Wowee Zowee
Wowee Zowee is the third studio album by the American indie rock band Pavement, released on April 11, 1995, by Matador Records.[1] Featuring 18 tracks with a total runtime of approximately 56 minutes, the album spans a diverse array of styles including lo-fi indie rock, noise rock, and country influences, characterized by the band's signature oblique lyrics and unconventional song structures.[2][3] Pavement, formed in 1989 in Stockton, California, as a recording project by Stephen Malkmus and Scott Kannberg, had by 1995 solidified into a five-piece ensemble with Malkmus on lead vocals and guitar, Kannberg—also known as Spiral Stairs—on guitar and vocals, Mark Ibold on bass, Steve West on drums, and Bob Nastanovich on percussion and backing vocals.[4] The bulk of Wowee Zowee was recorded at Easley Recording Studios in Memphis, Tennessee, during sessions that captured the band's spontaneous and prolific creative process, with some tracks dating back to outtakes from their 1994 breakthrough album Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain.[5][1] Produced by the band and engineered by Doug Easley and Davis McCain, the recording emphasized raw energy over polish, reflecting Pavement's resistance to commercial expectations following their rising popularity.[5] Upon its release, Wowee Zowee garnered mixed critical reception, with some reviewers criticizing its sprawling, less focused approach compared to the tighter songcraft of Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain.[6][7] However, it has since been reevaluated as a masterpiece of indie rock innovation, often cited as Pavement's most creative and freewheeling work, and a defining document of 1990s alternative music that prioritizes artistic experimentation over accessibility.[8][9] The album's legacy endures through its influence on subsequent indie and lo-fi acts, underscoring Pavement's role as a pivotal force in the genre.[8]Development and Recording
Background
Following the breakthrough success of their 1994 album Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain, which featured the radio hit "Cut Your Hair" and elevated Pavement to modern-rock prominence, the band navigated a period of heightened expectations from fans and the music press.[10][5] This success brought internal tensions to the forefront, particularly between frontman Stephen Malkmus and guitarist Scott "Spiral Stairs" Kannberg, as the group grappled with how to follow up without repeating their more accessible sound.[11][12] Kannberg later recalled advocating for a tighter, more cohesive 10-song record, while Malkmus pushed to incorporate B-sides and outtakes, reflecting the band's fame-averse dynamic and desire to subvert commercial pressures.[11][13] Malkmus, in particular, sought greater experimentation to differentiate Wowee Zowee from its predecessor, drawing on a range of influences including country, folk, and krautrock to expand Pavement's sonic palette.[10][5] He aimed to avoid the formula that had propelled Crooked Rain into the mainstream, emphasizing a fragmented and eclectic approach that captured the band's live energy rather than polished hooks.[11][13] This creative pivot was partly motivated by the band's vision of evolving beyond indie rock conventions, as drummer Steve West noted the need to "try to make your records different" to avoid repetition.[10] The album's conceptualization began in late 1994, amid the band's extensive touring schedule following Crooked Rain, which lasted nine months and included testing new material during soundchecks.[10][5] Initial songwriting took place across New York and California, where Malkmus developed ideas that would later inform the project's direction, fostering a sense of unity despite underlying frictions as the group felt "like a band" on the road.[10][12] These experiences, including tours alongside acts like Stereolab, further infused the work with diverse stylistic elements.[10]Recording Sessions
The recording of Wowee Zowee primarily took place at Easley-McCain Recording Studios in Memphis, Tennessee, from November 1994 to early 1995, spanning approximately ten days of sessions that began no earlier than noon each day to accommodate the band's relaxed pace.[10] Producers and engineers Doug Easley and Davis McCain, co-owners of the studio, guided the process, leveraging the facility's high ceilings and analog tape machines to achieve a fuller, more polished sound that marked a departure from Pavement's earlier lo-fi aesthetic.[3] The band, fresh off an exhausting nine-month tour following Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain, arrived in Memphis seeking a change of environment, though the sweltering humidity and heat proved uncomfortable, contributing to a tense yet productive atmosphere where sessions often wrapped up in time for evening beers.[10] During these sessions, Pavement experimented extensively with structure and length, incorporating influences from their recent tours with acts like Stereolab and Sun City Girls to blend punk, country, and krautrock elements into longer, more sprawling tracks such as "Grounded" and "Fight This Generation."[10] The band recorded an abundance of material, ultimately selecting 18 songs for the original release—a decision driven by a desire to present a comprehensive snapshot of their creative output at the time, filling three sides of the double vinyl with the fourth left blank.[10] Easley contributed pedal steel guitar to "Father to a Sister of Thought," adding a layer of sonic texture that enhanced the album's eclectic feel.[3] Additional overdubs and mixing occurred at Random Falls Studios in New York City from February 10 to 14, 1995, under engineer Mark Venezia, with final mixing handled by Bryce Goggin to refine the Memphis recordings.[14] This New York phase addressed holdover tracks from earlier demos and polished the overall sound, ensuring the album's completion by early 1995 ahead of its April release.[15] The collaborative dynamic between Pavement and the Memphis producers emphasized spontaneity, allowing the band to capture a raw yet cleaner production that reflected their evolving post-tour mindset.[10]Composition
Musical Elements
Wowee Zowee exemplifies Pavement's eclectic musical style, blending indie rock with influences from country, folk, psychedelia, krautrock, and punk to create a shambolic yet complex sound that shifts unpredictably across tracks.[10][16] The album incorporates elements like krautrock grooves in extended instrumental sections and country twang through pedal steel guitar, reflecting the band's exposure to diverse touring acts such as Sun City Girls and Stereolab.[10][5] This genre fusion results in a kaleidoscopic mix where songs pivot from pop-punk energy to cryptic, noise-infused explorations, maintaining the band's warped pop core while expanding into folk-rock, soul, and jazz-tinged arrangements.[17][16] Instrumentation on the album highlights Stephen Malkmus's versatile guitar work, ranging from distorted rhythm riffs to jangly solos, complemented by Scott Kannberg's contributions on lead guitar and auxiliary percussion for added textural depth.[10] The full five-piece lineup incorporates organs, synths, piano, recorder, cello, and pedal steel to vary the sonic palette, as heard in the oscillating synths and dramatic cello swells that punctuate certain tracks.[10] Drums and percussion provide loose, playful propulsion, often emphasizing reverb and buzz-saw leads over tight hooks to evoke a sense of freewheeling experimentation.[5] Production choices mark a shift from the lo-fi noise of earlier works toward a more polished yet raw aesthetic, recorded over 10 days at Easley-McCain Studios in Memphis using tape machines in a spacious environment that encouraged improvisation.[10] Sessions in late 1994, primarily at Easley-McCain Studios in Memphis, with some pre-recordings and overdubs in New York, prioritized collective jamming, resulting in a double-LP format (originally a three-sided vinyl) that accommodates longer, exploratory compositions totaling nearly 56 minutes across 18 tracks.[5] This structure allows for structural innovations like disjointed builds and fades, balancing accessibility with the band's desire to differentiate from prior albums.[10] Specific tracks illustrate these elements through varied song structures; for instance, "Rattled by la Rush" features an extended jam with a linear groove and spare arrangement, building from its chorus hook into off-kilter instrumental flourishes.[5] "Half a Canyon, Full of Vultures" spans nearly seven minutes with a krautrock backbeat and fuzzed-out guitar layers, evolving through repetitive motifs into a hazy, immersive close.[10] Meanwhile, "Father to a Sister of Thought" employs a twangy, wistful structure anchored by pedal steel guitar and crystalline arpeggios, creating a descending riff that crescendos into a rewarding, folk-inflected resolution.[10][5]Lyrical Themes
The lyrics of Wowee Zowee are characterized by Stephen Malkmus's stream-of-consciousness style, which draws from personal ennui, fragmented pop culture references, and surreal imagery to evoke a sense of disorientation and introspection.[10][18] In tracks like the opener "We Dance," Malkmus employs woozy, free-associative lines—such as "There is no castration fear" and depictions of a bickering couple fumbling through an awkward social ritual—to capture moments of relational tension and existential drift, reflecting the album's broader undercurrent of personal malaise.[10][18] This approach often eschews linear narratives in favor of poetic, twisting phrases compiled from random notes jotted during the band's 1994 tour soundchecks, allowing lyrics to emerge spontaneously amid the pressures of rising indie-rock fame.[10] Recurring themes throughout the album center on disaffection, generational malaise, and ironic detachment, hallmarks of 1990s slacker culture that permeate Malkmus's wordplay with a mix of sincerity and playful sarcasm.[10][18] Songs like "Grounded" illustrate suburban ennui through surreal vignettes of numbing privilege, including lines such as "He foaled a swollen daughter" and repetitive mantras of uncertainty ("I don't know which, which, which"), underscoring a spiritual disconnection amid material comfort.[10][18] Pop culture nods appear in ironic critiques of success, as in "Brinx Job," where Malkmus mockingly chants "We got the money" 13 times to lampoon the band's Lollapalooza earnings, blending detachment with subtle commentary on indie credibility's erosion.[10][18] In a 1995 press kit, Malkmus articulated this mindset, stating, “Do you like progress? Not me. Progress is predictable and predictability involves science,” highlighting his resistance to conventional rock evolution during the album's creation.[18] Collaborative elements enriched the lyrical content, with guitarist Scott Kannberg (aka Spiral Stairs) providing input that infused tracks with band in-jokes and observations of everyday absurdities, drawing from their shared Stockton, California roots.[10] Kannberg co-wrote and sang lead on songs like "Kennel District" and "Western Homes," where lyrics explore themes of suburban hopelessness and quirky domesticity, such as aimless drives through fading neighborhoods, adding a layer of collective irony to Malkmus's dominant voice.[10] Tracks like "False Scalp" exemplify this interplay, featuring disjointed surrealism—"He foaled a swollen daughter in the sauna / playing contract bridge"—that echoes the band's internal humor and offhand absurdities amid the 1994-1995 recording sessions.[18] During this period, Malkmus described his process as improvisational, noting in a 1995 interview that the songs "sounded like hits" despite their off-kilter construction, a sentiment born from testing material live on tour with the full band.[19]Artwork and Release
Album Packaging
The cover art for Wowee Zowee was painted by American artist Steve Keene, who produced multiple versions before the band selected a colorful, stylized rendition based on a 1972 Life magazine photograph titled "The Arab World," depicting two Arab women in burkas accompanied by a goat in a rural landscape.[20] This design evoked 1970s aesthetics through its nostalgic, exotic imagery, aligning with the era's cultural fascination with distant locales and aligning with Pavement's DIY ethos.[20] Keene's chaotic, hand-painted style, characterized by bold colors and abstract elements, mirrored the album's experimental and unpolished sound.[21] The inner sleeve and booklet featured standard liner notes crediting song publishing to Treble Kicker Music/I Don't Have One/BMI.[22][23] These elements contributed to the packaging's intimate, lo-fi feel, emphasizing the band's collaborative and whimsical identity. The album was issued in multiple physical formats: a double vinyl LP pressed on three sides with music and the fourth side left blank, a standard jewel-case CD, and a cassette tape, each maintaining the same 18-track sequence.[3] The track ordering was solely curated by Stephen Malkmus, who envisioned the album as a collection best experienced with tracks shuffled randomly to enhance its spontaneous, genre-hopping quality.[24] The title Wowee Zowee originated as a playful, exclamatory phrase emblematic of the album's freewheeling and irreverent spirit, as reflected in Malkmus's approach to its eclectic composition and sequencing.[24]Commercial Release and Promotion
Wowee Zowee was released on April 11, 1995, by Matador Records in the United States and by Big Cat Records in the United Kingdom.[3][25] The album's rollout emphasized its expansive nature as a double LP, with three full sides of music and a blank fourth side, a deliberate choice by Matador to highlight the record's approximately 56-minute runtime and stylistic diversity without condensing the material for a single-disc format.[26] This format decision reflected the label's commitment to preserving Pavement's experimental ethos, even at the risk of alienating broader audiences expecting a more streamlined follow-up to the band's 1994 breakthrough Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain.[27] Promotion for the album was restrained and aligned with Pavement's indie rock roots, prioritizing targeted outreach over mainstream push. Two singles were issued to support the release: "Rattled by la Rush" in April 1995 and "Father to a Sister of Thought" in July 1995, both available on CD and 7-inch vinyl with B-sides drawn from the album's sessions, such as "Brink of the Clouds" and "Kris Kraft."[28] Music videos accompanied each single, directed by John Kelsey, featuring abstract, low-budget visuals that captured the tracks' hazy, introspective vibes—such as fragmented performance shots for "Rattled by la Rush" and dreamlike desert imagery for "Father to a Sister of Thought."[29] These efforts received airplay primarily on college radio and MTV's alternative programming, avoiding aggressive commercial radio campaigns.[30] The album's launch was bolstered by an extensive 1995 tour, which served as the primary promotional vehicle and included headlining dates across North America and Europe, as well as a slot on the main stage of Lollapalooza that summer.[31] Performances focused on material from Wowee Zowee alongside earlier hits, drawing crowds in indie and festival circuits but bypassing major arena venues. Initial commercial expectations were modest, building on Crooked Rain's indie success without anticipating mainstream crossover; the emphasis remained on cultivating a dedicated fanbase through live shows and limited merchandise tie-ins, such as tour posters echoing the album's cluttered artwork.[32] This approach underscored Matador's strategy of fostering artistic integrity over rapid sales growth, positioning the release as a creative expansion rather than a sequel optimized for chart performance.[25]Critical Reception
Initial Reviews
Upon its release on April 11, 1995, Wowee Zowee elicited mixed critical responses, with reviewers split over its sprawling, eclectic approach following the relative polish of Pavement's previous album, Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain. Many noted the record's shift toward greater experimentation and fragmentation, spanning 18 tracks across nearly an hour, which some praised as innovative while others criticized as disjointed and self-indulgent.[8] In Rolling Stone, Mark Kemp gave the album 2.5 out of 5 stars, faulting its lack of cohesion and describing it as a "scattered and sloppy" effort that squandered the band's momentum by prioritizing willful obscurity over memorable songcraft. He argued that Pavement seemed "afraid of their own success," resulting in an uneven collection where stronger melodic moments were undermined by weaker, annoying digressions.[33] Kemp highlighted the album's overall structure as overly rambling, though he conceded isolated highlights like the track "Grounded" for its understated appeal.[6] Conversely, Spin's Eric Weisbard awarded 7 out of 10 stars, viewing the eclecticism as a strength and an "underground game" that captured Pavement at their most spontaneous and boundary-pushing. He appreciated how the album's zigs and zags between styles— from noisy punk bursts to psychedelic meanderings—reflected the band's refusal to conform, even if it demanded patience from listeners.[34] NME offered strong praise, calling Wowee Zowee Pavement's "most rewarding album yet" for its depth and inventive songwriting, which rewarded repeated exploration despite the initial sense of sprawl. The publication ranked it #16 on its year-end list of top albums, emphasizing the record's charm as a "grower" that revealed its brilliance over time.[35] Robert Christgau, writing for The Village Voice, bestowed an A grade, commending the album's progression toward lyricism and its creation of "beguiling song-music that doesn't sound like anything else." He portrayed its rambling quality as a virtue, suggesting the band's illusory sense of eternity in crafting unique sounds made it their most enduring work to date, free from the chaos of earlier efforts.[36] Overall, contemporaneous critiques centered on the tension between the album's accessibility—or lack thereof—and its artistic ambition, with detractors lamenting the departure from prior hooks and proponents celebrating its unfiltered creativity as a bold statement against commercial expectations.[8]Retrospective Critical Views
In the years following its initial release, Wowee Zowee experienced a notable reappraisal, solidifying its status as a cult classic in indie rock. Pitchfork's 2006 review of the expanded Sordid Sentinels Edition praised the album's "unwieldy sprawl" and artistic risks, awarding it a 9.3 out of 10 and noting how its eclectic structure captured Pavement at their most inventive.[7] The record also appeared on Uncut magazine's 2004 list of the 500 Greatest Albums of the 1990s, ranked at number 106 for its boundary-pushing experimentation. By the 2010s and 2020s, Wowee Zowee was increasingly hailed as Pavement's most ambitious effort, with its sprawling, genre-blending approach recontextualized amid the band's dissolution in 1999 and the indie scene's maturation. Bryan Charles's 2010 book Pavement's Wowee Zowee, part of the 33 1/3 series, examines its confounding initial reception and subsequent elevation, drawing on interviews with band members to underscore its role as a defiant pivot away from mainstream expectations.[37] Critics and fans alike began viewing it as the pinnacle of the band's creative freedom, often citing tracks like "Rattled by the Rush" and "Grave Architecture" as exemplars of its innovative fusion of lo-fi punk, country twang, and abstract noise. The album's 30th anniversary in 2025 prompted fresh reflections on its enduring influence on indie experimentalism. Paste Magazine's feature included insights from Pavement members and collaborators like Lance Bangs and Steve Keene, who highlighted how the record's "fringe" distortion and off-kilter melodies pushed pop conventions, inspiring modern artists such as beabadoobee and Squirrel Flower in their own boundary-testing work.[10] Aquarium Drunkard echoed this, portraying Wowee Zowee as a testament to the band's artistic self-assurance, where creative liberty overrode commercial pressures, thereby shaping the experimental ethos of subsequent indie acts through its rejection of formulaic songcraft.[38] Retrospective aggregate scores reflect this consensus, with AllMusic granting 4.5 out of 5 stars for its "kaleidoscopic" ambition and Acclaimed Music ranking it among Pavement's top works based on cross-publication acclaim.[39][40]Legacy and Reissues
Cultural Impact
Wowee Zowee's genre-blending experimentation and DIY ethos have profoundly influenced subsequent indie rock acts, inspiring bands to embrace eclectic structures and lo-fi aesthetics over commercial polish.[41] This legacy extends to modern artists whose raw, genre-hopping records echo the album's playful subversion of rock conventions.[42] The album's overall vibe has permeated popular culture, serving as a touchstone for alt-rock revivalism, evoking the era's slacker spirit in media portrayals of indie subculture and often referenced in discussions of postmodern rock experimentation. It serves as a touchstone for alt-rock revivalism, evoking the era's slacker spirit in media portrayals of indie subculture and often referenced in discussions of postmodern rock experimentation. During Pavement's 2010 reunion tours, Stephen Malkmus and Scott Kannberg reflected on Wowee Zowee's initial underappreciated status, noting the surprise at its mixed reception despite the band's intent to capture their unfiltered creative process.[43] Kannberg described Pavement's output, including the album, as a "historical monument," highlighting its enduring cult appeal amid contemporary indie resurgence.[44] On a broader scale, Wowee Zowee contributed to Matador Records' ascent as a vanguard for experimental indie in the late 1990s, with its ambitious sprawl exemplifying the label's support for boundary-pushing artists over mainstream accessibility.[45] The record's retrospective acclaim solidified Matador's reputation, paving the way for a shift toward more adventurous sounds in the post-grunge indie landscape.[10]Reissues and Anniversary Editions
In 2006, Matador Records released Wowee Zowee: Sordid Sentinels Edition, a two-disc remastered compilation marking the album's expanded archival presentation.[46] The set includes the original 18-track album plus five B-sides on the first disc, while the second disc features 27 additional tracks comprising 18 previously unreleased recordings, such as three versions of the outtake "Bennies" from the album's sessions, a four-track home demo of "Rattled by La Rush," and alternate material from the Memphis sessions at Easley Recording, including the "Pacific Trim" EP with its raw, unpolished takes.[47] Accompanied by a 64-page perfect-bound booklet with liner notes, photos, and session details, the edition totals 50 tracks and highlights Pavement's experimental ethos through outtakes, a 1994 John Peel Session, and a full 1995 live performance from New York's Brownies venue.[7] Subsequent reissues maintained accessibility across formats. In 2010, Matador issued a double-LP vinyl edition as part of its Low Price Vinyl Series, pressed on 120-gram vinyl with an included MP3 download coupon, offering a straightforward repressing of the remastered album for broader distribution.[48] For the 25th anniversary in 2020, Matador celebrated with a limited-edition picture disc 7-inch single featuring "Sensitive Euro Man" backed by the non-album tracks "Brink of the Clouds" and "Candylad," cut in the shape of the album's iconic speech bubble and limited to 3,000 copies.[49] That same year, a standard vinyl reissue was released, alongside digital availability of the Sordid Sentinels Edition tracks, incorporating bonus live recordings from the Brownies set to enhance streaming options.[50] The 30th anniversary in 2025 focused on digital and commemorative content rather than a major physical edition. Pavement marked the occasion through social media campaigns on Instagram, teasing "Wowee Zowee 30th Anniversary Season" with archival clips and fan engagements, while retrospective articles and interviews appeared in outlets like Paste Magazine and Aquarium Drunkard, reflecting on the album's recording in Memphis.[51][10][38] These efforts tied into the band's ongoing activities, including the 2024 docufiction film Pavements directed by Alex Ross Perry, which incorporates documentary footage of their 2022 reunion tour and surreal tributes blending scripted scenes with live performances of Wowee Zowee material.[52] No new physical deluxe was announced, but updated digital remasters of select tracks became available on platforms like Bandcamp, emphasizing the album's enduring archival value.[53]Credits and Performance
Track Listing
Wowee Zowee is a double album consisting of 18 tracks with a total runtime of 55:51. The original vinyl edition is a three-sided double LP, distributed across sides A through C, while side D is blank (unplayable) with a standard runout etching rather than playable grooves. The CD edition maintains the same linear sequencing as the vinyl, without variations in international releases. All tracks were written by Stephen Malkmus except "Kennel District" and "Western Homes," which were written by Scott Kannberg.| No. | Title | Duration | Writer(s) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | We Dance | 3:01 | Malkmus |
| 2 | Rattled by la Rush | 4:15 | Malkmus |
| 3 | Black Out | 2:10 | Malkmus |
| 4 | Brinx Job | 1:32 | Malkmus |
| 5 | Grounded | 4:13 | Malkmus |
| 6 | Serpentine Pad | 1:16 | Malkmus |
| 7 | Motion Suggests | 3:14 | Malkmus |
| 8 | Father to a Sister of Thought | 3:29 | Malkmus |
| 9 | Extradition | 2:12 | Malkmus |
| 10 | Best Friend's Arm | 2:18 | Malkmus |
| 11 | Grave Architecture | 4:14 | Malkmus |
| 12 | AT&T | 3:32 | Malkmus |
| 13 | Flux = Rad | 1:44 | Malkmus |
| 14 | Fight This Generation | 4:21 | Malkmus |
| 15 | Kennel District | 2:58 | Kannberg |
| 16 | Pueblo | 3:24 | Malkmus |
| 17 | Half a Canyon | 6:08 | Malkmus |
| 18 | Western Homes | 1:50 | Kannberg |
Personnel
Pavement- Stephen Malkmus – lead vocals, guitar[1]
- Scott Kannberg – guitar, backing vocals[1]
- Mark Ibold – bass guitar[1]
- Steve West – drums[1]
- Bob Nastanovich – percussion, keyboards, backing vocals[1]
- Sibel Firat – cello (on "Father to a Sister of Thought")[3]
- Doug Easley – pedal steel guitar (on "Father to a Sister of Thought")[3]
- Pavement – producers[54]
- Doug Easley – engineer, mixing[55]
- Davis McCain – engineer, mixing[55]
- Mark Venezia – engineer (New York sessions), mixing[55]
- Gregory Hull – mastering[56]