Wowee Zowee (LP)

"Wowee Zowee", originally released by Matador in April 1995 on the eve of Pavement's infamous mud-bespattered mainstage appearance at Lollapalooza, began life as a controversial release.

Fresh off the success of "Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain" with its chart-topping Modern Rock hit "Cut Your Hair", the band went into the studio and came out with a deliberately chaotic and eclectic album that sounded nothing like its predecessor. With influences from the Groundhogs to the Frogs, Captain Beefheart to the more obscure mid- 80s central California hardcore bands featured on Maximum Rock'n'Roll comp "Not So Quiet On The Western Front", "Wowee Zowee" confused critics and alienated fans. How fantastic, then, that it went on to scan 122K copies and became many fans' fave Pavement album.

A return to their pre-Crooked cacophony, the songs have a darkness that now seems appropriate, and with Bryce Goggin at the mixing desk, the production was the band's most rocking to date.