Technically not a real Pavement album, this was the first Pavement record I bought. I was 14 years old, I had a gift certificate to Record City, and I went with my brother and purchased this CD…

American Water marked the first time that Silver Jews stopped being a Pavement side project (both bands, by the way, formed around the same time) and demonstrated their ability to be a band that puts out music that is just as good if not better than Malkmus’ main focus.

I have to say, I had a hard time choosing a Pavement record to do this throwback column on. I initially wanted to go with the compilation record Westing by Musket and Sextant, but being that it is technically not a real Pavement full length release, I opted to go with Wowee Zowee, which might be their strongest and most popular album.