Wowee Zowee! – after a number of false alarms, including the rumor that the guys were getting back together to play Coachella 2009, this time is for realz. Matador records announced Pavement is really truly reuniting for a number of shows around the world in 2010.
The announcement comes nearly 10 years after the indie rock darlings played their last gig together at Brixton Academy in London Nov. 20, 1999 – and 20 years after Stephen Malkmus and Scott “Spiral Stairs” Kannberg first got things started in Stockton, Calif., back in 1989.
The lineup for the reunion tour will include Malkmus and Kannberg along with Mark Ibold, Bob Nastanovich and Steve West.
The first – and as for now only – show on the books is a Sept. 21, 2010 New York City performance at Central Park's SummerStage.
Grandpa hipsters on the West Coast will have to get up early tomorrow if they want tickets because a pre-sale begins Friday, Sept. 18, at 10 a.m. EST. The password for the pre-sale is “ZOWEE.” Tickets go on sale to the general public at 10 a.m. EST Sept. 25. If you fancy tickets without those pesky surcharges, you can get your tickets the old fashioned way by making a stop at the Nokia Theatre box office in Times Square and from Earwax Records in Brooklyn, N.Y.
Madator adds that along with the tour, there’s a “details to-be-determined compilation album planned for release sometime in 2010.”
Here’s the not so good news – the label warns fans that, “this tour is not a prelude to additional jaunts and/or a permanent reunion.”
Kannberg told Rolling Stone that although this year’s Coachella fest was a no-go, it’s possible that Pavement will be on next year’s lineup.
“We’ll do some rehearsing in the new year. The Central Park shows, we’ll probably end up doing one or two of those. There’s festivals and stuff that we’re talking to, like Coachella. After that, anything that happens in the future is in the future.”
The guitarist explained that the reunion came to be after a simple phone conversation with Malkmus.
“Steve [Malkmus] and I just had a conversation on the phone, and we’d never talked about it before at all. We’ve talked over the years, but the subject never came up. Then our agent asked us about these New York shows, so we went around to everybody in the band, and they said, ‘Yeah, the time is right. If everybody’s ready to do it, then we’ll do it and see what happens.’ There was no real impetus — it just kind of happened naturally,” Kannberg told RS.
Click here for Matador Records’ Web site.
Click here for the Rolling Stone article.