The third rock from the sun doesn’t know what’s about to hit it. FX’s Alien: Earth, a prequel series that takes place in 2120, is about to reveal what would happen if a Xenomorph crash landed on our planet.
Actually, the terror will extend beyond Xeno. A recent FX teaser clip revealed five species collected by Weyland-Yutani’s USCSS Maginot, which will be explored by tactical soldiers and a young woman, Wendy (Sydney Chandler), who encounter terrifying life forms that will unleash hell out in the open. That’s a stark contrast to the claustrophobic confines of the Alien movies, where nobody could be heard screaming, but at least those Xenomorphs couldn’t travel far. Now? All bets are off for containing the destruction and spreading of alien eggs. Those who are devoted to the franchise will surely want to know when this will happen on streaming devices near you.
Does Alien: Earth Have A Release Date Yet?
Tuesday, August 12. On that day, two episodes will drop via Hulu, FX, and (internationally) Disney+ at 8:00 p.m. EST. From there, weekly episodes will round out an eight-episode season.
Showrunner Noah Hawley (Fargo) knows how to take franchises to new heights, and FX has provided an extended synopsis:
When a mysterious space vessel crash-lands on Earth, a young woman and a ragtag group of tactical soldiers make a fateful discovery that puts them face-to-face with the planet’s greatest threat in the sci-fi horror series ‘Alien: Earth.’ As members of the crash recovery crew search for survivors among the wreckage, they encounter mysterious predatory life forms more terrifying than they could have ever imagined. With this new threat unlocked, the search crew must fight for survival and what they choose to do with this discovery could change planet Earth as they know it.
Prepare for the so-called “perfect organism” like you’ve never seen it before.
Nobody could ever accuse Sony of going small for the upcoming quartet of The Beatles biopics. The studio remains committed to all-in vibes for four separate movies, and the release plan is even wilder, and although “Tomorrow Never Knows” what will truly come, let’s waltz through those “Strawberry Fields” together on what to expect.
Cast
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After months of reports and rumors on who would portray the Fab Four, Sony made the official reveal at CinemaCon in March. From left to right above:
– Paul Mescal (Normal People, Gladiator 2) as Paul McCartney
– Joseph Quinn (Stranger Things, A Quiet Place: Day One) as George Harrison
– Barry Keoghan (Saltburn, Masters Of The Air) as Ringo Starr
Meanwhile, Pattie Boyd (ex-wife to the late Harrison) wondered aloud on X/Twitter about who will fill her shoes, “assuming that I get to feature in any of the movies.” Heavy speculation suggests that Aimee Lou Wood could be dropping social media hints on that subject. Again, that’s only a rumor but food for thought as the cast continues to “Come Together.”
Of the two still-alive members of the band, Ringo Starr was previously quoted as being fully onboard with Keoghan’s (then-reported) casting. Months ago, he offered a response to Entertainment Tonight: “I think it’s great,” he declared before adding, “I believe he’s somewhere taking drum lessons, and I hope not too many.” That joke was surely intended for those who are critical of Ringo’s own contributions to The Beatles.
During a resurfacing of that discussion in 2017, The Guardian pointed towards the words of Dave Grohl (he remains so hardcore about drumming that he treats the guitar as a kit), who threw his weight behind Starr during his Rock & Roll Hall of Fame presentation: “Define ‘best drummer in the world. Is it someone that’s technically proficient? Or is it someone that sits in the song with their own feel? Ringo was the king of feel.”
Plot
According to a Sony Pictures Entertainment press release, Mendes’ four movies “will intersect to tell the astonishing story of the greatest band in history.”
At this year’s CinemaCon, Mendes solidified reports that four separate films will place focus on each individual band member. He also added that “principal photography on the four films will take a year,” according to Variety, which added that Tom Rothman (now the Sony Pictures CEO but previously in charge of production for James Cameron’s most successful sci-fi franchise at Fox) described his own mindset as feeling “‘Avatar’ flashbacks.”
The official logline for the project as a whole is as follows: “Each man has his own story, but together they are legendary.” Mendes has further clarified that this biopic extravaganza will be titled, “The Beatles – A Four-Film Cinematic Event.” Additionally, he promised the “first binge-able theatrical experience,” which could suggest simultaneous releases? That sounds tricky in an age where the box-office is already struggling to sell one movie at a time, let alone four, but let’s keep going.
Release Date
The four films will have, according to Mendes, an April 2028 theatrical rollout.
Trailer
Since cameras will roll for at least a consecutive year for these four biopics, a trailer (or trailers) ’tis now but a dream, but here’s a counterpart for Beatles ’64, which arrived from director David Tedeschi and producer Martin Scorsese late last year on Disney+.
As someone with a sweet tooth, I find those bottles that double as a sweet treat extra appealing. Bourbon can be full of notes like vanilla, chocolate, caramel, and black cherries. Basically, any flavor that would work well in a pie, cookie, or candy bar can be found in a bottle of bourbon; you just have to know where to look.
That’s where this list comes in.
Whether you’re a beginner looking to ease into the category or a well-travelled whiskey enthusiast in search of the sweet stuff, look no further. Here’s the rub: to make it even harder, we excluded bourbons with special cask finishes. We’re not biased against them, because there are some GREAT finished bourbons on the market. However, if we didn’t put some guardrails in place, this list would be completely filled with honey cask finishes, which would defeat the purpose. Sounds good?
Without further ado, these are the 20 sweetest bourbons we’ve ever tasted!
Eagle Rare is one of Buffalo Trace’s many sought-after mid-shelf offerings. Aged for at least ten years, this bourbon is essentially a single-barrel version of Buffalo Trace Bourbon, with the primary difference being that the two brands are hand-selected to cater to slightly different tastes despite the fact that they have the same mash bill.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: The distinct aroma of a caramelized orange wheel joins mature oak, faint cherry notes, and vanilla frosting as the marquee players here. Because Eagle Rare is essentially a single-barrel product, your mileage may vary, but you can almost invariably expect that prototypical cherry aroma to be present with this expression.
Palate: Flavors like cherry syrup, mellow oak, and some vanilla extract are burrowed in this bourbon and reticent to greet your taste buds. The modest proof point might be the culprit here (and, again, with single-barrel bourbon, some variance in quality is to be expected), but the flavors on the palate are surprisingly restrained and a tad bit muddled, making this one a chore to tease apart. Despite that, the sweet notes are still easy enough to discern and definitely tasty.
Finish: The finish here is brief, with dilute cherry syrup notes, confectioner’s sugar, and vanilla pudding bringing a close to the show.
Bottom Line:
Eagle Rare Bourbon is one that I generally love, despite the wide range of variety one can find from bottle to bottle. While it used to be a favorite at $30, you should be aware that you’re increasingly likely to see it on shelves for right around $60. Even with that uptick in price, this one remains a reliably delicious and often syrupy-sweet bourbon.
Originally launched in 1994, Wild Turkey Kentucky Spirit was Jimmy Russell’s not-so-subtle response to the popularity of another ornately designed single-barrel bourbon bottle: Blanton’s. While the contemporary bottle of Kentucky Spirit is streamlined and comes in the same package as Rare Breed, the liquid inside is a single-barrel version of Wild Turkey Bourbon at 101 proof.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: The nose on Kentucky Spirit begins gently with honey and graham cracker before holiday spices, apricots, and nutmeg begin to emerge.
Palate: On the palate, the apricot, nutmeg, and graham cracker notes make the first impression, while black pepper and dried cranberries join the party soon after. The mouthfeel is lean but exceedingly enjoyable, and pops of baking spices accent the overall experience.
Finish: The finish welcomes the inclusion of cooked red apple notes along with some vanilla pods before succinctly tapering off in a crescendo of gentle oak tones.
Bottom Line:
Wild Turkey Kentucky Spirit is perhaps the most highly underrated expression from this highly underrated brand. Showcasing single barrels of Wild Turkey’s iconic 101 proof bourbon really allows you to experience its signature flavor profile while also highlighting the subtle variations that can elevate Wild Turkey whiskey to being among the best in America.
Old Bardstown Bottled in Bond Bourbon is one of those IYKYK expressions from the Willett Distillery. It is sold exclusively in Kentucky on the bottom shelf of liquor stores. This bottled-in-bond offering is not to be confused with the 101-proof small-batch variant available nationwide.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: It begins with a really round butterscotch note with some intriguing menthol and tobacco leaf aromas that make you dig deeper in the glass to uncover additional layers of Brooks cherries, pecans, and vanilla extract.
Palate: Old Bardstown Bottled in Bond Bourbon is dense and full-bodied on the palate despite the proof, and it opens with sticky toffee and Brooks cherries while a touch of the menthol from the nose streaks up the middle of the tongue and introduces some dark chocolate at midpalate.
Finish: The moderate finish sees the blossoming of dark chocolate flavor with some fresh hazelnuts, caramel, and white pepper notes rounding things off.
Bottom Line:
This unassuming bottle packs a real wallop with a substantive mouthfeel and a dark, rich flavor profile that will have you double-checking your receipt to be sure you didn’t steal this bottle at roughly $20 USD. Rest assured, your receipt is right; hell, all is right with this sweet, fruit-forward bourbon in your glass.
Evan Williams Single Barrel Bourbon was transitioned into a Kentucky-exclusive offering in 2022. However, in 2024, the brand announced that it would be distributed in other states for the first time in two years due to a surplus. The word isn’t yet out on whether that trend will continue through 2025 and beyond, but it came as welcome news to fans of the Evan Williams lineup’s only single-barrel bourbon.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: The nose opens with the aroma of honey and peanut shell, which soon morphs into gently tannic oak tones and fresh orange rinds. Caramel and graham cracker notes also inform the nosing notes before a few shakes of black pepper curb the overall sweetness.
Palate: The honey flavor leads the palate as peanut shells and caramel take a backseat. The texture is surprisingly thin, but the flavors are not without considerable depth, defying their limitations to take root throughout the palate.
Finish: The finish welcomes an uptick in the influence of the oak and black pepper, only alluded to at other points in the flavor journey. While it’s only a short-to-medium finish, that brevity complements the flavor profile, making this an approachable and easy-to-enjoy pour again and again.
Bottom Line:
Despite its relatively low ABV, Evan Williams Single Barrel’s mellow profile delivers rich flavors that cause it to punch above its weight. While longtime fans of the brand continue to grumble that “it ain’t what it used to be,” remarking on a perceived shift in quality and a substantive uptick in price, this continues to be a great, delicately sweet, smooth bourbon.
Frank August is a newcomer on the American whiskey scene, and they’re daring to ask the question: What is America’s spirit? Yes, bourbon is America’s Native Spirit, but they’re looking to highlight non-traditional stories to get at the heart of what this industry truly represents. For its flagship bourbon expression, sourced from another distillery in Kentucky, Frank August is blending small batches of 10-15 barrels and bottling them at the classic 100-proof mark.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: Honey with rich cherries and brioche bun aromas fills the air once you pour Frank August’s Small Batch expression into your glass. Give it a few swirls and each of the notes becomes more distinct: Manuka honey and Chelan cherries stand out while the aroma of a graham cracker pie crust and a tad bit of allspice join the party.
Palate: The impressively slick whiskey paints your palate with the distinct flavor of Chelan cherries, and thanks to its viscousness, it’s able to take its time gently massaging honey, oak and allspice into your tongue.
Finish: The succinct finish sees the allspice and oak asserting themselves more forcefully while a touch of nougat and candied peanuts finally come out to play.
Bottom Line:
Frank August Small Batch Bourbon is an excellent choice for those of us with a sweet tooth because it travels beyond the quotidian compliment of being “crowd-pleasing” and goes the extra mile in delivering a limited-but-lavish array of flavors that will impress newcomers and whiskey savants all the same.
Old Forester’s Signature 100 Proof Bourbon takes the brand’s flagship 86-proof offering and significantly kicks up the flavor. This bourbon is made with a grain recipe of 72% corn, 18% rye, and 10% malted barley.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: Old Forester 100 Proof greets the nose with a slightly medicinal cherry note that sets the stage for a layer of complementing aromas like caramel, barrel char, hazelnut spread, and moderate oak.
Palate: The medicinal cherry note from the nose of this whiskey shows up in a big way on the palate, streaking across the tongue and laying a foundation for accenting notes like oak, black pepper spice, and toasted almonds to blossom. The texture in the mouth is fairly robust and slick, which rewards repeat sips as the liquid begins to coat your palate.
Finish: The finish features black cherry and caramel notes and hangs on for a medium length, making this a great sipping whiskey for enjoying neat.
Bottom Line:
Old Forester 100 Proof is perfect because it’s robust enough to stand up to your palate thanks to its backbone of black cherry and sweet oak notes. The price is right, but the high-quality sweetness that comes with that affordable cost is a flame emoji of its own.
Michter’s was recently voted the World’s Most Admired Whiskey Distillery and its flagship bourbon is the most readily available example of why. For this expression and the rest of its whiskey lineup, Michter’s uses a proprietary filtration process to optimize the flavor coming from its barrels.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: Michter’s US*1 Bourbon has a dense aroma bouquet that immediately appears well-refined. Notes like honeysuckle, brown sugar, raisins, and youthful oak fill the air, with each well-developed layer greeting the olfactory senses warmly.
Palate: On the palate, what’s immediately remarkable about this bourbon is the texture, as it gently coats your tongue with moderate warmth, and before you know it, the taste of brown sugar, raisins, and walnuts is suddenly everywhere on your tongue. That deceptively viscous texture works well here and is a credit to Michter’s proprietary filtration process and their atypical proof-point.
Finish: The finish here is brief, with brown sugar and cinnamon coexisting harmoniously alongside new oak and clove, making for a gentle send-off after every sip.
Bottom Line:
Michter’s US*1 Bourbon perfectly threads the needle of being sweet and well-rounded. Free from any harsher elements, your palate will take to this whiskey like a fish in the water as those enchanting, mellow notes wash over your tongue and coat your mouth with a remarkable range of flavors that make this one of the smoothest bourbons that money can buy.
Maker’s Mark features an iconic bottle design, the same one they’ve been utilizing since their founding in 1953, and a mash bill that’s been used for just as long. This wheated bourbon is one of the best-selling whiskeys in the entire world, making it a ubiquitous sight on liquor store shelves.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: On the nose, you’ll find a bit of corn pudding, vanilla extract, and indistinct red berry aromas wafting out of the glass. There’s also a bit of graham cracker sweetness and white pepper.
Palate: On the palate, Maker’s Mark greets the tongue with a bunch of honeyed graham cracker notes that soon make way for vanilla pod and cornbread. A second sip morphs the vanilla pod into a custard note, complete with caramelized sugar and some red berry compote.
Finish: The finish of Maker’s Mark features some mellow spice and more red berry compote, as those natural sugars fuse with vanilla notes to quickly dissipate from the palate.
Bottom Line:
Despite its modest proof point, Maker’s Mark has a ton of sweet flavors, meaning you won’t blow out your palate or scare off bourbon novices if you decide to sip this one neat. It’s ubiquitous on liquor store shelves and should be a staple on your bar cart, especially if you aim to offer guests a smooth bourbon they can enjoy at their leisure.
As the first limited edition offering from the 1792 lineup, making its debut back in 2015, Sweet Wheat still holds a place of reverence with many bourbon consumers. Aged for eight years and utilizing wheat in the mash bill, this product is made at the Barton 1792 Distillery, owned by Buffalo Trace. That last tidbit has led to speculation that this product might be strikingly similar to Buffalo Trace’s other celebrated wheated bourbon lineup, Weller, though that speculation is unconfirmed.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: On the nose, Sweet Wheat lives up to its name without being saccharine-sweet. Instead, it treads lightly with scents like bubblegum, bright cherries, and caramel corn. As those top notes blow off, there’s a heartier undergirding of leather, cocoa, and cinnamon bark lying in wait.
Palate: Mature oak and caramel notes come across the palate at first before vanilla extract, and a slight bit of doughiness emerges at midpalate. Clove, straw, and a healthy dose of black pepper usher in the transition to the finish as this creamy-textured whiskey slowly coats your palate.
Finish: Living up to its name, the finish on this whiskey is short and sweet with a bit of wheat funk, black pepper, and brown sugar.
Bottom Line:
It’s all in the name. 1792’s Sweet Wheat expression has maintained its popularity thanks to a mild-mannered nature that makes it a treat to sit back and enjoy. This is a whiskey that will meet you in the middle when you go searching for flavor notes, revealing itself after inspection, but otherwise remaining creamy and demure. Something to be mindful of.
13. Bardstown Bourbon Company Origin Series High Wheat
Bardstown Bourbon Company’s Origin Series, founded in 2023, began with three initial entrants, but this new 6-year-old High Wheat Bourbon marks the lineup’s first official expansion. By combining a low barrel entry proof with a high percentage of wheat (39%) in the grain recipe, the brand sought to extract the maximum amount of wood sugars.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: The aroma of this Origin Series High Wheat Bourbon begins with a ton of crème brûlée and strawberries before a touch of oak, wheat funk, and caramel comes through. There are also a few dashes of clove and lemon zest to round things out.
Palate: Once on the palate, the strawberries and custard notes play a major factor as the remarkably creamy texture of the liquid coats your palate and finds every corner of the mouth. Mellow oak tones, vanilla frosting, and flaky pastry flavors also enhance the bourbon.
Finish: The finish here is surprisingly lengthy, with the strawberry note going from ripe berries to the dried variety as a touch of nutmeg creeps in and the gentle oak vibes fuse with honey.
Bottom Line:
Bardstown Bourbon Company already had a wheated bourbon in their Origin Series, and it’s a rock-solid option that has its fair share of admirers among those who have tasted the well-received lineup. That said, this High Wheat Bourbon is absolutely stunning, and not only does it one-up its wheated bourbon predecessor, but it also blows the rest of the stellar Origin Series out of the water. For half a hundred, this is a great pick-up that can stand tall against the best wheated bourbons on the market.
Elmer T. Lee is the second single-barrel bourbon from the Buffalo Trace. After Elmer T. Lee, the man, helped to create the brand’s first single barrel bourbon in Blanton’s, the distillery honored him by naming this expression after him.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: The nose on Elmer T. Lee Single Barrel is light and approachable, with bruised peach, honeysuckle, and soft oak tannins leading the way with a touch of apricot and white pepper.
Palate: Once this pour hits the palate, you’ll be grateful that the faint nosing aromas find their way into the mouth and forewarned you of this whiskey’s general lightness. For those expecting a dense complexity, there isn’t any to be found here, but with a slightly thin texture, this whiskey still delivers a substantive stone fruit-forward flavor profile.
Finish: The finish is brief, with only white pepper and the gentle oak tannins from the nose surviving the journey from start to finish.
Bottom Line:
Elmer T. Lee is highly sought after for reasons beyond the bottle’s taste. It was formerly a slightly higher-quality product before demand skyrocketed and it became less affordable and available. This present-day version isn’t going to knock your socks off and isn’t worth any extra effort in hunting down, unless you’re really in the market for a rare, super sweet sipper. Then this is the one you should go off the beaten path to find.
Old Weller Antique, or Weller 107 as it’s commonly called, is the second expression in Buffalo Trace’s Weller lineup. With an estimated age range of about seven years, it shares a grain recipe, warehouse location, and proof point with Old Rip Van Winkle.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: The nose on Old Weller Antique is befitting of its packaging as candied red apples and honey combine with soft pastry notes, a touch of honey, allspice, and butterscotch.
Palate: On the palate, those candied apple notes achieve an impressive depth, almost mimicking the flavor of apple cider as waves of caramel, mellow oak, and milk chocolate come crashing in. The well-balanced whiskey is aided by a viscous mouthfeel underlined by a prickly infusion of ethanol, black pepper, and tart apple cider vinegar.
Finish: For its closing word, Weller Antique offers a fresher note of stone fruit and Rainier cherries, dipped in milk chocolate and closing with vanilla ice cream. The finish is medium-length but substantive, allowing enough space for each flavor note to have its say before tapering away.
Bottom Line:
Good old Weller Antique is highly sought-after for existing under the halo of the Pappy Van Winkle lineup and William Larue Weller wheated bourbon, but the truth of the matter is that this might be the most versatile and underrated whiskey in the Weller portfolio. Be forewarned: this isn’t the easiest bottle on the list to find under $100, but if you can do so, it’s balance of wheat funk and bright cherry sweetness is a treat.
Woodford Reserve Bourbon is frequently cited as one of the best bourbons for beginners for two main reasons: it’s bottled at a relatively low proof and has an assortment of rich, balanced, and crowd-pleasing flavors. Woodford Reserve is owned by Brown-Forman, which also includes Jack Daniel’s and Old Forester in its portfolio.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: Plums, rich oak, and sticky toffee notes are immediately evident on the nose of this whiskey, and the aroma of vanilla pods, clove, and cinnamon bark joins them.
Palate: The palate of this whiskey introduces the toffee note from the nose right off the bat, and that’s joined by a surprising yet welcome splash of citrus to go with the additional flavors of vanilla, mellow oak, and gentle black pepper spice. The mouthfeel is lean, but rather than contrasting with the richness of the flavors, it helps to make them more pronounced while maintaining the whiskey’s general agreeable smoothness.
Finish: The finish is brief but marked by more vanilla and sweet oak, with a final kiss of sticky toffee and candied walnuts.
Bottom Line:
Woodford Reserve deserves all the praise it receives for being a fantastic beginner bourbon. Sure, its proof point might make bourbon snobs turn up their noses. However, there’s absolutely no denying that this whiskey still manages to pack a ton of sweet, oak-driven flavor, free from any harsh elements, making it one of the best, easy-sipping whiskeys of any category on the market.
The latest Orphan Barrel offering, dubbed Fanged Pursuit, features 17-year non-chill filtered Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey. KSBW at that age is hard to come by. Notably, it’s brought to Orphan Barrel’s preferred proof — a relatively low 46% ABV.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: The nose bursts forth with the aroma of Luden’s cherry cough drops, clove cigarettes, Red Vines candy, leather, and torched orange wheel covered in dark chocolate. With patience, the sweet red notes continue to vacillate between red licorice and black cherry while peanut shells and caramel come into focus.
Palate: This whiskey begins with tobacco leaf, Rainier cherries, and red apple skin on the tip of the tongue before it introduces sage smudge, black pepper, barrel char, and touches of lime rind.
Finish: Allspice, dark chocolate, thyme, and orange zest hang on the palate with a medium-length finish to close things out.
Bottom Line:
I’ve been consistently impressed with Orphan Barrel’s offerings, enjoying the flavorful, low-ABV expressions in a vacuum. Their price, however, has more often been the sticking point. At 17 years old, this is one of the few expressions in the lineup that warrants the cost, offering a rich, darkly sweet flavor profile with an exceedingly approachable smooth factor to boot.
8. Old 55 Single Barrel 100% Sweet Corn Cask Strength Bourbon Whiskey
Newtown, Indiana, is home to Old 55 Distillery, which is deploying proprietary enzymes and producing both a wheated bourbon as well as some truly magnificent, albeit extremely limited, 100% sweet corn bourbon. Cask strength is where their sweet corn bourbon shines brightest, as it showcases all of that unsprayed, organic sweet corn in all its glory.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: There’s an earthy aroma reminiscent of tree bark that is quickly supplanted by gobs of sumptuously sweet corn pudding, melon, white peach, and overripe apricot.
Palate: On the palate, the viscousness of the liquid is immediately remarkable, which lays the foundation for corn pudding, blackberries, vanilla ice cream, and cinnamon bark to coat your tongue in nearly equal measure.
Finish: On the finish, you’ll find the kick of cinnamon bark, cola nut, and jammy blackberry sweetness kissing you goodbye after every sip.
Bottom Line:
Producing 100% sweet corn bourbon is not only more labor-intensive but it’s also costly — which goes to explain the high sticker price for Old 55 100% Sweet Corn Bourbon, but the results are so damn worth it. Not only is this one of the more unique bourbons on the market from a production standpoint, but it also demonstrates the potential of bourbon as a category when the cost is set aside and talented distillers focus on one simple goal: flavor.
7. Preservation Distillery Pure Antique 20-Year Bourbon
This award-winning whiskey was recently crowned the world’s best at the 2024 San Francisco World Spirits Competition. So, what is it? 20-year-old bourbon born in Tennessee that Preservation Distillery sourced and bottles at their home in Bardstown, Kentucky. Preservation has an extensive history of sourcing and selling some of the finest bourbons in history, so it’s no shock that they’ve added another feather in their cap with this impressively aged release.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: The nose on this bourbon is full of ripe plums and figs, with dark chocolate chunks protruding through as vanilla ice cream and robust oak tones permeate under the surface. Cinnamon, graham crackers, and gentle leather tones also add to the fun.
Palate: Once on the palate, those nosing notes spring to life with added richness as the flavor of chocolate-coated graham crackers crumbles away to reveal the ripe plums that are the star of the show. Cinnamon, dark chocolate, and vanilla frosting flavors further enhance the experience, and it all comes with a lean mouthfeel that allows the flavor to take center stage.
Finish: The finish welcomes an uptick of black pepper, barrel char, and leather, though the sweet notes are still out in full force, making for a balanced, medium-length send-off.
Bottom Line:
There’s no way any connoisseur could mistake this for something less than world-class whiskey after a few swirls of and sips from the glass. This stuff is balanced and bursting with refined sweet flavors, with some atypical fruit notes that make it a truly unique treat.
Distilled and bottled in Indiana, and coming from a 99% corn and 1% malted barley recipe, is this new bourbon release from Old Hamer. Aged for an impressive 10 years, this sourced whiskey spent its life maturing in charred, new oak barrels.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: This whiskey opens with a strong powdered sugar and corn pudding note, with some Rainier cherries and faint eau de vie notes. It’s a decidedly sweet set of aromas, but with the maturity and restrained richness that a decade resting in new oak can impart.
Palate: The first thing that stands out is its heavy mouthfeel. This whiskey has a dense texture that pairs well with the strong hit of sweetness that kisses the tip of the tongue with cinnamon, red apples, corn syrup, and white pepper. There’s a bit of barrel char and a heavy vanilla character at the back end as well.
Finish: The finish is brief, but becomes cloyingly sweet with vanilla and barrel char representing the primary flavors. There’s also some cinnamon, golden raisins, and nougat to round things out.
Bottom Line:
Old Hamer 10 is an impressive whiskey in several ways: notably for its viscous mouthfeel and one of a kind flavor profile. Frankly, the intensity of its sweetness and a brief finish prevent this bottle from being well-rounded. Ultimately, however, if you’re looking for a damn sweet bourbon, then this one definitely hits the mark.
Penelope’s brand new affordable offering is a crowd-pleaser: Wheated Bourbon. While savvy enthusiasts will note that Penelope already offers a Four Grain bourbon with wheat in the mash bill, this one has a slightly higher percentage of wheat in the mash bill and is bottled at a higher proof. Finally, this expression is non-chill filtered to preserve maximum flavor.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: The distinct aroma of kettle corn wafts out of the glass before red licorice, dried apricots, and peppercorn notes claim center stage. On the second pass, the peppercorn is cracked open and ground into a black pepper spice, while apple sauce aromas start to assert themselves, alongside nutmeg and brown sugar, which ultimately prevail.
Palate: The texture of this whiskey is surprisingly lush and mouth-coating, with menthol, rich honey, dried apricots, and peppercorn flavors rolling over the palate. This bottle drinks above its proof, which is a compliment and probably a credit to the fact that it was bottled without chill filtration.
Finish: The medium-length finish features a much more assertive assortment of baking spices, with cinnamon bark, nutmeg, and black pepper piggybacking off some red apple sweetness before it’s all over.
Bottom Line:
This bottle is a revelation. While I’ve typically been more drawn to the brand’s burlier high-ABV options, its recent low-proof products have been eye-opening displays of precocious, full-flavored bourbons you need right now. This is a sweet whiskey that I highly recommend.
This bottle, a single-barrel version of Four Roses’ OBSV recipe (learn about all of their recipes here), is an absolutely classic bourbon. The brand describes the OBSV recipe as having a delicate, fruit-forward yeast and a high-rye mash bill.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: The nosing notes are resplendent with red berries as the aroma of raspberries and black cherries leap out of the glass, along with a touch of sage, singed mint, Brazil nuts, and blood oranges. This is one expressive and inviting nose.
Palate: On the palate, those flavors continue to develop as the blood orange fuses with black cherries, and they’re joined by black pepper spice, singed mint, sage, and even a bit of cedar at midpalate. The juxtaposition of citrus, sweetness, woodsiness, and baking spice might seem like a cacophony of flavors, but they all come together harmoniously.
Finish: The finish is where the baking spice slightly wins out over the fruit-forward notes as it lingers with medium length on the tongue, sizzling the tip and leaving bits of bright cherry and Valencia orange meat on the back end.
Bottom Line:
Four Roses Single Barrel Bourbon is packed with classic bourbon notes while still maintaining an approachability and sweetness that will appeal to both connoisseurs and novices alike. Furthermore, it boasts a berry-forward flavor profile and remains accessible at a price point that makes it suitable for mixing in cocktails. When it comes to sweet bourbon, Four Roses has got the goods.
For their flagship 10-Year Bourbon, Widow Jane blends whiskey distillate from three different states in bespoke 5-barrel batches before proofing it down with mineral water from their Rosendale Mines in New York. The barrels from each blend hail from distilleries in Kentucky, Indiana, and Tennessee.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: Widow Jane boasts a captivating nose of fresh cherries, orange oil, mature oak, and milk chocolate paired with more unique notes like waxy plums, coconuts, and pears.
Palate: Immediately, you’ll notice that this is a really rich whiskey that punches way above its modest proof point. That exceptional mouthfeel brings a complex web of all the notes above, with the red cherries, chocolate milk, and coconut aspects featuring most prominently across the palate while maple candy and cinnamon creep in more subtly.
Finish: Again defying its modest proof point is the finish, which lingers for quite a while, leaving mature oak and milk chocolate with a touch of plum on the palate, priming you for your next sip.
Bottom Line:
Widow Jane’s flagship expression might be under the radar for specific consumers who swear by the singular superlativeness of Kentucky bourbon. Those people standing are in the way of their own joy. As a UPROXX reader, however, you’ve probably seen this one in our “best non-Kentucky bourbons” round-up, so you know by now that Widow Jane is making some excellent stuff. Not only is this bottle undeniably packed with appealing sweet notes, but it’s also dangerously delicious.
Basil Hayden, and its eye-catching bottle, is produced by one of the most well-regarded brands in the whiskey world — Jim Beam. Though the age statement was removed back in 2014, the whiskey in this blend is still believed to be between 6-8 years old.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: Buttery croissants and a bit of brown sugar punch through on the nose, making you instantly sit up to recognize how rich they are. A warm vanilla aroma, cola nut, and clove join those notes.
Palate: Gentle oak tones, gooey caramel notes, and more beautiful brown sugar prevail on the palate — each well-defined and coming through as clear as a bell. Those focused flavors come together on a superbly substantive mouthfeel that rewards “chewing” as well as easy-sipping.
Finish: Brown sugar, black pepper, and clove accent the finish, but a bit of space is left for some subtle barrel char.
Bottom Line:
Basil Hayden is an easy-drinking bourbon banger. The bouquet of prototypical bourbon aromas on the nose prepares your senses for the palate’s steady yet unrelenting bounty of sweet-tasting flavor notes. Basil Hayden is already well-known as one of the smoothest bourbons available, and it checks every box from affordability and well-rounded flavor to availability.
Woodinville Whiskey Co., out of Washington State, has been producing stellar craft bourbon since 2009. Even with the incredible quality they put into their limited edition offerings, you’d be foolish to skip over their flagship offering. Aged for at least five years, Woodinville Bourbon is made entirely with local grains from a mash bill of 72% corn , 22% rye, and 6% malted barley. Tasting Notes:
Nose: Woodinville Bourbon’s nosing notes offer a surprising array of atypical aromas with a sweet blend of coconut and pineapple, giving it a piña colada vibe at first before maraschino cherries, whipped cream, corn pudding, and a floral aspect begin to emerge out of the glass.
Palate: Milk chocolate with whipped cream and coconut flakes come rushing over the tongue at first with a silky mouthfeel, helping all of those flavors find their footing. As it switches to the mid-palate, there’s some light umami savoriness, crème brulée, and very little burn, which gives this whiskey the “creamy” texture we’re looking for in a smooth bourbon.
Finish: As that creamy texture ends on the brief finish, we’re left with cacao nibs, caramel, and vanilla ice cream flavor.
Bottom Line:
This bottle is impossible to put down. Woodinville has absolutely mastered the ability to extract sweet, milk-chocolate notes from its distillate, and pairing that with alluring accents of coconuts and cherries is what makes this bottle a real standout for sweet sipping. Trust me when I say, this is the ultimate dessert bourbon.
Lorde’s new album Virgin is on the way, and she has teased that it’s a deeply personal experience. She did so again yesterday (May 19) when she shared the cover art (here it is) for her upcoming single “Man Of The Year,” which features Lorde shirtless, but with duct tape covering her breasts.
The post reads, “Man Of The Year. An offering from really deep inside me. The song I’m proudest of on Virgin. Out next week.”
Lorde recently told Rolling Stone that when writing the song, she tried to visualize a version of herself “that was fully representative of how [her] gender felt in that moment.” She envisioned herself in men’s jeans and with duct tape on her chest. Lorde said, “I went to the cupboard, and I got the tape out, and I did it to myself. I have this picture staring at myself. I was blonde [at the time]. It scared me what I saw. I didn’t understand it. But I felt something bursting out of me. It was crazy. It was something jagged. There was this violence to it.”
In that same interview, she also said, “[Chappell Roan] asked me this. She was like, ‘So, are you nonbinary now?’ And I was like, ‘I’m a woman except for the days when I’m a man.’ I know that’s not a very satisfying answer, but there’s a part of me that is really resistant to boxing it up.”
Virgin is out 6/27 via Republic Records. Find more information here.
Perhaps the most famous supposed “curse” in contemporary sports is the “Drake curse,” which is based on an apparent pattern of Drake-supported teams or athletes losing. Now, Drake himself has shared his thoughts on it.
In a new video (an ad for gambling platform Stake) shared yesterday (May 19), Drake says:
“I feel like… I feel like I don’t play sports, so, um [laughs]… Whether I pick the wrong team or not, you know, I don’t… if I could get out there on the field and win for all your favorite teams, I would, but… No, the Drake curse is funny to me, honestly. First of all, the Raptors won a championship, so nobody can ever talk to me about the Drake curse. Toronto Raptors are NBA champions, so… if there was a Drake curse, Kawhi would have never hit that shot, we would have never beat the Warriors… there is no Drake curse. But, it’s funny, though.
I am a flawed sports bettor, I will not deny that. I’m not… that’s not my gift, so I’ll let everybody roll with it, you know. And I’m sure if you’re a Drake curse believer, there’ll be plenty more content in the future for you to confirm your theories. ‘Cause for whatever reason, my slips do not cash out, so… But one day, I’m gonna have a parlay that’s insane and then everybody’s just going to be like, ‘Shh,’ on quiet.”
It’s been a little while now since we’ve gotten a new “Taylor’s Version” album, as the latest is 1989 (Taylor’s Version), which came out in October 2023. She still has a few left to do, among them Reputation (Taylor’s Version). Well, now we have a new taste of it, thanks to The Handmaid’s Tale.
In the new penultimate episode of the series, “Look What You Made Me Do (Taylor’s Version)” is featured in the opening scene (above). It’s a good look at the song, too, as the scene runs for over two minutes, with the track playing the whole time.
While fans may want to think this means Reputation (Taylor’s Version) is coming soon, they’ve been burned before. Back in August 2023, a new episode of the Amazon Prime Video series The Summer I Turned Prettyincluded a snippet of “Delicate (Taylor’s Version).” Handmaid’s Tale actually isn’t even the first time we’ve heard “Look What You Made Me Do (Taylor’s Version),” as it was in an August 2023 teaser for “Wilderness.”
Also that month (busy month for Reputation (Taylor’s Version) news), Ed Sheeran revealed that he hadn’t yet recorded his contributions to “End Game (Taylor’s Version),” so hopefully that’s changed since then.
Pavement is a rock band from Stockton, California. They were formed in 1989 by Stephen Malkmus (S.M.) and Scott Kannberg (Spiral Stairs), longtime friends who were in their early 20s. Their early music was recorded by Gary Young, who joined the duo as a drummer. Later, a bass player (Mark Ibold) and a guy who sometimes sings and sometimes plays percussion and keyboards (Bob Nastanovich) were added. Eventually, a different drummer (Steve West) replaced Young. They released five albums between 1992 and ’99 and then broke up. In the 21st century, they reunited for two tours that constituted some of the biggest and best received shows of their career.
That is the Pavement story. It has been told many times — in magazine articles, online retrospectives, one book, and one documentary. And now it has been told again, in the least normal (and, therefore, most Pavement-esque) fashion yet.
I’m talking about Pavements, a hybrid of documentary, rock biopic, and jukebox musical written and directed by the talented indie filmmaker Alex Ross Perry. The film — currently screening in select cities before a wider release next month — is about the most beloved indie-rock band of the 1990s. But it’s also about how rock bands of the past are immortalized (in good ways and bad) by various media forms. We see the usual backstage footage of Pavement rehearsing for their recent world tour, which took place from 2022 to ’24, as well as archival clips from the ’90s. But there is also Range Life, a biopic parody in which Stranger Things star Joe Keery portrays Malkmus. And we also see fake behind-the-scenes footage of that fake film, where Keery self-satirizes as a self-serious method actor in the mold of Timothée Chalamet obsessively aping Bob Dylan. And then there’s the additional meta element of Slanted! Enchanted! A Pavement Musical, which jokingly does to Pavement what American Idiot earnestly did to Green Day.
The film’s mix of sincerity and irony — and a certain ambiguity about which is which — mirrors Pavement’s own sensibility, which makes watching Pavements feel a lot like listening to Pavement. Speaking of listening to Pavement: Always a good idea!
After watching a screener of Pavements last month, I binged on a band I have loved for 30 years with fresh ears. And then I wrote many words about it. Shall we go back to those gold soundz?
PRE-LIST ENTERTAINMENT PART 1: THAT CLIP FROM THE TONIGHT SHOW IN 1994 YOU HAVE ALREADY SEEN ON SOCIAL MEDIA MULTIPLE TIMES
This video gets passed around every other month on the platform formerly known as Twitter. And the person doing the sharing usually says something like, “Isn’t it funny/amazing how Pavement did not try very hard?” Because that is the conventional wisdom on Pavement: They are the band from the ’90s that did not try very hard. And that’s what makes The Tonight Show video the ultimate Pavement Rorschach Test. There are people who find it genuinely funny/amazing that Stephen Malkmus begins “Cut Your Hair” by squawking like a monkey. They see it as mocking the banal mainstream culture that Pavement and their followers positioned themselves against. And then there are people who find this video “funny/amazing,” with extra emphasis on the sarcastic quotes. They see it encapsulating the alleged smugness and unearned air of superiority associated with bands like Pavement and their audience.
I am part of the former group, as you would expect from a person writing a column on his favorite Pavement songs. But I want to take issue with the framing here, the part about Pavement being the band that didn’t try very hard. You hear this all the time about Pavement. It’s the most consistent talking point in conversations about the band, whether it’s by music critics, journalists, fans, or haters. “Slacker” is defined as “a person who avoids work or effort,” and Pavement is the defining slacker band. And it never rings true to me. Pavement tried. They tried very hard. They might have been selective about what they tried (and what didn’t try), but that does not mean they didn’t try at all. And you don’t have to try very hard to prove that.
In the micro sense, The Tonight Show appearance required significant effort. The band members woke up that morning at 5 a.m. in Albuquerque and then flew to Los Angeles. I’m guessing it was a stressful trip. It occurred on April 21, about two weeks after Kurt Cobain’s body was found. This was the narrow window of time when Pavement becoming legitimate rock stars seemed semi-plausible. After doing the Jay Leno show, they performed two gigs in LA that night — an underage show at 8 p.m. and a 21+ concert at 10 — before shipping off on the six-hour drive to San Francisco. It was all part of a run that spanned 53 shows in 52 days, possibly the busiest year in Pavement’s history. (Before the reunion tours, anyway.) They were trying. And it was trying.
From a macro perspective, I know Pavement tried because they are a great band. And I don’t think any band gets to be great without trying extremely hard to be great. The blessing and curse of Pavement is that they never showed their work. They looked like slackers, which made them seem like slackers. And that was (and is) an attractive myth, if The Tonight Show Rorschach appeals to you. No Pavement fan wants to see Stephen Malkmus sweat. Now, if you’re Billy Corgan, it’s a different story. In that instance, Stephen Malkmus’ lack of perspiration is his most hateable quality.
We’ll be exploring this dynamic further as we proceed with this column. But speaking as a music critic who has listened to an estimated 1,432 albums made by bands who really wanted to be Pavement, I can tell you that sounding like you don’t care while also delivering incredible songs (the part people always seem to forget in this equation) is damn near impossible. It’s a lane that Pavement has never stopped owning. They are, like their name, a property that appears to just lay there when in fact it’s an incredibly sturdy foundation that lasts for decades. Only with this kind of pavement, the cracks are intentional.
PRE-LIST ENTERTAINMENT PART 2: JOE WALSH EXPLAINS PAVEMENT
The above monologue is taken from Allison Ellwood’s 2013 documentary History Of The Eagles, one of the greatest films ever made. And this scene is my favorite part of the movie. I think about it a lot — not just (or even mainly) in the context of the Eagles, but the entirety of popular music and life in general. What’s funny is that I don’t think Joe Walsh’s words really apply all that well to the Eagles. Don Henley and Glenn Frey are two of the most ruthless and cunning figures in rock history. The suggestion that random things happened to them which only made sense in retrospect seems antithetical to their approach. They were a pair of very premeditated desperados; even the creases in their jeans were impeccably rendered. If any band’s catalog can be likened to a “finely crafted novel,” it’s the Eagles.
Walsh’s words, however, do perfectly suit a band I’m sure he’s never heard of. “Shambolic” is the adjective that appeared most often in Pavement album reviews. Their career path was viewed as haphazard and self-sabotaging as it was unfolding in real time. Their third album, Wowee Zowee, was singled out for being an erratic disaster that derailed their career. And when they broke up after touring in support of Terror Twilight, their least acclaimed record, it appeared that they were ending on a low note.
Pavement’s career in the ’90s truly can be described as anarchy and chaos, with random, non-related events smashing into one another. And it’s overwhelming and it looks like “what in the world is going on?” But later, looking back on it, Pavement is a band whose catalog sounds pretty much perfect, with a logical progression from album to album that is satisfying and endlessly re-playable. The further away we get from their prime, the more it seems like a story that unfolded exactly the right way.
40. “Brinx Job” (1995)
The “Joe Walsh Explains Pavement” Theory is most overtly applicable to Wowee Zowee. Currently, it’s the fashionable choice for best Pavement album. For me, “best Pavement album” applies to whichever Pavement album I’m currently playing. So, I feel that way about Wowee Zowee roughly 20 percent of the time I’m listening to Pavement. (I thought this opinion might change during the writing of this column. But the equality of their five-album arc was only affirmed.)
Thirty years ago, Wowee Zowee was widely regarded as a comedown after Slanted And Enchanted and Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain. And I can understand why, sort of, the same way I can sort of get someone in the ’60s singing “The White Album” after hearing Revolver and Sgt. Pepper. But when I’m listening to Wowee Zowee, I don’t understand the negative reviews at all. The album’s structural conceit is obvious — there are two or three “normal” songs, typically mid-tempo and very pretty, and then there’s a “weird” track, which is short, fast, and loud. This pattern recurs several times throughout, and it enhances the flow of the record. It keeps Wowee Zowee from being too slow or too beautiful without overshadowing some of the very best songs Malkmus ever wrote.
For the critics who heard Wowee Zowee in 1995, however, this didn’t make sense at all. Pavement was accused of tanking their career on purpose, like the Philadelphia 76ers in the early 2010s, only without an overarching process to trust in. The sense you get from reading reviews at the time is that critics almost felt like Pavement was mocking them for writing so kindly about the previous two records.
And that seems, frankly, crazy to me. Wowee Zowee has a much higher hit/miss ratio than “The White Album,” and “The White Album” is one of my favorite albums of all time. The best explanation for the critical reception comes from Rob Sheffield, who once pointed out that Alien Lanes by Guided By Voices came out one week earlier. “It made Wowee Zowee sound flimsier than it really was,” Sheffield argued.
That I can understand. However, I’m putting “Brinx Job” here because it’s the song that seemingly every cranky review of Wowee Zowee namechecked as one of the album’s worst. And I love it, and love how it fits on the album, right behind “Black Out” (gorgeous) and right ahead of “Grounded” (potential GOAT Pavement song candidate).
39. “Major Leagues” (1999)
The previous statement about how “my favorite Pavement album is the Pavement album I’m currently playing” really does apply to Terror Twilight, too. Though my love of that album is more reliant on how it fits with the other four records. As a stand-alone LP, it unquestionably has fewer standout tracks than the others. But as the “final” album of the run, Terror Twilight has extra resonance, as a Pavement record and as a ’90s indie-rock touchstone. It doesn’t appear to have been constructed as a farewell statement, but it feels like one. And given that it came out in the summer of 1999 — a season dominated by nu-metal and boy-band pop — Terror Twilight has unwitting symbolic “end of an era” status. (Pavement’s recording career taking place almost entirely in the ’90s, and each album aligning with larger cultural progressions of the decade, is among the most important “accidentally perfect” things about them.)
The story of Terror Twilight is that Pavement worked with a “real” producer, Nigel Godrich, who wanted to finally crack the code and make them a mainstream rock band. And that, inevitably, did not happen. Not in commercial terms, at least. Though when you listen to “Major Leagues,” Godrich actually did pull it off. It sounds like a Pavement song that also sounds like Travis’ The Man Who, the other big album released in 1999 that Godrich produced.
I know that description will further repel those who don’t like this album. (Malkmus himself called Terror Twilight “a real, classic rock, overproduced, $100,000 record.”) But the ambivalence baked into Malkmus’ lyrics to “Major Leagues” — which describe a failing relationship, be it romantic or musical — give the twinkly music a subversive, Pavement-esque edge.
38. “Harness Your Hopes” (1997)
Last week, Pavement was back on a late-night talk show. Stephen Malkmus did not squawk like a monkey. Instead, they played the Pavement song that people who were not alive in the ’90s are most likely to know.
Here’s another thing Joe Walsh was right about: The most streamed Pavement track is a B-side that nobody can explain (or remember) why it was left off a proper record. And that, naturally, is the perfect kind of Pavement song to break through. It only seems like “Harness Your Hopes” became a left-field Internet hit because of some fluky algorithmic hiccup. The reality is that it was part of the same cosmic forces that have slowly shaped Pavement into the warm and cuddly classic-rock institution they are now.
37. “Roll With The Wind” (1997)
Malkmus first realized that “Harness Your Hopes” had become a quasi-hit in the late 2010s, while out with one of his daughters at a Portland gluten-free bakery. (How many “Stephen Malkmus-looking” guys are hanging out at a Portland gluten-free bakery on any given day? Lots, I’m guessing.) At first, before recognizing his own voice, he thought it was “Tumbling Dice” by the Rolling Stones.
This brings me to the next critical (and also under-discussed) aspect of the Pavement legacy: They choogle. I mean it. They really do. They try, they make sense (even when you think they don’t), and they choogle like hell.
Pavement pundits like to dwell on their punk and post-punk influences — The Fall, Swell Maps, Devo, etc. But Creedence Clearwater Revival comes up a lot in the band’s interviews. The first song Stephen Malkmus learned on guitar was “Suzie Q.” And Stockton, California — the original homebase of Malkmus and Scott Kannberg, as well as their original drummer Gary Young — is only about 120 miles east of CCR’s birthplace of Berkeley. Like John Fogerty, Malkmus towered over his bandmates as the dominant creative force. But he could never quite get the same sound without his bandmates (as much as I like Malkmus’ Jicks era). What I mean is a certain looseness that feels a little lazy but in fact requires an instinctual swing and an understated, almost subliminal tightness. In a word: choogle.
The hiring of Steve West made Pavement a groovier band, which paid immediate dividends on Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain, particularly one of the signature songs, “Range Life.” But the “choogle” side of Pavement reached its zenith on a record that doesn’t really exist. I refer to the collection of B-sides and outtakes that compose the back half of the first disc on the expanded edition of Brighten The Corners, along with several tracks from Disc 2. I made a tape of these 13 songs called Death Of The Slack, Long Live Choogle. It starts with “And Then (The Hexx)” through the end of Disc 1 and then continues on Disc 2 with “Slowly Typed” through “No Tan Lines,” and ends with “Nigel.” (I recommend that you make your own version.)
“Harness Your Hopes” is the “hit” from this album, but I actually like the next song, the harmonica-powered “Roll With The Wind,” a little more. It’s like Pavement if they were known as Pavement Turner Overdrive.
36. “Embassy Row” (1997)
This one has the spirit of Death Of The Slack, Long Live Choogle, only it ended up on Brighten The Corners. It also has enough of a Nirvana vibe to make me think that Malkmus could have made radio-friendly post-grunge if he wanted to. Or perhaps the era’s post-grunge bands could have covered Malkmus songs like folk-rock bands doing Dylan covers in the ’60s. “Embassy Row,” in a different and much weirder universe, could have been the greatest Seven Mary Three song of all time.
(Before we segue to the next topic, I need to shout out two Pavement-adjacent projects with strong choogle vibes, both released in 1998: Marquee Mark by The Crust Brothers, which is Malkmus plus the three guys from Silkworm doing a live set of classic-rock covers, and American Water by Silver Jews, which is simply one of the finest indie albums of that decade. As Malkmus says on Marquee Mark, “I’ve never been sated with chooglin’.” )
35. “Shoot The Singer (1 Sick Verse)” (1992)
My favorite Pavement album is the Pavement album I am currently playing. But what about EPs? EPs are a different story. The greatest Pavement EP is Watery, Domestic. Some days, I think it’s the greatest Pavement release ever. It was the last record that Pavement made at Louder Than You Think, the Stockton studio operated by their hard-drinking/drugging hippie-guy drummer, Gary Young. It’s also the first true “band” record, with Mark Ibold and Bob Nastonvich making their in-studio Pavement debuts. Though I’m not sure that explains how huge Watery, Domestic sounds. Not even Nigel Godrich could make Pavement sound as enormous. There’s a thickness to the sonic texture that feels wiry and electric, and it exudes a level of swagger that exceeds even Slanted And Enchanted.
I could have put every track from Watery, Domestic on this list. I didn’t, but I could have. I instead stuck with three tracks, and this is one of them.
34. “You Are A Light” (1999)
For physical media people — who should be disproportionately represented among readers of a Pavement column — the Watery, Domestic songs are more readily available on the expanded Luxe & Deluxe reissue of Slanted And Enchanted from 2002. All the Pavement albums have been given the deluxe reissue treatment, and those versions — thick with outtakes, B-sides, live songs, and other valuable strays otherwise hard to track down — are the definitive incarnations. That is, with the exception of the Farewell Horizontal edition of Terror Twilight, which was reissued with a new track sequence on the vinyl and streaming editions that aligned with Godrich’s original wishes to start the album on a “difficult” note. So, instead of opening with the inviting “Spit On A Stranger” (good song, not on the list), it commences with “Platform Blues” (punishing song, not on the list). This sequence throws off the mojo of an already downbeat record.
Curiously, both tracklists have “You Are A Light” in the third slot. Which is exactly where you want one of the power hitters in the lineup to be.
33. “Box Elder” (1989)
The poppiest number from the first EP, Slay Tracks 1933-1969. It was released in the summer of 1989, around the time that Robert Pollard patched together the third Guided By Voices record with some high school friends and drinking buddies. In the past — not online but in barroom conversations — I have classified GBV as the Stones to Pavement’s Beatles in the ’90s lo-fi scene. But that seems more like a matter of temperament or image than music. (GBV has many Beatlesque songs and zero tracks that might be mistaken for “Tumbling Dice” in a Portland-area gluten-free bakery.) “Box Elder” actually sounds a lot like a GBV rip-off, only I don’t think Malkmus had been to Dayton, Ohio yet in the late ’80s.
32. “Half A Canyon” (1995)
Pavement is sometimes described as a rock band about other rock bands. Which is why critics like them so much — with the possible exception of Vampire Weekend, no band has ever looked and thought about music like the people who wrote about them more than Pavement. Upon the release of Slanted And Enchanted, Pavement appeared to be an irreverent amalgam of various rock eras, both mainstream and underground. They both emulated and mocked their influences. Malkmus once described “Range Life” as an attempt to write an Eagles song, even though he hated the Eagles. That, more or less, sums up the Pavement ethos. And that only became more pronounced with the second Pavement LP, Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain, which made the winking musical subtext of the debut album’s music (i.e. “this is a deconstructed form of rock at a moment when the form might finally be artistically exhausted”) a central theme of the lyrics (“Goodnight to the rock ‘n’ roll era,” etc.).
I have a less parroted theory about how each Pavement album represents a different period of the so-called “rock ‘n’ roll era.” Crooked Rain is their quintessential “1990s” album. (It’s possible no rock album is more 1990s — or, more accurately, mid-1990s.) Brighten The Corners is their 1980s “college rock” record. (It was co-produced by Mitch Easter and represents Pavement’s closest approximation of R.E.M.) Terror Twilight, meanwhile, looks ahead to the 2000s. (It foreshadows the “new century” dread of two future Godrich productions, Kid A and Amnesiac by Radiohead.)
“Half A Canyon” is the jammiest song from Pavement’s “late ’60s/early ’70s” record, Wowee Zowee. And that points to my own hypothesis about why critics initially rejected this album: It marks the point where Pavement announces that they are closet hippies rather than loud-and-proud hipsters. I already talked about Wowee Zowee in relation to Alien Lanes, which came out the same month. But I would argue that you could also liken the Pavement record from 1995 to A Live One, the concert double-LP put out by Phish that June.
It’s the jam-band vibes of Wowee Zowee that made the Pavement-worshipping critics of the mid-’90s uncomfortable. But that, too, has also aged exquisitely.
31. “Folk Jam” (1999)
A certain kind of indie-rock lifer gets really upset when you point out the relatively close proximity of godheads like Pavement, Yo La Tengo, and Built To Spill to the jam-band universe. So, I’ll put this as delicately as I can. Pavement is not a jam-band. But they are a band who jams. And they sometimes jam in a manner that is stylistically similar to jam-bands. Like this song that literally has “jam” in the title.
30. “Perfume-V” (1992)
What about Slanted And Enchanted? What decade does that record signify? “Perfume-V” sounds like “now,” in that it’s the version of Pavement you still hear young indie bands trying to remake in their own image. Perhaps because it seems the most approachable, though in reality it’s by far the hardest of their albums to effectively replicate.
“I always was hoping it was music for the future,” Malkmus says in Pavements. “I think anybody who’s not that successful in their time tries to think that.”
In true Pavement fashion, I have waited almost 3,000 words to do the professional thing, which is discuss the timely hook for this column. Also, in true Pavement fashion, Pavements is a rock movie about rock movies. Alex Ross Perry approaches the genre like Malkmus pondered the Eagles — with a mix of disgust (for the antiquated, degraded popular art form) and semi-ironic conviction (that he can improve upon the formula while also taking it apart). The conceit doesn’t always work — the idea of turning Pavement’s catalog into a jukebox musical is a funny joke, but by the end of this overstuffed movie it starts to wear thin. (At 128 minutes, Pavements is Wowee Zowee-sized.) Conversely, the rock biopic parts of Pavements actually made me want to see more of Joe Keery’s Stephen Malkmus impersonation (not to mention the funny portrayals by Jason Schwartzmann and Tim Heidecker of Matador Records heads Chris Lombardi and Gerard Cosloy). If Perry’s intention was to point out all the ways that rock biopics are stupid, he accidentally crafted the cinematic equivalent of an affecting-despite-itself country-rock song.
29. “Grave Architecture” (1995)
Pavements is also a documentary, though that is also a house of mirrors, given this band’s (or, let’s be real, Stephen Malkmus’) historic caginess. For the super-fan who has already watched Lance Bangs’ 2002 doc Slow Century 800 times, you won’t learn a lot. Though it is fun to revisit the band’s highs and lows. The lowest of the low has to be the infamous Lollapalooza tour stop in West Virginia from 1995, sometimes credited as the performance that helped to kill the traveling festival. (A claim that seems dubious, to be honest — Metallica headlining the following year is what truly made Lolla a redundant, meaningless enterprise.)
Anyway, the setlist looks pretty sick. Those West Virginians didn’t know how good they had it. For their own sake, it’s good that nobody hit Stephen Malkmus in the chest with a rock before they played “Grave Architecture.”
28. “Kennel District” (1995)
Perry’s deftest mix of documentary and fake biopic footage occurs during the Lollapalooza sequence. Perry juxtaposes actual video of Pavement after the performance (laughing, bewildered, mostly in “who gives a shit?” mode) with a contrived post-show argument between Malkmus and Kannberg about how Malkmus’ ambivalent attitude about rock-band professionalism is holding Pavement back. Perry’s point is that these kinds of movies inevitably exaggerate (or flat-out invent) intra-band dramas for the sake of the cheesy biopic formula in ways that actually flatten and dehumanize the figures they’re supposedly meant to revere. In this case, it’s the common stereotype about “artistic differences,” with conflicting cliches bandied about regarding art vs. commerce. The very thing one might expect to exist in a fictionalized Pavement movie made by, say, James Mangold, rather than an avowed A Complete Unknown critic like Perry.
And he’s absolutely right about all that. But I also think this scene hints at real-life dynamics in Pavement that Perry couldn’t comfortably explore in the “true” documentary sections of his movie. And (I think?) that’s intentional on his part. It’s a dynamic that isn’t unique to Pavement, but Pavement is one of the better examples in rock history. (Sting’s relationship with the other members of The Police also comes to mind.) It’s the one where you have a single individual who overwhelmingly has the most power to decide whether the band gets to exist or not. And most of the other people are okay with that, though there is usually one other person who is slightly less okay with it, in part because he once had more parity with the “in charge” guy. The scene Perry made up is basically about that, and while it’s factually untrue it also feels accurate to the emotional life of this band.
Alas, I have spent most of this blurb about a great Scott Kannberg song talking about Stephen Malkmus, which makes a similar point.
27. “Unseen Power Of The Picket Fence” (1993)
Brian Jones started the Rolling Stones, Larry Mullen Jr. started U2, and Scott Kannberg started Pavement. It was the name of his college band when he attended Arizona State. (His major was urban planning, which inspired naming the group after the foundation for urban planning.) But Pavement was not a four-headed democracy like R.E.M., the band to which they paid homage with “Unseen Power Of The Picket Fence,” one of their most famous non-album tracks, originally released on the epochal alt-era compilation No Alternative. They were, at times, not a band at all. Like their lo-fi doppelgangers in Guided By Voices, Pavement has stretches when they only existed as a band on record.
There’s another band like that, and only Malkmus ever thought to compare them to Pavement. “I always felt a kinship with Steely Dan,” he once said in a 1993 interview with The Melody Maker. “They’re absolute ice princesses — stoned, cold, and empty, like if New Order came from Los Angeles.”
(Shoutout to “5-4=Unity,” which is not on this list but is the Pavement song most like a Steely Dan song.)
Malkmus later sang (in a song much later in this column) about liking a girl “because you’re empty, and I’m empty.” So, he’s self-aware about the cold, stoned air he exudes. Courtney Love famously called him “the Grace Kelly of rock,” which gets at the same idea. (“I’d take that as a compliment,” Malkmus said in 2008, “because Grace Kelly is very graceful and cool.”) I would liken him to a Bill Murray character from the early ’80s — the Stripes/Ghostbusters axis — in that he has a sort of noncommittal charisma, where people really want to follow him and he betrays no feeling about it one way or the other.
Having interviewed Malkmus twice, I can confirm that (under the contrived circumstances of a media phoner) he is very funny in conversation and also completely inscrutable on an emotional level. And it seems like being in a band with him, off and on, for 35 years is a similar experience. In a fantastic Stephen Malkmus profile published by GQ in 2010, Chuck Klosterman wrote that Kannberg talks about Malkmus “like he’s describing someone distant — someone he thinks about yet barely knows.” He then follows with a casually devastating quote: “Maybe Pavement is just not as important to him as it is to me. That’s probably all it is. But I’ve come to accept that.”
26. “Rattled By The Rush” (1995)
Anyway, when people praise/complain about Pavement for “not trying hard” — like the two finest rock critics of the 1990s in the clip above — I think they’re really talking about the Grace Kelly/Bill Murray of it all.
25. “And Then (The Hexx)” (2008)
Not to be confused with “The Hexx,” from Terror Twilight, or the B-side to “Spit On A Stranger.” This is the full unedited version — the full “Hexx”! — released on the expanded Nicene Creedence version of Brighten The Corners, the one I put on my Death Of The Slack, Long Live Choogle tape. It’s the same great guitar riff, one of Malkmus’ best, but there’s more of it, which is exactly what I want.
24. “Texas Never Whispers” (1992)
I almost put “Fame Throwa” here. Instead, I went with another song from Watery, Domestic, because it has the same guitar riff as “Fame Throwa,” only it sounds slightly more awesome. It goes back to that special “wiry electric” texture specific to the EP, which doesn’t exist on other Pavement releases and really sets Watery, Domestic apart.
23. “Newark Wilder” (1994)
The first song on this list from my first Pavement album. I discovered Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain by reading a cool zine you haven’t heard of. It was called Rolling Stone. It was the lead review in the February 24, 1994 issue, the one with Bob Marley on the cover. (Bob was already dead 13 years at that point, but he was thriving in the nation’s dorm rooms.) The critic was Matt Diehl, who also reviewed Alien Lanesfor the magazine one year later , a coincidence I did not realize until I started writing this column.
That I was introduced to possibly the two most impactful indie-rock albums of my teenage years by the same Rolling Stone writer says a lot about my own indie-rock bona-fides. Corporate magazines still suck, a famous t-shirt once said, but I read them nonetheless.
Diehl framed his take on Crooked Rain in terms that were precisely suited to my interests at the time. The lede is still striking:
Rock is dead — long live rock. The Who introduced this contradictory sentiment 20 years ago, around the time of punk’s birth, and Pavement revived it for punk’s rebirth — and not a moment too soon — on their stunning new album, Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain. While the Who smashed guitars and eardrums, Pavement smash preconceptions on Crooked Rain — about how an indie-rock band should sound, about whether “alternative music” is an alternative to anything — creating an album that’s darker and more beguiling than their heralded previous efforts.
I realize that many indie-rock people — Gen X or otherwise — will roll their eyes at the defining boomer-rock publication comparing Pavement to, of all bands, The Who. But as a 16-year-old, I appreciated reading something that linked a band from my time to a band from the classic-rock era, which I was interested in but otherwise seemed as distant as The Paleozoic Era.
Diehl also clued in on Stephen Malkmus’ playful engagement with rock mythology. It was a tricky balance of snark and sincerity that felt different from, say, Pearl Jam covering “Baba O’Riley” (very sincere) or Nirvana running through Kiss’ “Do You Love Me” (extremely snarky). Unlike those artists, Malkmus actually wrote about rock myths directly, like a rock critic might, only he was far more quotable than the typical rock critic.
For instance: “It’s a brand new era / it feels great / it’s a brand new era / but it came too late.” He wrote his own Rolling Stone review in just 18 words.
22. “Unfair” (1994)
Crooked Rain was made by the band, but it is not really a “band” record. Malkmus and West recorded together, and the rest was made up of overdubs. Bob Nastanovich didn’t actually hear any of the sessions until a few days after the album was finished. He drove to New York to pick Malkmus up for a drive back to Bob’s home in Louisville, and they spent a good part of the 13-hour drive listening to the album. And it was then that the pair figured out what Bob would contribute to the songs on stage, including the vocal on “Unfair,” his standout moment from the Crooked Rain era.
21. “Conduit For Sale!” (1992)
Bob’s inclusion in Pavement is what makes Pavement an atypical rock band. His role isn’t completely unprecedented, but you have to patch together several antecedents to get one Nastanovich. He’s an auxiliary drummer (like Mickey Hart) who sometimes functions as a co-frontperson (like Donna Godchaux). He’s a bit like Dave Weckerman from The Feelies, except he sometimes acts as a form of comic relief (like Flavor Flav).
Malkmus summed up Bob’s role the best: “Even if you thought I was a dick or lethargic, he was always there and he always gave 1,000 percent, every show.” This song is Exhibit A for the value of Bob’s “1,000 percent.”
20. “Fillmore Jive” (1994)
The most conceptually interesting song from Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain to my burgeoning rock-critic mind in high school. Writing rock songs about how rock is dead goes back to at least, well, The Who, as Rolling Stone helpfully reported in their review. But many of my favorite bands of the ’90s seemed to operate on the assumption that their days were numbered. (This was also true of bands I did not like all that much.) In my memory of that Rolling Stone review, Matt Diehl called Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain “the last rock album.” But he apparently did not do that — or if he did, it was edited out of the web version by Jann Wenner in a fit of overprotective rock paternalism. Either way, when the eulogy for rock is finally delivered, I hope it is accompanied by the guitar solo at the end of this song, the most gloriously florid of Malkmus’ career.
19. “In The Mouth A Desert” (1992)
I have already referenced “Range Life” several times in this column, and I’ll be talking about it more a little later. But I won’t be talking about the most conversed-about part of the song, mostly because I have alreadytalked about it many times in the past. I no longer have anything original to say about Stephen Malkmus’ parasocial relationship with Billy Corgan and the symbolic meaning thereof.
Instead, I want to talk about Pavement’s rivalry with Weezer.
I’m convinced that if Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain came out one year later, Stephen Malkmus would have dissed Weezer rather than Smashing Pumpkins and Stone Temple Pilots. If not for “Range Life,” nobody would have ever talked about the Pumpkins or STP in relation to Pavement. That song single-handedly invented a dynamic between those bands. But they would have talked about Weezer, the band that big-footed Pavement by taking their aesthetic and making it broader and more populist.
As far as I know, Rivers Cuomo has never acknowledged this. In “Heart Songs,” his preposterous tribute to his influences, he references so many artists (Gordon Lightfoot, Eddie Rabbit, Bruce Springsteen, Iron Maiden, Debbie Gibson, Michael Jackson, Will Smith, Nirvana, etc.) that it’s frankly insulting he doesn’t also mention Slanted And Enchanted. But just listen to “In The Mouth A Desert” and “El Scorcho” back to back and tell me that Rivers Cuomo shouldn’t have to wash Stephen Malkmus’ car for the rest of his life.
18. “Black Out” (1995)
From the Pavement side, Weezer represents a road not taken. “If we had signed to Gold Mountain management, or if we had signed with Geffen, maybe Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain sells 750,000 copies instead of 250,000 copies. But it was really just the difference between being Pavement or being Weezer,” Malkmus told GQ in 2010. “I never had a great deal of confidence in my ability to write hits. There’s a formula to that, and I’m not a good chorus writer. I’m better at the verses. Sometimes I don’t even get to the chorus.”
Malkmus perfected the art of not getting to the chorus on Wowee Zowee, exemplified by this incredibly pretty stoner rock ballad, which showed that he was not interested in making his blue album sound at all like Weezer’s blue alarm.
(I can’t prove this, and no one would admit it, but the one time Pavement seems like they’re ripping off Weezer is “Stereo,” the first song from Brighten The Corners. The guitar riff is pretty Pinkerton-esque, and the lyrical quips are smirkier and less subtle than usual. If I can liken Pavement to The Simpsons, the Geddy Lee nod and the “fact-checking cuz” part are more like Family Guy jokes. I don’t hate it, but it’s not on the list for a reason.)
17. “Starlings Of The Slipstream” (1997)
Speaking of jokes: The best one embedded in the musical theater sequences from Pavements is that Perry cast actors that have starred in other jukebox musicals, including Michael Esper (American Idiot) and Kathryn Gallagher (the Alanis Morissette show Jagged Little Pill). I’m not sure how many viewers will notice this, given that the audience for a Pavement movie and the audience for musical theater represents two almost entirely separate circles. (I had the benefit of watching a screener three times — this aspect didn’t sink in fully until the second viewing.)
A (perhaps) unintended consequence of using these ringers is that the showtune versions of Pavement songs often sound… pretty good actually? “Starlings Of The Slipstream” comes to mind as one of the better examples. Hearing the choir of theater people sing that chorus really brings out the quality of the melody and unlocks Malkmus’ heretofore hidden Andrew Lloyd Webber side.
16. “Passat Dream” (1997)
My favorite Scott Kannberg song, from the strongest Kannberg Pavement album. (Brighten The Corners also has “Date With IKEA” — not listed, but still a good tune and even better product placement.)
15. “Debris Slide” (1991)
From the second-best Pavement EP, Perfect Sound Forever. Also, an opportunity to talk about Gary Young, the one who made Pavement an atypical rock band before Bob joined. Pavement’s image (among detractors) as a bougie, rich-guy band belies the blue-collar lives of the band members who aren’t Stephen Malkmus — a bartender, a farmer, an almost bus driver, and whatever it is Bob does with horses. And then there’s Gary, the 40-something-year-old hippie guy who worshipped Yes and did headstands on stage during the slow songs. In Jed I. Rosenberg’s Louder Than You Think: A Lo-Fi History Of Gary Young And Pavement — released in 2023 just months before Young’s death at age 70 — we see him looking stooped and worse for wear as he slugs down orange soda mixed with vodka. He looks like the grizzled ex-timekeeper for a stoner metal band, not an original member of the cognoscenti’s favorite ’90s group.
What Gary represented about Pavement’s character and uniqueness is important. But he was also just a great “wild man” drummer, a perpetually drunken but fundamentally sweet-natured iconoclast who functioned as Pavement’s de-facto co-frontman early on. You can hear that on “Debris Slide,” where he attacks the kit like Bill Bruford on horse tranquilizers while Malkmus and Kannberg melt their guitars together.
14. “Loretta’s Scars” (1992)
More Gary Young excellence. That sloppy syncopated chug is one of his trademarks. For all of Steve West’s superior skills as a timekeeper, it’s the one thing he can’t quite copy when Pavement plays the old songs. Crazy, free, in the pocket most of the time but (crucially) not all of the time. He plays ragged, but with finesse.
13. “Trigger Cut” (1992)
No disrespect to “Kite At: 17,” but I’m sticking with the main attraction. Remember that quote where Malkmus described Steely Dan “like if New Order came from Los Angeles”? This song really sounds like if New Order came from Los Angeles (and then moved to Stockton when they were in grade school).
12. “Elevate Me Later” (1994)
We’ve reached the “Every Song Is Tied For No. 1” part of the list. All of these rankings are arbitrary, but we’re now in “truly interchangeable” territory. I’m putting the second song from Crooked Rain here because it’s paired permanently in my mind with the next song, the two tracks I played on repeat forever when I bought the tape because I couldn’t believe the rest of the record could possibly be as good. (It was.)
11. “Silence Kid” (1994)
Unbelievable album opener. The Steve West choogle is immediately, gloriously apparent. I remember feeling like I already knew the melody the first time I heard it, but I figured that was just a testament to Stephen Malkmus’ timeless songwriting. It took me years to realize that he lifted it from Buddy Holly’s “Everyday.” Of course, stealing in rock ‘n’ roll is never wrong, so long as you steal from the best. In his review, Matt Diehl pointed out all the other songs “Silence Kid” pulls from — the groove from Sly And The Family Stone’s “Everyday People,” the cowbell from Free’s “All Right Now,” the folk-rock goofiness from Barry McGuire’s “Eve Of Destruction.” But it’s done with such infectiousness that the thievery reads as inventive genius.
10. “Cut Your Hair” (1994)
Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain seems in retrospect — in terms of its influence — like an album that sold 3 million copies. It didn’t, and as Pavement fans, we can agree that is the fault of the world. Again, the knock on this band as being snarky layabouts who couldn’t deliver the red-meat goods simply doesn’t align with the actual music on this record. Pavement detractors would be shocked by how straightforward this record sounds now. Far worse groups took their sound to the bank. Weezer, a great band in their prime, is exempted here. I’m talking about outfits like Marcy Playground, whose big hit “Sex And Candy” would have landed them in court if Pavement were managed by Allen Klein.
“Cut Your Hair,” in a weird way, is sometimes blamed for the album not breaking more. In interviews, Malkmus more than once has called it the song that couldn’t quite get them over the finish line. Though, at the risk of repeating myself, this is the fault of the world.
9. “Here” (1992)
The source of the definitive Pavement lyric: “I was dressed for success, but success it never comes.” I’m giving myself bonus points for not crafting the lede of this column around it, in accordance with well-established Pavement-related editorial clichés.
Thankfully, the sentiment isn’t actually true for Pavement. They were dressed for success, but success never comes… in a timely fashion during the original run of the band. Though it did arrive in subsequent decades, and that was pretty much by design.
8. “Shady Lane” (1997)
A song about the suburbs pitched at the midpoint between Talking Heads’ “The Big Country” and any number of Ray Davies tunes. Malkmus, like the former, is mocking, but he’s kinder about it than David Byrne. You feel, like Ray, that Stephen has secret affection for this world of “dutch” dinners and over-friendly concierges. Though, in the end, only Malkmus could have written, “You’ve been chosen as an extra in the movie adaptation of the sequel to your life.”
7. “Grounded” (1995)
For the first 42 seconds, this is the greatest Pavement song of all time. The other three minutes and 33 seconds are also fantastic, but they nevertheless represent a (small) letdown. Alas, it ends up at a very respectable No. 7
6. “Range Life” (1994)
The Eagles is the usual reference point here, but “Range Life” sounds more like “Dead Flowers.” (More ammo for the “Pavement equals The Rolling Stones of ’90s lo-fi” argument, though Royal Trux probably wins the overall battle.) Special recognition must be given to Bryce Goggin, who along with mixing Crooked Rain also added some sweet Nicky Hopkins-style piano licks to this song, which really drives it home.
I have made the case that Son Volt’s “Windfall” is the greatest alt-country song of all time. And I’ll stick with that, though I also believe “Range Life” (which came out one year prior) is the most important “accidental” alt-country song of the era. So many modern acts that mine this musical territory, starting with MJ Lenderman, have significant portions of “Range Life” in their musical DNA.
5. “Father To A Sister Of Thought” (1995)
The second most important “accidental” alt-country song of the era. Though only because it’s less famous than “Range Life,” because as a song it’s a touch better. I would be a happy man if there was a good new indie band that just sounded like this song, over and over, every couple of years.
4. “Stop Breathin’” (1994)
An anthem with subtle grunge-coding. (Any ’90s rock song that prominently features a “dad” character is, at least, grunge-adjacent.) When I was in high school, this was the go-to wallowing song from Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain. The tennis metaphors communicated an anti-authority message. Though given what I know now about Malkmus, this song might only be about tennis. Either way, the guitar breakdown at the end is a wonderful self-pity soundtrack.
3. “Summer Babe (Winter Version)” (1992)
The Pavement song, in that it sounds like something any band could do but in fact virtually no other band can do. It’s as if they ripped off every great rock tune from the previous 20 years (but especially “Sweet Jane”), but then you listen to those other songs and they feel nothing like “Summer Babe.” Oasis did something similar a few years later and the world called them a Beatles homage. But Pavement always was Pavement.
2. “Gold Soundz” (1994)
Need I say more? Along with being one of the very best Pavement songs, this is one of the best songs by anybody where the artist does play-by-play of the song as it is unfolding. If “and they’re coming to the chorus now” doesn’t make your heart explode out of your sternum, then you might not have a heart at all.
1. “Frontwards” (1992)
Pavement didn’t try, you say? Pavement didn’t rock, you say? Pavement didn’t have rock-star cool, you say? Really? Really? Have you not heard this song? The man says he’s got style, miles and miles, so much style that it’s wasted, and he’s telling the truth. So many of these songs represent what I want from a rock band — it’s music you want to hear when you’re three beers deep on a Saturday night, and you also feel like you have style for miles and miles. That’s not slack. That’s choogle. And having just spent weeks listening to this band over and over, let me tell you: It all feels like a finely crafted novel.
FKA Twigs could be expanding her acting resume rather soon. As for what role the “Childlike Things” singer is in line for, FKA Twigs’ 2025 Met Gala look might have served as a fashionable hint.
According to Variety, FKA Twigs is in the runnings to star as the late Josephine Baker. Cuties filmmaker Maimouna Doucouré has been tapped to direct a new biopic of the late dancer, singer, actor, and activist.
While nothing has been finalized, FKA Twigs is supposedly locked into fierce negotiations over the lead role. So far, Studiocanal has been confirmed as the financier, co-producer, and international sales handler. Doucouré’s company Bien ou Bien Prods and CPB Films is producing the forthcoming film alongside Studiocanal.
Back in 1991, Baker’s life was adapted into a film for specifically formatted for television by HBO. The Josephine Baker Story starred Lynn Whitfield (as Baker), Rubén Blades (as Count Giuseppe Pepito Abatino) as well as the late Louis Gossett Jr. (as Sidney Williams), and David Dukes (as Jo Bouillon, Baker’s former husband).
Still, Baker’s estate, including her biological sons Jean-Claude Bouillon Baker and Brian Bouillon Baker as well as her adoptive children (referred to as the Rainbow Tribe), have reportedly endorsed the upcoming adaptation aimed for theaters.
Unfortunately, Calvin Harris’ latest single “Blessings” has become an online nightmare. According to producer Chicane, Harris’ song is “almost identical” to his beloved 1996 banger “Offshore.” On Instagram, Chicane called out Harris for supposedly infringing on his copyright.
Well, the video has finally reached Harris’ desk. In a fiery response clip (viewable here), Calvin Harris slammed Chicane and the plagiarism accusation.
“Response to the people who have enjoyed calling me a plagiarist over the last couple of days, cheers Nick Chicane all the best to you pal,” he captioned the upload.
Within the video, Harris compared the elements of each track. “It’s a different chord,” blurted out Harris.
“That’s what happens when you don’t loop up a tiny little section of track you stupid bastard,” he said. “It’s just not the same, and I’m not just saying that, obviously I’m going to say it’s not, but it’s genuinely not the same.”
Harris even looped in another popular tune, Tangerine Dream‘s 1983 “Love On a Real Train,” to emphasize his point.
He closed the video: “You’re coming at me like I don’t know anything about music mate. You’re f*cking joking. I live and breathe this sh*t mate.”
Megan Thee Stallion has teased her forthcoming album, Act III. While details surrounding the “Whenever” rapper’s next release remain scarce, Meg’s latest interview provided supporters with an interesting theory for what to expect.
During a sit down with WhoWearWhat (viewable here), Megan Thee Stallion shed light on who she’s eyeing for a new track. When asked which artist she’s manifesting a collaboration with Megan immediately answered Ariana Grande.
“I would probably say Ariana Grande,” she replied. “Now that I am in a new space with music and I feel like she’s in a new space with her life and music, I would really like to see what we would come up with.”
This isn’t the first time Megan voiced her desire to hit the booth with Grande. During a TikTok broadcast (viewable here), Megan expressed her desire to fans.
“Yes, Ariana Grande, she know I’m knocking at her door,” she said. “Ariana, come outside! Every time me and Ariana be talking we be kiki-ing. But I’m definitely going to find the right song that I want to do with her. Definitely gonna call her and be like ‘Please friend, I need that! Come outside! I need that!’”
Even though Megan Thee Stallion appeared on the remix of Ariana Grande’s “34+35,” a new collaboration seems like a reach. Since the theatrical release of Wicked, Grande publicly stated her focus is on extending her filmography not music.
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