The lore of Pavement’s early days has always circled back to one gravitationally chaotic force: Gary Young. The headstands, the beer, the “Plantman,” the anything-could-happen energy that helped define not just Pavement’s first recordings, but the entire mythology of messy, magical, homemade ’90s indie rock. Now, that world is getting preserved—and cracked back open—with the upcoming soundtrack to Louder Than You Think: A Lo-Fi History of Gary Young & Pavement, arriving January 30, 2026 via Independent Project Records.
The soundtrack serves as a companion to the SXSW-winning 2023 documentary, but it’s also something bigger: a deep-dive anthology of Stockton weirdness, featuring rare and previously unheard recordings from Young, Pavement, and the broader punk/post-punk underground he swam in before anyone outside the Central Valley knew who Stephen Malkmus was.
- Two digital singles are already out:
“Please Be Happy (For Us)” — a final, unexpectedly touching collaboration between Gary Young and Pavement, born from an on-camera improvised ditty and later expanded into a trippy, warm-hearted sendoff by Spiral Stairs (with Malkmus adding some classic feedback wails). - “Summer Babe (Live May 19, 1992)” — a raw early Pavement recording tracked at Sacramento’s Cattle Club, capturing the band in their scrappy prime.
If the documentary framed Young as a psychedelic-meets-punk polymath, the soundtrack backs it up with receipts. Alongside Pavement live cuts, there are selections from Stockton’s lost-to-time hardcore scene—Fall of Christianity, CRLLL, The Authorities, Hot Spit Dancers—and a window into Young’s own delightfully bizarre universe via Gary Young’s Hospital. Tracks by Edward W. Dahl and Noah Georgeson (who has worked with Joanna Newsom, Devendra Banhart, and Cate Le Bon) add atmospheric score pieces that tie the musical chaos into something cohesive.
Spiral Stairs himself puts it bluntly:
“This soundtrack captures the spirit and warped vision that could only come from Gary and the ‘underbelly of California,’ Stockton!”
Young’s presence looms over the whole release—sometimes messy, sometimes transcendent, always unmistakably him. Even before Pavement, he was shaping a sound and scene that would go on to influence generations of indie kids armed with four-tracks, cheap guitars, and too much imagination.
The soundtrack arrives via Independent Project Records, long known for its obsessively crafted physical releases and Bruce Licher’s hand-letterpress artwork. True to form, Louder Than You Think will get digital, CD, and both black and colored vinyl editions—exactly the kind of packaging Young’s idiosyncratic legacy deserves.
For longtime Pavement fans, archivists, and anyone who believes lo-fi isn’t just a sound but a worldview, this one’s required listening.
Louder Than You Think: A Lo-Fi History of Gary Young & Pavement (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
Out January 30, 2026 via Independent Project Records.