My Top 1000 Songs #540: Box Elder

[I've been writing up my Top 1000 songs on a daily basis--you can see them all in descending order by hitting the All My Favorite Songs tag.]

Proto-Pavement, an early, lo-fi, pre-Slanted & Enchanted track (released as a single in 1989, then on the 1993 Westing (By Musked & Sextant) compilation of early cuts) that helps introduce the band's 90s indie aesthetic. Brisk and to the point, it's a kinda nasty little kiss-off, equal parts ugly break-up song and rousing proclamation of independence. Less intricate musically & lyrically than what Malkmus would soon be offering, but a killer riff and those indelible catch-phrases already make it uniquely Pavement.

"It was the way that you smiled, made me know at once, that I had to get the fuck out of this town."

Live 2022:

Surfer Blood cover: