Welp, you just missed the New York debut of the museum exhibition Pavements 1933-2022: A Pavement Museum. It went up on September 29 and will be taken down today. But don't worry, you can catch the exhibit on its international tour, as it's going to make stops in London and Tokyo before it is permanently installed in Stockton, California.
What the heck am I talking about, you ask? I'm talking about a museum exhibit featuring items, artwork, and more from the band Pavement. Yes, the indie rock band that formed in 1989 in Stockton, CA, and disbanded in 2000, and is currently on a reunion tour. The exhibit's website explains:
With artifacts and archival material spanning the band's 30+ year history, Pavements 1933-2022: A Pavement Museum features previously unseen imagery, artwork and ephemera, commendations and commemorations, alongside rumored relics of the band's real and imagined history (as well as exclusive merchandise and classic museum souvenirs).
The New York opening begins a global exhibition schedule that ultimately arrives as a permanent archival fixture in the band's hometown of Stockton, California.
Pavements 1933-2022: A Pavement Museum completes a circle for one of the most celebrated and deliberated bands in modern music and helps redefine a secret history performed in plain sight.
Variety also recently wrote about the exhibit, explaining that it's kind of a joke, but it's also very real. Variety also explains, in case you were wondering, that the "'1933' part is a deep reference to Pavement's debut EP, 'Slay Tracks 1933-1969,' which of course was released in 1989." Variety states:
A rep for the band confirmed to Variety that the exhibit is real but is also "sort of" a joke; it is very much in line with the band's sense of humor.
The band, which disbanded in 2000 and is currently on its first reunion tour since 2010, is using the occasion of its four sold-out concerts at Brooklyn's Kings Theater to launch the exhibit in New York — for just three days, Sept. 29 – Oct. 3 — before it begins a global tour that, according to the imagery accompanying the announcement, will visit London and Tokyo before being permanently installed in the group's birthplace of Stockton, Calif.
I was lucky enough to see Pavement in Porto at Primavera Sound this summer, and they definitely rocked the park. Judging from the crowd at the show, their fans are HARD CORE. I'm sure many of them will make the pilgrimage to Stockton once the permanent exhibit is set up. As a casual fan, I'd be up for going, too, if I ever found myself in Stockton. I'm sure the exhibit is as weird as everything else Stephen Malkmus and the rest of the band creates. And I'm down for that!
