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Pavement is the greatest band of all-time. While the band as a collective, even in a couple different variations, is key, by and large Stephen Malkmus served as the primary songwriter and vocalist. Secondarily, though, there’s Scott Kannberg, aka Spiral Stairs. Malkmus and Kannberg were the two members of the band from the beginning until the end. Interestingly, on the first album the two share songwriting credits on every track, and then for the last album only Malkmus is credited on every song.
Across the three middle albums of Pavement’s discography, Kannberg is credited on five songs. He kind of got his “Spiral Stairs” songs and then Malkmus did the rest. While I love Pavement, neither guy was exactly always chill. Here is my assessment of those five songs, going in ascending order of quality.
“Western Homes”: Wowee Zowee is an experimental album as is, and “Western Homes” actually ends the album. It’s a trip from top to finish, but “Western Homes” is kind of an unremarkable finish. It’s not bad, but it’s under two minutes and it isn’t really a “closer.” That’s fine, because that’s how Wowee Zowee rolls, but the song is almost like an add-on to “Half a Canyon.”
“Kennel District”: This one is also at the end of Wowee Zowee. Kannberg’s songs got kind of buried on this one. I like “Kennel District,” though. It just happens to come after “Fight This Generation.” If I were sequencing Wowee Zowee, would be the final song. That hinders “Kennel District” when listening to the album, but not in and of itself.
“Hit the Plane Down”: Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain is the best Pavement album, and it has one Spiral Stairs song. It definitely feels different from the rest of the album. “Hit the Plane Down” sticks out. It doesn’t feel like what Malkmus was up to. It feels more groovy and experimental and less like the sound that would help define ‘90s indie rock. I like it, though!
“Passat Dream”: Brighten the Corners is the closest Pavement gets to an “overlooked” album. “Passat Dream” is really good, and it fits right in. This time, Kannberg’s output and Malkmus’ output feel less at odds with one another. To that end…
“Date w/ Ikea”: Honestly, this is the reason why I wanted to write this. I was thinking about how good of a song “Date w/ Ikea is.” Not only is it clearly the best Spiral Stairs song, it’s straight-up a great song. It may be a top-20 Pavement song, and that is not faint praise, as the band has like 70 good songs. Even if you are a Malkmus acolyte, and the dude is a musical genius, give some love to “Date w/ Ikea.” The song had earned it.
