Oops, you clearly weren’t there back in the day. Pavement weren’t “gazing” (Wikipedia entry here; lame Forumosa thread started by yours truly [url=Shoegaze?
Funny thing about Pavement for me: I’ve always liked them, but I could never actually listen to a whole album in one sitting. It was always one or two tracks here and there that sufficed. Though I think their last, Terror Twilight, was their best. I could always listen to the first five tracks on that one in a row.
Terror Twilight was the soundtrack to the immediate post-9/21 era for me. For some reason I can’t explain, I found it soothing while the ground was rumbling beneath me in a tent outside a temple.