Pavements

Pavement circa 1994

Alex Ross Perry's Pavements is a lively tribute to one of the more lasting post grunge American indie bands. As the use of the plural in the title implies, Ross is more interested in the band's mythos and legacy than in rendering a straightforward narrative about the band and its inevitable reunion. There is that aspect to Pavements, but Perry is so in love with the band that he mounted a workshop jukebox musical entitled Slanted! Enchanted! which featured the band's music. This is interwoven into the documentary along with a faux biopic of the band entitled Range Life which features actors Jason Schwartzman, Tim Heidecker, and Joe Keery as Pavement frontman Stephen Malkmus. All this and a gallery opening of Pavement memorabilia with bands such as Speedy Ortiz and Soccer Mommy playing their music. The resulting product is as knotty and cerebral as any of Pavement's albums.

I'm not altogether sure if this film will appeal to non-fans because I was very much a admirer of the band back in their 1990s heyday. I snapped up all of their albums though I was not fanatic enough to buy all of their numerous EPs. I saw them at Satyricon in Portland during their first national tour. They were fantastic, energized, and very together. Their drummer, Gary Young, climaxed the show by chugging a beer while standing on his head as the band egged him on. Young was older than the rest of the band, a functioning alcoholic, and was out of the band by the next tour. I saw them at the Pine Street Theater (then La Luna) in Portland that next tour and the difference was marked. They were more professional, but the fire was gone. They were just another art rock band going through the motions. The performance was not nearly as half-assed as the one they did at a Free Tibet concert captured in the documentary, the last gasp of the band, seemingly.

Irony and distance are hard to sell at a mass market level, so Pavement was fated for limited success. The band's lyrics owe more to someone like John Ashbery than typical popular song. Malkmus himself was a diffident band leader, ill at ease when forced to glad hand DJs and TV hosts. He sagely reflects this his band's chilly abstractness owes a lot to the "second hand artificiality of suburban culture." To that I would add the post-modern notions that were in the air during Malkmus' undergraduate days at the University of Virginia. Post-modernist theory certainly comes into play during Pavements, a documentary which barely mentions the personal lives of the band members. However, because of the depth of Ross' affection for the band and their music, Pavements never feels bloodless. I don't think it will convert many non-fans, but it is a heartfelt document.