The return of Pavement
- Jan 11, 2022
- 2 min read
Updated: Jan 4
Okay, so I’m totally outing myself as a nineties throwback here, with a penchant for American indie rock, but Pavement were one of those cool bands in the nineties that were kind of well known and yet weren’t. Beloved by fans and music journos for their low-fi, slacker kind of vibe, they never quite made it into fully-blown, mainstream status, and yet - bizarrely - a few months ago [in 2022] a remake of their song ‘Harness Your Hopes’ went viral on TikTok – and suddenly the Generation Zs muscled in.
The band consists of Stephen Malkmus, Bob Nastanovich, Scott Kannberg, Steve West, Mark Ibold, and previously Gary Young, who released five albums from 1989 to 1999. Well-loved tracks include Range Life and Shady Lane. (My personal favourite is Spit on a Stranger).
October was a truly humbling moment in history when the mighty Pavement decided to reform and launched a world tour, the first in over a decade. I was lucky enough to go and see them at The Roundhouse in London, where I rocked my socks off with other nineties throwbacks (always a fascinating breed to observe), and some younger fans too.
If that wasn’t enough, rather excitingly, Pavement have just announced that they are to launch a stage musical based on their songs. The musical is titled Slanted! Enchanted!, after their first studio album.
Not much information has been released yet, but apparently the show will star Michael Esper - who featured in the Green Day jukebox musical American Idiot on Broadway - with Zoe Lister-Jones and Zooey Deschanel (both from the sitcom New Girl). Alex Ross Perry, who oversaw the recent remake of Pavement's 1999 hit Harness Your Hopes, is listed as the director and is writing a book of the musical.
Apparently, the band are unlikely to be recording any new material for the musical, with Pavement’s frontman, Stephen Malkmus, saying: ‘No way. These [old] songs are good, they exist in this present. That’s just me, anyone can do what they want. It’s your life. Choose your adventure.’
Which, I thought, was a nice place to end.
Choose your adventure, indeed.
Written for my Substack newsletter in December 2022.
Comments