On March 9, Matador will release Quarantine the Past: The Best of Pavement in light of the band’s worldwide reunion tour. I usually stay away from compilations if they don’t contain unreleased material, but Pavement deserves its own given the band’s stature. I expected Quarantine the Past to contain fan favorites, but also selections the band enjoys to play. In looking at the track list recently unveiled on the Matablog, I can say that those involved really did a great job putting it together.

The track list is below:

Quarantine the Past: The Best of Pavement

01 Gold Soundz (Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain)
02 Frontwards (Watery, Domestic EP)
03 Mellow Jazz Docent (Perfect Sound Forever EP)
04 Stereo (Brighten the Corners)
05 In the Mouth a Desert (Slanted & Enchanted)
06 Two States (Slanted & Enchanted)
07 Cut Your Hair (Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain)
08 Shady Lane / J Vs. S (Brighten the Corners)
09 Here (Slanted & Enchanted)
10 Unfair (Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain)
11 Grounded (Wowee Zowee)
12 Summer Babe (Winter Version) (Slanted & Enchanted)
13 Range Life (Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain)
14 Date w/ IKEA (Brighten the Corners)
15 Debris Slide (Perfect Sound Forever EP)
16 Shoot the Singer (1 Sick Verse) (Watery, Domestic EP)
17 Spit on a Stranger (Terror Twilight)
18 Heaven Is a Truck (Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain)
19 Trigger Cut/Wounded-Kite at :17 (Slanted and Enchanted)
20 Embassy Row (Brighten the Corners)
21 Box Elder (Slay Tracks 1933-1969 EP)
22 Unseen Power of the Picket Fence (No Alternative compilation)
23 Fight This Generation (Wowee Zowee)

Pavement guitarist Spiral Stairs recently spoke with NME about the possibility of a best-of Pavement compilation. As previously reported, the band will tour for the time since their breakup in 1999, including stops at various festivals across the globe.

Most Pavement crazies already own all of the band’s available material, so it’s nice to know that this prospective compilation will contain previously unreleased radio sessions.

The guitarist, real name Scott Kannberg, told NME.COM that the album would be likely to feature outtakes as well as the band’s best-known songs, and be released around the same time of their reunion gigs next year.

“There’s talk of doing a best of, with some really cool outtakes on that,” he explained. “The very first radio show that Pavement ever did has never been released. I don’t think anyone’s heard it, so we’ll put that out there sometime.”

The Pavement deluxe reissues are incredible. Each package contains the standard album, b-sides, outtakes, and live performances. For a price hovering around 16 bucks, it’s a great deal. I didn’t think Pavement would be the type of band to release a best-of, but I’m game if we get to hear an ancient radio session. The compilation will coincide with the reunion tour, so I guess it’s good to a have a new release out there.

They should just make an album of original material and be done with it. I’m sure they’ll get the itch later in life, but fans won’t want to hear Stephen Malkmus waxing nostalgic. We want their strange brand of rock and we it now!