Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain

Artist: Pavement
Released: 1994

The death of indie rock occurred sometime around 1988. Or around 1994, although some would swear that 1999 or 2003 saw the genre's final demise. What the hell does "indie rock" even represent anymore? It's bbecome the 21st century version of "alternative rock," which officially lost all meaning during the 1990s, when it contained both Jewel and the Gin Blossoms under its auspices.

Technically, indie rock refers to bands that are signed to independent labels - i.e. labels that are not affiliated with any of the majors (Sony, WEA, etc.). Indie bands, therefore, should not be subject to the following:

• bidding wars
• being plied with booze and cocaine by the A&D representative
• indignaties like appearing at the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade on the UPS float, or the latest craptastic WB sitcom ("seriously, you guys were great on 'What I Like About You'")
• getting screwed over on both royalties and "advances"
• getting dropped after one album when they sell under 300,000 units

The term "indie," however, now seems to refer to any artist that isn't usually played on commercial radio, or is featured on "The O.C." while Ryan or Seth are brooding.

This brings us to Pavement. They could sense the demise of a scene that had flourished during the '80s and had begun to peter out after the success of Nirvana and the subsequent rape and pillaging by the majors. Ditching the lo-fi aesthetic that screamed "indie" to so many disaffected college radio DJs (yeah, you knew at least one in school), the band beefed up their production and wrote a song cycle about the, well, death of indie rock. Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain finds the band diving headfirst into the then-current state of modern/alt music and in turn wallowing in the long-dead mythology of rock & roll. Rock's cult of personality is dredged up with "Silence Kit," which borrows the melody of Buddy Holly's "Everyday," and is concluded later with the Fall-ish "Hit the Plane Down." "Cut Your Hair" takes a crack at the major label machine, while "Elevate Me Later" and "Range Life" find the band ruminating on the travails of touring.

I would go on about their sound, which one critic described as Sonic Youth meets the Fall meets the Beach Boys, but I'll save that for one of their other albums. I will say, though, that I love Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain more than my sister. Actually, I don't have a sister, so, um, forget I wrote that.