Early Times
Originally released as the “Dime Map of the Reef” single and The Arizona Record EP, this collects the grotty indie-strum laid down in Jersey City during the first Bush administration by Pavementers Steve Malkmus and Bob Nastonovitch and their UVA buddy David Berman. Pavement nerds might know the Southern spell “Secret Knowledge of Backroads” from a Peel session, but the rest of this cryptic urk, the mystery of which made SM’s other band seem like Kardashians by comparison, has been out of print for decades. Berman and the Jews may have gotten higher-fi and easier on the ears, but never more casually charismatic and deeply urban.
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• Photos: Random Notes