Rating: 
Summary: It really isn't very good!
Review: I just had to comment on this DVD. I waited for this DVD for about 2 1/2 years. I even purchased a DVD player the day I heard this was in production, so I wouldn't be without one when it came out. Well, the day came and I was crushed! The videos I'd seen before, and they are what they are. Entertaining, goofy, lovable. BUT, the documentary! It's terrible. The editing is terrible. There was little to no narration, very little new information. The art direction was non-existent. There was no definable visual threads through the whole film. It seemed poorly planned and organized. The live footage was pretty good, but there wasn't enough footage from after Crooked Rain, but before Terror Twilight.
Rating:
Summary: Not too good....
Review: I love Pavement, but those guys are slackers. Case in point -- this DVD, a half-assed collection of stuff that got thrown together at an extremely leisurely pace. The videos, most of which I'd never had a chance to see, are kind of interesting once. The commentary is, for the most part, pretty silly and doesn't yield a whole lotta deep insight.Overall, this is a good rental, but I'd save the big bucks and spend 'em on the reissued "Slanted and Enchanted" disk.
Rating: 
Summary: Finally...
Review: I've waited a long time for Pavement to release this DVD and I am extremely happy I finally own a copy. The videos are excellent although there are a few sleepers the commenteries make up for it. The concerts are good although I would've loved to see more Crooked Rain stuff. Hoesntly, I thought the documentary was a little disapointing. There was way too much concert footage throughout that I could've done without(thats what disc 2 is for!). I found that it just got boring to see 2 minutes of talking and 5 minutes of music, making the documentary seem rushed and insufficient. If you want to see a good documentary get Robbie Williams "Nobody Someday." You don't even have to be a fan to enjoy it. Still the live stuff was great even though the filming wasn't top notch and all in all for the reasonable price this DVD is well worth it.
Rating: 
Summary: Caveat!
Review: Okay, I'd like to start by saying that I love Pavement and the videos themsleves are nice to have... I'd only seen the Crooked Rain vids in the 120 Minutes Era (back when MTV would occasionally play a good video-- did the later ones even make an appearance?) even if they are pretty much all the same. "Cute" shots of band in a certain uniform getup, Malkmus singing the lyrics in a bratty manner, typically "indie" looking (see: 8 mm and heavy use of filters) filming techniques and fashion (retro 70's hipster sweaters/shirts, western shirts, the occasional ironic accessory), etc. They are, of course, pioneers of the aesthetic, but it still wears a bit thin after a while... it's only because I love the songs that the cuteness of it all doesn't suffocate me. All of this would be easier to swallow if the band wouldn't constantly diss bands that market themsleves in one form or another. Most fans will be aware of their verbal slights of Smashing Pumpkins and Stone Temple Pilots (fine by me), but after watching this video I discovered they are too cool for R.E.M. as well. I am by no means an R.E.M. fan, but unfortunately this reminded me of interviews I have seen where Malkmus pans Radiohead (after nabbing their producer!), Weezer, Beck, and (I'm paraphrasing, the article is in paper format at home) "any band that is influenced by them". How can one win with Malkus?! Usually I find his honest opinion a breath of fresh air, and I can often see where he's coming from, but it's easy for Steven to make pot shots from his throne as indie prince among NYC's elite. Their snobbiness withstanding, none of this would bother me if this release and Terror Twilight were excellent. (Strangely, I think Malkmus' solo album was great, much better than these two releases and actually funny again... relax a little SM!) But the Slow Century is a missed opportunity. The videos, fine, they weren't trying to make ground breaking stuff, I understand and respect that, but as for everything else in here... ? The documentary seems hastily put together, and does not talk about the breakup at all-- perhaps because the other guys think Steve is [mean], and that would not be a good advertising move for anyone-- and the concert footage is just average, from a weaker-than-best era, sort of like watching new Michael Jordan. At one point Nastanovich says he never believed in their own hype, but it's clear at least SM did... this is one of those rock video releases that seems to be about making money for the band, I hate to say it. See 1991: The Year Punk Broke and Fugazi's Instrument for examples of actually quality rock cinema. Those films (the latter, to a larger degree) utilize a variety of different film techniques, clever edits, and an insight into the people that make the music you love. I would have loved to have seen more talk about their song writing process, recording techniques, album art, etc... it could have gone in so many different directions, and instead all we get is the START of a great rocumentary and a lot of DV footy from 1999 that spends a disturbing amount of time focused on Malkmus. It is dissapointing being hit with the rockstar ego thing from these guys, especially after all the years of mocking the rock idiom. (Shoot the singer?) I remember the Watery Domestic EP's release and being fascinated by their obscurity, hungering for a closer look at this brilliant band. Now I think I have seen too much.
Rating:
Summary: Pavement deserves BETTER
Review: The production side of this DVD was just awful. I can't believe this quality of crap gets put out. It would hold on someone's home movie of some random pavement show for like 6 minutes. There was a serious lack of content, which was blatantly obvious right away. It's a shame that they did this to such an amazing band.
With that said, I still enjoyed seeing the footage of Pavement. Even though the editing was so amazingly bad, it was pretty cool to see the live performances of this great band and to hear them talk about their experiences together. If you're a die-hard Pavement fan, it's worth getting.
Rating: 
Summary: This is going to be a Slow Century...
Review: The title is very appropriate...yes, the twenty first century is going to be a very slow one, considering there will most likely be no new Pavement music because they broke up, like, three years ago or something. But what better way to look back on one of the greatest and most influential bands of the last century than with a double DVD commerating their greatness? This DVD is most definitely tha shiznit! Its a great companion to Slanted And Enchanted: Luxe And Reduxe. Not only do you get two full live shows, every one of the band's somewhat strange but awesome music videos, a 90 minute documentary, three alternate music videos, band and artist commentary, and...wait...that's all that you get. The music videos are great. Many of them are quite simple, but they are all a lot of fun to watch. The alternate ones are even better than the ones that replaced them, except the Cut Your Hair alternate...that ones just stupid. There are also some little filler materials between videos, the most gutbustingly hilarious one being a concert introduction by some KROQ guy...it's just hilarious. The documentary is also fun, particularly because of the footage of Gary Young standing on his head and falling over while playing the drums among other things. Also, seeing Sprial Stairs flip off the crowd at Lollapalooza and then moon them is priceless material...along with Stephen Malkmus getting hit with a rock. The concerts are good but are only fun if you play with the multi angleswhile you're watching them. Anyway, if you would like to spend 25 dollars on a DVD, spend it on this one. DVDs like these by bands as good as these were put on this earth for a reason. It's only a matter of time until we see a Pixies DVD or a Flaming Lips DVD or the upcoming Weezer DVD...until then, enjoy Pavement because they rock.
Rating:
Summary: finally
Review: The videos are great, and the concert footage is very good. I would've preferred that one of the shows be from a something other than the Terror Twilight tour though. The documentary, the part I was most anxious to see, was a bit disappointing. It started out good, I enjoyed hearing more about how Pavement formed, particulary the problems they had with Gary Young and the release of Slanted & Enchanted. But the rest of it used too much random concert footage as filler, and strayed away from interesting topics. Maybe I'm just too used to watching VH1 Behind the Music or something. Anyway, this is still a must for any serious Pavement fan.
Rating:
Summary: ammmmmazing
Review: this was great for me to get to know more about the band i had heard of from so many others, amd never got to see for myself.... i only started delving into the world of pavement this past year, starting first with the jicks and working my way backward...(now i find my self searching frantically for silver jews cd's) the dvd was great, its fun watching these guys progress and all the good old wackiness, of course... get it, or find out who has it and borrow it or stay at their place and watch it
Rating:
Summary: The Debris Slid Into Slow Century!!
Review: What a disappointment. The videos were nice, but many were contrived and not very creative. The documentary was sub, sub, sub-par -- no real insight into the band, their dynamics. I wasn't looking for a Behind the Music expose, or anything, but the documentary seemed to be long on exposition and short on actual content. Malkmus looked like he couldn't even stand talking to the camera, and Kannenberg was overly cheerful and eager to please. So in a sense, their songwriting sensibilities played out in the documentary. Hmmmm... The concerts stunk. I'm not sure if they were recorded on a hand-held camcorder, but the sound quality was awful. If these were official recordings of these shows, why not plug into the sound board and get a clean recording off the PA? Instead we get horribly recorded sound, muddy vocals and all. The Seattle concert seeems to be an exercise in selling Terror Twilight, as the band struggles through several lackluster numbers from that release. All in all, Malkmus seems ready to leave the band. So why, after all this negativity, did I still give the thing three stars? Because I love Pavement and their music, that's why. This release is great for super-fans, but it's really not that substantive, and doesn't even touch how great their albums are. The content just doesn't justify the work that was put into the DVD interface, and packaging -- both wonderful.
Rating:
Summary: miles and miles of style
Review: With rumors of Pavment's demise spreading like small pox in the Sudan, lead singer-songwriter-guitarist-fame throwa Stephen Malkmus retreated to the hazy anonymity of Los Angeles for what is now referred to in Pavement lore as "Malkmus' Lost Weekend". Thankfully this dark period yielded more than a slew of embarrassing incidents (Will Malkmus EVER live down those widely published photos of Harry Nilson carrying the bleary-eyed slacker prince out of the Troubadour after a(-nother) brandy soaked night out?), highlighted by this audio/visual document of the band circa B.S. 1989-1999. Many Pavement fans consider this stellar DVD to be the band's last hurrah, failing to recognize the diamonds in the considerable rough of their New Century offerings, most notably the remarkable growth of Bob Nastanovich as a songwriter and vocal interpreter.
Things never were the same after the "Lost Weekend". The increasingly reclusive Malkmus stopped touring with the band, opting to concentrate on composing and recording while the band was on the road. This evolution in the ways of the Pavement was met with resistance from guitarist and co-founder Spiral Stairs, who deeply resented laying down his rhythm guitar tracks on top of Malkmus' "ego music" even more than he'd resented those horribly mocking faces SM used to make onstage when Spiral performed the songs he'd penned ("Date with Ikea", "Kennel District", etc.)during Pavement's "Brighten the Corners" and "Terror Twilight" tours. Malkmus, increasingly protective of his recordings to the point of rampant paranioa, wasn't suffering turncoats, malcontents and/or co-founding members gladly, especially when Stairs objected to releasing these sessions as "Pavement" recordings. "I am Pavement," he roared back. When a hiss drenched tape of the encounter found its way onto several of the popular audio file sharing web sites, a Matador Records spokeshuman would claim that the tape was one of the band's signature media pranks, an ironic reference to the classic fightin' Gallagher Brothers' studio outtakes of the mid-90s. The public, barely remembering the Gallaghers and having recently been inundated with reports from the media mind control front that irony was "over", didn't buy it and the breakup rumors swirled like never before. Malkmus' personal nadir would come shortly thereafter when the band, fearing that their status as "critic's darlings" would be jeopardized if they abandoned their tried and true trademark "mid-fi" sound in favor of the radically adventurous new direction their fearless leader was taking them in, voted to take the album away. Surviving only in bootleg form, the unfinished album, which was tenatively titled "There is One I in Pavement", hints at what a glorious future it could have been. The "Slow Century" offered fans a glorious snapshot of the Pavement they held close to their heart, much like the Young Elvis stamp of B.S. 1993. The wonderfully off-center videos, the post-zenith-but-still-rockin' live performances and the endearing drunken commentary track were, in retrospect, icing on a great decade of work. Mostly assembled by S.M. in Los Angeles over many painstaking months, he would later refer to the DVD as his "love letter to the old fans" in an interview from bed, one of his last to date. The title went through many changes, ranging from the banal ("The Pavement Video Collection") to the ironically self-deprecating ("Video Report from the Second Tier") to the bitter ("Clever, Creative Videos Only Sell Records and Garner Airplay for Beck"), before settling on a typically cryptic reference to embattled Silver Jews leader D.C. Berman (who, entering a Dade County courtroom on charges of exposing himself and carrying a live sheep onstage during a concert in B.S. 1999, responded to the scrum of reporters shouting "Did You Do It?" with the still unexplained "We are at the dusk of a slow century..."). Strange source for the title indeed, but the Pavement we would care to remember wouldn't have it any other way. The "Slow Century" DVD is essential for those dedicated followers of all things "Westing (by musket and sextant)" through "Terror Twilight".
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