Oh sweet coincidence has yet again opened my eyes to a forgotten path which I once considered taking: A few weeks ago I had my annual revival of Pavement. Dusting off my cd racks (yes I do dust off stuff every now and then though leaning more to the then part) I found what in my humble opinion is the best Pavement release ever. I have never meet anyone who share my opinion on that matter. But for me Wowee Zowee is the album of Pavement and among my Top 10 of the 1990.
Actually it is one of the first truly alternative things I heard. Back then I played 1. division and 2. division pool in Aarhus and my mentor Kim Møller was into all these strange things. Amongst other records he generously lend me Surfer Rosa by Pixies, Green Mind by Dinosaur Jr. and Wowee Zowee by Pavement. It was not that popular amongst my friends, and me eager to fit in had a little secret place in my room where I hid my inner urge to listen to these fuckers. I still remember my cousin laughing in my face when he read the inlay of Wowee Zowee: “Dick sucking fool at pussy licking school“. How could I defend listening to this music instead of Genesis, David Bowie, Mike Oldfield and such? I didn’t defend it. I hid it. But now the box is open!
Two years ago I had the idea to make a tribute to Pavement. To repay their favour of sticking on to me eventhough it was comme il faut in my friends reign of terror. I wanted to make a re-recording of the entire Wowee Zowee album. Thus I contacted I Am Bones to hear if they’d like to partake as my backing band. I caught Clubhouse (the bass player) over the phone while they rehearsed and I clearly remember Gammelby (the singer and guitar player) shouting “Ja, da for fanden, det skal VI da!” (babelfish this if you are from outside Denmark, which you are not, which makes my choice of language for this blog quite strange, huh!). I had the idea to record the entire album and have different singers for the different tracks. And to make a single out of the song Grave Architecture. A “We Are The World” version of this song that is. Well, none of this happened. I got lazy and made some Decorate Decorate stuff instead. Which was nice aswell. But the idea still taunted me for the years to come.
And now! A week after my revival it was out that Pavement were to reform for a few live shows in New York. And the day after they told that they would make a festival tour of Europe too. My heart exploded! And the idea came back. Thus in coalition with the wonderful Johannes Gammelby I will record a version of Grave Architecture plus a video. We are doing it “We Are The World”-style. And it is bound to change the music scene as we know it.
I am still to invite singers to this thing but I have heard around and made a list and everyone I asked is up for it. It will be splendid. And I have an idea of who will release it but it is still a secret. It will be a new and utterly amazing label.
So grab ya old Pavement records, get a steady groove on and wait a few months for the release of the first danish tribute single to Pavement. It will blow ya mind and fondle your soul.
