huge nostalgia over the nineties is making sure some twenty/mid twenties persons are into Pavement. Once you get to know pitchfork, the pixies reunion tour and twin peaks, Pavement is really just a stone throw away.
xp and yeah the box sets have been pretty good at capturing the feeling of the era and why Pavement mattered.
― Van Horn Street, Monday, 13 April 2015 23:55 (nine years ago) link
i wouldn't even say it was nostalgia. more than it bled over into the next era
those records sounded fresh and undiscovered even in that time because everyone was already ripping them off
― hackshaw, Tuesday, 14 April 2015 00:00 (nine years ago) link
Now that I think about it, Pitchfork has been around now as long as Rolling Stone had been when I was old enough to start reading Rolling Stone. I wonder if Pitchfork seems like the old guard.
― Johnny Fever, Tuesday, 14 April 2015 00:01 (nine years ago) link
Pavement blows. No heart
― Pentenema Karten, Tuesday, 14 April 2015 00:23 (nine years ago) link
As a Gen X-er who feels a special affinity for Pavement (I've been listening to them since 1992) and who has young impressionable music fan cousins, I've found that the kids dig Pavement and think they still sound relevant.
The band that has not aged well with the kids: REM. At least that's been my experience from a very small sample set.
― kornrulez6969, Tuesday, 14 April 2015 00:26 (nine years ago) link
Pavement blows. No heart― Pentenema Karten, Monday, April 13, 2015
― Pentenema Karten, Monday, April 13, 2015
"No heart" LOL. And as Beavis and Butthead said, they're like, not even trying...
― Iago Galdston, Tuesday, 14 April 2015 00:27 (nine years ago) link
REM is much more of a you had to be there band...seriously, does anyone listen to that stuff anymore?
― Iago Galdston, Tuesday, 14 April 2015 00:28 (nine years ago) link
REM hung around way too long, so the kids remember them as this old lame band that old lame people enjoy.
― kornrulez6969, Tuesday, 14 April 2015 00:29 (nine years ago) link
my dad listens to REM!
― k3vin k., Tuesday, 14 April 2015 00:30 (nine years ago) link
of course people my age enjoy R.E.M. you'll find your way to to "Murmur" eventually. I thought they were a corny radio band for awhile though
― hackshaw, Tuesday, 14 April 2015 00:31 (nine years ago) link
xpYeah, kornrulesz, that's true...they stuck around.
― Iago Galdston, Tuesday, 14 April 2015 00:41 (nine years ago) link
is Pavement one of those bands that has zero appeal outside of the generation that experienced their initial popularity?
was talking a guy at one of the pavement reunions shows who was 19
― tayto fan (Michael B), Tuesday, 14 April 2015 01:06 (nine years ago) link
How are we defining "Millennial" here? I'm a borderline [born late '82] and I know plenty of people who love them born between 1980 and '85. I discovered them sometime after buying the Spin Record Guide (1997 or '98), and they've remained among my three or four favorite bands ever since. What's weird is that even though Shakey's post in the thread revive makes perfect sense to me - I don't know why they would mean anything to someone who came of age ten years after their cultural moment, either - I find that they've diminished less with time than, say, Nirvana.
― Futuristic Bow Wow (thewufs), Tuesday, 14 April 2015 01:29 (nine years ago) link
IOW, my experience is the near-opposite of Alfred's. ILM has rerouted my thinking about music enough that I barely listen to indie rock anymore, but Pavement still sounds as good to me as it ever did.
― Futuristic Bow Wow (thewufs), Tuesday, 14 April 2015 01:39 (nine years ago) link
Pavement aren't exactly Truman's Water or whatever at this stage, plenty of scope outside of OG fanbase
― Master of Treacle, Tuesday, 14 April 2015 01:39 (nine years ago) link
they're a very clear starting point for "indie rock". just like joy division or whatever else. there will always be kids attracted to this type of music
it's not like everyone born in '95 is bumping PC Music and Drake
― hackshaw, Tuesday, 14 April 2015 01:42 (nine years ago) link
This is all v informative
― Οὖτις, Tuesday, 14 April 2015 01:45 (nine years ago) link
Malkmus' career post-Pavment is pretty underrated and he is still touring the world at pretty decent sized venues. The Jicks do play Pavement songs in countries that did not get a chance to see Pavement more than 1-2x. I hear traces of Pavement in current acts like the Parkay Quartz and Speedy Ortiz.
― Jersey Al (Albert R. Broccoli), Tuesday, 14 April 2015 01:52 (nine years ago) link
― hackshaw
phew!
― the late great, Tuesday, 14 April 2015 01:54 (nine years ago) link
Anyone young enough to have tindr do a quick search for # of results for Pavement?
― Jersey Al (Albert R. Broccoli), Tuesday, 14 April 2015 01:56 (nine years ago) link
kids still listen to Pavement like kids still listen to Nirvana
― flappy bird, Tuesday, 14 April 2015 01:57 (nine years ago) link
how is that?
― the late great, Tuesday, 14 April 2015 01:59 (nine years ago) link
i ask because afaict kids these days listen to nirvana the same way kids in my generation listen to bob dylan and i don't think pavement is quite there yet
― the late great, Tuesday, 14 April 2015 02:02 (nine years ago) link
People around my age who read Spin were pretty well acquainted with 90s indie rock, so even if we didn't cop Slanted and Enchanted when it was topping critics' polls we were on board a year or two before the group broke up. I suppose the reissues and Pitchfork appraisals would have acquainted '00s teenagers with the group, though their inspired, funkless amateurism was a pretty far cry from what U.S. indie rock sounded like after 2004 or so.
― Futuristic Bow Wow (thewufs), Tuesday, 14 April 2015 02:04 (nine years ago) link
I once heard the comment "don't talk to anyone under 25 about guitar music" and shook my head so that's why i feel the need to clarify all this stuff
and Guided By Voices, and Sebadoh. and you name it. it's not some forgotten thing. nor will it ever be for a certain subsect of people
― hackshaw, Tuesday, 14 April 2015 02:06 (nine years ago) link
I didn't get Dylan at all until I wasn't a kid anymore
― Futuristic Bow Wow (thewufs), Tuesday, 14 April 2015 02:06 (nine years ago) link
alright how about led zeppelin as a comparison then
― the late great, Tuesday, 14 April 2015 02:14 (nine years ago) link
Also, to state the obvious, Pavement never posted anywhere near Dylan's or Nirvana's sales numbers - kids in the early 90s didn't listen to Pavement like they listened to Nirvana, either!
― Futuristic Bow Wow (thewufs), Tuesday, 14 April 2015 02:15 (nine years ago) link
Which answers your above question - only suitable comparison for Led Zep would be, like, AC/DC/Aerosmith/Guns N' Roses/Metallica. No one else even approaches that sales bracket
― Futuristic Bow Wow (thewufs), Tuesday, 14 April 2015 02:18 (nine years ago) link
Pavement was the first indie rock band I got into. This was in 2002, when I was 13. I still like the records a lot (didn't catch the reunion tour).
My impression is that they're an indie rock staple of enduring cross-generational appeal. In short, hackshaw is right.
― JRN, Tuesday, 14 April 2015 02:25 (nine years ago) link
It reminds me of 80s hair metal, where it's popularity is very limited to a subset of people who were teens in the 80s.
have you already forgotten about Guitar Hero and Rock Band?
― billstevejim, Tuesday, 14 April 2015 03:13 (nine years ago) link
also: I Love the 80s, 100 Greatest One Hit Wonders, and 100 Most Shocking Moments in Rock & Roll, all on constant VH1 loop.
― flappy bird, Tuesday, 14 April 2015 03:32 (nine years ago) link
Yeah, I was in college when Pavement was as-big-as-they-ever-got and I was sort of shocked to find myself among the oldest people at the reunion show.
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Tuesday, 14 April 2015 04:02 (nine years ago) link
pavement obv aren't culturally entrenched like mj or the beatles or zep; they're culturally entrenched like the velvet underground
― difficult listening hour, Tuesday, 14 April 2015 04:23 (nine years ago) link
a close but cooler friend in high school whom some combination of mental illness and acid later made very different burned me a cd-r with "cut your hair" on it and i can hardly listen to it these days
― difficult listening hour, Tuesday, 14 April 2015 04:30 (nine years ago) link
I am 27, got super into Pavement in high school around 2003 or 2004, I get that they're a product of a past era (loose meandery goofy slackers with a wry sense of humor) but I can still appreciate them and I think they're musically really ultra great.
I wonder what is happening now that's SUPER rooted in the current era that 20 years from now I'll be like "really? What are you getting out of this in 2035??" All I can think of is PC Music
― gybe horses (Stevie D(eux)), Tuesday, 14 April 2015 05:06 (nine years ago) link
Diplo will probably be president in 2035.
― Johnny Fever, Tuesday, 14 April 2015 05:31 (nine years ago) link
Or his mother.
― Hinklepicker, Tuesday, 14 April 2015 06:07 (nine years ago) link
I dig Pavement, fell hard for them in high school, but man i don't begrudge anybody for not getting them or liking them, and indie rock these days seems partially detached from pavement style slacker steez anyway
― brimstead, Tuesday, 14 April 2015 09:53 (nine years ago) link
Diplo travelling through time and being his own mother was the worst Star Trek episode
― courtney barnett formula (seandalai), Tuesday, 14 April 2015 11:37 (nine years ago) link
I hear traces of Pavement in current acts like the Parkay Quartz
I thought I'd read Parkay Quartz (who I like) deny it in an interview, but it's beyond traces - they sound like a tribute band half the time.The last song on their last LP is called "Uncast Shadow of a Southern Myth" LOL
― Your Ribs are My Ladder, Tuesday, 14 April 2015 13:29 (nine years ago) link
It seems like the Pavement influence is pretty big in the young indie rock scene even beyond Parquet Courts and Speedy Ortiz. Grooms, Twerps, Menace Beach etc. all remind me of them in some way.
― klonman, Tuesday, 14 April 2015 13:43 (nine years ago) link
yeah, if anything i think there's more Pavement echoing thru current indie rock than there has been in many years
― alpine static, Tuesday, 14 April 2015 14:54 (nine years ago) link
I hear a lot of "90s" running through current indie rock, but only a little bit of Pavement here and there.
― Johnny Fever, Tuesday, 14 April 2015 14:57 (nine years ago) link
I've always thought of Pavement as sort of 90's continuity/evolution of what The Replacements for their time; I can totally see both bands having similar trajectories when it comes down to their appeal to subsequent generations.
― cpl593H, Tuesday, 14 April 2015 15:26 (nine years ago) link
I hear a lot of "90s" running through current indie rock, but only a little bit of Pavement here and there.yeah i think malkmus is a pretty unique/unusual musician/lyricist when you get right down to it... parts of the pavement sound were easy to replicate perhaps, but he's hard to pin down. kind of like what big star worshipers miss about alex chilton, i think.
― tylerw, Tuesday, 14 April 2015 15:28 (nine years ago) link
I hear a lot of Chilton in Pavement
― Οὖτις, Tuesday, 14 April 2015 15:34 (nine years ago) link
yeah i do too, w/o it being particularly explicit
― tylerw, Tuesday, 14 April 2015 15:36 (nine years ago) link
First time I heard Pavement I bought "Slanted and Enchanted" and "Mellow Gold" on the same trip to Media Play. Kind of sad that the slapdash atmosphere and lo-fi DIY spirit of those records hasn't really been revisited amidst all the 90s nostalgia. One thing I loved about both acts was they really didn't take themselves seriously at all. Beck's career has veered in the complete opposite direction but Pavement seemed to have kept its sense of fun up until the end.
― ©Oz Quiz© (Adam Bruneau), Tuesday, 14 April 2015 15:41 (nine years ago) link
yeah, seemed like terror twilight was a bit of a half-hearted attempt to make a "mature" record, but they blew it (typically). [i do like TT though]
― tylerw, Tuesday, 14 April 2015 15:43 (nine years ago) link