Pavement movie "Pavements" screens at Fox Theatre, Thursday

Pavements, Alex Ross Perry's epic meta-rockumentary about alt-rock stars Pavement screens at the Fox on Thursday at 6:30 pm. 

"Pavements" is a slightly bent rockumentary about the 90s alt-rock band Pavement from beautiful suburban Stockton, CA which combines documentary footage of the band shot over their career with fictionalized preparations for a biopic and also an off-Broadway musical based on songs from their back catalogue.

From quirky filmmaker/video director Alex Ross Perry – behind the movies you probably haven't seen “Listen Up Philip,” “Queen Of Earth,” “Golden Exits,” “Her Smell” – comes the epic meta-rockumentary "Pavements" that intercuts talking head commentary (from Sonic Youth's Kim Gordon, Matador Records honcho Gerard Cosloy, etc) with rehearsal room clips of the real Stephen Malkmus, Spiral Stairs, Bob Nastanovich, Mark Ibold and Steve West trying to relearn their own songs for a Pavement reunion tour in 2022 with footage tracking a fictional off-Broadway musical inspired by the band's tunes called "Slanted! Enchanted!" simultaneously with a Hollywood-style biopic (starring Jason Schwartzman as Matador founder Chris Lombardi) along with the creation of a pop-up museum filled with Pavement's gig posters, print ads, song lyrics and merch. Stranger Things' Joe Keery (Steve Harrington) does a brilliant job in the role of an up-and-coming young method actor trying desperately to become S.M., affecting his look, clothes, mannerisms and speech patterns with entertaining results. It might sound like a confused two-hour mess but Perry actually pulls off the musical & biopic within a documentary concept with Fassbinder-esque apblomb – how's that for a poster-ready pull quote?  

 Screens at the Fox Theatre (2236 Queen St. East) on Thursday (May 22) at 6:30 pm. Get tickets right here. Watch the trailer below along with some videos, interviews and performance footage. Those interested can get a digital version of the 41-song Pavements film soundtrack  being released by Matador Records on May 30th right here.

The Two Koreas mark crystal anniversary with non-career retrospective

Stuart Berman and crew celebrate the release of The 15th at The Horseshoe opening for Spiral Stairs Sunday at 7:30 pm.

The only band in music history to open for Wire, call Mac DeMarco a labelmate for about two weeks, and play an in-store at the Eaton Centre Hot Topic, The Two Koreas mark 15 years of sporadic existence the only way they know how: with an egregious display of self-aggrandizement and cheap sentiment.

The 15th: A Revisionist History of The Two Koreas (out now) does just what it says in the pixelated print on the thumbnail: compile and reshuffle 15 neglected back-catalogue castaways to create the illusion that Toronto’s preeminent practitioners of electric jangular beat muzik have just released 2019’s most vital new rock ‘n’ roll record.

The 15th collects several Dan Burke-certified 2Ks klassix, some seriously slept-on deep cuts, radio sessions, and previously unreleased live material as if the botched MySpace server migration never happened. It’s the perfect Two Koreas album no matter if your knee-jerk reaction is “who the fuck are these guys?” or “are those dudes actually still around?”

Spiral Stairs, The Two Koreas @ The Horseshoe, March 24

Check out the new Spiral Stairs video for "Hyp-No-Tized" off We Wanna Be Hyp-No-Tized out March 22.