Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain: LA's Desert Origins

Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain: LA's Desert Origins is a double album by Pavement released on October 26, 2004. It contains the band's second album, Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain (1994) in its entirety, as well as 37 of the band's other songs from that era, 25 of which (the entire second disc) were previously unreleased. The album also contains a 62-page booklet of liner notes, which contain photographs, artwork, accounts from vocalist/guitarist Stephen Malkmus and guitarist Scott Kannberg (a.k.a. "Spiral Stairs"), and notes Malkmus wrote for Melody Maker about each of the songs on the original album. The liner notes also feature a surreal and sensationalistic "interview" between Matador's Gerard Cosloy and the fictitious "Rob Jurkface". According to Cosloy, he took questions by Pavement's biographer, Rob Jovanovic, changed them slightly, and wrote silly answers for them.

Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain: LA's Desert Origins
Compilation album by Pavement
Released	October 26, 2004
Recorded	Early 1993 – February 26, 1994
Genre	Indie rock
Length	158:01
Label	Matador (USA) Domino (UK)
Pavement chronology
Slanted and Enchanted: Luxe & Reduxe (2002) Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain: LA's Desert Origins (2004) Wowee Zowee: Sordid Sentinels Edition (2006)

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
The Austin Chronicle	[1]
Blender	[2]
Christgau's Consumer Guide	[3]
Cokemachineglow	96%[4]
Entertainment Weekly	B+[5]
Pitchfork	10/10[6]
Rolling Stone	[7]
Spin	A+[8]
Tom Hull	A–[9]

Some of the songs on the second disc ("Flux = Rad", "Kennel District", "Grounded" and "Pueblo") are early forms of songs on 1995's Wowee Zowee.

Shortly after the release of this set, a Matador employee posted corrected info regarding the recording sessions for the previously unreleased tracks on disc two: Only tracks 2 through 8 feature Gary Young on drums. Tracks 13 through 21 were recorded at Gary Young's studio in Stockton, though Gary does not play on them; any drums were played by Spiral Stairs.

A further mistake is found in the track-listing on the back of the CD; Silence Kid is listed as Silence Kit, despite the interior artwork showing the correct name in print several times, including written in Stephen Malkmus's own handwriting. Some have pointed out that on Pavement's 2010 tour the song appeared on their set-list as "Silence Kit" (Set list), although it is not clear who typed the list, or if it was done as a joke.

Track listing

All tracks by Pavement

Disc One: "Back to the Gold Soundz (Phantom Power Parables)"

Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain

1. "Silence Kit" – 3:00

2. "Elevate Me Later" – 2:51

3. "Stop Breathin'" – 4:27

4. "Cut Your Hair" – 3:06

5. "Newark Wilder" – 3:53

6. "Unfair" – 2:33

7. "Gold Soundz" – 2:39

8. "5 - 4 = Unity" – 2:09

9. "Range Life" – 4:54

10. "Heaven Is a Truck" – 2:30

11. "Hit the Plane Down" – 3:36

12. "Fillmore Jive" – 6:38

"Cut Your Hair" single

13. "Camera" – 3:45 (R.E.M. Cover)

14. "Stare" – 2:51

"Range Life" single

15. "Raft" – 3:34

16. "Coolin' by Sound" – 2:50

"Gold Soundz" single

17. "Kneeling Bus" – 1:33

18. "Strings of Nashville" – 3:46

19. "Exit Theory" – 1:00

Gold Soundz Austral-N.Z. French Micronesia 94 Tour EP

20. "5 - 4 Vocal" – 2:08

Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain bonus 7"

21. "Jam Kids" – 4:54

22. "Haunt You Down" – 4:51

No Alternative compilation

23. "Unseen Power of the Picket Fence" – 3:51

Hey Drag City! compilation

24. "Nail Clinic" – 2:25

Disc Two: "After the Glow (Where Eagles Dare)"

Recorded in early 1993 at Louder Than You Think in Stockton, California

1. "All My Friends" – 5:12

2. "Soiled Little Filly" – 2:08

3. "Range Life" – 4:11

4. "Stop Breathing" – 3:54

5. "Ell Ess Two" (a.k.a. "Loretta's Scars II", later renamed to "Elevate Me Later") – 2:44

6. "Flux = Rad" – 2:11

7. "Bad Version of War" – 3:27

8. "Same Way of Saying" – 4:35

Recorded in August and September 1993 at Random Falls in New York City

9. "Hands Off the Bayou" – 2:43

10. "Heaven is a Truck (Egg Shell)" – 2:20

11. "Grounded" – 3:35

12. "Kennel District" – 3:24

13. "Pueblo (Beach Boys)" – 3:47

14. "Fucking Righteous" – 2:47

15. "Colorado" – 1:13

16. "Dark Ages" – 2:39

17. "Flood Victim" – 1:17

18. "JMC Retro" – 0:52

19. "Rug Rat" – 3:05

20. "Strings of Nashville (Instrumental)" – 3:50

21. "Instrumental" – 3:40

John Peel Session (Transmitted 26 February 1994)

22. "Brink of the Clouds" – 3:48

23. "Tartar Martyr" – 3:13

24. "Pueblo Domain" – 4:18

25. "The Sutcliffe Catering Song" – 3:22

Personnel

• Gail Butensky – Photography
• Bryce Goggin – Piano, Mixing
• Alex Kirzhner – Design
• Mark Ohe – Art Direction
• Mark Venezia – Engineer

References

1. Gray, Christopher (December 14, 2004). "Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain: L.A.'s Desert Origins". The Austin Chronicle. Retrieved December 16, 2020.
2. Wolk, Douglas. "Pavement: Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain: L.A.'s Desert Origins". Blender. Archived from the original on March 22, 2005. Retrieved June 6, 2020.
3. Christgau, Robert. "Pavement: Crooked Rain Crooked Rain: LA's Desert Origins". RobertChristgau.com. Retrieved June 6, 2020.
4. Hepburn, Peter (November 3, 2004). "Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain: L.A.'s Desert Origins Reissue". Cokemachineglow. Archived from the original on November 20, 2008. Retrieved December 16, 2020.
5. Weingarten, Marc (November 12, 2004). "Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain (L.A.'s Desert Origins)". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved June 6, 2020.
6. Richardson, Mark (October 25, 2004). "Pavement: Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain: LA's Desert Origins". Pitchfork. Retrieved June 6, 2020.
7. Blashill, Pat (November 25, 2004). "Pavement: Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain: L.A.'s Desert Origins". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on October 23, 2007. Retrieved June 6, 2020.
8. Hermes, Will (December 2004). "Gold Standardz". Spin. Vol. 20 no. 12. pp. 115–16. Retrieved June 6, 2020.
9. Hull, Tom (May 2005). "Recycled Goods (19)". A Consumer Guide to the Trailing Edge. Tom Hull. Retrieved June 20, 2020.