Oh hi people from two months ago! I forgot about this thread like you can't believe once school started, and didn't once remember until Bulldog reminded me. Thanks buddy! Anyway, here goes.
Pavement - Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain: L.A.'s Desert Origins
(Originally released 1994, reissued 2004)
There are some bands I like to name-check... and one of them is R.E.M. - "Ripping Off" (Whatever that Means)
R.E.M. fans stick together. They are a band that plenty of people tolerate, but one that surprisingly few people love. I swear that finding somebody else who loves R.E.M. like my dad and I do is such a great experience and they always become great friends. Thus, imagine my surprise when the hipster band I never really noticed reissued Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain in 2004, with what was perhaps the most clearly R.E.M. influenced album I had ever heard. Malkmus and company effectively brought the R.E.M. sound into the nineties in a way better even than the way R.E.M. themselves did. The latter went in full strings and high production, dabbling in many styles on Out of Time and focusing it on Automatic for the People, but Pavement created a perfect balance between R.E.M.'s folk influenced I.R.S. years work and the newfound hard edged lo-fi sound of the early ninteties.
Instrumentally, the album constantly alludes to staples that R.E.M. helped to create; the mid-tempo countrified electric bit that is "Heaven is a Truck" is instantly reminiscent of the piano based "(Don't Go Back to) Rockville" from Reckoning, while the repetitive bass riff on "Hit the Plane Down" sounds remarkably similar to that of "Auctioneer (Another Engine)" from Fables. Even under Malkmus' rough power chords are very present arpeggiated riffs that would fit perfectly on Lifes Rich Pageant.
Yet, while the influence is obvious, Spiral Stairs and company are clearly very humbled by their Idols, paying tribute with their version of "Camera" from Reckoning, which is perhaps one of the best covers ever. Malkmus unleashes so much feeling with his horrible voice on that song than I've ever heard anywhere. No kidding. With no lyrical similarities save the words "...a Camera", Malkmus clearly had trouble understanding whatever the hell Michael Stipe was singing, and decided to write his own words instead. Classic! Later on comes the awesomely funny "Unseen Power of the Picket Fence", in which Malkmus talks about what a great album Reckoning was, and how R.E.M. were "Southern boys just like you and me".
"Time After Time... was my Least Favorite Song! Time After Time was my Least Favorite Song!" he wails, in what might be the best joke about an R.E.M. song ever. Pavement loves R.E.M., and R.E.M. apparently loves them back; (Their 1995 album "Monster" features a heavily Pavement-influenced guitar based sound). This mutualistic nature of the two bands is what makes them both so great; that they can effectively take influence from each other without "ripping [anyone] off". That's music at its best, and that's certainly what Pavement is all about.