Steve Reynolds Program - Grounded
the intro
In the 90’s, I read a lot of alternative comic books, the kind of comics without half and non-humans with magical powers running around. I liked stuff about cranky beer-drinking cynics who sell records at flea markets, surreal Lynchian tales of everymen finding secret societies and cheapskates alienating everybody around them.
I can immediately recall the three panels that made me audibly laugh the hardest when reading them. In Hate comics, it’s a grizzled and befuddled alley cat that was offered as payment to a band for a gig. In Eightball it’s an old, emaciated nudist who introduces himself with “my name is Spurt McGoo.” It’s the dumbest juxtaposition ever.
The third one is from the first issue (I think) of Doofus by Rick Altergott. It’s just of these two extremely caricatured idiots playing with toy cars on a sidewalk while people walk around and over them. The serious look on the yokels’ faces while they concentrate on pushing tiny cars in the way of people going to work was perfectly drawn.
As this newsletter this goes on, I have to ask myself if is this what I’m doing. Are these old songs I turn my attention to my toy cars? Is this a studied and deliberate ignorance of the world as it is today? Should I direct my attention to the politics and issues of today?
To everything there is a season, I guess. Diversions are nice. I’ll try to devote more time to other purposes under heaven, like that song deffo not in my top 100 songs says.
Just for variety’s sakes, I did this post as all bullet points.
Song #31
Grounded
by Pavement
· Pavement was simultaneously the most radical band and the most grandma-friendly band of the 90’s
· Singer Steven Malkmus would wear untucked long sleeve polos a la Farmer Ted in Sixteen Candles
· Big aside, and I don’t think it’s explained in the movie: I’m guessing Anthony Michael-Hall’s character’s name was Ted Farmer, someone saw it listed on a class list as “Farmer, Ted” and an ironic nickname for a suburban geek was born
· What I thought was Pavement’s great fuck-it-all attitude probably was self-sabotage due to doubts of self-worth
· That fuck-it-all attitude could also be reflective of limited budget and, at first, the manic drummer Gary Young (who I called Gary King in my novel, a mistake only called out by one astute reader; I claimed it was deliberate to reflect the blowhardiness of the narrator) who recorded and drummed at the same time
· Pavement is a band I’d rather see live now than then. They care more now and so do I
· Speaking of self-sabotage, their third album Wowee Zowee was assessed as that by critics at the time. A return to noise and fucking around after having a big success with Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain. No “Cut Your Hair,” part two on this
· Wowee Zowee has the song “Fight This Generation” a then-relatable self-loathing take on Generation X. I now see Gen X grandmas posting on Facebook bad memes celebrating Gen X (bragging that as kids, we drank from water hoses and were out until dark. Wow.) I wonder how they have such different a different, positive (ewww!) opinion of ourselves than me and my homies in Pavement
· Pavement, like Nirvana, believed in the same false syllogism “1. Band X is popular. 2. Band X is dumb. 3. If my band becomes popular, my band will be dumb.” That’s reductio ad absurdum, but an element of truth, or explanation, remains
· Malkmus is a good singer. He sometimes tries to sing bad, but even then he’s still good
· By this album, Pavement played different styles. Parts sound like Sonic Youth, Beefheart, Big Star, Flying Burrito Brothers, minor SST bands, whatever
· These different styles are very evident because the album is sequenced with focus on jarring changes between songs
· Before the gorgeous “Grounded,” is an unpleasant goof-off called “Brinx Job” which has Malkmus and others singing “we got the money!” and making noise, maybe a statement on getting money from clueless suits at their label to make music with no supervision
· “Grounded” sticks in the mind with the guitar’s chiming two note part with the bass playing whole notes that prefigure the melody sung by Malkmus
· Drum parts like on this song are sometimes called “deceptively simple,” but there’s nothing deceptive here. It’s just simple
· The lyrics here maybe address the disconnect between a rich doctor and his daughter who needs attention
· How Malkmus sings “contract BRIDGE” will stick in my head whenever I hear the card game mentioned (not as often as I’d like)
· The reason this song is on my list is the simple guitar line that functions as the worldless chorus. It gets me
· Farmer Ted grew up to be the rich doctor in this song
postscript
This issue’s Song I’m Mad I Forgot To Put On The List is “Kim’s Dirt” by Dirty Three. I saw them perform this live in a dorm cafeteria. The contrast between seeing the violinist playing so stark and intense while dorm rats in pajama bottoms walked through to buy junk food is one that I’ll never forget.