[falang]

A vote for wowee here. Rattled, black out, kennel district, father to a sister are all amazing.

American Water by the Jews is also top notch indeed.

 

[Sparky191]

Never heard of them or most of the bands in this thread tbo.

 

[blessingx]

There are only three musicians I've tried as an adult to collect most rarities, B-sides, etc.: Frank Sinatra, Bob Dylan and Pavement/Steven Malkmus.

I probably give Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain the most listens, but Wowee Zowee is my fave. I'm also partial to the Spit On A Stranger EP with the Harness Your Hopes track.

And don't forget the Slow Century DVD. Nice doc and collection of their unusual videos (even the band saw some of them for the first time upon its release).

 

[DDF]

If you love Pavement, and like Jazz, you have to hear this one:

http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=19590

I beat it to death.

PS I put my nickle into the Wowee vote...

 

[tru blu]

...much harder question to answer than I'd imagined. Wowee Zowee? Excellent album. Brighten The Corners? Terrific. Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain? Guitar noise never sounded so lyrical, with the possible exception of Sonic Youth, Pavement's big influence. I'm gonna go with Slanted & Enchanted, though, because when I just put the others on after years of not hearing them, Slanted is the one that made me forget I'd grabbed it for research. The others are definitely more refined both sonically and melodically, but Enchanted feels like they're realizing brilliance and making it up as they go along. A pretty neat trick...