Pavement-Crooked Rain Crooked Rain- LA's Desert Origins (2004)

 

Artist: Pavement

Title: Crooked Rain Crooked Rain- LA's Desert Origins

Label:Matador

Format: 2CD

Cat #:OLE 610-2

Year of Release: 2004

Country and Year of Edition Issue: US 2004

Listed Condition: VG+/VG+

Sell Date: 5/4/21

Sell Price: $5.99

Discogs Last Sold: 5/3/21 $11.50 NM/NM

Low: $4.98

Median: $7.00

Average:$9.52

High: $16.89

Current low price: $5.95 VG+/VG+

Current Number on Sale at Discogs: 25

Have/Want: 1338/180

Where Sold:Sunnyside, Queens, NY

Time it took to sell: 4 years

Where and When Bought: consignment collection

Gwiz-gau Letter Grade: A-

Sad To See It Go: No

This is one of those sprawling releases I was regretting writing about, if only for knowing I was going to need to give a few close to 3 hour passes if I was going to have any sort of handle on the bonus tracks for this decade anniversary of the original album.  At the time this revamped reissue  was released, I passed on it, even though I eagerly bought Slanted and Enchanted Redux just a couple years before.  My feeling was that although this was an A record and I had bought the surrounding EP's, there wasn't anything else that warranted a repurchase ten years later.  You might pinpoint this period as when I stopped caring about getting everything related to Malkmus including solo albums, and you would be right, as I stopped after his first.  This is slightly after the time I started to conflate "Spit On A Stranger" to be on the first Malkmus solo album because I had forgotten about Terror Twilight completely.  That was in my view his final great utterance.

So this is sprawling as it's own 49 track entity.  The first dozen original tracks are easy.  All are memorable for me.   "Stop Breathing" has been going through my head today and I think I might've subliminally nicked a few seconds in the Butt Ox song "The Language of Rock" instrumental  but it was the furthest thing from my mind with that instrumental and the D was dropped anyway. Does "5-4=Unity" give Dave Brubeck interpolation royalties?   

Of the hits, "Cut Your Hair" was the best of 'em.  "Range Life" interrupted my continued ignorance of Stone Temple Pilots.  Indie major label rock's "Turn The Page."   Perhaps Brooklyn's best live venue is named after "Gold Soundz" but the "z" would be redundant in Brooklyn.  Of the previously released bonus tracks that pad out the first disc, "Raft" and "Unseen Power of the Picket Fence" story of REM, that appeared on the No Alternative comp Arista put out in '94, of the "alternative" heavyweights of the day.  Somehow I have 2 copies of this on Facebook my storage shelf.

The unreleased bonus tracks disc has some winners.  "Hands Off The Bayou" is a good one, with a nice falsetto into anthemic wail.  The alternative "Range Life" has a key lyric change paying toll before rent instead of dues. It also has treble kicking ennunciation.   "Dark Ages" sound like a cover by The Frogs.  The rest of it sounds as you would expect an odds and sods of a crested Pavement circa 1993.

I was a bit surprised when this sold for only $5.99 after starting 4 years ago over $10  This was a consignment sale,so I didn't have skin in the game on this, but I was still concerned.  Premium deluxe usually means $10-20 range in the worst of circumstances.  People are still paying that for mint copies, they want assurance of clean packaging I guess and the award winning Gerard Cosley Q&A booklet I haven't gotten around to reading (in part because I found out after this went out the door after sitting in a consignment box in storage 4 years). Maybe the booklet was not even there.  

This copy, from a consigned collection, seemed as clean as they come used, but I tend to avoid unsealed NM ratings to avoid the condition fanatics of Discogs.  I avoided selling vinyl albums for years for this reason until I built up my rating with safer singles. That G+ was a P at best!    Usually with this type of return I regrade, put notes on possible points of dispute and of course raise the price i.e start the price cycle as a newly listed piece.  Perhaps I may cut some year old flagged prices if I'm bored and sales slow down.  Or maybe I'm too busy doing something else. I'm fine with my inventory selling slow enough to give a final listen and write about them before they go out the door.  Actually, I get slightly annoyed when I've sold 20 pieces in a week and have to get them off before listening to all of them, but sometimes it happens. Either I listen digitally on a slower week and write in retrospect, or (gasp) the title gets buried by the dust of time   This reissue was released at the end of the CD era where reissues still were mass produced and sold in large quantities for a reasonable price.  Now they are 4 record box $100 limited edition tombstone slabs for Record Store Day 2024 for a 30th anniversary celebration.   

Was my consternation about spending this time warranted?  I asked the Pinch Point editor, who was enthused about Slanted & Enchanted Redux when it came out,  for a second opinion with a quick txt "Ever try a full pass for the crooked rain reissue?"

The response? "No lol"