Like the extravagent double-CD re-release of Slanted and Enchanted a couple of years ago, Pavement's Wowee Zowee re-release offers much more material than the original release of either album – a much fan-friendlier approach than re-packaging the same songs with some new liner notes. The remastered Wowee Zowee: The Sordid Sentinel Edition double-CD will be available tomorrow in stores or the website set up specifically for the launch of the album, wow-out.com.
This hybrid release includes a high-quality live recording of a 1994 Pavement show, available as a zip file of 224 Kbps MP3 tracks, rather than a code for some DRM-ed songs, like the ones you get from those soda bottle cap promotions.
Pavement's label, Matador, have long posted free, unprotected MP3s of a wide selection of its bands' music (Pavement - "Rattled by the Rush [Remastered]"), so this approach isn't too surprising, but it's good to see that the label is still committed to making their fans happy format-wise.
According the site, not even hardcore Pavement fans will likely have heard this bonus recording before.
Considering that it's going to be available on MP3 to everyone who buys this re-release, it won't be rare for much longer, which is fine, even if it upsets any devout tape traders and archivists who prized it for its rarity.
Here's the setlist for the show (incidentally recorded before the album was released):
Box Elder
Range Life
Brinx Job
Brink of the Clouds
Unfair
Easily Fooled
Best Friend's Arm
She Believes
Silent Kid
Black Out
Summer Babe
Elevate Me Later
Heckler Spray
In the Mouth a Desert
Fight This Generation
Debris Slide
Two States
Stop Breathing
