Pavement's deep cut-turned-hit "Harness Your Hopes" gets a music video

Pavement has no plans of making more music, but that hasn’t stopped it from giving fans something new this year. Besides the awaited Terror Twilight reissue (featuring 28 previously unreleased tracks), Matador has now announced a reissue of the Spit On A Stranger EP. It’ll arrive on April 8, the same day as Terror Twilight: Farewell Horizontal.

To celebrate the news of the Spit On A Stranger reissue, Pavement released a music video for their B-side turned hit “Harness Your Hopes,” starring Sophie Thatcher from Yellowjackets, who aptly dons the yellow raincoat from “Carrot Rope.”

In the video, directed by Alex Ross Perry (Her Smell), Sophie has a “Pepe Silvia” moment, and she tries to figure out what words rhyme with Pavement. She joins the band in footage from previous music videos, including “Carrot Rope,” “Cut Your Hair,” “Major Leagues,” and “Gold Soundz.”

This is the first time that Spit On A Stranger will be released in formats other than CD. But some of the songs—like “Harness Your Hopes”—are already available to stream, because they were featured in compilation album Brightened The Corners: Nicene Creedence Edition. This version of Spit On A Stranger also features a live version of “Harness Your Hopes,” recorded at Brixton Academy in 1999.

The song, a deep cut so deep that Stephen Malkmus told Stereogum he didn’t recognize it when he heard it in public, has mysteriously become the band’s top streamed song on Spotify and made rounds on viral TikToks, becoming popular amongst the band’s new, young fans.

As previously reported, Pavement is heading on a reunion world tour for the first time in a decade, starting in June at Barcelona-based music festival Primavera Sound.

The track list for the Spit On A Stranger reissue is listed below.

Spit On A Stranger EP

1. Spit on a Stranger

2. Harness Your Hopes

3. Roll With the Wind

4. The Porpoise and the Hand Grenade

5. Rooftop Gambler

6. Harness Your Hopes (Live Brixton Academy, 1999)