get yr oblique pavement lyrics explained here (please?)

are stephen malkmus's lyrics stream-of-consciousness or nonsensical? (i'd say that these things are not the same. stream of consciousness can make sense in a non-literal, non-narrative way, whereas nonsensical... well that's pretty self-explanatory.)

here are some lyrics to argue about:

"One of us is a cigar stand; one of us is an incandescent blue guillotine."

this is steve on dating. he's the cigar stand - approachable and catering to your needs, while the chick he's with, while dressed in a lovely blue outfit, cuts off his musings at every opportunity.

Is the guillotine cutting Stephen's gentle musings or his obnoxious, suffocating smoke and mirrors (as a non-smoker may perceive).

The cigar is the boundary he sets, it is a certain level of difficulty that he challenges you to accept. But the challenge is no more than breathing in his case but what is it to you? If you're a non-smoker it's a bother, if you're asthmatic it's near intolerable…

But here we go, isn't this difficulty typical of Malkmus' lyrics? Doesn't he try to weed you out by manipulating analogies that aren't all too readily obvious? In an attempt to effect deeper meaning through his lack of cliché style (everything for the first time), multiple meaning through oblique references while at the same time creating a greater distinction between that which is Pavement and that which is not.

That which is Pavement is context and mood. Sure, typically wonky, whimsical instrumentation against challenging lyrics. (rattled by the rush -'im drowning for you thirst' being the first line to pop in my head with the din of drums threatening to falter in the lazy rock n'roll bass.) Yay, juxtaposition! Other times very obviously aggressive, straightforward. (fight this generation) [both conveniently featured on the same popular album for review purposes]

Compare with Jason Molina's opening to 'goodnight lover': 'you mistrusted what will bleed, will not die, will not leave, the heart was first in that line'

The end result of Molina using the direct route and Malkmus the roundabout does not seem effect the amount of joy or imagery that is conjured in my mind. They are both equally thoughtful, equally expressive to me in different ways. Both laden with deep meaning.

On topic, the use of expressions such as 'stream of consciousness' and 'nonsensical' don't begin to describe the calculated nature of a Pavement composition. Rather my thoughts wander to the stereotypical classification of slacker-band when I see words as those used in the same breath as that quirky ensemble we speak of. It seems unfair, to me, that they be classified as a slacker (lack of effort) group, they who have remained so calculating and consistent in their production over many years. Who have poured energy if not exactly effort, however you see fit to make distinctions (something is definitely there), into their sound.

Does Malkmus use a stream of consciousness like approach in his writing? I suspect that much of the lyrics included within any given song are reached in a trance like state.

Are these sacred visions susceptible to revision? I bet he rewrites a lot of what flies out of his head.

As the mood fits the song. I mean really, isn't that what they cater to? That word that I won't bring myself to say, that recently appeared in a thread discussing dc area bands and a certain sound circa mid-eighties.

discuss these.

This is taken from "Type Slowly" which is addressed to a woman, presumably a lover. The Freudian implications of the line are fairly obvious. If we take Malkmus to be the cigar stand, then I think the guillotine image shows that he is both drawn to and threatened by his lover. But what is a cigar cutter but a miniature guillotine? - so perhaps she's not really as dangerous as she appears.

This is taken from "You Are a Light", from the verse describing the narrator's senior year abroad in Spain. I think it shows the idle fantasies that the narrator indulged in about the exotic aspects of Spanish culture, which, as an outsider, he did not understand.

This is from "Platform Blues", a song which is hard to pin down, but which could be read as a satire of the egos and selfishness that one encounters in a rock band on tour. (Think "Platform" as a train platform - a place where you'd spend a lot of time during a tour.) In this context, the "Serengeti nightmare" is the narrator's mental image of a lion feeding, which shows his revulsion at the self- serving behavior he sees around him.

That interpretation seems to me a bit over-literal. It could just mean that he rejects the need for conventional or institutional approval in a general sense. The rest of the song doesn't seem to be specifically about co-habitation, or specifically about anything for that matter. It's one of his more stream-of-consciousness lyrics.

I'm a Pynchon fan too, but most of his lyrics are dreadful.

What I've been saying!

Words used as lyrics in music (the etymology comes from Lyre, an instrument, nothing to do with literature) can be there because of their meaning - or lack of it - but are used just as much for their sound, shape, length, metric properties, or because their arranger wanted truck to rhyme with stuck.

That's what I reckon any road up.

Love and Peace.

Great song though!

SHE: What do you think this line in the poem means?
STUDENT: I think we'd have to ask the poet.
SHE: We can't. He's dead.
STUDENT: Then I guess we'll never know what it means.

"lost in the foothills on my bike
a trick enduro
say goodnight to the last psychedelic band
from Sacto, Northern Cal"

and

"out on my skateboard, the night is just humming
and the gumsmacks are the pulse I'll follow if my walkman fades"

lock thread plz

Didn't want to start yet another Pavement thread, but in light of the current poll, let's use this thread to just quote Pave lyrics that are stuck in your head right now

"Architecture students are like virgins with an itch they cannot scratch / Never build a building till you're 50, what kind of life is that?"

Just noticed the parallel subject matter on "Fin" - slow songs about architecture/buildings that round off Pavement albums:

"Open call for prison architects/Send me off the prints ASAP".

off the prints your blueprints