I'd agree with this. I saw them twice in Chicago in 97-98, the Double Door show was simply OK but the Metro show kicked some serious ass. Despite their inconsistencies, this is fucking Pavement were talking about here people. FUCKING PAVEMENT!!!

Just in case I'm going Wed and Friday night, one of these shows will rule.

Roadtripping yes, extra ticket, as of now, sadly, no. If you are serious about going I think there are some ticks left for Friday. You can stay with us in the city!

FUCKING PAVEMENT, MAN.


PAVEMENT ROOLZ!!!!

I saw them circa 98 or 99...most memorable because A) Bloor skipped it, and B) I spent most of the show considering pelting Malkmus with a full can of Budweiser.

A band with ONE good song -- Cut Your Hair.

Well said ShamWow.




Can't comment on this inanity.

I've seen Pavement a bunch over the years, and even Malkmus and the Jicks 3-4 times.... last time was Malkmus and the Jicks at Henry Miller Library at Big Sur a month ago ... they were playing to maybe 200 people and Malkmus was in a Portlandesque-Adjunct Comparative Lit Professor miffed-at-how-far-he's-fallen mode. I thought at the time he should either stop touring or get Pavement back together one last time.

And anyone in the Obner demographic who trashes Pavement isn't serious, but rather just showboat provocative.

My guess is that this was a typo, but a typo that works---fortuitously played.

Meh. Hookless = me not really like. And unlike a lot of stuff I slag, I tried with this band many, many times.

This was no typo, i aint as dum as I looks.

I'd like the level-headed, non-judgmental harry from the political threads to suss out that statement. I'll give them maybe four decent songs. Otherwise, a load of middling, hookless drivel. The genius is lost on me, and I'm fine with that.

I think I was trying to be cultural anthropologist rather than music critic apologist. But yeah, point taken.

I think Pavement and Radiohead are two of the biggest fucking examples of groupthink EVAR....you either like these bands or you don't really like "indie" music.

Nah, Loogs, I really fell in love with Pavement long before they were "giants". I saw one brief article in (ole)Spin back in '91 and the description hooked me. I ordered S&E and Watery, Domestic on the same day. Arrival changed my musical outlook.

Why you more than stu and cotton in this thread? I mean, you are engaging but not all that.

I guess I think that, musically, most indie music lovers (and that definition has been a reductionist placeholder for decades, granted) would be interested or at lease understand the interest in both those bands, even if they were not ... uh, beloved.

Does Mohammad Atta have a brother?

Old man river, he don't say nothin'...

Color me interested, then; what was the description (near as you can recall this many years on) that made you stand up and say "Yes - this seems like a band that will rewire my brain in the best way possible"?

I've had that happen to me, so I get how it can go down. When CMJ reviewed Gaunt's "Bricks and Blackouts" the File Under was just "R-O-C-K" with an RIYL of The Replacements, Foo Fighters and New Bomb Turks. I knew right away that was a band I needed to hear and when I finally did about a year later (oh, the woes of being a forgotten indie band in the late-'90s Warner Bros. kingdom) it hit me like a piledriver.

Bear in mind, I'm not a Pavement fan despite trying to find merit in their music for well over a decade, so I'm not looking to be swayed. I'm just wondering what descriptors about what they did called out to you.

I'm pretty certain that nobody has ever stood up and said that.

I don't really like this band, but I wouln't call them "hookless".

po-tay-toe, po-tah-toe smart guy.

Question remains; what in the writeup of Pavement in '91 "hooked" (his words) him?

Having heard a lot of their music and come away grossly underwhelmed and bewildered, I'm wondering what combination of words were enough to win someone over without hearing a note beforehand.

looking for some pointers?

Well, I was interested enough to go see them at one point.... that doesn't make them purveyors of fine tuneage, though.

A retrogressive move.

The last few Jicks records have been good (as opposed to those billed simply "Stephen Malkmus").

Anyway, as far as I can see, everyone of these 'comebacks' is yet another funeral for Rock N' Roll, deceased. Hey, everyone, let's all gather together and remember the good old egg.

Somewhere in the vastness of the universe a cartoon sound effect of a rubber band pinging back is heard and ever piece of matter comes rushing back to a single point.

Regression to the mean.... or surfing the Tao.... whicha dese do I do?

Yeah, I actually thought seeing The Jicks with the Sleater-Kinney drummer made them a real band, and their playing was interesting. The Jicks music recently was much better than Pavement was at its end. It just seems that Malkmus is annoyed and is throwing the music away... oh wait, that was always his charm.

Yeah that was pretty much my point...

And as far as hooks... musically Pavement was often melodic, had songs with chorus you could sing along with, and occasionally guitar riffs - albeit Malkmus "deconstructed" the riffs' DNA.