Pavement Nicene

Pavement were one of the most successful indie-rock bands of the ‘90s, an era dominated by groups that were never quite sure what to do with commercial success. Pavement’s “hits” add up to “Cut Your Hair” off 1994’s Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain. The remaining choices are a random assortment of the band’s casual greatness. Singer Stephen Malkmus delivered an uncomfortable reluctance with singing that wasn’t sure of itself, while his lyrics mocked himself, his band, and the world that only became more absurd the more it paid attention to the band’s scattershot genius. There are few albums that better capture what the early- to mid-‘90s sounded like to young college grads. Rock music plays an important part in the band’s obsessions.

Terror Twilight is the fifth and final studio album by American indie rock band Pavement, released on June 8, 1999 on Matador Records in the US and Domino Recording Company in the UK. It was produced by Nigel Godrich.

Begun in the late ‘80s as a home-taping project between Stockton, California pals Stephen Malkmus and Scott Kannberg, Pavement pressed up several limited edition “lo-fi” EPs (Slay Tracks 1933-1969, Demolition Plot J-7, Perfect Sound Forever) that made it into influential taste-maker hands and that reflected the duo’s interest in marginal rough-cut sounding underground post-punk rockers such as Swell Maps and the Fall. Westing collects these early releases along with a few singles and flexi-disc rarities for a self-contained look at the band’s early evolution.