Pavo
Pavo
Words and Works Rejected

I would like to think I keep a pretty good grip on things happening around Austin, but I know that with the inevitable ho-hum that infests all club-life, I find myself going out less and less. And since broaching the 21 year old barrier, I find myself going to clubs less to see bands and more and more to have drinks, preferrably at bars without groups, or at least groups that do not piss me off with amps set to ear-bleed. But even without strapping my guilts to such things as dive venues or suicidally delicious gin and tonics, there is the very real fact that very little challenging, much less interesting music appears to be blossoming here.

So it was a shock to me as I came across a blurb for this Pavo record, which while being released through a UK label, claims to have its roots in Austin. I mean, who the fuck are these guys? Why has no one yet heard their names whistled or hissed in the black corners of Red Eyed Fly, or along the stone walls and barbecue smoke of Stubb's? Well that answer came along with the promo of the record, and all was laid bare. These two new cats, Jason and Jason, recorded the damn thing in new Mexico, and then hoisted their stakes up for the less barren pastures of Austin. While they just missed both The Hades Kick and Paul Newman (former busting apart, latter themsleves pulling up for the bright lights of Chicago), they are very much following a path, and in the same breath, a trend.

The music itself (which is what matters in a music scene, right?) is politely progressive and multifarious, springing out of guitar, drums, and bass station. The ear marks of post-rock are all present, standing around with arms crossed, nodding in excelsior. Tone hums, stilted sweet plinking, melodies and cymbal swishes rotate like dropped wobbling plates, circular, with one edge arising as the thother is afalling. But these dictated structures (bombastic to lilting and back) soon become much like a wobbling plate at the end of time, achieving an inevitable stalled stillness and complacency.

The playing of Pavo is top-notch and fans of weaving lines and erudite musicianship will surely find this to be a harmless chew, with all bones, guts, throat, and teeth removed. But until this trend blows over, I will continue to find myself nursing drinks in silent bars, listening for that blessed shout in the street that is the new god.

Address: Words and Works Rejected, PO Box 610 Guildford, Surrey, GU1 4YH, UK.

Copyright © 1999 Andy Beta