Stockton, CA · indie rock · slacker

Pavement

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The slacker-rock canon itself — crooked rain and all, reunion sets played with the same shrug that made them legends.

Pavement began in Stockton, California, in January 1989 as a recording project rather than a band meant to play shows, built around Stephen Malkmus and Scott Kannberg, then known only as S.M. and Spiral Stairs. Their earliest lo-fi EPs were cut at the home studio of local drummer Gary Young, who played on the sessions and declared Malkmus a songwriting genius after hearing the first songs.

The touring lineup eventually settled with bassist Mark Ibold, drummer Steve West, and percussionist Bob Nastanovich, a New York roommate of Malkmus's, joining Malkmus and Kannberg. Critics of the era often likened the band to the Fall, a comparison Mark E. Smith rejected outright while Kannberg himself preferred the Replacements.

Over a decade Pavement recorded five full-length albums and ten EPs, staying with independent labels including Flying Nun and Matador rather than signing to a major. Their one brush with mainstream radio came via the 1994 single "Cut Your Hair."

Early recordings were lo-fi and deliberately ragged; later albums brought clearer production without losing the loose, off-hand quality that defined the group, oblique lyrics, guitars that wander in and out of tune, songs that seem to assemble themselves as they go.

The band split with some acrimony in 1999, and Malkmus went on to record with the Jicks. Pavement reunited for a well-received tour in 2010 and again from 2022 to 2024, playing the catalogue with the same unhurried, faintly ironic manner that built their reputation.

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