Pavement-Shady Lane CD EP (1997)

Artist: Pavement    

Title: Shady Lane

Label: Matador

Format: CD EP

Cat #: OLE 266-2

Year of Release: 1997

Country and Year of Edition Issue: US 1997

Sold Price: $2.99

Listed Condition: VG+/VG+ (drill cut on spine)

Sell Date: 9/12/20

Discogs Last Sold: 4/21/20

Low: $1.00

Median: $2.00

High: $3.99

Current low price: $2.99 VG+/NM

Current Number on Sale at Discogs: 14

Have/Want: 201/24

Where Sold: Plainsfield, IN

Time it took to sell: 8-10 years including Amazon and Half.com

Where and When Bought and estimated price paid: some used CD store on E. Houston in NYC that I think is long gone, the $4 sticker was still on the case...I think they give a volume % discount for regulars.  NYC was a mecca for used critic cds sold pre-release in the 90's.  

Gwiz-gau Letter Grade: C+

Sad To See It Go?: No

Knowing that Pavement did all those 2-CD reissues (I bailed after Slanted & Enchanted Luxe & Redux), I wondered what would make someone in Indiana buy this EP outside of the same reason I bought it used in 1997: baseline completism.  

I bought this EP blindly, played it once and dutifully filed it away, as I did every Pavement release that came across my fingertips after the disappointing Wowee Zowee that I spun an extra time just to make sure.  I came on board with the Demolition Plot J-7 7" as peripheral ravings about Slay Tracks and Wedding Present from the always interesting taste of Steve Erickson of Cut zine went filed away in my 1989 memory banks.  I saw them live at the Middle East upstairs in Cambridge early on and bought their 10" from them then.  I saw them at Irving Plaza around the Brighten The Corners period, maybe it was Terror Twilight Time in 1999.  Even though my heart left Pavement with drummer Gary Young's departure, I stayed on board until they broke up, and into the solo career of Malkmus (whose first solo I enjoyed more than everything after Crooked Rain).

So the question remained in my mind: why now?  I looked at the track listing of Brighten The Corners: Nicene Creedence Ed. and realized that the entire EP opened the second disc minus "Shady Lane" which was on the album.  Or so I thought.  Upon closer examination "Shady Lane/J Vs S" is one track clocking in at 3:50.  But on the EP "Shady Lane (Krossfader)" clocks in at 2:17.  I gave a cursory listen to the rip of the EP on my computer and haven't A/B'd the original.  This is a project for someone else.  Perhaps someone in Plainsfield, Indiana.  "Shady Lane" the song was remembered and enjoyed all the same in some configuration, the rest of the EP was not, and I can't say I will ever sit through the Brighten The Corners reissue start to finish to ponder these 4 tracks further.