Cut Your Hair

Last updated
"Cut Your Hair"
Pavement-Cut-Your-Hair-376720.jpg
Single by Pavement
from the album Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain
B-side
  • "Camera"
  • "Stare"
ReleasedFebruary 1994 (USA)
RecordedAugust–September 1993
Studio Random Falls Studio (New York City, New York)
Genre
Length3:09
Label Matador
Songwriter(s) Stephen Malkmus
Producer(s) Pavement
Pavement singles chronology
"Trigger Cut"
(1992)
"Cut Your Hair"
(1994)
"Gold Soundz"
(1994)

"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".

Contents

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.

Track listing

  1. "Cut Your Hair"
  2. "Camera" (R.E.M. cover)
  3. "Stare"
  4. "Rain Ammunition (instrumental)" (hidden track on 12")

The video

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.

Soundtrack appearances

"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 performance

Chart (1994)Peak
position
Australia (ARIA) [5] 188
UK Singles (OCC) [6] 52
US Alternative Airplay ( Billboard ) [7] 10

References

  1. Hudson, Alex (June 19, 2015). "Wilco "Cut Your Hair" (Pavement cover) (live video)". Exclaim! . Retrieved June 8, 2021.
  2. Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain - Pavement | Songs, Reviews, Credits". AllMusic . Retrieved June 8, 2021.
  3. "Alternative Airplay (June 11, 1994)". Billboard. 2 January 2013. Archived from the original on November 20, 2021.
  4. "Guitar Hero DLC: Nada Surf, Pavement, and more". 30 November 2009.
  5. { "Pavement (American Indie rock group) ARIA Chart history to 2024, received from ARIA in November 2024". ARIA. Retrieved November 22, 2024 via Imgur.com. N.B. The High Point number in the NAT column represents the release's peak on the national chart.
  6. "Pavement: Artist Chart History". Official Charts Company.
  7. "Pavement Chart History (Alternative Airplay)". Billboard.