Pavement - A Personal History

Pigs The Tend To Whiggle When They Walk

I guess Pavement fans have always been different. Maybe not the most social and certainly not the most mainstream people. Lovers of good alternative music but not necessarily sharing a need to show this to the outside world. They were called slackers, and were not wearing the designer clothing but also not wearing the metal spikes. They could easily have worked in an office or library and were never a “threat to society”.

Pavement played a big role in my teenage years. My first introduction to the band was in 1994 with the single ‘Cut Your Hair’ and album “Crooked Rain Crooked Rain”. CRCR to this day remains my favorite. It still has the lo-fi wackiness of “Slanted & Enchanted” but already showed glimpses of finely tuned songs on later albums. In my case it is the same as with many other fans, the first Pavement album you heard is your favorite and will carve out a part in your personal history.

I didn’t know a lot of Pavement fans in high school, in fact I didn’t really know anyone who shared my taste in music, apart from the friends who I introduced it to. But I didn’t care, it was good to have something you love just for yourself sometimes.

Pavement didn’t seem to care about how songs should be played or written. CRCR didn’t really start like ‘Nevermind’ or ‘Highway 61’ did. You were lured into an album that seemed to have been there for some time already. The structure of the songs was strange, the chords were strange and the two drummers were just plain weird. And the lyrics? Well, you knew they were highly intelligent but you also had no clue what Malkmus was singing about. But it seemed to work. It was how I wanted to be. Don’t do a lot of things but give the world pure brilliance when you decided it was time to give it to them. And then be laconic about it.

1994 was a special year. Jon Spencer blasted away his blues riffs on ‘Orange’, Lou Barlow showed his genius on Sebadoh’s “Bakesale” and former bandmate J Mascis sped up a chorus like I had never heard before on Dinosaur’s ‘Feel the Pain’. Shellac’s “At Action Park” let me hear how music could also be made and Weezer’s first album I played endlessly walking to school. It might be because 94 was such a special year for me that all these albums still rank amongst my favorites. All are still around 16 years later as well and still making worthwhile music. All apart from Pavement. After 3 more albums the disbanded.

But yay! The slacker, early 30’s generation, finally has it’s equivalent of Led Zeppelin reunion. Pavement are now on a comeback tour of sorts and have released a compilation album called “Quarantine the past”. It has the hits and a few not-so-hits but that very much show the band Pavement was. Of course there are songs you miss (personally I think ‘Give it a Day’ should be on there). The tracklisting is just as irratic as the band’s albums, and it should be. Every Pavement fan, from the early Slanted-fans to their last albums will be happy with the CD.

Clear Is A Color: Shellac @ Paradiso May 14th

Shellac: Paradiso May 14th

I could start this article by giving you the short history of Steve Albini, how he has been in the influential groups Rapemen and Big Black in the 80’s, produced albums by Nirvana, the Breeders, Page & Plant (that’s half of Led Zeppelin for the young ones among you), the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion and many more. Or how his band performs when they wish without promotion, merchandising or any roadies to speak of. Or maybe his love for vinyl and that Shellac records are oftentimes released on vinyl weeks before the CD version. But let’s stick to the music this time.



Call it noise-rock or math rock, Shellac describe themselves as a minimalist rock trio. They take a minimalist, do-it yourself approach to everything they do: making up the setlist as they go along, no frills, no other instruments, no encore and no “tiny cymbals that go ‘pish’".

For a trio Shellac makes an extreme amount of noise where every instrument has an equal part. This can be seen in how they are positioned on stage. Where most often the drummer would be in the back, here he’s in the middle of the stage. The only other band where I’ve seen this is Battles where John Stanier is the man in the middle.
Drummer Todd Trainer is one of the hardest pounding drummers you will find and it’s worth just looking at him all night. His drumkit is fairly small but he hits the hell out of it. So much that you can see the woodchips fly of his already thick drumsticks.
He uses the instrument as an equal part of the band’s sound, not just for the rhythm. Besides, Shellac’s rhythms are just too weird and you can easily spot three or four time signature changes in one song. Songs that hardly ever are your standard 4/4 AABA structure. He brings color to the songs, builds the suspence and announces the arrival of either silence that can last seconds or an explosion: it might come in the form of one single note on a guitar, one thud of the bassdrum or the band might explode in unison.
In some songs Albini’s guitar will play the same notes over and over again leaving room for Trainer to fill the rest in with drumparts that are never the same, as if the drumfills were words of the lyrics; the thing you pay most attention to.

The good thing about having two producers in your band is an almost obsessive ear for sound. Rumbling but clear basslines that never distort, Albini’s screeching copper-plectrum-on-metal-strings unique guitar sound that goes right through you like a diamondsharpened circular saw, and his biting singing/shouting/speaking into the microphone. I felt it did need a few songs to get the mic adjusted right but after that the sound was pristine.

There was no setlist; the bandmembers decided on the spot what song to play. Songs from all the albums released since 1994 and a few singles like the monumental “Wingwalker”. Some short and fast, some long and monotone like “end of Radio” with a tension span of over 6 minutes before more happens than Weston’s basschords, Trainer’s snare drum and Albini shouting old bits of radio shows into the room. Easily a highlight that came at the end of the show that also had the suspenseful “Crow” and closer “Watch Song”

CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW!