Under the guise of Spiral Stairs, Scott Kannberg was integral to the sound of Pavement. Stephen Malkmus might have won the plaudits but Kannbergs off-kilter riffs often carried the songs. Occasionally buried by their own wry intellectualism this was a band capable of firing off melodies like "Trigger Cut", or "Major Leagues" or "Range Life" to name but three. One can suppose that much of this was Kannbergs work, so for Pavement fans perturbed by Malkmus career as a Jick (and there must be plenty) the Preston School should potentially be of interest.
Indeed, considering that a revitalised Wilco act as backing band on all these tracks, this could potentially be a great record. Therefore its a shame that Kannberg just never quite pulls it off. With a dry delivery somewhere between David Berman of Silver Jews and Grant McLennan of The Go-Betweens, he plots a course somewhere between his previous band and some slacker-fied country all of which is never less than perfectly pleasant but never exactly exciting.
"Walk Of A Gurl" and "Caught In The Rain" are both inoffensive mid-tempo college rock, "Line It Up" rips its Beefheart guitar riff straight from "Slanted And Enchanted" while "Her Estuary Twang" borrows liberally from Mungo Jerrys "In The Summertime".
This probably makes "Monsoon" sound more varied than it is, but somewhere down the line the ideas, lyrical ideas in particular, start to run dry. "If The Straits Of Magallen" recycles The Cures "Inbetween Days" (already half-inched by Wilco for their own "Pot Kettle Black") but says little beyond its cryptic title while closing track "Tone It Down", though among the most musically interesting tracks, eventually falters into nothing too often the results sound like half-finished jams than fully realised songs.
Ultimately it makes you feel the loss of Pavement all the more. Judging from last years "Pig Lib" most listeners would agree that Malkmus misses Kannberg. Judging from "Monsoon" Kannberg misses his ex-singer equally. Maybe they should just reform Pavement. The Pixies are doing it after all.
