Awesome Pavement Contest in Celebration of Brighten The Corners: Nicene Creedence Expanded Edition Reissue on December 9

Matador Records is reissuing the seminal 90's indie-rock band Pavement's 1997 album, "Brighten The Corners," and in honor of this momentous occasion they're having what seems like a lame contest at the outset, but then you think about it, and then it's kinda rad: A $500 giftcard from IKEA and a shopping trip to the Swedish furniture mavens near you with a member of Pavement! Get excited!! This is a very cool offer, especially for those indie-rock loving, broke-arsed college students that you know. All you have to do is submit a photo of your hovel that needs an extreme makeover, as well as an essay describing why the muck and mire of said hovel has got to go, to the Pavement fans group on imeem. The deadline is December 6, and the winner will be announced on December 9, the day that "Brighten The Corners: Nicene Creedence Edition" is issued. Good luck with that!

I leave you with the tune "Date With IKEA," off Brighten The Corners, that gave Matador and imeem this big contest idea:

Soundtrack of Your Life: Pavement - "Gold Soundz/Range Life"

When I'm in a crappy, crampy mood like I am in today, music usually saves the day. "Soundtrack of Your Life" will feature select tunes from the 90's that felt that they were literally the saving grace of a sometimes boring day to day.





First up is the formidable indie rock band Pavement, and their indelibly good singles, "Gold Soundz" and "Range Life." These songs are the epitome of the lazy, hazy summer songs that appeared quite frequently throughout the 90's. These two always felt like companion pieces to me, demanding to be heard one after the other every time you listened to either one of them. And as I get older, I come to appreciate the hopefully sad quality of Stephen Malkmus's lyrics...a taste from "Range Life":

after the glow, the scene, the stage, the set
talk becomes slow but there's one thing i'll never forget:
hey, you gotta pay your dues before you pay the rent.
over the turnstile turn out in the traffic
there's ways of living it's the way i'm living
right or wrong, it's all that i can do,
and i wouldn't want to let you be.

The wistfulness hits me hard now that I'm at the point in my life where childhood and even adolescence are starting to become harder to see in the rearview, and I don't always know how to be an adult. But also Malkmus calling out Smashing Pumpkins and Stone Temple Pilots in his delightfully tongue-in-cheek way was actually quite a ballsy move for a time when those bands ruled the Earth.

Admittedly, Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain (1994) is my favorite Pavement album. It was reissued in 2004. I do recommend you pick it up if you are still into the whole physically-walk-into-a-record-store-and-buy-an-actual-CD thing. That would be very 90's of you. :-)

You can find the hilarious video for Gold Soundz here.

Please enjoy the video for Range Life here:



Can I just mention how much hotter and more intriguing girls were in videos back then? It was fun to see punk rock chix on the telly when you were one.