Lost & Found: All That We Want Is Pavement

Pavement always had this certain quality, like they could've been your buddy's band, except way better. They lasted for just one all-too-short decade before burning out from personality clashes. Luckily, before they called it quits, the fellows made an appearance on HBO's amazing live music series 'Reverb.'

Please find, submitted for your approval (or not -- we're big fans, and we're really posting this for ourselves), please find video of Pavement playing one of their catchiest tunes, 'Shady Lane.' This song is a perfect combination of all of the elements that made Pavement so fantastic. Sweet guitar lines underlying lead singer Stephen Malkmus' acerbic vocals.

We don't want to describe Malkmus' lyrics as wry, since it's been used so many times before in that capacity. But the word wry is pretty much padlocked to just about everything he does, so it's nearly impossible not use it. One of our favorite lines is, on its own, just a plain, dry sentence. But sang over the song's jolly melodies, it becomes clever and just self-deprecating enough to make it charming: "Tell me off, right in front of all the bellboys and the over-friendly concierge."

Sometime shortly after this performance, Malkmus decided to call it quits. By then, relations between him and the rest of the band had become very strained. Malkmus told band co-founder Scott "Spiral Stairs" Kannberg to change the band's website to say that the band was no longer together, and Kannberg was left to inform the rest of the members himself. Since then, both guys have gone on to make solo records, and Pavement got back together in 2010 to play a few shows.

And just for the hell of it, here's another song from the band's 'Reverb' set. Check out 'Spit on a Stranger.' It's also a really cool song.