Remember when I mentioned that thing about David Cross and Stephen Malkmus? Well, it was an effort in hunting trivia for Mr. Cross to use during the Inside the Rocker’s Studio segment of the 2007 PLUG Awards at which SM received a lifetime achievement award.
Overall, reactions seem mixed at best, ranging from “David Cross is awesome” to “The quiz portion was painfully awkward.” But when you consider that I went “Mission Accomplished” unpaid and on a twenty-four hour turnaround, you can’t do much better. Do you think it’s bad form to hyperlink YouTube on your résumé?
As an aside, it’s worth noting that whatever Pavement’s legacy may be, it will certainly remain mysterious. Apart from some rare footage, both the Slow Century DVD and Perfect Sound Forever are worthless documents for anyone with more than a surface interest in Pavement and what followed. Moreover, since Mike Bond’s amazing Acid Casualties website went tits up there’s no reliable archive of Pavement and Malkmus ephemera anywhere online.
“Apart from some rare footage, both the Slow Century DVD and Perfect Sound Forever are worthless documents for anyone with more than a surface interest in Pavement and what followed.”
You’re not kidding. I liked the live clips, but I was shocked that Slow Century had so little to say about the band. I thought PSF was a bit better, but I read between the lines and guessed the members of the band (Kannenberg excepted) didn’t want to divulge much. The fanzine press clippings were terrific though.
The Jicks at Maxwell’s were a blast. Weiss is in the pocket and giving the band a brand new drive.
I was sure I’d be able to write off the new Malkmus album, but he seems to be the king of second chances now that he’s no longer the prince of indie rock. The last Jicks gig I saw was completely uninspired. Not even funny really. And man do I miss Acid Casualties. That was a good way to spark interest among the faithful at least. I listen to Pavement and Malkmus so rarely any more [and not much for since Pig Lib really] that it’s hard to get excited about new material.
I had hoped that my contribution to the PLUG Awards show would’ve been to inject a bit of the good ol’ days by getting friends to help me put together interesting, funny trivia pieces. Or at least remind me of my Pavement fandom in some weird way. But as you point out, the band wouldn’t have gone for any of this garbage were it not for Spiral Stairs dogging them about doing it.