In 1997, Domino Records tried really hard to make a huge hit of the song Shady Lane by Pavement.
The song had been one of the most popular tracks on the LP Brighten The Corners. Known as Shady Lane/J vs S, it was the best part of four minutes long and as the title suggests, consisted of two distinct and very different bits of music.
It was decided to give the song a subtle remix. A couple of silent gaps from the original track were eliminated and the remix also saw the new version come to a halt as the last guitar note on Shady Lane was struck, bringing it right down to just over two and a half minutes.
An up and coming director by the name of Spike Jonze was brought in to make a promo and the mult-formatting approach was taken meaning that to obtain all five of the track on the b-sides, fans would need to buy the 7″ vinyl and the 2 x CD singles.
Despite this, it stalled at #40. Criminal if you ask me:-
mp3 : Pavement – Shady Lane (krossfader)
I only have the second of the CDs in the collection and both of the b-sides are belters in different ways:-
mp3 : Pavement – No Tan Lines
mp3 : Pavement – Wanna Mess You Around
The former is a tremendous if atypical Pavement song (jerky guitars and that fast-slow-fast killer combination) that you find yourself singing along to once you’ve listened a few times. The latter, coming in at just under 90 seconds sounds like The Fall crossed with The Pixies and The Ramones. Oh and the lyric is a little ruder than messing you around…
Manic and Mad.
Enjoy
