PAVEMENT

Formed: 1989, Stockton, California; Disbanded 1999

Members: Mark Ibold, bass (born 1967); Scott Kannberg, guitar (born 1967); Stephen Malkmus, songwriter, vocals, guitar (born Santa Monica, California, 30 May 1966); Bob Nastanovich, drums (born 1968); Steve West, drums (born 1967). Former member: Gary Young, percussion (born Marmaroneck, New York, c. 1954).

Genre: Rock

Best-selling album since 1990: Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain (1994)

Hit songs since 1990: "Cut Your Hair," "Gold Soundz," "Shady Lane"

The off-kilter harmonies and nearly discordant guitar playing of the band Pavement made a huge impact on the mid-1990s independent rock scene popular with college students and disaffected twentysomethings. Under the direction of singer and guitarist Steve Malkmus, the lyrics lean toward the episodic, elliptical, and purposefully obscure. Pavement songs start off in a nearly atonal manner and end in a paroxysm of guitar squalls, with Malkmus occasionally screaming the vocals. The band enjoyed decent record sales on the Matador label, and broke up in 1999 to pursue other interests.

College dropouts Malkmus and Scott Kannberg formed Pavement as a studio project in 1989 and quickly added three members, Gary Young, Bob Nastanovich, and Mark Ibold, to round out the band; Young left in 1993 after their debut release Slanted and Enchanted (1992). Sam West replaced him. Critics and college indie rock fans praised the band for its free-for-all guitar playing and vague lyrics. Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain (1994) followed the debut, and it had a near-hit with the song "Cut Your Hair," in which Malkmus cautions a girl against cutting her hair to impress her no-good, punk boyfriend. The song, with its chorus of "oooh-ooh-oohs" in the background, is goofy and anthemic, yet it reached number ten on Billboard 's Modern Rock chart in 1994. The sprawling nature of the album, from the country rock of "Range Life" and the improvisational, jazzy, space-age tune "5 – 4 = Unity" exemplifies the band's modus operandi: Anything is fair game.

Malkmus told Greg Kot of the Chicago Tribune, "I never felt like we needed to reach 'the next level,' whatever that is. We're doing well at the level we're at." This principled defiance pervades Pavement's songwriting. Examples include the quirky, experimental, eighteen tracks of Wowee Zowee (1995), the melodic and engaging "Shady Lane" from Brighten the Corners (1997), and Terror Twilight (1999), the band's swan song, which surprisingly landed in the United Kingdom Top 20.

Pavement never aimed to "make it big" and they remained firmly within in the lo-fi independent rock world of the mid- to late 1990s. They tossed off songs with a casual but insouciant style, and not without making a mark on American underground music before their breakup.

SELECTIVE DISCOGRAPHY:

Slanted and Enchanted (Matador, 1992); Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain (Matador, 1994); Wowee Zowee (Matador, 1995); Brighten the Corners (Matador, 1997); Terror Twilight (Matador, 1999).

carrie havranek