History Music / Pavement

-->"What about the voice of [[Music/{{Rush}} Geddy Lee]]\\

First formed as a studio project for Malkmus and Kannberg, Pavement became a full-fledged band around 1992. While their initial material was marked by low recording quality and NoisePop and PostPunk influences (especially from Music/TheFall), the band became more accessible, at least sonically, starting in TheNineties - their albums ''Slanted and Enchanted'' and ''Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain'' established them as indie rock heroes and brought them a degree of popularity among indie kids. They moved away from outright indie into eclectic territory starting with ''Wowee Zowee'' (a change Malkmus attributed to [[ThisIsYourPremiseOnDrugs excessive marijuana smoking]]), without losing their trademark messiness, while their last two albums are noticeably mellower and spacier (''Terror Twilight'' verging on ''Music/OKComputer'' at times due to sharing a producer in Nigel Godrich).

* LimitedSpecialCollectorsUltimateEdition: The first four albums got two-disc reissues with tons of bonus tracks and {{Feelies}} roughly ten years after the releases of the original albums. One was announced for ''Terror Twilight'', too, but it's languishing in DevelopmentHell.

Discography:

!Tropes represented by Pavement:

* CoolOldGuy: Gary Young. He was a former hippie who owned a home studio where the band recorded, and joined after hearing the first demos (and was quoted as saying, "This Malkmus idiot's a complete songwriting genius!").

* ADateWithRosiePalms: The final line of "Silence Kid" has the narrator engage in this while coming off an ecstasy high.

** An alternate mix of "Here" from ''Luxe & Reduxe'' is notable for including an additional guitar track that was left muted on the ''Slanted & Enchanted'' version: Though it's the same recording otherwise, the added layer of droney, distorted guitar gives it more of a NoisePop feel, and the liner notes state that the band didn't use this mix of the song because it sounded too much like Music/TheJesusAndMaryChain.

* TheSomethingSong: "The Sutcliffe Catering Song", which was later renamed to "Easily Fooled" (presumably to avert NonAppearingTitle and RefrainFromAssuming).

** A bunch to classic rock songs on the front & back covers of ''Westing'' ("Stoned Soul Picnic" by Music/LauraNyro, "California Dreamin'" by Music/TheMamasAndThePapas, "Ramblin' Man" by Music/TheAllmanBrothersBand, "Maps and Legends" by Music/{{REM}}, "Heart of Stone" by Music/TheRollingStones, "Long Cool Woman in a Black Dress" by Music/TheHollies, "Earth Angel" by the Penguins, ''Cosmic Slop'' by [[Music/GeorgeClinton Funkadelic]], etc.).

First formed as a studio project for Malkmus and Kannberg, Pavement became a full-fledged band around 1992. While their initial material was marked by low recording quality and NoisePop and PostPunk influences (especially from Music/TheFall), the band became more accessible, at least sonically, starting in TheNineties - their albums ''Slanted and Enchanted'' and ''Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain'' established them as indie rock heroes and brought them a degree of popularity among indie kids. They moved away from outright indie into NeoclassicalPunkZydecoRockabilly territory starting with ''Wowee Zowee'' (a change Malkmus attributed to [[ThisIsYourPremiseOnDrugs excessive marijuana smoking]]), without losing their trademark messiness, while their last two albums are noticeably mellower and spacier (''Terror Twilight'' verging on ''Music/OKComputer'' at times due to sharing a producer in Nigel Godrich).

* NeoclassicalPunkZydecoRockabilly: Especially on ''Wowee Zowee'', but present on all their albums.

** A strange example with the same song being given two names in the packaging to the album: "Elevate Me Later" is referred to as "Ell Ess Two" in the track listing in the interior booklet of ''Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain'' (possibly implying it to be a sequel to "Loretta's Scars", or else commenting on the similarity between their chord progressions). There is also a demo recording of the song with this title, perhaps implying that its title was changed late in the album's recording process.

** "Robyn Turns 26" from the compilation ''At Home With the Groovebox'': Stephen Malkmus raps about the life of a 26 year old Portlandian slacker/hipster, to the backing of vintage drum machines and synthesizers.

** By extension they're also the TropeCodifier for the general sound of Indie Rock as a whole during the genre's formative years of the early and mid 90's.

** Many of their lyrics are presented in such a fashion it's difficult to discern what they're about. For example, on songmeanings.com, the comments section of "Carrot Rope" debates whether the song is about religion, sexual molestation, cricket, a stream of consciousness where every other line is a non sequitur, or something else entirely.

* MohsScaleOfRockAndMetalHardness: Anywhere from 1 to arguably a 9 or 10, often shifting on a dime.

Pavement broke up in 1999 due to intra-band conflict (especially between Malkmus and the rest of the group), and they reunited pretty epically in 2010. However, Malkmus has said that no further tours are planned, and Nastanovich ruled out the possibility of new material, saying Malkmus no longer writes "songs in the Pavement mindset." They haven't ruled out the possibility of more performances at some point in the future, but said it wouldn't be anytime soon because they wanted to "keep it fun" and didn't want people who saw them in 2010 to feel ripped off that they had a second reunion so quickly. Some of the other members (Kannberg and Young, specifically) have joined Malkmus onstage at various solo shows, but there hasn't been a full reunion. Two 30th anniversary shows were planned for the 2020 Primavera Sound Festival in Spain, but due to the UsefulNotes/Covid19Pandemic, the Festival was rescheduled for 2021 and later cancelled a second time, leaving the prospect of a second reunion up in the air.

* {{Greed}}: "Grounded" is a subtle ProtestSong about greed and its effects on the American medical system. Malkmus [[https://abrahamriesman.com/post/406114262/a-thing-stephen-malkmus-wrote commented]] at one point: "Only 10% of our doctors went into it because they wanted to help others. The others did it for the money. Written for my personal physician and his cadre of German automobiles."

First formed as a studio project for Malkmus and Kannberg, Pavement became a full-fledged band around 1992. While their initial material was marked by low recording quality and NoisePop and PostPunk influences (especially from Music/TheFall), the band became more accessible, at least sonically, starting in TheNineties - their albums ''Slanted and Enchanted'' and ''Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain'' established them as indie rock heroes and brought them a degree of popularity among indie kids. They moved away from outright indie into NeoclassicalPunkZydecoRockabilly territory starting with ''Wowee Zowee'' (a change Malkmus attributed to [[ThisIsYourPremiseOnDrugs excessive marijuana smoking]]), without losing their trademark messiness, while their last two albums are noticeably mellower and spacier (''Terror Twilight'' verging on the ''Music/OKComputer''ish at times due to sharing a producer in Nigel Godrich).

Pavement broke up in 1999 due to intra-band conflict (especially between the others and Malkmus), and reunited pretty epically in 2010. However, Malkmus has said that no further tours are planned, and Nastanovich ruled out the possibility of new material, saying Malkmus no longer writes "songs in the Pavement mindset." They haven't ruled out the possibility of more performances at some point in the future, but said it wouldn't be anytime soon because they wanted to "keep it fun" and didn't want people who saw them in 2010 to feel ripped off that they had a second reunion so quickly. Some of the other members (Kannberg and Young, specifically) have joined Malkmus onstage at various solo shows, but there hasn't been a full reunion. Two 30th anniversary shows are planned for 2020, but the band have confirmed nothing after this is in the works.

* AffectionateParody: It's generally accepted that "Flux = Rad" is a tribute to Music/{{Nirvana}}, considering the quiet verse, loud chorus nature and the BrokenRecord nature of the chorus. Similarly, "Serpentine Pad" is generally considered an affectionate parody of Music/TheSexPistols and ''Sister''-era Music/SonicYouth. "5-4=Unity" is an affectionate parody of Dave Brubeck's "Take Five".

** Most of "Unseen Power of the Picket Fence" is Stephen Malkmus gushing about [[Music/{{REM}} R.E.M.]] (more specifically their second album, ''Reckoning'').

** An alternate mix of "Here" from ''Luxe & Reduxe'' is notable for unmuting an additional guitar track that was left off the original ''Slanted & Enchanted'' version: Though it's the same recording otherwise, the added droney, distorted guitar gives it more of a NoisePop feel, and the liner notes state that the band didn't use this mix of the song because it sounded too much like Music/TheJesusAndMaryChain.