INSTANT KARMA
Strange life
Spiral Stairs and director Alex Ross Perry unpack the initially confusing but ultimately poignant new Pavement film
“What’s real and what’s not?”: the cast of
Pavements
and (inset) Pavement in 1995
DONALD STAHL; MICHAEL WONG; THEO WARGO GETTY IMAGES FOR FLC
“I
’
M not sure we should have agreed to this,” Stephen Malkmus muses during the extraordinary new documentaryPavements. “Has there ever been a good movie about a rock band?” There certainly hasn’t been a rock doc like this one, which eschews convention at every stage in favour of meta-realities and roleplay, echoing the band’s own approach on albums likeWowee Zowee. “It’s a sprawling record with lots of different ideas positioning for your attention,” explains guitarist Scott “Spiral Stairs” Kannberg. “The movie is sort of like that. Here’s this band… and what’s real and what’s not?”