"Greatest of All Time"

Archers of Loaf
(Alias, 1995)

The frontman of the world's worst rock-and-roll band is caught and drowned while the people reminisce about just how bad he sucked. Meanwhile, the leader of the greatest band of all time flies back home to the USA. And somehow amid the mess of slacker-key guitars and a backbeat that keeps threatening to collapse, the frontman leader of this Sonic Youth brigade chokes out the mantra "The underground is overcrowded." An allegory? Or a moment of spontaneous savant-garde genius? Hard to say, but it's easily the best Pavement song Stephen Malkmus never wrote and one of indie rock's finest moments.

-- Matt Ashare