10 '90s Bands Everyone Forgets About
5. Pavement
Once the grunge explosion started to really pick up some steam, it felt like every indie act and their mother got a record deal of their own. Since no one really knew what to think of this new movement, you could pretty much get away with any weird gimmick on both MTV and beyond. However, there's no shame kicking back with what made rock and roll so much fun in the first place.
As opposed to the other outlandish bands coming out around the same time, Pavement always made a name for themselves by making alt rock's answer to AM radio hits. Across albums like Crooked Rain and Slanted and Enchanted, Stephen Malkmus had an incredible gift for melody, along with the perfect sarcastic tone to put him in the same league as other writers like Kurt Cobain and Billy Corgan. Then again, Malkmus never had too many plans to reach the big time at all.
Staying with the exact same label throughout most of their career, Pavement never even managed to notch up too many hits in their day, instead playing in the first few opening slots at Lollapalooza when they could have been headlining. If there were any justice though, it wouldn't be out of the question to give these guys the same kind of adulation that we give acts like Alice in Chains today.