Gary Young Dies: Pavement’s Original Drummer Was 70

Gary Young, the original drummer for pioneering indie rock band Pavement who played on its revered debut album Slanted and Enchanted, died Thursday at his home in Stockton, CA. He was 70. The group shared the news on social media but did not provide other details.

Pavement frontman Stephen Malkmus wrote on Twitter, “Gary’s pavement drums were ‘one take and hit record’…. Nailed it so well. rip.”

Born Garrit Allan Robertson Young on May 3, 1953, in Stockton, he played in various local bands in the 1980s while booking punk acts in California’s Central Valley. When singer-songwriter-guitarist Malkmus and guitarist Scott “Spiral Stairs” Kannberg formed Pavement as a duo in in 1989, they recorded their first EPs at Young’s home studio Louder Than You Think, and he drummed on the tracks.

Young earned a reputation for eccentricity and indulgence in those early days, playing on multiple EPs and live with Pavement before they record their full-length debut for Chris Lombardi’s Matador Records. Slanted and Enchanted didn’t dent the Billboard chart but reached No. 72 in the UK and was welcomed by the press.

Praised as an indie rock landmark, the disc ranked No. 199 on Rolling Stone‘s 2020 list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. Its lead single was “Summer Babe,” which Rolling Stone has ranked in the Top 300 of its greatest-ever song list.

In a 2010 interview with GQ, Malkmus said Slanted and Enchanted “probably is the best record we made, only because it’s less self-conscious and has an unrepeatable energy about it.”

Her Smell director Alex Ross Perry turned Pavement’s first record into the jukebox musical Slanted! Enchanted! A Pavement Musical, which premiered Off Broadway in 2022 and as of late last year was working on a feature documentary of the band.

Young left the group in 1993 after a tour of Japan, during which his drinking had become a bigger problem. He went on to record several albums and got sober in the late-’90s. A documentary about him, Louder Than You Think, had its world premiere at SXSW this year.

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