Synopses & Reviews
"With just one album under their belt Pavement were already one of the most distinctive and original bands of the 1990s equally the product of the post-punk underground and years of left field rock fandom. They brought melody and intelligence to the table, but in a manner that was far more erudite, and more laid back, than their contemporaries.
"If the odd chord didn't quite hit the mark here or there, then what the heck, just get on with the song anyway. The off-kilter arrangements, the twisted melodies, the unpredictable stops and starts and the impenetrable walls of static all fused together to give Pavement a unique sound. Many tried to copy it but few made the grade." Perfect Sound Forever
From their inception as a distorted lo-fi pop duo out of Stockton, California, to their mid-career re-incarnation as a five-piece slumberpop beauty machine, Pavement were a leading force in the indie art-rock music scene of the late 1990s. Perfect Sound Forever is British music journalist Rob Jovanovic's engaging profile of the band and their quirkily dark, melodic sound and cryptic, mirth-filled lyrics. Lavishly illustrated and presented in resplendent two-color, Perfect Sound Forever is the only book to be written with full cooperation of all the band members. Original, eccentric, consistently tagged "Noise-rock's premier sing-along band" Pavement refused to offer a coherent blueprint for success.
In Perfect Sound Forever Rob Jovanovic immerses himself in this glorious confusion, bringing together the stories of the people who were there as it happened.
Review
"Fortunately for Jovanovic and the reader, the tumultuous history of Pavement
is anything but pleasant. Pleasant is boring....Perfect Sound Forever picks up the sugary crumbs of this spastic ride, packing them neatly on your bookshelf for posterity." Michael Chamy, Austin Chronicle
Review
"Although not terribly insightful and thoroughly uncritical, the book is still a fond retrospection. Given the paucity of information about the band, this account automatically rises to the summit." Publishers Weekly
Review
"Jovanovic, the first to pen Pavement's story, benefits from the participation of all the band members in the form of new interviews and reproductions of memorabilia from their personal archives, which make up over 100 photos and illustrations." Library Journal
Review
"Guitarist Scott...Kannberg articulates the band's long-noted ambivalence about success and even its own existence, which continued up until Malkmus asked him to update its Web site to say the group was no longer intact his way of announcing Pavement's end." Tom Nawrocki, Rolling Stone Magazine
Review
"PSF is most fun as it charts Pavement's casual formation and early, covert success, Stephen Malkmus and Scott Kannberg's art-rock conceits bouncing off Young's wild-man antics." Ed Park, The Village Voice
Review
"A satisfyingly focused look at an often slippery and elusive band." Jim Derogatis, The Chicago Sun-Times
Review
"The 1990s officially came to an end with the publication of Rob Jovanovic's Pavement biography Perfect Sound Forever....[O]bsessively researched, pitch-perfect..." Spin
Review
"This history of the band is great because it provides a lot of information biography, gossip, music criticism without infringing on the emotions. I read it in an afternoon. It was almost like listening to music." Jonathan Safran Foer, Jane Magazine
Review
"[Jovanovic] interviewed the band and its associates extensively; this isn't something slapped together from secondary sources. The result is a somewhat-inside look at the evolution of a band that surprised nearly everybody. Lots of groovy visuals, too." Jackson Griffith, Sacramento News & Review
Synopsis
Perfect Sound Forever is British music journalist Rob Jovanovic's engaging profile of the band Pavement and their quirkily dark, melodic sound and cryptic, mirth-filled lyrics.
Synopsis
For Pavement fans and rock enthusiasts comes an engaging profile of the band and their quirkily dark, melodic sound and cryptic, mirth-filled lyrics.
About the Author
Rob Jovanovic is the author of much-admired books on Beck and R.E.M. and is a regular contributor to Mojo and Record Collector. He lives in Nottingham, England.