Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain

by

Pavement

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Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain is an album released by Pavement in 1994. With this album, the band abandoned the lo-fi sound displayed on Slanted and Enchanted (as well as their drummer, Gary Young). During the tour for Slanted, the band added percussionist Bob Nastanovich and bassist Mark Ibold; partway through this album's recording sessions, Gary Young was replaced by Steve West. The album featured the band at its most easily accessible, and the single "Cut Your Hair" was the band's closest brush with mainstream success. As of 2007, the album has sold almost 500,000 copies.

The album was reissued on October 26, 2004 by Matador Records under the name Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain: LA's Desert Origins. The re-released version contains two discs: the first is the original album as well as B-sides and compilation tracks from that era. The second disc is a collection of previously unreleased tracks featuring former drummer Gary Young and live BBC Sessions.

The collection features forty-nine tracks, culled from various previous recordings, including the original album, the single "Cut Your Hair", "Range Life", "Gold Soundz", the "Gold Soundz" Australia-N.Z. French Micronesia Tour '94 EP, the "Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain" bonus 7", and other recording sessions at Random Falls, NY, Louder Than You Think in Stockton, CA, and Waterworks, NY over the course of 1993.

The photo in the middle of the cover was taken from the March 1974 issue of National Geographic Magazine.

Due to an ink splodge on the back of the original artwork, the song originally named "Silence Kid" has become known as "Silence Kit". This misnomer persisted when designer Mark Ohe printed it onto the back of the re-issue Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain: LA's Desert Origins, despite the interior artwork showing the intended name in print several times, including written in Stephen Malkmus's own handwriting.

It was chosen as #8 on Pitchfork Media's Top 100 Albums of the 1990s In 2003, the album was ranked number 210 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.