Matador Records
2004
Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain: L.A.'s Desert Origins
About This Album
Pavement's expanded double-disc 2002 reissue of Slanted & Enchanted -- dubbed Luxe & Reduxe in its deluxe incarnation -- was a landmark for expanded reissues, not just because it was the first time an indie rock band was subjected to such an exhaustive exhumation of the vaults, but because it was excellent in both its execution and material. Peel Sessions, heavily bootlegged live concerts, B-sides, and EPs were collected on a package that raised the bar on reissues of '90s alt-rock classics. Since its release, few have attempted to meet that standard, let alone match it -- Universal's double-disc excavations of Sonic Youth's Dirty and Weezer's first album come close -- but it wasn't until Pavement reissued an expanded edition of their 1994 second album, Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain, on its tenth anniversary that there was another alt-rock reissue as satisfying as Luxe & Reduxe. Subtitled "L.A.'s Desert Origins" -- somewhat of a non sequitur since the album was recorded in New York -- this double-disc set adds 37 bonus tracks to the original 12-track album, rounding up all the stray tracks from 1994, plus a Peel Session from around the time of the album's February release and a whole bunch of previously unreleased material, including the scrapped initial sessions for the album featuring original drummer Gary Young.
Track List

Disc 1 (try tracks 1,2,9,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22 and 23)

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
21.
22.
23.
24.

Disc 2 (try tracks 1,2,4,5,7,8,9,10,11,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20 and 21)

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
21.
22.
23.
24.
25.