Because there's forty different shades of black

I am sipping strong coffee, shaking my head at the rain and jumping ever so slightly at the occasional, surprising BOOM! of thunder.
Oh yeah.
I am also preparing for work while listening to PAVEMENT.
After a frenzied day yesterday -- work assignments and ferrying children to events kept me perpetually on the move -- I relaxed while listening to "Slanted and Enchanted."
This morning I am listening to "Crooked Rain Crooked Rain" (appropriate for the weather).
I think I have disparaged Pavement a little bit in the past, referring to them as a second-rate Fall.
That's only because I love The Fall so much. Pavement were actually so much more.
For one thing, I think Stephen Malkmus and Scott (Spiral Stairs) Kannberg of Pavement always cared more for the classic pop song than The Fall's Mark E. Smith.
Obviously, this love of the pop song comes through on "Cut Your Hair," the "hit" from "Crooked."
I say "hit" not because I have been reading too much of The "Blog" of "Unnecessary" Quotation Marks (located here), but because "Cut Your Hair" received airplay on alternative radio and MTV but otherwise escaped the clutches of the mainstream.
Too bad.
It's a great song, and Pavement were a great band.