A Pavement reunion?

What happened

Critically acclaimed indie rock band Pavement, which broke up in 1999, may be getting back together. “Why not next month?” joked Pavement’s bassist Mark Ibold in Entertainment Weekly recently. “No, it needs to be carefully planned.” The band’s guitarist Scott Kannberg, a/k/a “Spiral Stairs," also told EW, “Matador [the group’s record label] is having a 20th anniversary party soon, so maybe we’ll try to do something for that.”

What the commentators said

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“Led Zeppelin did it. Van Halen did it,” said Chris Nashawaty in Entertainment Weekly’s Hollywood Insider blog. “Hell, even the Pixies did it.” So what “are the chances of Pavement getting back together?” Well, “despite reports to the contrary, surprisingly good.” Three of the band’s five former members—including front man Stephen Malkmus—have dropped hints recently that they are up for it. “Man, why couldn’t they agree this much when Pavement was still together?”

“It must be exhausting being a former member of Pavement,” said Sean Michaels in the Guardian. “Just as with Led Zeppelin alumni, every single interview leads right back to the reunion question,” and “every answer is scrutinized for the teeniest hint of what discussions might have taken place.” It could be for real this time, though, as “both of the group’s principal songwriters are entertaining the notion.”

Believe me, said Paul Thompson in Pitchfork, if “there were indeed a Pavement reunion in the works, we would almost certainly be freaking out a little too hard to gather our puns enough to write a story about it.” We’re sorry, the “scuttlebutt about the reformation of one of the greatest bands of all time flying around the old Internet” the past few days is “a lotta nice talk,” but “for now anyway, that’s really all it is.” Pavement rumors have flown around in the past, and there’s nothing “concrete” this time, either—so don’t get your hopes up.