Pavement Kick Off Vinyl Rarities Compilations With ‘Slanted’ Outtakes
In addition to their five full-length records, indie-rock firebrands Pavement often recorded several non-album songs and live sessions that came out in dribs and drabs around each album. Now the band’s label, Matador, is giving these rarities, B-sides, unreleased tracks, Peel sessions and live concerts a new home with a series of vinyl releases that will serve as companion “shadow albums,” to use Matador’s term. First up is The Secret History Vol. 1, which collects recordings from around the 1992 release of the group’s debut, Slanted and Enchanted. The double-album is due out August 11th.
Although the material on the compilation came out in 2002 when the label put out the double-CD reissue Slanted and Enchanted: Luxe and Reduxe, all but five of its 30 tracks have never been available on vinyl. The track list collects songs from Peel Sessions, seven-inches and recordings from the group’s first European tours, after Mark Ibold and Bob Nastanovich joined the band.
The double-LP also contains essays by singer-guitarists Stephen Malkmus and Scott Kannberg (aka Spiral Stairs), as well as essays from the heads of labels Matador and Drag City and touring agency Billions Corporation. It also features a new gatefold designed by Rob Carmichael, who made Animal Collective’s Sung Tongs and Dirty Projectors’ Bitte Orca art.
The band reunited in the fall of 2010 for a short-lived series of concerts. “It’s weird how over the last however many years, Pavement‘s become a much bigger thing,” Kannberg told Rolling Stone in 2009. “This whole generation of kids discovered Pavement after we had disbanded, and made us into a huger thing than we ever envisioned. So now I guess we can tour and make those people happy.” Although that reunion was short-lived, Kannberg joined Malkmus to play the Pavement song “Stereo” at a 2014 gig in Los Angeles.
The Secret History, Vol. 1 Track List:
1. “Sue Me Jack”
2. “So Stark (You’re a Skyscraper)”
3. “Summer Babe” (Seven-Inch Version)
4. “Mercy Snack: The Laundromat”
5. “Baptiss Blacktick”
6. “My First Mine”
7. “Nothing Ever Happens”
8. “Here” (Alternate Mix)
9. “Greenlander”
10. “Circa 1762” (Peel Session 1)
11. “Kentucky Cocktail” (Peel Session 1)
12. “Secret Knowledge of Backroads” (Peel Session 1)
13. “Here” (Peel Session 1)
14. “Rain Ammunition” (Peel Session 2)
15. “Drunks With Guns” (Peel Session 2)
16. “Ed Ames” (Peel Session 2)
17. “The List of Dorms” (Peel Session 2)
18. “Conduit for Sale” (Live in Brixton 1992)
19. “Fame Throwa” (Live in Brixton 1992)
20. “Home” (Live in Brixton 1992)
21. “Perfume V” (Live in Brixton 1992)
22. “Summer Babe” (Live in Brixton 1992)
23. “Frontwards” (Live in Brixton 1992)
24. “Angel Carver Blues Mellow Jazz Docent” (Live in Brixton 1992)
25. “Two States” (Live in Brixton 1992)
26. “No Life Singed Her” (Live in Brixton 1992)
27. “So Stark (You’re A Skyscraper)” (Live in Brixton 1992)
28. “Box Elder” (Live in Brixton 1992)
29. “Baby Yeah” (Live in Brixton 1992)
30. “In the Mouth a Desert” (Live in Brixton 1992)