The soundtrack to Louder Than You Think: A Lo-Fi History of Gary Young and Pavement is the story of a man who propelled himself, and others, to greatness and destroyed it at the same time. It is a musical autobiography of Pavement’s self-contradicting first drummer told through snippets and rarities from his career.
Gary Young, who sadly passed away in 2023, was a force of pure personality. He brilliantly produced the seminal slacker sounds of Slanted & Enchanted, an album that redfinied lo-fi. But, he was also a deeply flawed alcoholic that Pavement could not rely on. Gary’s story is sad and sweet, filled with songs worth hearing.
Who was Gary Young?
Gary Young has been in 29 bands; at the age of 16, he allegedly did LSD 375 times and, with the help of Thurston Moore, gave out 5,000 servings of mash and gravy to fans waiting for a gig.
From Stockton, California, he was an overactive child who would come to use drugs to calm his whirring mind. This got him arrested multiple times, but he bought and resold so much pot that he made thousands of dollars. Money he poured into making Louder Than You Think recording studio – a crucial piece in Pavement’s early success.
He was an acrobat and admired the flamboyant rock stars of the 70s and 80s. He wanted spectacle and havoc so he would do headstands on stage, jump onto his drums to play with maximum force. He says in the documentary he wanted his shows to feel like the movie Rollerball.
But the rock and roll lifestyle had left alcohol with a tight grip on Gary. He had erratic moods and varying degrees of unsoberness. This did not stop floods of musicians and friends paying tribute to Gary’s kind soul after he died in 2023, but it was a major issue in his life.
The first few songs on the soundtrack are from Gary’s pre-pavement days. We are given fragments of his punky past. For example, ‘Feed ‘Em to the Lions’ by Gary’s very edgily named band: the Fall of Christianity, is messy and catchy. Pieces of Gary’s long and loud career.
Pavement
Pavement has been one of the most influential bands in contemporary music since their explosion onto the 90s. They were lauded as the ‘next Nirvana’, something that was never true but speaks to the impact their sound had.
With their first album, Pavement re-defined what lo-fi could mean. Low fidelity means degraded sound, but they used that to their advantage – they made something that really rocked out of a mess of unpolished sounds (something which countless bands would be influenced by). This awesome result was Gary’s hard work as producer and engineer on the album.
Pavement began when two local 20-year-olds, Stephen Malkmus and Scott Kannberg, asked to record some music at the 40-year-old Gary Young’s studio. They were just two noisy guitars. Gary’s drumming gave them order and momentum. Like on the track: ‘In a Mouth a Desert’ he creates an irresistible hook, coming down on the drums with extreme force but then leaving space for Malkmus’s melodies.
Gary separated Pavement from other 90s indie bands. Being older he loved classic prog and rock, his influences were wildly different from most young drummers at the time. His stage persona also generated a lot of chatter, there was a lot of interest as to what the band’s deranged hippie would do next.
Without his production, personality and unique influences it’s hard to imagine that Pavement would occupy the same place that they do today. Without him, they may have never got their first big break with Slanted & Enchanted, it’s clear the band needed him.
As important as Gary was to the band, conflict between them was inevitable. Gary was older, louder, and more theatrical. He wanted to be a rock star when Pavement wanted to stay away from that image.
He was an excellent drummer but Gary’s alcoholism made it so some gigs he could not play at all. Bob Nastanovich was added to the band and taught drums just incase Gary was too inebreated. When Gary was lucid, he was the best drummer the boys had ever heard. When he wasn’t, everything fell apart.
The band was becoming massive, while not having a major record deal. They were philosophically opposed to selling out but Gary was the opposite. He wanted the money and badly. Once trying to secure a million dollar record deal behind the band’s back. Finally, he demanded a contract from the band, when they said no, he quit.
Post-Pavement
Afterwards, Gary had a short-lived renaissance. His new band: Gary Young’s Hospital had a brief hit: ‘Plant Man’. A weird, sincere song about Gary’s fondness for gardening: Plant man knows that the plants will grow. It received an MTV video and record labels were interested. It had real promise.
But in the label meetings, Gary was too drunk, too much of a liability to be signed. As bandmate: Eric Westphal, notes in the film: “Gary could have never written Plant Man without being true to himself but doing just that lead him to destroy it”.
The two sides of Gary are neatly reflected by the composed tracks on the soundtrack. From composers: Edward W. Dahl and (long-term Joanna Newsom collaborator) Noah Georgeson; we get psychedelic and groggy songs that representing his drug addled and unpredictable nature – and calm, innocent ambience.
My only complaint is a missed opportunity. Anyone who buys this record will be a Pavement fan, so the lack of more than three Slanted & Enchanted rarities is a loss. But, on the other hand, what the soundtrack gives us is rewarding in a different way: it is a wider view of Gary’s life.
The emotional kick of the soundtrack – and the film – is the closer: ‘Please Be Happy (For Us).’ In the final scene, Gary improvises a charming little song. He sings: Please be happy, be happy for us, don’t be sad, be happy. It is a child-like, throw away, bit that Gary improvises but it becomes something moving when Scott Kannberg and Stephen Malkmus, join in.
They create a woozy, trippy guitar track along with Gary’s vocals. To me this is them paying their respects to a man they owe a lot. After Gary left the band, they never stopped sending him and his wife money. ‘Please Be Happy (For Us)’ feels like another caring acknowledgement of Gary’s amazing work and personality, it is a real highlight from the soundtrack.
Gary Young struggled greatly in his life, the soundtrack does not glorify that. Instead, it shows him for what he was: caring, destructive, loving and flawed.
Louder Than You Think: A Lo-Fi History of Gary Young and Pavement is available via Independent Project Records on Bandcamp
Article by Laurie Green
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