Pavement's Gary Young passed away at age 70...

My friend the Hillbillage gave me a bunch of albums to listen to back in the very early 2000's by the band Pavement.  Once I listened to the first album, Slanted and Enchanted, it stayed in my rotation for months.  It was that fantastic.

I finally got around to listening the the second record, Crooked Rain Crooked Rain much later on.  It was just as impressive.  But, as I now had two Pavement records in my rotation, which I really thought the world of, I didn't get around to listening to the three final albums for a few years.

You see, I dove into all the early EP's and Singles, and Unreleased Tracks from those first two records instead of moving on to the later recorded output.  I was happy doing so.

Nowadays, I do enjoy their entire output, but those first two were and are magical still.

Which brings me around to announcing the death of  Pavement's Original Drummer Gary Young, who also Produced their first records in his garage studio.

From Wikipedia:  Pavements first EP, Slay Tracks (1933-1969), was recorded at  Gary Young's "Louder Than You Think Studio" with Young contributing drums.  Young would also appear on their next two EPs, Demolition Plot J-7, and Perfect Sound Forever, released in 1990 and 1991, respectively, as well as their 1992 debut album, Slanted and Enchanted. Young began gaining the band a degree of notoriety with his on- and offstage antics. He was noted for greeting the audience at the door, giving out vegetables, such as cabbage, to fans, and for doing headstands.

His last release as a member of the group was the EP Watery, Domestic. He later appeared on two tracks on the Major Leagues EP as a producer.

Young was fired from Pavement in 1993 due to conflicts with the rest of the band. He reunited with the band to play two shows in 2010.