Pavement: Stephen Malkmus, Robert Nastanovich, Spiral Stairs, Steve West, Mark Ibold. Additional personnel: Doug Easley (pedal steel); Sibel Firat (cello); A. Firat. Engineers: Doug Easley, Davis McCain, Mark Venezia. Recorded at Easley Studios, Memphis, Tennessee in November 1994 and in Random Falls, New York in February 1995. WOWEE ZOWEE is a knowing, minor-key discombobulation of heavy post-punk and rock experimentalism amidst a slew of expansive country-rock songs. Production-wise, it's a clean record, a step closer to the mainstream. Structure-wise, it's a step away. You can easily read this sound as a reaction to Pavement suddenly having turned into a hot commercial commodity after 1994's critically praised CROOKED RAIN, CROOKED RAIN. Pavement is now a next-big-thing that doesn't want to be one. Both in structure and lyrics, songs like Rattled By The Rush, Brinx Job and Serpentine Pad sneer at thoughtless alt-rock careerism, even as they try to figure out a way to survive it with the soul intact. But while it works to offend and confound listeners, Pavement can't hide a certain sheer-pop glee that has always been present in its music. Grounded and Kennel District are what you might call Pavement rock--guitarrorist pop songs that aim to challenge you sonically while injecting you with a direct pop thrill. Those songs and the acoustic We Dance are also perfect examples of the emotional accuracy that singer-guitarists Stephen Malkmus (who has now taken to calling himself S.M. Jenkins) and Spiral Stairs can portray. When they combine such insight with guitar sounds of the future, this best of all post-Nirvana, American rock bands flies in directions others haven't even pondered.