Slanted and Enchanted was even better than anybody had hoped. Malkmus and Spiral Stairs had the songs to turn their homemade tape of guitar clatter into a full-blown California fantasy of girls and boys dreaming big on the ridge where summer ends. It was the sound of sweet suburban boys who loved... 

 Pavement started touring with bassist Mark Ibold and second drummer, backup singer, and onstage booty shaker Bob Nastanovich, an old friend from Malkmus’ college days in Charlottesville, VA. The Watery, Domestic EP followed, featuring four cleanly recorded tunes as great as anything on Slanted,... 

 Pavement was already making noise before Slanted on three limited-edition indie vinyl EPs, later collected on the excellent Westing (By Musket and Sextant) CD.  

 Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain was a daring move–instead of consolidating its noise-rock cred, Pavement got together in a real studio as a real band. Malkmus wrote an album’s worth of juicy melodies, with the guitars ringing and chiming in emotional stray-slack surges. It’s the band’s most im... 

 Wowee Zowie is Pavement’s most divisive moment: It turned off the fans who’d come on board with Crooked Rain, but many diehards call it their favorite. Pavement breathed in the mellow California air and went all soft and woogly, ditching any last trace of noise for 18 eccentric tracks that ra... 

 Pacific Trim has three stellar tunes, including “Give It a Day,” the best song ever written about the sex drive of Cotton Mather’s daughter. Matador released these songs as part of their essential Pavement deluxe editions–instead of the usual real-album plus bonus-bait split, each of the... 

 Brighten the Corners was a song album, high on the guitar power and group interaction that Wowee Zowee lacked. For some, it was too smooth, but by now Pavement was an avowed ballad band that only played rockers as filler; the ballads never got any more beautiful than “Old to Begin” or “Star... 

 Terror Twilight was the same album with fewer songs and some really bad harmonica solos. Pavement soon fell apart, as haphazardly as it had come together. Spiral Stairs, using his real name, Scott Kannberg, started a new project, the Preston School of Industry. Ibold joined Sonic Youth. Malkmus m... 

 The 10th-anniversary Slanted and Enchanted reissue documents Pavement on a roll in 1991 and 1992, when even its lackadaisacal throwaways were touched with greatness. The collection has B-sides, BBC sessions, Watery, Domestic, and a December 1992 gig in London. The rarities include three of Paveme...