Music Features

On This Day: In 1992, Pavement Released "Slanted and Enchanted"

Often imitated, but never replicated, the legendary band's debut album is a defining touchstone in indie rock.

In 1990, two childhood friends named Stephen Malkmus and Scott Kannberg met up with a recording studio owner named Gary Young and decided to make an album.

They called themselves Pavement and called their album Slanted and Enchanted; its title came from a drawing by Malkmus' then-roommate (and Silver Jews frontman) David Berman, and its cover art was nearly a carbon copy of piano duo Ferrante & Teicher's Keyboard Kapers. Kannberg spent the following months trying to find a label to release the record. Somehow, against all odds, Slanted and Enchanted—officially released on April 20, 1992—would end up becoming one of indie rock's most definitive and beloved albums of all time.

Keep ReadingShow less