Nate for President

What is your favorite band? Not, “who”, but, “what”. What experiences, feelings, emotions, sights, smells, people, memories, pain, etc. does your favorite band evoke?

Pavement is my favorite band.

And Pavement is also my junior year of high school riding in the back of my parents car south on I-35 to a new city. A new life. Pavement was being scared to death, but also being optimistic about what was around the corner.

Pavement is 17 year old me with a crap used-guitar playing crappily played music like crap, but feeling like a rock star.

Pavement is falling in love with a girl, and Pavement is getting over the girl when she broke your heart. 

Pavement is sharing mix CDs with Kate Callahan. And Pavement is discussing rock-star-ology with Darren White.

Pavement is a fall night driving home with the windows down and thinking about your life.

Pavement is riding the Tube in London. Wilco is walking at the DFW airport alone, but Pavement is definitely public transportation.

Pavement is high school friends from Oklahoma.

Maybe more importantly, Pavement is where I first fell in love behind a band’s story. I really think above all else I am a story-teller. I want to hear about other people’s lives, and I want to tell their story to others. And Pavement was the perfect vehicle. The band that could have been. The mysterious front man. The slackers that accidentally made really great music. The lyrics that could mean everything, or could mean nothing. (That probably mean nothing.)

While I’m not as big of a music snob as I once was, and I don’t participate in music centered talk, study, or debate as much as I once did, I will forever love Pavement.

Yeah, I know I already saw them in Chicago at p4kfest—but I’m going to see them again, for the first time. I’ll let you know how it goes…