Last fall, when the American rock band Pavement announced it would reunite for a series of concerts in New York's Central Park one year hence, nobody seemed surprised. Though the group stopped touring and recording 10 years ago, it never officially called it quits. The feeling was that Stephen Malkmus, Pavement's creative kernel, wanted to pursue other projects. His four colleagues didn't have a choice since they were more or less along for a ride that had already lasted a decade. This loose interpersonal relationship was central to Pavement's unique position in pop music. Many rock bands are legendary for internal discord, but it's unclear whether any have ever succeeded as well as Pavement has with such a fundamentally tenuous group dynamic.

"Pavement was always more of a project than a band," says the group's percussionist, Bob Nastanovich, from his home in Des Moines, Iowa. "And when more business aspects came into play, it became a serious project. By the mid-'90s everybody had their own set of interests, and that involved people living in different parts of the country, which made typical band activities not possible."

Nastanovich should know. He's always been the member with the most undefined role, which isn't to suggest his participation isn't as vital as any other individual member's, save Malkmus', only that the participation is, for the most part, extramusical.