Perfect Sound Forever: The Story of Pavement Paperback – April 5, 2004

received today.well packaged.very happy.thanks.

Great

I was excited to finally find a book about perhaps my favorite band. The early narrative about Pavement's origins and first recordings is excellent, but the author breezes through the later albums without much discussion. The photos, setlists, zine reviews and other miscellany are nice, but at only 216 pages this could use more text for the list price. Despite its faults I enjoyed reading this, hence the four stars.

Yeah, parts of it are a cut and pasting of various articles and quotes from the DVD. But the beauty of the book is the synthesis of these parts combined with the author's interviews to create a well-documented and thoroughly researched account of the history of the band. It showed a logical progression of Pavement's history from early influences, band members meeting, creating amazing albums, and the problems that unfortunately broke them up. It's very convenient and resourceful to have all the information, such as EP reviews from obscure music magazines, in one place at least. To enjoy it for what it is, a definitive account of the history of Pavement, definitely makes it a great read for fans.

From a band that started its career with static and ended it with an acoustic guitar, comes a book that does a great job of trying to explain it all.Perfect Sound Forever does a wonderful job of trying to crack the walls of Pavement. Throughout its 10-year life, many journalists tried to get to S.M., Spiral, et al., but few succeeded. Mr. Jovanovic succeeds where others have failed.Sure Malkmus is still aloof, but the other band members make up for his enigmatic behavior. Hardcore Pavement fans should read this, even though you may already know the facts. It is entertaining and you may walk away with even more knowledge.With the reissues, the DVD and the book, hopefully Pavement will continue to inspire people to pick up instruments and make music.A fine read for anyone.

A must read for fans of Pavement, but I prefer the 33 1/3 book on Wowee Zowee.

I waited for years to read it, and now that it's here, it makes me even sadder that I cannot see my favorite band of all-time anymore.The sheer number of facts are completely shocking. As a longtime Pavement fan, I thought I knew their story 100%, but I was wrong.Jovanovic does a magnificent job of getting commentary from just about anyone and everyone that had their hands in or on Pavement at one point or another...we even hear from girlfriends of band members.Absolutely fabulous chronicle of the rise and breakup of one of the most underrated bands of our time. I can't wait to read it again.

First the good news: "Perfect Sound Forever" makes you listen to your entire collection of Pavement records again, maybe even with the same enthusiasm as when you first heard the band, searching for sounds or elements in the music that you didn't notice before. But does it tell the complete story about the band that transformed alternative rock in the 90's? The answer, I'm sorry to tell, must be no. The composition of the story is too unbalanced to ever gain the status as the Pavement Bible. The first serious attempt to write the history of the band was only too welcome, especially since the Slow Century documentary left too many questions unanswered - at times I think of it as a film that was never completed (The DVD is definetely worth purchasing though). Unfortunately, "Perfect Sound Forever", starting of so promising, with the clever and entertaining introductions of the different bandmebers, also seems to lose its direction about half-way through the book - for Pavement-fans meaning somewhere around Wowee Zowee. Where Jovanovic at first was so thorough, and the story was so rich with fine and fun details, he now seems to tell us that this part is not that interesting, or that record was not so important, so let's just cut to the end. As a reader and Pavement-fan, this leads me to think that 1) The author is of the opinion that Pavemtns early years where far more important than the later ones, or 2) He didn't do good enough research to complete his work - or simply got tired of the project and just wanted to finish his book as fast as possible. If the answer is 1), Jovanovic should simply have made a book about Pavements earliest career. My general feelings, though, tell me that the answer is closer to the second alternative. Let me leave no doubt that this is a book well worth purchasing for every Pavement fan. Jovanovics passion for Pavement and their music makes a fun read at most times. But Jovanovic is not a historian, and if you are looking for the full story about your favourite lo-fi stars, the search is not through. I still don't know why High Llamas-member Dominic Mercott playd the drums on Carrot Rope and Major Leagues, or where and when the songs on the Major League-Ep where recorded. Perhaps someday, in a book that finishes the way it starts, I will get the answers. Overall close to 3 stars, but for making me remember why I love Pavements music, it gets 4.