Sidewalk during their reunion: "We are like a tiger without a cage"

Image source, Getty Images

By Mark SavageBBC Music Corr espondant

Depending on who you ask, Pavement is either the biggest indie band of the 90s or a small flaw in the rock landscape.

Formed in California in 1989, they were the quintessential underground band, whose loud, chaotic songs had enough melodic charm to lodge permanently in your brain.

Their first two albums, Slanted and Enchanted (1992) and Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain (1994) were hailed as masterpieces of rock lo -fi and slacker - a description that is technically true, but fails to capture their magic.

From Summer Babe's fuzzy burst to celestial ballad of Spit On A Stranger and the awkwardness of Cut Your Hair, Pavement knew how to hold his own in a pop song, no matter how awkward the delivery.

They built an audience that gorged on the capricious song structures and enigmatic lyrics of frontman Stephen Malkmus ("Lies and betrayals / Nails covered in fruit ", he sang, mystifyingly, on Trigger Cut).

But after Crooked Rain pushed Pavement to center stage, an unpredictable follow - 1995's Wowee Zowee - put them back in the shadows.