Pavement’s Soundtrack to Include Their First New Song in 25 Years

A new film about pavements

A new film focused on the rock band Pavement titled Sidewalks will feature the band’s first song in 25 years as part of its soundtrack.

Film details and release date

This half-documentary, half-biographical feature had its premiere at the Venice Film Festival on September 3, with performances by Joe Keery and Jason Schwartzman. It is set to be available on MUBI in the spring.

Soundtrack highlights and podcast insights

The film will be accompanied by an official soundtrack that will include Pavement’s first new song in 25 years.

Band member Scott Kanneberg (also known as The Spiral Staircase), director Alex Ross Perry, and the film’s producer and editor Robert Greene were featured guests on Vish Khanna’s Creative Control podcast this week. Kanneberg remarked, “There will be a new Pavement song on the soundtrack, that’s all I’ll tell you.”

Perry, the director, chimed in: “Even I didn’t know that!” To which Kanneberg added, “I just heard his mix today and it’s pretty good.”

Kanneberg shared that the track isn’t an official studio recording but rather an experiment from their rehearsals. He noted, “It’s not a big deal. It’s just cool because it’s something special and it’s a song that we all really enjoyed playing.”

You can listen to the full podcast episode here. Below is a clip of the new track.

The film was initially announced in 2022 by director Alex Ross Perry, who previously created the musical Inclined! Fascinated!, which premiered in New York that same year.

In September, a clip surfaced featuring Keery and Schwartzman in their respective roles, showcasing a young Pavement with voiceover by Stephen Malkmus. The reconstruction depicts Stranger Things star Keery portraying Malkmus.

In the clip, he gets a call from Matador Records executives Chris Lombardi and Gerard Cosloy, played by Schwartzman and Tim Heidecker, respectively, who inform them about the gig at Saturday Night Live, hosted by Quentin Tarantino.

Speaking with Vanity Fair ahead of the film’s premiere, Perry shared more insights into what fans can expect. He stated: “You will only have one film on Pavement. It’s not Scorsese about to make his fourth and fifth Dylan films. So why don’t I just make every Pavement movie that I, as a fan, would want to see or wouldn’t want to see.”