Quarantine the Past: My Assimilation into the cult of Pavement

I feel ultra-hipster bad to admit I hadn’t properly heard or in factheard of Pavement prior to 2009. There has been a definite furor over the fact that the reunion shows are coming and I really wanted to see what the fuss was about. I didn’t know where to start at all, and thankfully Domino have released this career-spanning cherry-picked compilation, Quarantine the Past, which has shown me the light in all things Pavement concerned. I jumped on the album like Hipster Hitler and I’ve really enjoyed it.

Their, i’m guessing, unique at the time slacker rock, which has obviously influenced a vast multitude of lo-fi bands over the years is a joy to behold, and right from the off, the songs are indeed enchanting, in their little nonchalant way. “Gold Soundz” opens and is probably still my favourite, simply because it sets everything else up so well. The album itself, was obviously slaved over because the tracks seem to merge into one big hypothetical representation of Pavement. It’s like a gargantuan epic of a song, or a Sufjan album.

The album has done it’s task at making me understand the excitement over this band. I’ve been listening to it so much I feel like I’ve known the band for a long time, and expect to know the lyrics only to be thrown an utter curveball but that’s not a bad thing, the familiarity is just over-hang from endless listening to the bands that have taken influence from Pavement, an over-hanging affection which has made these songs such a joy to hear. It’s like listening to nostalgia itself, and I’m glad I picked up the album.

All I have to do now is get some tickets to the reunion and convince people that Stephen Malkmus babysat me or some shit.