1999.

Some of the additional material -- Pavement's "Watery, Domestic" follow-up EP, a pair of "John Peel Sessions" performed on BBC Radio and a live show from 1992 -- was already available to most fans, either on official releases or on the band's two widely circulated bootleg CDs, "Stuff Up the Cracks" and "Stray Slack."

Other tracks, such as "Slanted" outtake "Nothing Ever Happens," have never been issued previously, making this an essential set even for those who already own all the band's albums, EPs, singles and compilation work.

Most of the expanded set's best cuts remain the originals off the 1992 release, unconventional compositions with seemingly nonsensical lyrics such as "In the Mouth a Desert," "Loretta's Scars" and the instantly captivating leadoff track, "Summer Babe."

There are also plenty of highlights among the bonus material, notably a take on the Silver Jews' "Secret Knowledge of Backroads" from the first Peel Session and searing versions of "Home" and "Angel Carver Blues/Mellow Jazz Docent" from the London concert.

The package includes loads of additional artwork, along with liner notes contributed, in part, by Pavement founders Stephen Malkmus ("S.M.") and Scott Kannberg ("Spiral Stairs").

Best of all, despite the album's considerable expansion, it still retails for under $20 and can be found easily at any self-respecting record store.