"Cut Your Hair" | ||||
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Single by Pavement | ||||
from the album Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain | ||||
B-side |
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Released | February 1994 (USA) | |||
Recorded | August–September 1993 | |||
Studio | Random Falls Studio (New York City, New York) | |||
Genre | ||||
Length | 3:09 | |||
Label | Matador | |||
Songwriter(s) | Stephen Malkmus | |||
Producer(s) | Pavement | |||
Pavement singles chronology | ||||
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"Cut Your Hair" is a song by American rock band Pavement from their second album, Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain. It was written by Pavement songwriter and lead singer Stephen Malkmus. The song snidely attacks the importance of image in the music industry.[ citation needed ] In one verse, Malkmus sarcastically recites a fictitious ad looking for a musician to join a band: "advertising looks and chops a must/ no big hair".
The song was released as a single and became the band's best-selling and most popular song. "Cut Your Hair" obtained strong airplay on U.S. indie and alternative radio stations, reaching the top ten on Billboard's Alternative Songs chart in the spring of 1994, spending 12 weeks on the Alternative Billboard chart. [3]
Both B-sides are included on the reissue Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain: LA's Desert Origins . The unlisted B-side track on the 12" version of the single is an instrumental recording of "Rain Ammunition," and has never been reissued.
In May 2007, NME magazine placed "Cut Your Hair" at number 28 in its list of the 50 Greatest Indie Anthems Ever.
The video, released in 1994, is relatively simple, showing the band sitting on a bench at a barber shop, waiting to get their hair cut. Some strange things happen to each band member when they go and sit on the barber's chair:
Each band member has different clothes on when they go back to the bench. After their haircuts, all the band members leave the barbershop very quickly, with Ibold taking a magazine he had been reading.
In an alternate version of the video, a black-and-white TV in the barber shop played a loop of the band acting silly in Malkmus' apartment.
"Cut Your Hair" was featured on the soundtrack to Jackass: Number Two , A Very Brady Sequel , The Ultimate Playlist of Noise , The To Do List , and You, Me and Dupree . It is available as a downloadable track for Guitar Hero 5 .
Chart (1994) | Peak position |
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UK Singles (OCC) [5] | 52 |
US Alternative Airplay ( Billboard ) [6] | 10 |
Pavement is an American indie rock band that formed in Stockton, California, in 1989. For most of their career, the group consisted of Stephen Malkmus, Scott Kannberg, Mark Ibold (bass), Steve West (drums), and Bob Nastanovich. Initially conceived as a recording project, the band at first avoided press or live performances, while attracting considerable underground attention with their early releases. Gradually evolving into a more polished band, Pavement recorded five full-length albums and ten EPs over the course of their decade-long career, though they disbanded with some acrimony in 1999 as the members moved on to other projects. In 2010, they undertook a well-received reunion tour, followed by another international tour in 2022–24.
Stephen Joseph Malkmus is an American musician best known as the primary songwriter, lead singer and guitarist of the indie rock band Pavement. He performs with Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks, Pavement, and as a solo artist.
Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain is the second studio album by American indie rock band Pavement, released on February 14, 1994, by Matador Records. The album saw the band move on towards a more accessible rock sound than that of their more lo-fi debut Slanted and Enchanted and achieve moderate success with the single "Cut Your Hair". The album also saw original drummer Gary Young replaced by Steve West. It was a UK Top 20 hit upon release, although it was not so successful in the US charts.
Wowee Zowee is the third studio album by American indie rock band Pavement, released on April 11, 1995, by Matador Records. Most of it was recorded at Easley Recording in Memphis, Tennessee, where some members of the band had previously worked on Silver Jews' 1994 album Starlite Walker. The album showcases a more experimental side of the band, marking a return to the clatter and unpredictability of their early recordings after the more accessible sound of their 1994 studio album Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain. Its eclectic nature ranges from mellow yet distorted melodies to noise and punk rock, while the lyrics generally explore humorous and cryptic themes. At nearly one hour long, Wowee Zowee is Pavement's longest studio album, filling three sides of a vinyl record. Side four was left blank.
Terror Twilight is the fifth studio album by the American indie rock band Pavement. It was released on June 8, 1999, on Matador Records in the US and Domino Recording Company in the UK.
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Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain: LA's Desert Origins is a compilation album by Pavement released on October 26, 2004. It contains the band's 1994 album, Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain, in its entirety, as well as outtakes and other rarities from that era, some of which had previously been unreleased.
Mark Alan Ibold is an American musician. He is best known as the bass guitarist of the indie rock band Pavement, with whom he recorded four studio albums. Following Pavement's initial break-up in 1999, Ibold joined the alternative rock band Sonic Youth from 2006 until their end in 2011.
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"Gold Soundz" is the second single released from Pavement's 1994 album Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain. The song did not perform particularly well as a single, failing to chart on the Billboard Hot Modern Rock Tracks chart, where their previous single, "Cut Your Hair", peaked at number 10. All the B-sides from both versions of the single are included on the reissue Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain: LA's Desert Origins.
"Girls, Girls, Girls" is a single by American heavy metal band Mötley Crüe. It is the first single from the album of the same name, and was released on May 11, 1987.
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The discography of Pavement, a Stockton, California-based indie rock group, consists of five studio albums, five double-length reissues of the albums, one compilation, ten extended plays, and thirteen singles. This list does not include material performed by members or former members of Pavement that was recorded with Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks, Silver Jews, Preston School of Industry, Free Kitten, The Crust Brothers, or any other associated solo or side projects.
"Send Me Your Money" is a song by Suicidal Tendencies, released as a single in 1990 from their fifth studio album Lights...Camera...Revolution!. It featured a music video that received heavy airplay at MTV's Headbangers Ball and aided in Suicidal's transition from a punk metal band to a thrash metal one. This was the first and only Suicidal Tendencies single to chart in the UK.
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