(Matador)

www.matadorrecords.com

I was a senior in high school when I first heard the music of Pavement.  It was 1992, and a friend of mine had picked up the then just-released Slanted and Enchanted at a record shop in New York City on the recommendation of the clerk who rang him up and he had called me to come over and listen to it. My friend quickly moved on from Pavement, but I instantly fell in love with their sound: that perfect blend of two of my favorite bands at the time (and still to this day) - R.E.M. and Sonic Youth. The group's unique, uncanny blend of lo-fi fuzz and hi-fi melodies essentially got me through college, not unlike the way The Replacements got the generation before me through this most detrimental period in their respective lives. And it seemed as though the release of their albums cosmically coincided with major events that went down in my life, for better and for worse, just when I needed their music the most.

For instance, Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain (1994) dropped as I was slowly recovering from a bad car accident that nearly left me legless. Wowee Zowee (1995) was released on a Tuesday while I was entrenched in my very first internship at the Hudson Valley's premier alternative rock station, WDST, and enjoying a very positive sea change in my social circles just as I was about to start my first year at SUNY New Paltz.  Brighten The Corners (1997) hit stores while I was rebounding from a traumatizing year where I broke up with my first serious girlfriend and mourned the death of my beloved grandfather, practically saving me from the depths of a hazardous bout with depression. But at the same time, it came out just as I was hitting my stride as a college radio DJ on the New Paltz campus FM station and many of the cuts on Corners were played in heavy rotation during my graveyard shift gig in 1997. Meanwhile, Terror Twilight (1999) was released during my first post-grad job in the editorial department for CMJ's New Music Report, where I was lucky enough to have scored a sit-down interview with Spiral Stairs and Mark Ibold for a feature coinciding with the band's swan song. At the same time, I lost my mom to bone cancer the month that Twilight was released and that album certainly helped me get through the grief I was experiencing upon losing her.

Why am I taking you on this trip down memory lane, you might be asking yourself oh-so-snarkily? Because it's a reflection on how important Pavement has been to me and the life I led since graduating high school. Their songs were never just about a level of coolness or some kind of rote social status symbol with which to impress others. They've stuck by me through thick and thin, swinging by to provide kudos for missions accomplished and much-needed distractions in times of turmoil like five wise-cracking, caring older brothers who know just the right thing to say (even if it was conveyed in a stream-of-conscious barrage of heady non-sequiturs and snappy cultural references). As a fan of their music, that means something to me on so many levels it's hard for me to break down into words on a computer screen.  And I know I'm not the only one who feels this way.

Now, just as I am reaching another milestone in my life, celebrating my first year in the new house purchased by me and my future bride as we plan for our wedding later this fall, the band has embarked on its much-celebrated reunion tour across the globe - currently, as of this writing, they are in Australia, with Japan, the UK, Europe and the U.S. to follow - in support of Quarantine The Past: The Best of Pavement, a stellar 23 track joyride through Pavement's decade in action (1989-1999), complete with all of the obvious faves intermingled with a few choice nuggets for the most hardcore heads.

Most Pavement fans worth their weight in salt have no need to purchase this collection, especially if you are like me and you're sitting on two copies of each of their full-lengths thanks to Matador Records' excellent deluxe edition reissues of their first four LPs for the label (and a two-disc version of Terror Twilight is promised to be in the works, so start saving up those pennies).  But like me, you know you are going to be picking it up anyway. Perhaps the chronology by which the songs are sequenced caught your eye; and believe me, hearing "Grounded">"Summer Babe (Winter Version)">"Range Life" is a blissfully blended trifecta you definitely want to place your bets on.  Maybe it's the context of hearing such album-worthy b-sides as "Mellow Jazz Docent" from the Perfect Sound Forever 10-inch or "Box Elder" from the group's 1989 debut EP Slay Tracks (1933-1969) rub elbows with such hits as "Stereo" and "Cut Your Hair". Chances are strong that it could be the inclusion of "Unseen Power of a Picket Fence", Pavement's unheralded tribute to R.E.M., finally giving you the quintessential reason to ditch that God-awful 1993 AIDS benefit compilation No Alternative and be done with having to suffer through Soul Asylum's painful rendition of Marvin Gaye's "Sexual Healing" once and for all.  And if you are one of these younglings sucking at the teat of Pitchfork Media and looking for a quick, easy way to understand what the fuss is all about regarding this group who first got together when you were still pissing in your Pampers, Matador has just provided you with your in.

Whatever the case may be, Quarantine The Past: The Best of Pavement is an essential collection, whether you are a grizzled veteran of the beautiful noise Stephen Malkmus, Bob Nastanovich, Scott Kannberg, Mark Ibold and Steve West dished out in their short decade as a studio band or a newbie looking for a means to break into the clubhouse for the first time.  In fact, it would be a 10-out-of-10-stars release were it not for the omission of one of my three favorite Pavement songs, "Rattled By The Rush" from Wowee Zowee. (Whoever was asleep at the wheel when the final track listing was made for this set and forgot to include this most essential tune deserves a trip straight to bed without dinner to think about what he or she did.)

Nevertheless, here's hoping that the reunion tour sets off a creative spark that gets these guys in the studio once again to create another ten years of gold soundz. After all, I have a whole flipside to a lifetime of crises and boring changes that are going to need a soundtrack.

Standout Tracks: "Gold Soundz", "In The Mouth A Desert", "Here", "Grounded", "Range Life", "Debris Slide", "Embassy Row", "Box Elder" RON HART