Pavement
Watery, Domestic [EP]

[Matador; 1992]

Styles: indie, lo-fi
Others: Silver Jews, Grifters, Sebadoh, No Age

Perhaps The Fall’s Mark E. Smith continually blasted Pavement because he knew, deep down, they were better than his band. It just seems thick to knock Pavement’s “Conduit For Sale!” and “Our Singer” for ripping off “New Face In Hell” and “Hip Priest,” respectively, when these rip-offs are warmer, funnier, and catchier than the originals. The Fall were — and are — a great band, but in 30 years they’ve never come close to matching what Pavement did in 10 — hell, what Pavement did in one.

The Watery, Domestic EP was Pavement’s post-Slanted And Enchanted release, their last work featuring original drummer Gary Young, and their first with bassist Mark Ibold and percussionist/keyboardist Bob Nastanovich. This incarnation of the band wouldn’t last past ’93 — when the hippie-dippie Young was replaced by fresh-faced Virginian boho Steve West — so these tunes aren’t exactly standing on solid ground. Stephen Malkmus had begun to pen better, bolder stuff (The Fall comparisons wouldn’t wash from here on out), which the new blood might have fleshed-out better with the help of a more dynamic drummer. But if Watery showcases a stiff, uncertain Pavement, the songs themselves are bright enough to overcome.

“Texas Never Whispers” begins with a wash of molten guitar spittle, but the noise is quickly shelved in the name of songcraft, a move the album’s alternate title, Diluted, Tame, cheekily acknowledges. The opener lumbers into strange pockets of melody and wordplay before collapsing in a flurry of rubbery riffs, while the winsome “Frontwards” hints at Malkmus’ lyrical potential beyond opaque, Dadaist bunk (“I am the only one searching for you/ And if I get caught then the search is through”). “Lions (Linden)” is willfully slight, but “Shoot The Singer” is a corker, with its jangling arpeggios nicked from page one of Play Guitar Real Good With Peter Buck.

Despite the fade-out coda of “Don’t expect, don’t expect…”, Pavement followed up Watery with Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain: their masterwork and the absolute zenith of ’90s American indie. The seeds are here: “Lions” begat “Cut Your Hair,” “Shoot The Singer” begat “Gold Soundz,” and so on. The band truly did their growing up in public, and even in their transitional phases, they were still pretty close to untouchable.

1. Texas Never Whispers 2. Frontwards 3. Lions (Linden) 4. Shoot The Singer