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Pavement - Slow Century by Lance Bangs, Dan Koretzky, Kim Gordon, Spike Jonze, Thurston Moore
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DVD Cover InformationActor: Bob Nastanovich, Mark Ibold, Scott Kanberg, Stephen Malkmus, Steve West Director: Dan Koretzky, Kim Gordon, Lance Bangs, Spike Jonze, Thurston Moore Cinematographer: Lance Bangs Editor: Lance Bangs Producer: Lance Bangs DVD: Region Code 1 Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround Format: Color, DVD, NTSC Picture Format: 1.33:1 Running Time: 360 minutes DVD Release Date: 2002-10-22 Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated) Studio: Matador Records
Movie Reviews of Pavement - Slow CenturyMovie Review: miles and miles of style Summary: 5 Stars
With rumors of Pavment's demise spreading like small pox in the Sudan, lead singer-songwriter-guitarist-fame throwa Stephen Malkmus retreated to the hazy anonymity of Los Angeles for what is now referred to in Pavement lore as "Malkmus' Lost Weekend". Thankfully this dark period yielded more than a slew of embarrassing incidents (Will Malkmus EVER live down those widely published photos of Harry Nilson carrying the bleary-eyed slacker prince out of the Troubadour after a(-nother) brandy soaked night out?), highlighted by this audio/visual document of the band circa B.S. 1989-1999. Many Pavement fans consider this stellar DVD to be the band's last hurrah, failing to recognize the diamonds in the considerable rough of their New Century offerings, most notably the remarkable growth of Bob Nastanovich as a songwriter and vocal interpreter. Things never were the same after the "Lost Weekend". The increasingly reclusive Malkmus stopped touring with the band, opting to concentrate on composing and recording while the band was on the road. This evolution in the ways of the Pavement was met with resistance from guitarist and co-founder Spiral Stairs, who deeply resented laying down his rhythm guitar tracks on top of Malkmus' "ego music" even more than he'd resented those horribly mocking faces SM used to make onstage when Spiral performed the songs he'd penned ("Date with Ikea", "Kennel District", etc.)during Pavement's "Brighten the Corners" and "Terror Twilight" tours. Malkmus, increasingly protective of his recordings to the point of rampant paranioa, wasn't suffering turncoats, malcontents and/or co-founding members gladly, especially when Stairs objected to releasing these sessions as "Pavement" recordings. "I am Pavement," he roared back. When a hiss drenched tape of the encounter found its way onto several of the popular audio file sharing web sites, a Matador Records spokeshuman would claim that the tape was one of the band's signature media pranks, an ironic reference to the classic fightin' Gallagher Brothers' studio outtakes of the mid-90s. The public, barely remembering the Gallaghers and having recently been inundated with reports from the media mind control front that irony was "over", didn't buy it and the breakup rumors swirled like never before. Malkmus' personal nadir would come shortly thereafter when the band, fearing that their status as "critic's darlings" would be jeopardized if they abandoned their tried and true trademark "mid-fi" sound in favor of the radically adventurous new direction their fearless leader was taking them in, voted to take the album away. Surviving only in bootleg form, the unfinished album, which was tenatively titled "There is One I in Pavement", hints at what a glorious future it could have been. The "Slow Century" offered fans a glorious snapshot of the Pavement they held close to their heart, much like the Young Elvis stamp of B.S. 1993. The wonderfully off-center videos, the post-zenith-but-still-rockin' live performances and the endearing drunken commentary track were, in retrospect, icing on a great decade of work. Mostly assembled by S.M. in Los Angeles over many painstaking months, he would later refer to the DVD as his "love letter to the old fans" in an interview from bed, one of his last to date. The title went through many changes, ranging from the banal ("The Pavement Video Collection") to the ironically self-deprecating ("Video Report from the Second Tier") to the bitter ("Clever, Creative Videos Only Sell Records and Garner Airplay for Beck"), before settling on a typically cryptic reference to embattled Silver Jews leader D.C. Berman (who, entering a Dade County courtroom on charges of exposing himself and carrying a live sheep onstage during a concert in B.S. 1999, responded to the scrum of reporters shouting "Did You Do It?" with the still unexplained "We are at the dusk of a slow century..."). Strange source for the title indeed, but the Pavement we would care to remember wouldn't have it any other way. The "Slow Century" DVD is essential for those dedicated followers of all things "Westing (by musket and sextant)" through "Terror Twilight".
Summary of Pavement - Slow CenturyStudio: Wea-des Moines Video Release Date: 07/22/2003
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