Walking on the cracks (Pavement in general)

Member Name: cswann

Product:	Pavement in general
Date:	08/11/02 (45 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Highly influential, Some good music

Disadvantages: Some down-right unlistenable music

Pavement were formed in 1988, in California, and slot firmly within the US grunge category. In fact, after Nirvana and The Pixies, they were probably the most influential such band of the era.
They split up towards the end of 2000.

The line up consisted of Steve Malkmus (vocals and guitar)
Spiral Staircase (real name Scott Kannberg)
Bon Nastanovich (keyboards, percussion) – from 1992
Steve West (drums) – from 1992

There was a solo album from Stephen Malkmus in 2001, and Kannberg has been touring with a band.

As with the whole grunge, and later the post-Nirvana scene, Pavement are an excellent advertisement for kids to get out and make their own music. They made it clear that, really, anyone could do it. Their records in the earlier days may have sounded like ‘noise’, indeed although even their later work is more refined, it’s very DIY rock. There were distinct influences, like the Velvet Underground and The Fall, possibly even chaotic bands like Can and The Swell Maps.
But the first full album, “Slanted and Enchanted” was something else. It probably remains their best album, but I still can’t listen to it all without it getting me all edgy.

“Westing (By Musket and Sextant)” (1993) followed, and then “Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain” (1994). It was on this latter album that the hit record “Cut your air” appeared – well, it was a minor hit, and got them quite a bit of attention.
The album “Wowee zowee” appeared in 1995, and was followed by “Brighten the Corners” in 1997. This latter album was produced by Mitch Easter, hot from his success with REM.

My own favourite Pavement songs are probably “Loretta’s Scars” (from Slanted and Enchanted”) and “Date with IKEA” (from Brighten the corners”) with its shimmering guitars and an Eels-like sensibility.

But… I have to be honest here… listening to most of their albums is sheer torture, and it hardly seems worth all that aural anguish, just to get to the tracks I do like. So I now have my own (very short) ‘best of’ Pavement tape.

There are hundreds of bands that sound like Pavement, (such as Guided by Voices, although I like GbV better, myself), and a lot of the new bands putting mp3s on the Internet sound like poor imitations. It’s just that with music as raw-edged as this it’s sometimes difficult to distinguish between the two, and I couldn’t say that makes Pavement any ‘better’ than them.

For me, though, their worth is mainly in the fact that they must surely have inspired lots of teenagers to get out and play some rock music… rather than for anything they have produced themselves.
At their worst, Pavement sound sprawling, out of tune, as though they’ve not finished writing their songs - at their best they can sound like Lou Reed fronting Nirvana. Which in my opinion can (sometimes) be good, but only in a derivative way, and not really as good as either Lou Reed or Nirvana in their own right.

In essence, if you like amateur-sounding indie rock, it could be worth your while checking them out.
As for my rating - 5 stars for influencing other msuicians
Between 1 and 4 stars for most of the music

Equals a rather generous average of 4

Summary: