Various Artists - Everything is Ending Here: A Tribute to Pavement
(Homesleep)
With Matador's recent 10th anniversary re-release of Pavement's seminal Slanted and Enchanted accompanied by a band-retrospective DVD, it really was just a matter of time before some sort of tribute album appeared. Italy's Homesleep label has stepped up and taken on that challenge. The end result, Everything is Ending Here: A Tribute to Pavement, is a wildly ambitious and genre-spanning collection of songs that provides a just nod to those influential indie rockers.
There are tons of very inspired and interesting covers over the compilation's two discs. Bardo Pond contributes a very interesting take on "Home." The band goes to lengths to stay faithful to the theme of the original while still projecting their own style onto the track. The result if exactly what you look for in a good cover—creative deference to the source material without simple mimicry. All of the renditions that retain this attitude are the winners on these discs: Appendix Out's folkish turn at "Frontwards," the morphed "Heaven is a Truck" as performed by Fuck, and Quickspace's distinct take on "We Are Underused." Solex tries to tackle "Shady Lane" as if it were an original tune. While the efforts are noble, this attempt simply doesn't work. Silkworm tries this same approach on a stripped down acoustic guitar rendition of "And Then...," with Andy Cohen and Tim Midgett alternating on vocals with great results. There are many other great renditions over the course of the tribute's thirty-six tracks that keep the Pavement legacy alive and well.
One of the only warnings about this compilation comes as it directly violated one of the cardinal rules of any tribute collection—keep the effort brief. While there are many people would are happy to listen to thirty-six Pavement covers, a single disc would also have sufficed to get to the same effect. With so many tracks to cover, several of these bands are virtual unknowns on this side of the Atlantic. That provides for definite excitement for the listener who is always interested in trying new things, but also offers just as many chances for someone who feels oppositely to simply press the "skip" button on their remote control.
Everything is Ending Here provides an appropriate tribute to Pavement—it's varied, unpredictable, and downright listenable. While it has more to offer to a Pavement fan, it's a solid collection of songs that could appeal to most any taste.
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