So
winter break is coming to a close, and college
students everywhere (myself included) are packing
their bags and sighing heavily. I’ve been at my
parents' house this break, spending a lot of time
listening to old mix CDs I have stashed here. There
are some particularly excellent ones that someone
made for me a few years back, and Pavement is a
pretty heavily featured band. I had sort of
forgotten about Pavement in the last couple years,
and now I realize how wrong that is. I feel ashamed
even typing that.
Guys,
news flash from 1991, Pavement is awesome. They are
sweet and slow and perfect-sloppy and bored and I
think that little soft spot in Stephen Malkmus’s
voice is just about divine. And their music remains
totally relevant 10-20+ years later. I like knowing
that my college music is the same college music as
people who graduated college before I was even born.
Say that five times fast.
In a lot of ways, I think I love Pavement because
their sound is such an Austin sound. In the same way
that Ben Kweller’s Sha Sha musically
described the hip, young, Austin slacker aesthetic
so well, Pavement has that similar laid back,
breakfast tacos 24-7 feel. It’s like, I’m young and
I want to do something and I’m effortlessly hip and
I’m almost angsty, except I can’t quite get myself
energized enough to entirely care. And that lazy,
gorgeous, simple guitar just sounds like Austin to
me. Also, I now realize that Sha Sha was
basically Ben Kweller trying to be the lovechild of
Ben Folds and Pavement, which makes me love BK even
more.
Here are two of my favorites. Pavement, I promise to
never forget you again.
:Pavement
- Cut Your Hair:
:Pavement
- Spit On A Stranger:
PS -
Esme,
I rock n' roll loved you. I will always rock n' roll
love you. This one is for you, because all of it
will be for you.
-
-
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