Steven Malkmus & Mark Ibold, whilst touring Australia, hosted Rage on 16 August 1997.
The following is a list of what they programmed and a precis of what Steven and Mark said:
[The boys gave quite substantial background on Built to Spill]... Doug March (lead singer/guitarist) is a great guitar player and still flying the flag of endless guitar solos
In the US, when a band makes a video - the guideline is that the band appears playing/lip synching - but Daft Punk doesn't because from start they were to be unknown => great videos - haven't seen the next video - seen other of their videos with great dancing/costumes - maybe this is part of the dance thing that a DJ doesn't appear or is only in the background
Hello Sports Fans, this is Pavement hosting Rage
Other than the Dirty 3, Sonic Youth is the other band we've played with quite a bit - after our 1st tour together, they made the video Sugar Kane - I (Mark) was one of the people asked to be part of the clip in New York - most people say how great it would be to see Chloe take her clothes off but I (Mark) was so embarrased (she was too) that I hid my face in a newspaper throughout - didn't even peek - Maurice was there too - he got to see Chloe.
Now to hear from the Dirty three - a Band from Australia - although they are scattered all over the globe now - violinst (Warren Ellis) lives in Paris (kinda romantic), the guitarist lives in Chicago or London, on our 2nd tour of Australia we toured with them back in 1993-94 - great to see them live - great band....
Rednex - video took Europe by storm - example of miserable europop - when I was talking about Warren Ellis re. Paris being romantic, I'll have to take that back - I was in France when I saw it - I gagged and wanted to be anywhere else - Germans playing country music - I've heard of little dude ranches in the Black Forest - pretty sick... very weird....
Next video chosen by Bob - he's our best dancer - uses his fingers/foot kick thing - this is one of his favourite hip hop things
Hey, we're Pavement and you're watching Rage
Next chosen by Steve West - he has a penchant for kinky sex - this is one of his favourite videos - think about him with his drooling lips as you watch
Welcome back - this is Palace Bros (from Louisville, Kentucky) - the heartland - the singer is part of a movement called isolationism - kinda depresssed shut-off view of world - like Smog, Sebadoh in certain moments... low-fi cheap video, like many isolationist videos - a guy in our band shot the video - huge horse racing fan - at the end Jack Berry, a good friend of ours, appears and we wanted to see his face beam all over Australia
Next up - the Fall - heroes to many, tuneless nasal drivel to others - our base player, Mark, has been accused of being in 3 Fall cover bands - Pavement, Free Kitten and Dust Devils - I think it was a compliment because it was said by a Fall fan - as we all are - "Wings" is from a pretty good period of the Fall - Mark Smith doesn't like Pavement or refuses to give us any props whatsoever - a Spanish kid was interviewing Mark Smith and said he liked Pavement - Mark Smith reached for the kid's neck and started foaming at the mouth just by hearing our name - I can still be a fan and I don't have to meet the guy - we were offered to do a 20 years of The Fall concert in London but couldn't do it because of all this animosity but maybe if he starts projecting animosity towards me he could start making better records again. Mark met some of the guys playing in the Fall - the guys said Mark E Smith said that Pavement was his favourite Matador band - we make much better friends than enemies - we hope he's still chugging on all cylinders when this video airs
Here's a Pavement video, directed by our friends John Kelsey and Dan Rathers (?) shot in a day which is nice - one day is great - Chris Isaak kind of a crooner from our home town, he's in movies... has 19 videos listed - probably took more than 2 days each - if he lives to 70 - he might have spent half a year on them (2 days each) - that's 1/140 of his life - that's a lot of time - so we like to get in and out quick - you save on green that way - each video we shoot is 1/50,000 of our life - the guy playing guitar in this clip doesn't play guitar - he's acting - look for fret shots - if you watch the chords, some of the most wild chords are played - insane atonal post-modern guitar - Angus Young (from Australia) has great style, move and licks he probably is short too- I know him and he is.
Some other great Rage programming has included Custard and Nick Cave.