Photo: Gail Butensky

Unless you surf the Web over the weekend (weirdo) or peruse other indie rock websites (stop that!) you may have heard that Pavement, kings of this Fall’s newsfeed, are set to headline Sasquatch! next May at the Gorge Amphitheater in Quincy, WA. That’ll be taking place again this year over Memorial Day Weekend (29-31,) though which night Pavement will take the stage has has not yet been ascertained/divulged. And while the rest of the lineup will be announced come mid-February, we’re hoping we can report on more stateside reunion dates before then. Coachella, make it happen.

Photo: Gail Butensky

Unfortunately, it doesn’t include new material, but Pavement guitarist Spiral Stairs told NME.com that the band plans to release a best of compilation album sometime next year, which will feature previously unreleased radio sessions. He explained that the album would feature outtakes along with some of Pavement’s most popular songs, and that its release would coincide with some of the band’s reunion shows scheduled for next fall.

“There’s talk of doing a best of, with some really cool outtakes on that,” he explained. “The very first radio show that Pavement ever did has never been released. I don’t think anyone’s heard it, so we’ll put that out there sometime.”

Photo: Gail Butensky

Australia and New Zealand will be the first countries to experience the forthcoming Pavement reunion in all of its glory: the band will play its inaugural comeback show at the Auckland Town Hall on March 1, and will then head to Australia for six concerts.

Tour dates are as follows:
03.01.10 Auckland, NZ @ Auckland Town Hall
03.04.10 Sydney, AUS @ Enmore Theatre
03.06.10 Victoria, AUS @ Golden Plains Festival
03.07.10 Adelaide, AUS @ The Barton Theatre
03.08.10 Perth, AUS @ Metro City
03.10.10 Brisbane, AUS @ Tivoli
03.12.10 Melbourne, AUS @ Palace Theatre

After its stint down under, the band will headline and curate the All Tomorrow’s Parties festival in Minehead, England next May, followed by a string of shows in New York in September.

Photo: Gail Butensky

You ever have that thing happen where you get a missed call from your ex that you were madly in love with (say between the years 1992 and 1999) and you assume her call means she wants to get back together and give it another go for real. And then you make a reservation at her favorite Thai place and call her back and she’s just confirming your address so she can send you a “Save The Date” for her wedding. No? Just us? Well, Pavement’s Bob Nastanovich wants to make sure this doesn’t happen this time around.

In an interview with The Quietus, Nastanovich clears up some rumors about the band’s split in the first place, implying a pretty peaceful decision that cited exhaustion and Malkmus’ direction as the only real factors. He also stated the rest of the band has always been up for something like this. The aformentioned reality check for the many fanboys of the world (ourselves not omitted from this statement) came here.

Will you do new material?
BN: No.

Is this a once and once only kind of deal?
BN: I’m pretty sure that’s the case.”

So there’s that. Glass half full… at least there won’t be any complaints for a rushing through of the old stuff? (Via: Daily Swarm via The Quietus)

It’s been heavily rumored for months, even before the announcement of the reunion, and it is in fact happening: Pavement will curate All Tomorrow’s Parties in Minehill, England in May 14-16 2010. Playing ATP means that the band’s first scheduled shows at Central Park will– surprise, surprise– not be their first shows! Who could’ve seen this coming?! Now the question should be, what’s the likelihood will be that Pavement will play Coachella? Or rather, when will Coachella announce that Pavement is headlining? Maybe they’ll “ruin” Lollapalooza again! All in all, looks like the Spiral Stairs may be too busy booking plane tickets on Orbitz to tour Sri-Lanka in support of his forthcoming The Real Feel. Tickets go on sale this Friday.