Spiral Stairs
The Real Feel
(Domino/Remote Control)

The big news round these parts is that Pavement are reforming next year: Pavement, famously, being the US alt. indie band who ruined music for a generation by making it OK to act bored. Or, as Courtney Love once said: “Steve Malkmus and [Sebadoh singer] Lou Barlow – which one would you rather fuck? And which one would be hanging dead from a tree in your garden the next day?”

Now, Pavement – in particular, founder members Malkmus and Scott Kannberg (a.k.a Spiral Stairs) – have been at pains to point out that the reunion won’t be permanent and will only last as long as the money is there…I mean, for one US tour (or something).

Either way, it’s a bit of a shame, for the following reasons:

1. Pavement really weren’t very good when they split up at the end of 1999 following the release of the tepid Terror Twilight album – a fact that Malkmus, for one, seemed to acknowledge at the band’s final concert where he appeared with a pair of handcuffs attached to the microphone, stating that “These symbolise what it’s like being in a band all these years”. But what the hell, it certainly didn’t stop the Pixies from raking it in when they pulled a similar manoeuvre.

2. The bands that Pavement devolved into (some of which had been going already) really were pretty good: Steve Malkmus and his cagey, jazz-tortured Jicks (which currently include former Sleater-Kinney drummer Janet Weiss, officially The Greatest Drummer In The World); David Berman’s incredible gang of storytellers and country studs Silver Jews (featuring ex-Pavement drummer Bob Nastanovich and the odd cameo from Malkmus); Kim Gordon’s post-Riot Grrrl screams of mischief and fecundity, Free Kitten (bassist Mark Ibold); Spiral Stairs and his pop-driven, Flying Nun-influenced, Preston School Of Industry…

But, the almighty dollar calls. And who am I to begrudge these affable American collegiate sorts with their twisted lyrics and Bowie inflexions and Fall infatuations and infuriating knack for chucking away the most delicious pop song in the world, their payday in the sun?

It is a shame, though.

The End.

Oh wait. What are you saying? Spiral Stairs has a new album out, his first since his split with his wife – a cathartic outing, dark, brooding, vulnerable, country-tinged, recorded in Seattle and Australia, in thrall to the bottlenecks and ‘classic’ rock of Neil Young and Richard Thompson and all those other dudes those magazines that continually feature The Beatles and Nirvana on their front covers go on about? You want me to write about it? Are you sure? I thought that all that his fans were interested in was the Pavement news. Oh, OK…

Spiral Stairs has a new album out.

It’s darker, more vulnerable than before. It feels stricken in places, the way the second Go-Betweens album feels stricken. Words smoulder with emotion. Guitars blister and scour. I loved ‘A Mighty Mighty Fall’ back in ’78 when I first heard Tom Robinson singing it – and I particularly like the way Scott brings an intemperate, choked Nikki Sudden, feel to the vocals (circa the ex-Swell Maps singer’s Jacobites albums in the early '80s). Scott has been smart here, very smart: transferring Dylan’s universal cry of freedom into something more personal, intimate… wait a second.

What’s that you say? This isn’t a cover of Bob Dylan’s ‘I Shall Be Released’? Whoops, my mistake.

This album feels Australian in places, the way Australian rock bands rarely do these days. A song like the turbulent ‘Stole Pills’ rocks the way The Drones rock; shorn of some of the spiteful, gratuitous cruelty, of course. Scott’s too affable to pull that off, and anyway it isn’t required. A lot of The Real Feel has that hard edge to it, however: indefinable, but something to do with the pull and ache of distance, the howl of late night guitars. Doubtless, some of the album’s ‘classic rock’ feel comes from the presence of guitarist Jon Auer (Posies, Big Star). Its closer, the slow-paced, eight-minute-long ‘Blood Money’ has a very '70s Kris Kristofferson vibe – but there again, so did many of the killer Pavement cuts (c.f. ‘Range Life’).

What’s that you say? People don’t want to know abut Pavement in a Spiral Stairs review? Oh, come off it…

I mean, this is all very grown up – a far remove from those early anarchic, mischief-laden Pavement songs. And there’s nothing wrong with that.

I think I preferred some of Scott’s earlier Preston School Of Industry records but – hell – this is just fine, songs like ‘Call The Ceasefire’ and the bluesy shuffle of ‘Subiaco Shuffle’ acting as excellent companion pieces to Silver Jews’ 2005 album Tanglewood Numbers, truth be known. And no one should stand still forever, be tempted into reliving the glory days when they’ve long since passed…

Now, should they?

Everett True