Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Speak, See, Remember

Breaking up is hard to do. You avoid it. You try to paint the breakup as a chance for new opportunities. No matter how you dance around it, it's inevitable. It will suck for one or both of you. There are no such things as good breakups.

Pavement had their breakup over Terror Twilight. Sure, there was a tour following, but it was a goodbye tour and TT was their goodbye album. I don't know how it affected the band members, but I know it was rough on the fans.

To cope, we turned to the things that got us through. We remembered the good times. We focused on future opportunities to make the best of these hard times. Pavement opened us up to many new bands. The breakup would at least leave us with a better perspective on the music landscape than we had before Pavement.

That and we waited for the reunion.

We've talked about this reunion for years, at least since the Pixies reunited (the first time). Soon, we'll see Pavement at Lollapalooza, in Central Park, at Coachella, or wherever they land. Then, we'll remember what those days in the mid-nineties were like.

"Speak, See, Remember" may not have intentionally been about Pavement's breakup, but it was about a breakup in a general sense. The album's title is mentioned. "Terror twilight" has been described as that ominous moment right before the sun sets. This track may very well have been that ghastly moment. Luckily, SM is there to assure us that it will be OK. I mean, he had a new album out in just over 18 months.

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