Pavement reunion rumors have been going around for about ten years now, or since the band was in the midst of its long, drawn-out, and passive-aggressive breakup. So far none of them have come even close to being true, but Brooklyn Vegan’s reporting that a “reliable source” has tipped them off to a series of Pavement festival appearances next year. By now a reunited Pavement isn’t an outlandish idea. Their best records have all been given the deluxe reissue treatment and in the decade since they last played indie rock has grown from a semi-niche market to something that could be said to compete with the mainstream if the barriers between “mainstream” and “indie” hadn’t been almost completely demolished. While the members of Pavement never seemed that jazzed to be on top of the indie rock pile during the band’s lifespan, the prospect of coming back not as “that old indie band” but as “an important band with a legacy” has to be tempting. Plus the Preston School of Industry wasn’t exactly an unqualified success.
