Punk Alt. Rock
Pavement are one of those bands that only people of a certain musical disposition are aware of, and if one is aware of Pavement, then it is impossible not to have a fairly strong opinion about them. Fans of the early nineties alt. rock group will argue to the death that they were pioneers of an innovative and important musical trend that spawned a thousand copycat artists attempting to imitate their soft, slacker approach to life and song writing. Detractors will claim that they were just shit.
However, it is best to remain neutral when listening to Scott Kannberg's new solo project Spiral Stairs and the first single to be taken from their debut album, 'The Real Feel'. On pushing play, one is immediately hit by a wall of sound, a soft thrash of thundering drums and guitars turned up to eleven, as Kannberg howls nonsensical lines about pilfered pharmaceuticals, with a reverb effect on his vocal that begins engaging but ends up sounding a little forced.
For a teen garage band first testing the levels of their sonic capabilities, 'Stolen Pills' would be a fairly impressive opener in a set played to three of their friends in their mum's basement; if you're asking, the other songs would consist primarily of Ramones covers and the occasional Pistols tune, with the coup de grace being a career-ending stage dive made by an overzealous bassist into thin air...we've all seen School of Rock.
However, for a venerable artist such as Kannberg, who has clocked in over two decades in the music industry, this can only really be described as creative plateauing, bordering on regression..or just shit.