Gary Young

Though perhaps best known for his stint as the drummer for <a href="spotify:artist:3inCNiUr4R6XQ3W43s9Aqi">Pavement</a> in the band's earliest days, Gary Young had a wild and colorful life in music both before then and long after. In addition to working as a producer, show promoter, and audio technology engineer, Young released solo music intermittently into the 2010s, both under his own name and as Gary Young's Hospital. His approach could change drastically from one song to the next, with playful singsong melodies sitting next to lo-fi experiments on releases like his 1994 long-player, Hospital, all the way through to 2016 EP Malfunction.

Young was born in Mamaroneck, New York in 1953. By the early '80s, he had relocated to Stockton, California, where he was involved in the area punk scene. Young played in local band the Fall of Christianity and also booked Stockton shows for bigger punk bands like <a href="spotify:artist:5Mhs3Eu8lU6sRCtRYsmABV">Black Flag</a> and the <a href="spotify:artist:4ubY8RYfXkcEqgjEMDuLYl">Circle Jerks</a>. By the end of the decade, he was operating a recording studio called Louder Than You Think, which is where he worked as engineer as well as drummer for the earliest recordings by future indie rock blueprinters <a href="spotify:artist:3inCNiUr4R6XQ3W43s9Aqi">Pavement</a>. <a href="spotify:artist:3inCNiUr4R6XQ3W43s9Aqi">Pavement</a> began as the duo of <a href="spotify:artist:0WISkx0PwT6lYWdPqKUJY8">Stephen Malkmus</a> and Scott "Spiral Stairs" Kannberg in 1989, and they enlisted Young as producer and drummer for their first EP, Slay Tracks: 1933–1969, which was recorded and released that same year. Young stayed in this role with <a href="spotify:artist:3inCNiUr4R6XQ3W43s9Aqi">Pavement</a> for the next several years, recording the majority of their early output (including their 1992 debut LP, Slanted and Enchanted) and playing drums for the band as they grew in popularity. His playing style was straightforward and uncomplicated but worked well with <a href="spotify:artist:3inCNiUr4R6XQ3W43s9Aqi">Pavement</a>'s first phases of evolution, which relied on unschooled-sounding performances and lo-fi production to shape new concepts of rock music. <a href="spotify:artist:3inCNiUr4R6XQ3W43s9Aqi">Pavement</a> soon outgrew this phase, however, and both Young's technically lacking playing and his outrageous behavior at the group's shows began creating problems. Young left <a href="spotify:artist:3inCNiUr4R6XQ3W43s9Aqi">Pavement</a> in 1993, though he would join the band onstage once more, in 2010, for a pair of reunion shows.

After breaking camp with <a href="spotify:artist:3inCNiUr4R6XQ3W43s9Aqi">Pavement</a>, Young pursued a career under his own name, releasing debut solo effort Hospital in 1994. He would release several other albums in a similar style under the name Gary Young's Hospital, including 1999's Things We Do for You and 2004's The Grey Album. Young's music got some dubious exposure when the video for his quirky, nursery rhyme-like song "Plant Man" was featured on a 1994 episode of MTV's Beavis and Butthead.

In addition to making music, Young also worked on innovations in recording technology. He patented a shock mount for microphones and manufactured and sold thousands of them as the years went on. In 2016, he teamed with Richard Selleseth for an EP's worth of new songs titled Malfunction. In 2023, Young was the subject of the documentary film Louder Than You Think, which premiered at that year's South by Southwest festival. On August 17, 2023, Young died at his Stockton home. He was 70. ~ Fred Thomas, Rovi