Taylor’s Tunes: Pavement, also known as the best band ever

A couple weeks back I dedicated a post to my favorite albums of the 90s. In my opinion, the 90s churned out some of the best music ever. Hands down. Built to Spill, Neutral Milk Hotel, LFO…woof. But there is one band in particular that stands above all others. I chose their first full length, Slanted and Enchanted as my favorite of 1992. Last summer, they plotted an extremely successful reunion tour. Their most popular song is about haircuts. The band I’m talking about of course is Pavement.

I could dedicate every remaining Her Campus post to Pavement and never run out of commentary. All of us have a Pavement. Their entire discography is on your iTunes, you put choice songs on playlists for others, and you listen to them constantly and never get bored. I apologize because I won’t be able to articulate exactly why Pavement is that band. I don’t think anyone really can. I just simply love their music.

For those of you who are just now hearing of Pavement, here’s some history. A guy by the name of Stephen Malkmus grew up in Stockton, California and he had a friend named Scott Kannberg. The pair played some music together but then Malkmus went to college in Virginia. There, he met a man by the name of Bob Nastanovich. Anyway, Malkmus returned home after college and reunited with Kannberg. The two recorded an EP entitled Slay Tracks (1933-1969) with the help of a drummer by the name of Gary Young. The EP became and underground hit and I’ll insert “the rest is history” here.

Although the rest might have been history, Pavement still had a long road ahead after Slay Tracks. When they began touring in support of their releases, they took along Nastanovich as a second percussionist because Young was usually too drunk to perform. Young would eventually be fired/leave the band (it’s still unclear) and drummer Steve West would remain with the band until their breakup. During their ten year run, Pavement released nine EPs and five full lengths. This doesn’t include a greatest hits album released this past year. 

Every Pavement release garnered near-universal critical acclaim. Yet the band never truly reached mainstream success. Perhaps this is what is so attractive about the group. A thin layer of mystery always surrounded them. The general population couldn’t quite understand Malkmus’ cryptic lyrics or simply the band just got lost in the hype of Nirvana and N’Sync. I actually have no clue why more people didn’t react to Pavement’s releases during the 90s but I know that they should have.

The saying goes that all good things must come to an end and the same held true for Pavement. The group broke up in 2000 and no new music has been released since. Sigh. At least we still have those original songs. Here are five great ones (one from each album) for those of you just getting started on the band. I’m sorry if you don’t like them, you can just go listen to your Pavement instead.
 
“Here” from Slanted and Enchanted 1992

 
 
“Cut Your Hair” from Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain 1994

 
“Rattled by the Rush” from Wowee Zowee 1995

 
 
“Shady Lane” from Brighten the Corners 1997

“Carrot Rope” from Terror Twilight 1999