penningtron wrote: Wed Jun 05, 2024 12:01 pm Sebadoh never clicked for me. Seems like a hodgepodge of very different songwriters. I don't listen to Pavement very often but still think most of it up through about Wowee Zowee is pretty good, sometimes great. Watery Domestic is the sweet spot.

Pavement.

This

It would have been Pavement until just a couple of years ago for me. Sebadoh have been a very slow burn, but they got at me in the end.

Sebadoh

I find the guitars in Pavement infinitely more interesting and fun that Sebadoh. Malkmus has a wormy and surprising way of getting from point A to B that I think is underrated.

I've loved Sebadoh since I was 13, so for over half my life now. I didn't like Pavement when I first heard them, it took a few years before they really clicked with me and I'm still not as much of a superfan as a lot of people seem to be.

Lou's best ballads still bring me to the brink of tearing up if I listen to them in a dour mood, but really I think Jason is the secret weapon of Sebadoh - man is a noise pop genius. Gaffney's brand of weirdness was sorely missed after Bubble and Scrape but that coincided with peak Loewenstein, and Careful remains one of my favorite songs of all time after a decade and a half.

I will say, late period Pavement is much better than late period Sebadoh, but still giving it to the Lou crew. I'd even pick Sebadoh over Dino Jr.

penningtron wrote: Wed Jun 05, 2024 12:01 pm Sebadoh never clicked for me. Seems like a hodgepodge of very different songwriters.

I mean, yes, that's a big part of the appeal. There's solo Lou for those who want nothing but his stuff, but I like getting Elixir Is Zog on the same album as Think (Let Tomorrow Bee)

Tough one. I don't really love what either of these bands became later on, after they sorta standardized their formulas into a more digestible, stoned indie-rock thing. Both lost something crucial when their resident eccentric quit and/or got fired. However, each one rocked my world until around 1994.

Very tough call between Eric Gaffney-era Sebadoh (including those murky duo albums) and Gary Young-era Pavement (including those murky semi-duo EPs). To be fair, I listen to Slanted and Enchanted way more often than I do Bubble and Scrape (probably the Sebadudes' finest hour). Plus early Pavement doesn't have anything quite as dreary as some of Barlow's lesser neurosis ballads. On the other hand, there's no way Malkmus could write anything as genuinely heartfelt but still powerful as "Two Years Two Days" or as completely psychotic as "As the World Dies, the Eyes of God Grow Bigger."

Both of these groups meant a ton to me during my late teens and to some extent, they still do.

Damnit. I'm leaning Pavement but also having second thoughts.

Can I vote for the first three Dinosaur albums instead? Although I guess they're a little earlier and there's nothing particularly "feeble" about them. Argh.

I guess Sebadoh because they seem less smarmy, but I don't much have time for either band's tossed-off slapdick music.

Sebadoh!
Pavement sucks

Both entirely inconsistent bands. Loved both back in the day but Sebadoh more. Can't take all of Lou's prattling about smoking weed, jerking off, and passive aggressive manipulation of his partners, but then Lou shakes that shit off and sounds genuine and heartfelt. Bakesale transcends the band, and "Shit Soup" may be their best rocker.

Pavement got steadily less interesting as they went on as well. Slanted hit all the buttons. Was too young to hear the EPs when they first came out, but some of that stuff was on fire.

Sebadoh, I guess.

"We're no Pavement," Barlow replied. "We don't get vinyl. We're not even Guided by Voices. ... On a good day, we're Superchunk."

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