Pavement's CRCR was re-released today. Two disc set with the original tracks, Peel session, earlier versions of CRCR tunes with Gary Young on drums, b-sides, rarities and a bunch of other unreleased tunes. 49 songs in all. Got it at lunch and am still making my way through my first listen. This was a huge record for me musically. Before this album I had been a music fan but not as passionately as I've been since getting CRCR. My freshman roommate had turned me onto The Fall, Jesus & Mary Chain, VU, etc. and I had done a blues show on our college station but it wasn't something I obsessed over. Then in the spring of 94, I was living in DC when a friend asked me if I wanted to go see Pavement at The Black Cat. I wasn't familiar with Pavement so he made me a tape with S&E tunes on one side and CRCR on the other. It took awhile for the songs to click with me but once I saw that show at The Black Cat, I was hooked. I quickly fell in love with CRCR and went on to buy everything Pavement released and see them live about 18 times over the next several years. And this obsession with Pavement led me deep into the Matador catalog and then the Drag City catalog and then Teen Beat and then Merge and so on and so on. It just mushroomed into this beast that now has to be constantly fed with new beautiful tunes. But it was CRCR that started that descent. It's a great album that still holds up today. God bless it.
I was gonna get this last night, but since my girlfriend and i are going through a world of ******** I replaced some joy division cds that were recently stolen instead. I am still really looking forward to this when i am in a better mood.
The tracks with Gary Young on drums are the highlight for me so far. I always liked his crazed sloppy drumming and it's clearly on display on those tracks.
Yeh, it's pretty cool. Slightly slower and less polished. It makes the connection between "Elevate Me Later" and "Loretta's Scars" a lot clearer. I never heard much of a similarity between the two tunes and didn't understand why "Elevate Me Later" was also called "Ell Ess Two" or "L.S. 2". But the jangly guitars that make "Loretta's Scars" such a good tune are more evident in this version. Sounds more like a slightly slower "Loretta's Scars". The version of "Flux=Rad" is much better than the Wowee Zowee version but "Range Life" misses the piano piece. "All My Friends" is a good new tune too. It would have made a good replacement for "Newark Wilder"
i definatly want to get this. i was quite the lover of lame music before i heard this cd in high school.