Despite the fact that they would be hailed as one of the most influential indie bands
in American history,The california group pavement never appeared to take themselves too seriously,
Branded by some as slackers, Founding member Scott Kannberg would tell the LA Times in
1992 “Pavement is not a real band, it’s more for fun,” Half a decade into their
career Pavement would start seeing comparisons to alternative rock giants Nirvana with the
LA Times writing in 1994 “While Nirvana introduced punk to the mainstream by fusing
the abrasive genre with pop, Pavement meshes catchy melodies with experimental noise for
the average kid who didn’t attend art school.
The group’s sweet ‘n’ sour sound hasn’t earned them millions yet, but it has made
Pavement college rock’s newest superstars.”
Pavement was one of the first bands to revel in lo-fi production, with many indie-rock
groups following in their footsteps Today let’s explore the history of the band Pavmeent.
Pavement’s history started with founding members Scott Kannberg and Stephen Malkmus
who grew up in middle class families in the farming town of Stockton, California.
In an interview with Spin Magazine the pair indicated that they knew each other since
the age of 10,but in another profile the LA times claimed they
first met in high school in 1985.
While Pavement wouldn’t be formed until 1989 Kannberg and Malkmus teenage years helped
them each foster their influences that would seep into pavement’s music.
Kannberg as a teenager was drawn to punk, electronic and new-wave music, while Malkmus
cited Jimi Hendrix and punk as his own set of influences.
In high school Malkmus never fit in with any particular crowd, but played on the soccer
and tennis teams without considering himself a jock.
He would admit to spin magazine “i was just nowhere,
i was lost basically.
I wish about computers, i should have been a computer nerd i’d be happier now.
But i thought computers were lame because my dad gave me some jock quotient.”
The pair started playing music together in the early to mid 80’s.
During high school the pair started playing in bands and performing at open mic nights.
One of their first bands was called bag o bones which blended together the styles or
REM, new order and Echo and the bunnymen.
After high school, Malkmus went to the University of Virginia earning a degree in history.
It was there he took up a job as a radio DJ at the college radio station
where he met another DJ named Bob Nastanovich in 1986.
The pair played different styles of music
on the radio with Malkmus favouring more progressive
styles of rock while Nastanovich was into more obscure artists.
The pair would start a failed band called ectoslavia but it didn’t really result in
much, but years later Nastanovich would join pavement as a multi-instrumentalist.
Kannberg for his part meanwhile had dreams of becoming an urban planner, but music soon
took over and he returned home to Stockton.
In between stints at university Malkmus returned
to Stockton where he reconnected with his old friend...
According to the Spin Magazine in 1989 one night the pair were hanging out getting drunk
and writing a handful of songs utilizing guitar
feedback and synthesized noise.This was the beginning of pavement.
The result would be an EP release called Slay Tracks 1933-1969 which they’d put out on
their own label called Treble Kicker.
The pair would enlist an older drummer named Gary Young who was well renowned in Stockton’s
punk rock scene.
It would be Young’s studio where the trio recorded their first EP for around $800
Despite the
fact there were only a few copies of the single being in circulation it eventually found it’s
way into indie circles who soon took notice of the band, most notably british DJ
john peel.
Malkmus and Kannberg used the pseudonyms SM and Spiral Stairs on the record creating an
aura of mystery around their band.
Malkmus and Kannberg’s middle class upbringing seeped into their music.
with Malkmus would tell Mojo “Whatever soul you have being a suburban kid like us, what can
you do that’s right that way?”
“Because we’re not Black Sabbath, we’re not working-class heroes and we can’t get
away with that.
Luckily we’re not hanging out at Met Bar, either, we’re not New York City hipsters
or anything, so that’s our earthiness.”
They soon signed with chicago indie outfit Drag City who put out the EP Demolition Plot
J-7 in 1990.
The following year on the same label they put out another EP in Perfect Sound Forever,
It paved the way (no pun intended) for their
indie landmark 1992 debut LP Slanted and Enchanted.
The songs on Slanted and Enchanted dated back to 1990 and 1991 and following its release the
groundswell around the group couldn’t be ignored and major labels soon took notice.
It seemed like more and more people were hearing about pavement even if they hadn’t actually
heard the group’s music.
In staying true to their indie roots.
Stephen Malkmus and Kannberg each served as the band’s manager, producers, songwriters
and art directors.
it was an arrangement malkmus stood by telling Billboard “what bands should
concentrate on is getting their own image and signifiers and their own language so that
it won’t matter what label is pushing.
It just seems like the groups that are really successful like U2 or REM it doesn’t matter
what label they are on.
They have artistic control.
Following the recording of Slanted and Enchanted bassist Mark Ibold and
percussionist Bob Nastanovich would now be added to the lineup.
With Slanted and Enchanted in the can, the band needed a label to distribute it.
While they could have had Drag City put it out, they wanted to reach a wider audience
without losing their independence, so they reached out to New York based Matador Records
who liked what they heard and agreed to sign the band and distribute the record.
Matador would offer the band a $1,500 advance for the album but it was a long drawn out
process to release the record,
taking almost fifteen months between the time it was recorded to to when
it hit the streets in April of 1992.
Luckily for Pavement alternative music was hugely popular thanks to the pacific northwest.
The album would make the Top 10 of the college radio airplay charts in 1992 and it was
hailed by critics as one of the best albums of the year.
The album would go on to sell well over 100,000 copies but interestingly enough a spokesperson
for matador records admitted to billboard magazine 50-75% of the album’s sales came through
came through catalogs which are not statistically
tracked by soundscan, so the number of actual sales
was probably a lot higher than what was reported.
Kannberg would look back at the record admitting to Spin “WE WERE EXPERIMENTING WITH COOL
sounds with malkmus adding The melodies and the lyrics and stuff were from 70’s that
rock that was still in my head.
the eagles, and carole king he'd remember
The band would employ what would be referred to as slacker tuning with Malkmus telling
Guitar World “We didn’t have a bass guitar on the early recordings.”
“So tuning down gave us a lower sound but also a fullness to the sound.
That’s where I started.
Then I simplified even more by bringing my G string up to A. I did a lot of things like
that.”
he would recall.
Despite the band indie's streak, But by 1993 some people thought the band was
finally getting serious about their career
when Drummer Gary Young left the group over his eratic and drunken behavior.
His departure was also attributed to his widely different musical tastes, his age and the
fact that he openly stated his lack of understanding
of pavements popularity.
His antics were also to blame and they heavily publicized putting
their live shows in trouble as he would often
disappear on stage or hand out vegetables out to members of the audience. Nastanovich
would recall his departure telling spin ‘we played copenhagen the last show of our europen
tour and afterwards we had a band meeting & gary resigned in good standing.
He felt like the guys 41 years old he needs to make money, he was completely exhausted.
We just finished a 5 week tour and the way he goes about touring is if he’s gonna keep
doing that then he needs some serious financial compensation.
Following Young’s departure, Stephen West a schoolmate of Nastanovich would join the
group and Pavement would begin working on their next LP Crooked Rain Crooked Rain.
The group’s follow up LP 1994’s “Crooked Rain, would shatter any expectations fans
had Pavement went for a more straight forward rock n’ roll sound.
Malkmus would admit to Rolling Stone “that’s the album where I played the most with the
California references,” The imagery is West Coast, even though it was recorded in New
York and I was living there and in Charlottesville.”
he would say.
Malkmus would tell Spin magazine how his approach to lyric writing changed with crooked rain
saying “on slanted and enchanted my mom had this little volkswagon rabbit and i would
drive around with the rough tapes and sing along with the songs but being in new york
this time i couldn’t do that so i was restricted to making up words in the studio.
Plus being in new york there is rock music everywhere, where Stockton there was like
no music" he'd remember.
One of the songs found on the album Range life which would become on of Pavement's
most popular tracks and would mention the Smashing Pumpkins who
were huge at the time.
The Smashing Pumpkins leader Billy Corgan was not very happy with the reference in the song
and it would ignite a two decades long feud..
I’ve covered that in much more detail in a separate video.
The link is down below.
Crooked Rain for it’s part never had any big promotional push.
The groups label Matador was pretty blunt with billboard magazine noting that they would
rely heavily on word of mouth and a few singles,
but not much else./ The label wasn’t stupid though,
they were using the exact same playbook that had worked so well for slanted and enchanted.
It was this attitude that led some in the press to claim that the band had a “slacker”
attitude that prevented them from being more successful than they were.
The band’s agreement with their label allowed
them to be in full creative control of their artistic
output resulting in the label finding out on short notice when new material would be
released.
But Malkmus would admit to Spin that he did
feel a lot of pressure around this time of crooked rain revealing
“this was a more worrisome record to make than Slanted & Enchanted.
When we were making Slanted we didn’t even have anyone to put it out.
It was like well maybe drag city will put it out.
But with this one, we knew there was anticipation.”
The band also butted heads with Matador from time to time over their music videos.
Kannberg would tell Kannberg la times “Hundreds of thousands of dollars are spent in the studio
on the majority of music these days, and you can make a good record for a tenth of that.
The music industry has gotten so sick.
For instance, we never wanted to do videos, but we decided to do one ‘cause it might
be kind of fun, maybe.
They were saying we’d have to spend about $100,000 for it to be MTV material.
We were like, ‘Give us a break!’
So we ended up compromising and spent $15,000, which was still too much, in my opinion. he'd say.
The following year the band put out wowee zowee in april of 1995.
And much like weezer’s pinkerton that came out the following year both records seemed to
be the subject of revisionist history.
The album was met with universal disappointment with the exception the Village Voice who held up
the album as one of Pavement's finest works.
THe sentiment seemed to change
after the release of the band’s follow up album in 1997 brighten the corners.
To promote the album the band spend the summer of 1995 as part of the travleing
lollapalooza with Sonic Youth, Hole,, Beck, and Moby.
Mark Ibold would look back at the reaction to the album telling the Orlando Sentinel
"They try to explain our moves as if they're calculated," "I think people thought Wowee
Zowee was this move by Pavement to almost shoot ourselves in the foot after the success
of Crooked Rain.
It's not at all something we intended to do - we want people to love us!
We want to be loved, and we really like that record.
And this one, they're all saying it's like, oh, some sort of comeback or something, and
that's nice for them to say that.
But I mean, if it's a comeback, we must be doing really great because Wowee Zowee was,
I thought, a pretty good record!"
The band followed it up 1997’s brighten the corners which fans felt how wowee zowee
should have sounded and it would prove to be more accessible
By 1999 the band released their fifth studio album Terror Twilight.
It was around the time of the record’s release that there were rumors that the cracks were
starting to show in pavement Malkmus wouldn’t deny these rumors at the time admitting that
Terror Twilight was the last album the band was required to deliver as part of their contract
with Matador telling MTV "If we do make [another] record," Malkmus said, "we have to devise
some other way -- " "Of making it fresh,"interjected drummer Steve
West.
"And get better performances out of everybody," "and having everyone have more of an input.
So, if that's a challenge you want to take, then that takes a lot of work to do.
There's five people [in the band].
It takes a lot of time [to record an album], and we live in different places.
So, Pavement fans, I wouldn't get your hopes up or down." he would say.
Unfortunately for the band their label Matador’s longtime distributor Capitol Records severed
ties with the label hurting album sales.
Not helping was that the tour to support the album was fraught with internal tensions.
Malkmus would hardly speak with his bandmates and at their appearance at coachella in 1999
it was reported that the frontman turned the group’s
performance into a mostly instrumental set
after refusing to sing.
Their final gig of the decade would take place at the brixton academy where Malkmus dangled
a set of handcuffs from his mic stand and
reportedly told the crowd that night and i quote “These
symbolise what it’s like being in a band”
By 2000 Malkmus would admit to NME the band was over.
And for the next decade other musical priorities took over the band members lives, but in 2010
The band would reunite for a worldwide tour with some shows selling out within minutes.
Then the band would take another hiatus for almost a decade and on
On June 1, 2019, Pavement announced that they would be reuniting to perform two 30th anniversary
shows in the summer of 2020 but due to the global situation
tthose dates have now been pushed to 2022.
that does it for today's video guys thanks for watching. be sure to hit the like button
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