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Pavement ’97

September 17, 2022 • Ira Robbins

By Ira Robbins

When Jackson Griffith, whose roots in Stockton (he even wrote a song about the town!) made Pavement something of a hometown band for him, asked me to do a story for Pulse! , I had to caution him that I wasn’t much of a fan, having found the band’s appeal something of an indie rock snob mystery. I couldn’t hear what it was that got people so worked up. It felt like a generational divide, but I was curious enough to consider this assignment a good way to find out what I was missing. I went in with an open mind and came away with a deep appreciation for the band and its music. I found their intelligence and openness refreshing and stimulating, amplifying without explaining their records for me. The band members all lived in different states (only one in New York: bassist Mark Ibold, who tended bar at the beloved Great Jones Café in NYC), so the logistics were tricky. Matador publicist Spencer Gates — a great, tough-talking lady who died a few years later — made all the arrangements. I could only speak with Malkmus by phone, but Spencer was able to fly me out to Berkeley to meet Spiral Stairs (Scott Kannberg) in person. It was a whirlwind trip (my first time there; I recall the late-night taxi from the airport driving over the breathtaking Golden Gate Bridge), but he was very cool, offering a great conversation and generously giving me a numbered copy of Slay Tracks, already a valuable Pavement rarity, which I have proudly kept. In addition to talking music, I was intrigued about the civil engineering graduate thesis he was incubating on the role of fences in urban development. Rockers come in all sorts; the smart ones are always worth meeting.

This article, along with many more of a similar vintage, is included in Music in a Word , Volume 1, available from Trouser Press Books here .

Alternarock is dead, right? So how come nobody told Pavement?

Pulse! , March 1997

It’s deconstruction time again. Right now, there’s a sophomore somewhere hunkered down on the floor of his dorm room, a cigarette in one hand and a pen in the other. Every so often, a look of recognition followed by a crooked smile crosses his face, and he stabs at a notebook, scrawling out his observations and analyses of what’s on the stereo.

For our kid, Brighten the Corners — Pavement’s abundantly tuneful follow-up to 1995’s sorely undervalued Wowee Zowee — isn’t just a carefully arranged collection of Daliesque pop contraptions. As a Pavement record, it’s another enigmatic challenge of shaggy dog riddles and obscure signifiers, arcane allusions and wry ironies. The Beatlesque ‟We Are Underused” mentions wedding invitations, which makes sense to student boy since he’s read that guitarist-singer Scott Kannberg and drummer Steve West both got married last year. He recognizes the sweeping 12-string Byrds guitar sound of Kannberg’s ‟Date With IKEA” and the Roxy Music sounds coming from ‟Embassy Row.” He knows from checking an Internet phone directory that someone with the same surname as singer/guitarist Stephen Malkmus lives on a ‟Shady Lane” Court in Kansas; that might explain the title of the airy album’s most Kinks-like delicacy. The serious philosophical issues touched on in ‟Transport Is Arranged” and ‟Old to Begin” slow his progress, though he guesses the whimsical geography in ‟Starlings of the Slipstream,” a sweet harmony breeze, is just a joke. Still, it’s a couplet in the sing-songy ‟Stereo” that really pulls his beard.

‟What about the voice of Geddy Lee — how did it get so high? I wonder if he speaks like an ordinary guy.”

Whoah nellie, eh? Is this Pavement’s doubly dry way of ripping the Canadian trio? Maybe it’s a pop culture quiz, a snarky e.p.t. for collegiate cool, dividing the true-blue disciples of all things alternative from those harboring revisionist tendencies towards the evil behemoth of corporate classic rock.

Try door number three. Reached by phone at his home in Portland, Oregon, Malkmus willingly professes his admi­ration for Rush. ‟ 2112 was the album we were into when I was a kid. I still listen to Caress of Steel .” There’s a brief pause. ‟Maybe we can tour with them or something.” But then he shrugs off the notion: it wasn’t meant in earnest.

Or was it? Besides defying most conventions of rock careerism (like having its five members live in one geographical area), Pavement has spent eight curious years thriving on the uncertainty principle, arranging common and disparate elements into distinctive, influential and occasionally popular art that never quite gives itself away. Solidly rooted in the individualist self-expression of indie-rock but willing to meet commercial acceptance on their own terms, Pavement have progressed from amateur flailings to enticingly poised accomplishment without sacrificing their dignity or integrity. Those who found the band’s early records too lo-fi and in-jokey will be surprised by Brighten the Corners ‘ easy allure.

Having laid a solid foundation of critical acclaim from its first 7-inch sputters, Pavement established a beachhead of commercial viability in 1994 with Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain , an album that has sold nearly 200,000 copies in the U.S. ( Wowee Zowee did maybe half as well). The accessible pop of Brighten the Corners — the band’s bow via the newly united forces of super-groovy independent label Matador and the thunderously establishment Capitol — puts Pavement on the threshold of a major breakthrough.

Still, the group — which duly gives its fans credit for more intelligence than the average KISS Army foot soldier — playfully continues to keep listeners in the dark, flashing eclectically borrowed riffs and far-flung cultural reference points to provide blurred and illusory illumination. So whether it’s the recognition of Wowee Zowee ‘s graphic tribute to German ’70s prog-rock trio Guru Guru or the discovery of a Coleridge poem which rhymes the words ‟slanted” and ‟enchanted” (as in the title of Pavement’s 1992 full-length debut, which Malkmus attributes to a book of drawings by college pal David Berman, leader of the Silver Jews), the band’s work is rife with fodder for examination, imagination and auto-didacticism — honey to rocking academic bears.

‟Our fans understand that we’re into history,” says West, 30, by phone from the vast old fixer-upper he recently purchased in Lexington, Virginia. ‟Stephen was a history major. I’m huge into history and the history of music.” If the recycled clues scattered throughout the band’s records encourage fans to seek out Pavement’s own musical sources, that’s fine by him.

Nursing a cup of joe in a coffee bar near his house in Berkeley, California, Scott Kannberg connects the tactic to his own experiences growing up. ‟The way I discovered a lot of music was by reading R.E.M. interviews and seeing them say ‛We’re really into the Velvet Underground’ or ‛We’re really into Wire.’ So I’d go out and buy those records. We try and do the same thing.”

For all the depth of meaning people are able to extract from Pavement’s increasingly sheer fabric, the designs or accidents that put it there generally remain clouded. Even with inside information, songs are subject to multiple interpretations, less likely to enlighten curiosity-seekers than lead them down an intellectual cul-de-sac.

‟Ninety percent of the songs are just words put together in that kind of way, so they’re really not about anything,” admits Kannberg. ‟They’re phrases and stuff that sound good together.” At its best, Malkmus’s free-association imagery invokes the imprecision and acid-fueled imagination of vintage Bob Dylan, a notion reinforced by the Blonde on Blonde coloring of the new album’s “Type Slowly.” For a generation of channel-surfers, magazine-flippers and web-browsers, his scampering poetry has the tempo of the times.

But he won’t make too much of it. ‟Lyrics are mostly automatic things. I don’t know where it comes from, but it’s not a big heart-on-my-sleeve, here’s the sadcore truth-of-the-world-type thing. I use stuff that came out of nowhere and steal things that come out of somewhere. I don’t try to overwork it. It’s playful; it’s done pretty quickly.” Malkmus declines to be the singer he plays on television. ‟People should know it’s an act. Some of it is really you, but a lot of it’s just assuming a voice and fucking around. It’s not a situationist prank or anything — there’s emotion and soul and stuff in there, too — but I feel like it’s distant from me. Like the rap guys, I just gotta say it’s entertainment.”

Discussing motives and tactics with Pavement — who, individually, are as forthright as their elusive records usually aren’t — is an exercise in unresolvable contradictions. Through some organic combination of design and naïveté, the leaderless group functions like a motivated amoeba, resolutely moving along an eccentric path it appears to be con­cocting on a need-to-proceed basis. As a business, Pavement is a fascinating model of laissez-faire socialism, valuing individualism and the collective good, letting each determine his own ideal role in the enterprise. As a band, Pave­ment shuns gang-like insularity for a looser but no less cohesive association. Living in different states and convening only to record and tour, the five remain bound by their friendship, their work ethic and their admiration for the songs Malkmus (and, once or twice per album, Kannberg) writes and sings. ‟If we all lived in the same town, our records might be better,” allows bassist Mark Ibold, ‟but nobody wants to.” And there’s nobody to make them do it.

The frugal and self-reliant band is managerless. Kannberg, aided by an outside accountant, handles business affairs in consultation with Malkmus; major decisions are put to a band vote. They drive themselves to gigs and hump their own gear; they had never worked with a real producer before engaging Mitch Easter and his North Carolina studio for Brighten the Corners . And his contribution was more encouragement than guidance.

‟We’ve made some mistakes,” says Ibold during a vegetarian lunch on Manhattan’s Lower East Side right before Christmas. ‟We make ’em all the time, actually. Fortunately, they haven’t been really huge.” At 34, the onetime skatepunk is Pavement’s pragmatic elder, the one most likely to consider career and life in conventional terms. (He is also the only Pavement member still living in New York City. Though none are natives, West, Malkmus and percussionist/Moog player Bob Nastanovich — who now makes his home across the street from Churchill Downs racetrack in Louisville, Kentucky — all resided in New York for a time.)

Despite the near-unanimous sense that their live shows could be better, Pavement keeps rehearsals to a minimum; the first few weeks of each tour, they say, are spent shaking off the cobwebs. The group doesn’t demo songs before recording final versions and attributes sonic shortcomings of their records to self-imposed time and money con­straints. ‟We don’t have much of a game plan when we enter the studio as far as what anything is going to sound like,” Malkmus allows. And while he notes that ‟Our songs never reach their peak on record — they get so much better once we’ve played ’em forty times on the road,” he is mildly nonplused by the suggestion they try reversing the process.

The band’s benign mystique of casual informality and seeming indifference is free of rock’s typical measures of greed and ego; there are no arrogant bozos on this bus. West, recalling Malkmus’s invitation to join Pavement (both were then employed as security guards at New York’s Whitney Museum), says, ‟If I was in his place, I don’t know if I would have picked someone who isn’t a complete drummer. My actual playing has improved a whole lot, but I am in no way now, and was not then, a super drummer. I’m no Neil Peart.”

Malkmus thinks his voice sounds ‟stupid.” The new album? ‟I don’t like it much. There are some good songs, but the vocals are too loud and the kick drum’s too loud.” Defying decades of frontman arrogance, Malkmus brings resig­na­tion to the role. ‟I wouldn’t sing in Pavement if there wasn’t a need for it. In the end there was no one else to do it.”

By all accounts, Malkmus takes a less passive view of his studio responsibilities. The boast in a Matador press release that, in a first for Pavement, the new album was ‟record[ed] with the entire five-person band in the same room at the same time (playing, not just watching).” Ibold concurs. ‟Most of the songs are all of us actually in the same room playing everything at the same time. About four are first takes.”

The band’s early records were made by Malkmus and Kannberg with drummer Gary Young; rumor has it that, in Pavement’s name, the pair — who contractually are Pavement — have continued to record solo or together on occasion. Ibold praises Malkmus for sometimes doing bass parts he then copies to play live; Nastanovich describes his studio job as ‟a cheerleader” and says the sessions for 1992’s Watery, Domestic EP were the first he attended.

‟Stephen is pretty much the songwriter and song-structurer,” says West. ‟We back him up with our stuff and he edits accordingly. When it comes down to the mixing, he’ll put in and take out what he thinks is going to work.” Malkmus’s self-effacement notwithstanding, ‟He’s got a good idea of what he wants.”

And can’t have. ‟There’s lots of music I would like to play that we can’t,” says Malkmus after praising Canned Heat and Creedence, declaring his thwarted desire to sing like John Fogerty on ‟Harness Your Hopes,” an outtake from Brighten the Corners which Ibold insists will be the next album’s hit. ‟It’s just too technical. We make the best of what we have.”

Recording the new album together, says Kannberg, made some difference. ‟But it still felt like [Stephen and I] were calling the shots, telling people what to play. I think it’ll always be that way.”

Contrary to common belief, Pavement did not spring into existence on January 17, 1989, the day childhood chums Scott Kannberg and Stephen Joseph Malkmus strolled into Gary Young’s Stockton, California, studio, Louder Than You Think, where they spent the day cutting a few scraggly, intermittently sharp songs as their prismatic fan response to the Fall, Can, Clean and Swell Maps.

Malkmus was born in Los Angeles and moved to Stockton when he was eight or nine. He and Kannberg lived in the same neighborhood and met in the third grade. ‟We were jocks,” says Scott. ‟We were on the same soccer team. We played tennis together.”

Malkmus was the bassist in a hardcore band called the Straw Dogs until he left town to attend a private school in Santa Barbara for two years. When he returned and rejoined Kannberg at Tokay High School, Malkmus brought with him important fun from the new world — cool early-’80s records by happening bands like X and Devo.

After graduation, Malkmus enrolled in the University of Virginia (‟the only school people said was good that I got into”); Kannberg spent a year at Arizona State. Before dropping out, he says, ‟I thought up the name Pavement and had a band that played one show at a party in 1987.” Pavement’s first singer, he notes, is now in an Arizona band called Beats the Hell Out of Me. Back home, Kannberg spent a year working in a used record store and then resumed college in Sacramento, where he studied urban planning. When Malkmus visited, they tried to form a band, Bag o’ Bones, that never got off the ground.

Malkmus had met Nastanovich at school, where they were members of a band called Ectoslavia and DJs on WTJU. ‟Stephen and I got along famously right off the bat,” says Bob, a garrulous straight-shooter with a hearty laugh. ‟We had similar tastes in just about everything. We were both into pinball, sports and drinking beer.”

One thing they didn’t share was the need to perform music. Unlike Malkmus, who even had a second group, Lake Speed, Nastanovich was content to be a fan. Still, he wound up banging on stuff in Ectoslavia. ‟Nobody could really play except for Malkmus and Rob Chamberlain a little bit, it was just noise.”

Broadcasting was another story. While Nastanovich devoted himself to WTJU enough to become its station manager in his last year, Malkmus was no Casey Kasem. ‟The station had an amazing library,” recalls Bob. ‟Stephen was less interested in putting together a radio show than he was in listening to albums he’d never heard.” Typically, Bob would do the late-night shift while his future bandmate devoted himself to getting a musical education.

Between semesters, Malkmus continued to jam with devout California boy Kannberg in Stockton. Finally, they de­cided to commit themselves to posterity. ‟He thought we should just make a record,” says Kannberg. ‟He had these songs and I had a couple of songs; we wanted to put the single out just to have something in the history of rock.”

‟We weren’t trying to get big or anything,” says Malkmus. ‟We were listening to a lot of obscure music — Chrome, Swell Maps, the Television Personalities — and celebrating obscurity was fine with us.” With such humble aspirations, the two found their way to Young’s studio. Taking advantage of his musical abilities, they got the much older Young to drum on ‟Box Elder” and ‟Price Yeah!,” doing the rest themselves. Kannberg pressed up a thousand 7-inches and released the little bugger as Slay Tracks (1933 – 1969) , an artifact that now fetches $100 or more from collectors. In the tradition of heroes like Epic Soundtracks and Nikki Sudden, they identified themselves on the record as SM and Spiral Stairs, the latter a meaningless pseudonym Kannberg clung to through Wowee Zowee .

‟There was a lot of mystery to the bands we liked,” explains Kannberg of the nomenclatural conceit. ‟They didn’t want their picture plastered all over. We wanted to keep our band mysterious. I wish we still could be. We had these visions of trying to do things a little differently, try to fuck things up a little bit.”

Slay Tracks led Pavement to Chicago indie label Drag City, which released the duo’s next EP, Demolition Plot J-7 , in 1990. By this point, Malkmus had finished school and returned to Stockton after an extended personal tour through Europe, Asia and the Middle East. Following his 1989 graduation, the vehicular-minded Nastanovich had fulfilled his dream of driving a bus ‟in the big leagues” — New York City — and moved north with Berman, who got a job guarding paintings at the Whitney. Together, they persuaded Malkmus to join them in Jersey City.

Despite the fact that its two principals were now living on opposite coasts, Pavement-the-intermittent-recording-project moved closer to making its public debut. Several months after aborting a 1990 itinerary and making a solitary performance in a Davis, California radio studio, Pavement — Kannberg, Malkmus, Young, Nastanovich and Ectoslavia guitarist Rob Chamberlain — emerged from its cocoon and hit the road. The road, not too surprisingly, hit back.

‟We practiced for three or four days at Gary’s parents’ house in Mamaroneck, then went on tour in [Bob’s] station wagon,” recalls Kannberg. ‟At the first show, a club in New Brunswick, New Jersey, we saw how much of a drunk Gary was. Then we played the Middle East in Boston, and he was out of control. Gary was out there doing this weird hippie dance to the opening band and fell down and sliced his leg open on a bottle. We had to play five or six shows without him. Bob switched to drums and I played drums, too. Gary finally made it to the New York show we did at the Pyramid.” Fatefully, that 1991 gig was witnessed by Mark Ibold — then of New York’s Dust Devils — who had bought Slay Tracks ‟just because of the way it looked.”

Kannberg recalls the band’s calamitous first adventure as ‟so much fun. We were so innocent. If 50 people came to see us, we thought, this is great.” Nastanovich has a different memory of the episode. Before the tour, ‟Stephen had told me that I was going to be the drummer. Then he decided he needed somebody that could play a kit, and so he got Gary. He said, we’ll just figure out something for you to do.” (The fact that Bob owned wheels and volunteered to drive the band didn’t hurt, but he has never been a secondary member in the band’s odd hierarchy. As Malkmus notes, ‟There was no plan that the sound of the band needed two drummers to really beef it up like the Dead or the Allman Brothers. We created a role for him because he’s such a great friend and I wanted him to be in the band.”)

When Nastanovich first joined the band, ‟I couldn’t think of anything to do other than play a floor tom and a snare. But when I realized Gary was going to be inconsistent; it became necessary for me to keep the beat. After Gary cut himself, we went down south, to live situations where I could name over half the people in the room. I told Stephen I could play decent drums on only six or seven of the songs, and he’d better adjust the set list or else it’s going to be a complete disaster. He wouldn’t do that. On several songs I had no idea what to do — I only had two drums, anyway. It was harsh, but because I went through that, anything immensely humiliating that’s happened subsequently has been not [so bad].”

Malkmus, Kannberg and Young had recorded Slanted and Enchanted at the beginning of that year. ‟We wanted to make a rock record, a record that should be easy to play, that we could tour to,” is Kannberg’s offhand explanation for the craggy, seductive album — recorded in a week — which sold something near 100,000 copies and topped many critics’ year-end lists in 1992.

With Chamberlain out of the picture, Pavement decided a bassist would lively up the party mix. They considered Michael Duane, the Dust Devils’ main man, but — fearing the English expatriate would compound the Young situation — instead selected his protégé, Mark Ibold. Without quitting the Dust Devils, Ibold joined Pavement a few months prior to the release of Slanted and Enchanted in ’92. The following summer, to the relief of all concerned, Young bowed out of the band and was replaced by Steve West. (Young still runs his studio and leads a band called Hospital, which released an album on Big Cat in 1995.)

Displaying the nonchalance that belies his bandmates’ confidence in his creative vision, Malkmus invited West into Pavement drumming unheard. ‟I didn’t even try him out. I figured it would work out fine ’cause he’s such a great person. Bob [Nastanovich] went to high school with him and said he was pretty good on the drums. I knew him. I figured I could mold his drumming style.” West seconds the emotion. ‟I feel like my audition with Stephen was working with him for nine months and getting to know him, realizing what our similarities are.” Here’s a third perspective: When a lead singer hates his audibly imperfect voice, how much expert technique should he want or expect from colleagues?

West’s unveiling came at the Drag City Invitational in Chicago in 1993. ‟That was a really hard time for me,” says Nastanovich. ‟I told Gary on several occasions that I would not go on in this band if he wasn’t in it. I felt a certain amount of personal immorality that I had to overcome.” Fans also had their reservations. ‟In the beginning,” says West, ‟there were shouts of `Where’s Gary?’,” but no longer. ‟Most listeners don’t even know what record I started to play on.”

The revised lineup proved entirely salutary. ‟Steve West is a solid and stable individual that I knew would provide an element of consistency that had never been there,” says Bob. ‟I really didn’t know if it was necessary or worthwhile for me to be in the band anymore. I had to change my role. So I got a Moog [synthesizer] and figured I’d make some noise on it and add some spice.”

Thus bolstered, Pavement promptly took a great leap forward, making 1994’s monumental Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain . The accessible and chewy consideration of the rock life contains the most coherent songs of Malkmus’ canon, as well as Kannberg’s urgent Fall clone, ‟Hit the Plane Down,” and ‟5 – 4 = Unity,” a witty interpretation of Stockton homeboy Dave Brubeck’s ‟Take 5.” The album became Pavement’s biggest seller, lost out to Hole’s Live Through This as top album on the Village Voice ‘s prestigious Pazz & Jop critics’ poll and brought the band to the following summer’s Lollapalooza tour, where they again took a back seat to Courtney’s crew. With Wowee Zowee not wowing much of anybody, Pavement found its poorly attended afternoon slot a trying ordeal, but the band did enjoy the generous pay and comfortable traveling conditions.

Other than recording Brighten the Corners , doing a short tour that began on the West Coast in January and the Tibetan Freedom Concert in June, Pavement laid low in ’96. Malkmus cut a version of X’s ‟Unheard Music” with Elastica for the soundtrack of the upcoming SubUrbia ; otherwise, the band mostly attended to such post-rock affairs as matrimony, moving, mortgages and, in one case, an ‟off-season” career. Nastanovich, who publishes a thoroughbred tipsheet called Lucky Lavender , owns shares in two race horses: Steinlen’s Promise and Fast Irish Lass. ‟I never intend to be in any other band,” he says. ‟I consider myself to be a member of Pavement more than a musician. At the end of a tour, I go home and forget that I’m in Pavement.”

But for the first half of ’97, Bob and the others are most definitely neck-deep in Pavement. The well-rested band is armed with its best musical shot yet at joining Oasis and Bush in the MTV-sponsored alternarock winners’ circle. (The band’s apathy toward making videos, however, remains its Achilles heel in that campaign.) A bit older and more settled, the five are perhaps less tolerant of some rigors they once welcomed. Though confident enough to accept that putting a roadie or two on the payroll isn’t a complete sellout, Pavement still operates beneath the hard-headed career radar of those other bands. ‟I never have any idea what’s going to happen with this band more than six months in advance,” says Ibold. ‟We never have plans.” ◆

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Pavement Closes Out Four-Night New York Stand With Tight, Deep-Diving Set: Concert Review

By Jem Aswad

Executive Editor, Music

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Back in the day (“the day” being the 1990s), Pavement became so typecast as a cliché-lambasting, anti-rock band that they never really got credit for what a great rock band they were — and, as their ongoing 30th-ish anniversary tour shows, still are.

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Neither did they hold back on their classics: “Gold Soundz” was rolled out early in the set, and the encore featured “Range Life” and, of course, the rockist-mocking “Cut Your Hair,” which had many middle-aged fists pumping on the “No big hair!” line.

And yes, they still resist the rockism. Malkmus remains the anti-frontman — he’s always been positioned at the far left side of the stage, while bassist Mark Ibold bops in the middle — but his voice is in top form, and after keeping the banter to a minimum through the first half of the set, he reeled off a few of his inimitable, deep-referential asides. After the group played the Fall-esque “Two States” and guitarist Scott Kannberg (a.k.a. Spiral Stairs) said, “We listened to the Fall just before we came onstage!,” Malkmus quipped, “Yep, the Fall in the fall… [‘80s hardcore band] Rites of Spring in the spring… uh, Sumner Redstone in the summer?,” he said, referencing the late TV mogul.

And as counterintuitive as it might have felt to some veteran fans — let’s face it, this crowd consisted almost entirely of veteran fans — to be seeing this band playing in a gorgeously ornate venue like Brooklyn’s Kings Theater as middle-aged men (accompanied by Rebecca Cole, formerly of Wild Flag, on keyboards, percussion and backing vocals), Pavement truly delivered. Hopefully, it won’t be another 12 years before they tread the boards together again.

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Complete List Of Pavement Albums And Discography

Feature Photo: Masao Nakagami, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

Complete List Of Pavement Albums And Discography looks at a band formed in Stockton, California, in 1989. The band is celebrated for its significant contribution to the indie and alternative rock scenes of the 1990s, carving a niche with their lo-fi sound, cryptic lyrics, and unconventional song structures. Their influence is widely recognized in the music industry, inspiring a generation of indie musicians with their innovative approach to music and disregard for mainstream trends.

The band released their first single, “Slay Tracks: 1933–1969,” in 1989, followed by their debut studio album “Slanted and Enchanted” in 1992. Over their career, Pavement has released five full-length studio albums, numerous EPs, live albums, and compilations, amassing a significant discography that has left an indelible mark on the indie music landscape.

Pavement’s sound was influenced by a diverse array of artists, including The Fall, The Velvet Underground, and Sonic Youth, blending elements of punk, noise rock, and pop into their music. In turn, Pavement has inspired a wide range of bands and artists across various genres, underscoring their role as pivotal figures in the development of indie rock.

PAVEMENT STUDIO ALBUMS

Slanted and enchanted.

Released April 20, 1992

Slanted and Enchanted is Pavement’s debut studio album, marking their entrance into the indie rock scene with a bang. The album was released to critical acclaim, celebrated for its lo-fi production, quirky lyrics, and the band’s ability to blend noise pop with more traditional rock elements. It was recorded at Louder Than You Think studio in Stockton, California, from December 24, 1990, to January 20, 1991.

The band lineup for this album included Stephen Malkmus (vocals, guitar), Spiral Stairs (guitar, vocals), Mark Ibold (bass), Gary Young (drums), and Bob Nastanovich (percussion, vocals). The album was produced by Pavement and Gary Young. Although it did not chart on the Billboard 200, it became a significant underground success and is often cited as one of the most influential indie albums of the 1990s.

CD Track Listings:

• “Summer Babe (Winter Version)” – 3:16
• “Trigger Cut/Wounded-Kite at :17” – 3:16
• “No Life Singed Her” – 2:09
• “In the Mouth a Desert” – 3:52
• “Conduit for Sale!” – 2:52
• “Zurich Is Stained” – 1:41
• “Chesley’s Little Wrists” – 1:16
• “Loretta’s Scars” – 2:55
• “Here” – 3:56
• “Two States” – 1:47
• “Perfume-V” – 2:09
• “Fame Throwa” – 3:22
• “Jackals, False Grails: The Lonesome Era” – 3:21
• “Our Singer” – 3:09

Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain

Released February 2, 1994

Pavement’s second studio album, Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain , saw the band moving towards a more accessible sound compared to their debut. The album features more straightforward rock compositions and was recorded at Random Falls in New York City. The recording sessions took place from August to September 1993.

The lineup remained consistent with Stephen Malkmus, Spiral Stairs, Mark Ibold, and the addition of Steve West replacing Gary Young on drums. Bob Nastanovich continued to provide percussion and vocals. The album was produced by Pavement with Bryce Goggin. Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain reached number 121 on the Billboard 200, and its single “Cut Your Hair” became one of the band’s most recognizable songs.

• “Silence Kid” – 3:01
• “Elevate Me Later” – 2:51
• “Stop Breathin'” – 4:28
• “Cut Your Hair” – 3:07
• “Newark Wilder” – 3:53
• “Unfair” – 2:33
• “Gold Soundz” – 2:39
• “5-4=Unity” – 2:09
• “Range Life” – 4:54
• “Heaven Is a Truck” – 2:30
• “Hit the Plane Down” – 3:36
• “Fillmore Jive” – 6:38

Wowee Zowee

Released April 11, 1995

Wowee Zowee , Pavement’s third album, was recorded at Easley Recording in Memphis, Tennessee, and mixed at Louder Than You Think in Stockton, California, from July to December 1994. The album continued Pavement’s tradition of eclectic and unconventional song structures, combining elements of punk, folk, and psychedelic rock.

The band’s lineup for this album included Stephen Malkmus, Spiral Stairs, Mark Ibold, Steve West, and Bob Nastanovich. Wowee Zowee was produced by Pavement and Doug Easley & Davis McCain. Although the album was initially met with mixed reviews, it has since been reevaluated as a masterpiece of indie rock, showcasing the band’s range and creativity.

• “We Dance” – 3:01
• “Rattled by the Rush” – 4:16
• “Black Out” – 2:10
• “Brinx Job” – 1:31
• “Grounded” – 4:14
• “Serpentine Pad” – 1:16
• “Motion Suggests” – 3:15
• “Father to a Sister of Thought” – 3:30
• “Extradition” – 2:12
• “Best Friend’s Arm” – 2:19
• “Grave Architecture” – 4:15
• “AT&T” – 3:32
• “Flux = Rad” – 1:45
• “Fight This Generation” – 4:22
• “Kennel District” – 2:59
• “Pueblo” – 3:25
• “Half a Canyon” – 6:10
• “Western Homes” – 1:49

Brighten the Corners

Released February 11, 1997

Brighten the Corners is the fourth studio album by Pavement, showcasing a more mature and polished sound compared to their earlier lo-fi releases. The album features the classic lineup of Stephen Malkmus on lead vocals and guitar, Scott Kannberg (also known as Spiral Stairs) on guitar and vocals, Mark Ibold on bass, Steve West on drums, and Bob Nastanovich on percussion and vocals. Produced by Mitch Easter and Pavement, the album was recorded at Mitch Easter’s studio, The Fidelitorium, in North Carolina, during the summer of 1996.

• “Stereo” – 3:07
• “Shady Lane / J vs. S” – 3:50
• “Transport Is Arranged” – 3:52
• “Date w/ IKEA” – 2:39
• “Old to Begin” – 3:22
• “Type Slowly” – 5:20
• “Embassy Row” – 3:51
• “Blue Hawaiian” – 3:33
• “We Are Underused” – 4:12
• “Passat Dream” – 3:51
• “Starlings of the Slipstream” – 3:08
• “Fin” – 5:24

Terror Twilight

Released June 8, 1999

Terror Twilight marks the fifth and final studio album by Pavement, produced by Nigel Godrich, renowned for his work with Radiohead. This album features Stephen Malkmus taking a more dominant role in songwriting and overall direction, resulting in a cleaner, more cohesive sound. Alongside Malkmus, the album features Scott Kannberg, Mark Ibold, Steve West, and Bob Nastanovich. The recording sessions took place in various locations, including Sonic Youth’s Echo Canyon studio in New York and Mobius Music in San Francisco, from 1998 to 1999.

• “Spit on a Stranger” – 3:04
• “Folk Jam” – 3:34
• “You Are a Light” – 3:54
• “Cream of Gold” – 3:47
• “Major Leagues” – 3:24
• “Platform Blues” – 4:42
• “Ann Don’t Cry” – 4:09
• “Billie” – 3:44
• “Speak, See, Remember” – 4:20
• “The Hexx” – 5:39
• “…And Carrot Rope” – 3:52

PAVEMENT LIVE ALBUMS

Live europaturnén mcmxcvii.

Released 2008

“Live Europaturnén MCMXCVII” is a live album by Pavement, documenting their European tour in 1997. The lineup for this tour consisted of Stephen Malkmus, Scott Kannberg, Mark Ibold, Steve West, and Bob Nastanovich. The album was recorded at various locations across Europe during the band’s extensive touring schedule in support of their fourth studio album, Brighten the Corners .

• “Stereo” – 4:16
• “Date w/ IKEA” – 2:58
• “Transport Is Arranged” – 4:25
• “Type Slowly” – 5:45
• “Cherry Area” – 2:02
• “Shady Lane” – 3:50
• “We Are Underused” – 4:10
• “Fin” – 6:25
• “Grounded” – 4:09
• “Unfair” – 3:33
• “Cut Your Hair” – 3:15
• “Range Life” – 4:55
• “Trigger Cut” – 3:16
• “Box Elder” – 2:45

Live Europaturnén MCMXCVII (2)

“Live Europaturnén MCMXCVII (2)” is a continuation of the live documentation of Pavement’s 1997 European tour, capturing the band at the height of their powers. This second volume offers fans another chance to experience the quintet’s live dynamism and idiosyncratic style during one of their most memorable touring periods. Stephen Malkmus, Scott Kannberg, Mark Ibold, Steve West, and Bob Nastanovich once again make up the band’s lineup, delivering performances that blend their signature indie rock sound with experimental and impromptu moments.

• “Kennel District” – 3:00
• “Summer Babe” – 3:14
• “Harness Your Hopes” – 3:26
• “Roll with the Wind” – 4:45
• “Perfume-V” – 2:10
• “Gold Soundz” – 2:40
• “Debris Slide” – 2:37
• “Painted Soldiers” – 2:53
• “Fillmore Jive” – 6:40
• “Rattled by the Rush” – 4:15
• “Loretta’s Scars” – 3:07

Complete List Of Pavement Albums And Discography article published on Classic RockHistory.com© 2024

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We can’t show you a word that rhymes with Pavement , but we can  show you the indie rock pioneers’ setlist from their very first show in 12 years. The reunion tour that was originally supposed to happen in 2020 finally kicked off on Monday night with a special warm-up gig at Los Angeles’ Fonda Theater, and per setlist.fm , they selected a healthy mix of crowd pleasers and deep cuts for devotees both new and old.

Naturally, Pavement performed “Harness Your Hopes” — their 1997 B-side that’s become a mysterious viral hit on Spotify and TikTok — for the first time in over 20 years. Aside from the expected hits like “Gold Soundz,” “Range Life,” “Cut Your Hair,” and “Spit on a Stranger,” they also ran through fan favorites like “Frontwards,” “Here,” “Grounded,” and “Summer Babe (Winter Version)” — perhaps they took some inspiration from  Consequence ’s recent list of Pavement’s 10 Best Songs .

What’s more, Pavement’s first gig back included a double-encore. According to the setlist the band posted on their social media, the second encore was supposed to include “Stereo” and “In the Mouth a Desert,” but both had to be cut for time. We can’t fault them — their set still clocked in at 30 songs. Lastly, they closed out with a cover of Jim Pepper’s “Witchi Tai To.”

All-in-all, Pavement’s reunion tour already looks like it won’t disappoint, although we’d likely be just as happy watching Stephen Malkmus improvise on stage for an hour and a half. Watch some fan-captured footage of the night, and take a look at the full setlist, below.

Last month, Pavement released the long-awaited reissues of their final album 1999’s  Terror Twilight  and their Spit on a Stranger EP. They also recently cashed in on the delayed “Harness Your Hopes” attention with a new music video featuring Yellowjackets star Sophie Thatcher.

These guys sound familiar, but we can’t quite place it pic.twitter.com/T88zYJcc6r — Matador Records (@matadorrecords) May 24, 2022

Wait, hold on. Don’t tell me. A few more songs and I’ll know who this is pic.twitter.com/IeorbwtXuv — Matador Records (@matadorrecords) May 24, 2022

Alright, i Shazam’d it. Allegedly this is @pavement_band tonight at @FondaTheatre pic.twitter.com/c0suXupb4A — Matador Records (@matadorrecords) May 24, 2022

Very happy we got all the identity stuff sorted. Thanks internet! @pavement_band @FondaTheatre pic.twitter.com/eJPJqJKoSY — Matador Records (@matadorrecords) May 24, 2022

Hella thanks y’all. Had to cut a couple but… Much love, c’mon in… pic.twitter.com/oVBJUQVMfE — PAVEMENT (@pavement_band) May 24, 2022

Setlist: Our Singer Frontwards Embassy Row Black Out Trigger Cut Kennel District Spit on a Stranger Gold Soundz Transport Is Arranged Serpentine Pad Motion Suggests Two States The Hexx Shoot the Singer (One Sick Verse) Grounded Harness Your Hopes Silence Kid Cut Your Hair Type Slowly Perfume-V Fame Throwa Range Life Folk Jam

Encore 1: Shady Lane Unfair Grave Architecture Major Leagues Summer Babe (Winter Version)

Encore 2: Here Witchi Tai To

Pavement 2022 Tour Dates: 06/02 – Barcelona, ES @ Primavera Sound 06/10 – Porto, Portugal @ NOS Primavera Sound 09/07 – San Diego, CA @ Balboa Theatre 09/09 – Los Angeles, CA @ Orpheum Theatre 09/10 – Los Angeles, CA @ Orpheum Theatre 09/12 – San Francisco, CA @ The Masonic 09/13 – San Francisco, CA @ The Masonic 09/14 – San Francisco, CA @ The Masonic 09/16 – Troutdale, OR @ Edgefield Amphitheatre 09/17 – Seattle, WA @ The Paramount Theatre 09/19 – Denver, CO @ Paramount Theatre 09/20 – Kansas City, MO @ Uptown Theater 09/21 – St. Paul, MN @ The Palace Theatre 09/22 – Chicago, IL @ Chicago Theatre 09/23 – Chicago, IL @ Chicago Theatre 09/24 – Detroit, MI @ Masonic Cathedral Theatre 09/26 – Toronto, ON @ Massey Hall 09/27 – Toronto, ON @ Massey Hall 09/28 – Boston, MA @ Boch Center Wang Theatre 09/30 – Brooklyn, NY @ Kings Theatre 10/01 – Brooklyn, NY @ Kings Theatre 10/02 – Brooklyn, NY @ Kings Theatre 10/03 – Brooklyn, NY @ Kings Theatre 10/05 – Philadelphia, PA @ The Met 10/06 – Washington, DC @ Warner Theatre 10/08 – Atlanta, GA @ The Eastern 10/09 – Atlanta, GA @ The Eastern 10/11 – Austin, TX @ ACL Live at the Moody Theater 10/17 – Leeds, UK @ O2 Academy Leeds 10/18 – Glasgow, UK @ Barrowland Ballroom 10/19 – Edinburgh, UK @ Usher Hall 10/20 – Manchester, UK @ O2 Apollo 10/22 – London, UK @ Roundhouse 10/23 – London, UK @ Roundhouse 10/24 – London, UK @ Roundhouse 10/25 – London, UK @ Roundhouse 10/27 – Paris, FR @ Le Grand Rex 10/29 – Copenhagen, DK @ Vega 10/30 – Oslo, NO @ Sentrum Scene 10/31 – Stockholm, SE @ Cirkus 11/02 – Aarhus, DK @ VoxHall 11/04 – Bremen, DE @ Pier 2 11/05 – Berlin, DE @ Tempodrom 11/07 – Brussels, BE @ Cirque Royal 11/08 – Amsterdam, NL @ Royal Carré Theater 11/10 – Dublin, IE @ Vicar Street 11/11 – Dublin, IE @ Vicar Street

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• September 8, 2022

Pavement Kicks Off U.S. Reunion Tour in San Diego (RECAP)

photo courtesy Matador

• By Ryan Dillon
• No Comments

For the first time in over a decade, the unsung heroes of ‘90s indie rock Pavement are back out on tour. After the band officially reunited in May of this year at the Fonda Theater in Los Angeles, Pavement played a string of festival shows before landing back in California last night (September 7) at the Balboa Theater in San Diego to kick off their world tour. Along with a return to touring, the band also reissued their Spit On A Stranger EP from 1999 which features their single of the same name along with some other rarities. 

Earlier this year, Glide published an article about the reunions we were most excited to see in 2022. Pavement was high up on that list, the underdogs of ‘90s rock had been off the live performing circuit since 2010 when they performed at a club in Argentina. Since their debut album in 1992, Pavement has built a storied discography of cryptic lyrics and fuzzy guitar riffs. They brought their discography to life last night as they went through their 26-song setlist which featured classics, deep cuts, and songs the band hasn’t performed in decades. 

The band kicked off the night with “Grounded”, a hit from their 1995 album Wowee Zowee . It wasn’t too long into the night before the setlist began to shock the crowd, 5 songs in Pavement plays “Home”, a deep cut from their underrated 1993 release Westing (By Musket and Sextant) , the song has not been played live since the year said album was released. They reached back to that album later in the night when Pavement tore through “Spizzle Trunk” which had not made it on to a setlist from the band since 2010. Other deep cuts like “Blue Hawaiian” made an appearance for the first time since 1997 and “Box Elder” along with “Give It A Day” also were performed for the first time since 2010. 

Pavement crafted a terrific setlist to kickoff their full reunion tour. They ran through at least one song from each album, introducing new fans to the classics while feeding their day one fans with B-sides. The band begins a three-night stay at the Orpheum Theater in Los Angeles on September 8 before heading out on their tour which has them on the road until February of next year. 

Check out the full setlist, tour dates, and footage from their tour kickoff below: 

Dates: https://pavementband.com/#tour  

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Pavement Reunites For First Show In 12 Years Ahead Of World Tour [Videos]

Indie-rock legends Pavement played their first show in 12 years last night at  The Fonda Theatre in Los Angeles, CA. The concert kicked off the band’s highly anticipated reunion tour , which will include shows in the U.S., Europe, and Japan.

Stephen Malkmus , Scott “ Spiral Stairs” Kannberg , Bob Nastanovich , Mark Ibold , and Steve West  took the stage joined by Wild Flag ‘s Rebecca Cole on keyboards. The band treated fans to a lengthy 23-song set that lasted over two hours and featured songs not played in more than two decades. The set opened with “Our Singer” and “Frontwards” before the band launched into the first performances of “Embassy Row” and “Black Out” since 1997, per Setlist.fm . The show also included “Harness Your Hopes”, the band’s most-streamed song on Spotify , and several other songs that had not been performed since the ’90s, including “Transport Is Arranged”, “Serpentine Pad”, “Fame Throwa”, and more.

Related: Pavement Announces ‘Terror Twilight’ Deluxe Reissue, Shares Previously Unreleased “Be The Hook” [Listen]

After concluding their set, Pavement returned for not one but two encores. The first consisted of “Shady Lane”, “Unfair”, “Grave Architecture”, “Major League”, and “Summer Babe”, and the second, more concise encore featured “Here” and the band’s live debut of Jim Pepper ‘s “Witchi Tai To”.

Formed in 1989 in Stockton, CA by Stephen Malkmus and Scott Kannberg, known originally only as “S.M.” and “Spiral Stairs”, Pavement was one of the most influential bands to emerge from the ’90s indie/underground music scene. The group disbanded in 1999 but reunited for a reunion tour in 2010 that was well received by critics and fans. Monday’s show at The Fonda was the band’s first performance since that tour, and it served as a preview of their upcoming world tour.

Related: Primavera Sound Announces 2022 Weekend Lineups: Pavement, Gorillaz, Beck, The Strokes, More [Video]

View photos and videos of Pavement’s performance at The Fonda below, along with the show setlist and the band’s upcoming tour dates. For more information, visit the band’s website .

Pavement – “Harness Your Hopes”

Pavement – “Our Singer”

[Video: ilymeow ]

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Setlist [ via Setlist.fm ]: Pavement | The Fonda Theatre | Los Angeles, CA | 5/23/2022

Set: Our Singer, Frontwards, Embassy Row [1], Black Out [1], Trigger Cut, Kennel District, Spit on a Stranger, Gold Soundz, Transport Is Arranged [1], Serpentine Pad [2], Motion Suggests [2], Two States, The Hexx, Shoot the Singer, Grounded, Harness Your Hopes [3], Silence Kid, Cut Your Hair, Type Slowly [1] [4], Perfume-V, Fame Throwa [5], Range Life, Folk Jam [3]

Encore: Shady Lane, Unfair, Grave Architecture [3], Major Leagues [3], Summer Babe

Encore 2: Here, Witchi Tai To (Jim Pepper) [6]

[1] First time played since 1997 [2] First time played since 1996 [3] First time played since 1999 [4] With extended jam [5] First time played since 1993 [6] Live debut by Pavement

Pavement 2022 Tour Dates:

Thursday, June 2 Primavera Sound, Barcelona ES Friday, June 10 NOS Primavera Sound, Porto PT Wednesday, September 7 Balboa Theatre, San Diego CA (SOLD OUT) Thursday, September 8, Orpheum Theatre, Los Angeles CA (SOLD OUT) Friday, September 9 Orpheum Theatre, Los Angeles CA (SOLD OUT) Saturday, September 10 Orpheum Theatre, Los Angeles CA (SOLD OUT) Monday, September 12 The Masonic, San Francisco CA Tuesday, September 13 The Masonic, San Francisco CA Wednesday, September 14 The Masonic, San Francisco CA Friday, September 16 Edgefield Amphitheatre, Troutdale OR Saturday, September 17 The Paramount Theatre, Seattle WA (SOLD OUT) Monday, September 19 Paramount Theatre, Denver CO Tuesday, September 20 Uptown Theater, Kansas City MO Wednesday, September 21 The Palace Theatre, St. Paul MN Thursday, September 22 Chicago Theatre, Chicago IL (SOLD OUT) Friday, September 23, Chicago Theatre IL Saturday, September 24 Masonic Cathedral Theatre, Detroit MI (SOLD OUT) Monday, September 26 Massey Hall, Toronto ON (SOLD OUT) Tuesday, September 27, Massey Hall, Toronto ON Wednesday, September 28 Boch Center Wang Theatre, Boston MA (SOLD OUT) Friday, September 30 Kings Theatre, Brooklyn NY (SOLD OUT) Saturday, October 1 Kings Theatre, Brooklyn NY (SOLD OUT) Sunday, October 2 Kings Theatre, Brooklyn NY (SOLD OUT) Monday, October 3, Kings Theatre, Brooklyn NY Wednesday, October 5 The Met, Philadelphia PA (SOLD OUT) Thursday, October 6 Warner Theatre, Washington DC (SOLD OUT) Saturday, October 8 The Eastern, Atlanta GA (SOLD OUT) Sunday, October 9 The Eastern, Atlanta GA (SOLD OUT) Monday, October 10, 3Ten At ACL Live, Austin TX (SOLD OUT) Tuesday, October 11 ACL Live at the Moody Theater, Austin TX (SOLD OUT) Monday, October 17th 02 Academy, Leeds UK Tuesday, October 18th Barrowland Ballroom, Glasgow UK (SOLD OUT) Wednesday October 19th Usher Hall, Edinburgh UK Thursday, October 20th 02 Apollo, Manchester UK Saturday, October 22nd Roundhouse, London UK (SOLD OUT) Sunday, October 23rd Roundhouse, London UK Monday, October 24th Roundhouse, London UK Tuesday, October 25th Roundhouse, London UK Thursday, October 27th Le Grand Rex, Paris FR Saturday, October 29th Vega, Copenhagen DK Sunday, October 30th Sentrum Scene, Oslo NO Monday, October 31st SE Cirkus, Stockholm SE Wednesday, November 2nd VoxHall, Aarhus DK Friday, November 4th Pier 2, Bremen DE Saturday, November 5th Tempodrom, Berlin DE Monday, November 7th Cirque Royal, Brussels BE Tuesday, November 8th Royal Carré Theater, Amsterdam NL Thursday, November 10th Vicar Street, Dublin IE (SOLD OUT) Friday, November 11th Vicar Street, Dublin IE (SOLD OUT) Wednesday, February 15 Tokyo Dome City Hall, Tokyo JP Thursday, February 16 Tokyo Dome City Hall, Tokyo JP Saturday, February 18 Namba Hatch, Osaka JP

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• July 22, 1997 Setlist

Pavement Setlist at Metro Theatre, Sydney, Australia

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• Old to Begin Play Video
• Stereo Play Video
• Transport Is Arranged Play Video
• Date w/ IKEA Play Video
• Give It a Day Play Video
• Cut Your Hair Play Video
• Perfume-V Play Video
• Starlings of the Slipstream Play Video
• The Hexx Play Video
• Shady Lane Play Video
• Kennel District Play Video
• Father to a Sister of Thought Play Video
• Unfair Play Video
• Fin Play Video
• Box Elder Play Video
• Westie Can Drum Play Video
• Here Play Video
• Blue Hawaiian Play Video
• Elevate Me Later Play Video
• Type Slowly Play Video

Edits and Comments

8 activities (last edit by event_monkey , 15 Feb 2024, 17:38 Etc/UTC )

Songs on Albums

• Blue Hawaiian
• Date w/ IKEA
• Old to Begin
• Starlings of the Slipstream
• Transport Is Arranged
• Type Slowly
• Cut Your Hair
• Elevate Me Later
• Father to a Sister of Thought
• Kennel District
• Give It a Day
• Westie Can Drum

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Pavement gig timeline.

• Jul 19 1997 Murdoch University Perth, Australia Add time Add time
• Jul 20 1997 Heaven Adelaide, Australia Add time Add time
• Jul 22 1997 Metro Theatre This Setlist Sydney, Australia Add time Add time
• Jul 23 1997 Metro Theatre Sydney, Australia Add time Add time
• Jul 24 1997 Metro Theatre Sydney, Australia Add time Add time

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