malkmus PIG LIB: 1% of one

greatest song 2003: 1% of one (just my prediction, a great song)

album out in march, acidcasualties.com

I mean, I know Matos is unlikely to have much investing in this kind of music, but why from others?

I can't find the songs boring. I love the guitar playing.

I've softened on Terror Twilight (the one that interests me the least these days in Brighten the Corners, except for the excellent singles) as I've come to regard it as the first SM solo album....

It's too bad some of you can't get over yourselves and notice how great the album is, but that's to be expected from some of you. Malkmus is paying the price for not being hip anymore, I guess.

I think you've got some nerve saying that the man isn't inspired anymore. That's a very unfair thing to say - I don't think he's any less inspired now than he was back in the S+E days. Just because the man's evolved musically in a way that some of you can't handle, understand, or keep up with, it doesn't mean that he's uninspired.

I think it is more accurate to say that you all aren't on his wavelength anymore, and that's just too bad. Maybe you'll catch up someday.

sincerely

But I'm sincere about loving that record to bits and pieces. And I really do feel bad for the lot of you who can't get into it.

Just got the FIRST one about a month ago, didn't want to pay full price for it. Good stuff.

Still trying to figure out all the words to their songs..."Westy Can Drum." Spirolina, Dixiecrats, what else?

I think SM's also doing really well with the Jicks, now that they've gelled into a rather tight band. I think that one of the best things about Pig Lib is the drumming and bass playing, and how great it is that he's now playing with some really sharp musicians who add something to his playing rather than just supporting it. John Moen in particular suits Malkmus very well, I hope that he sticks with Malkmus on the drums for a long time to come. His performances on "Water And A Seat" and "1% Of One" are really quite special, I think.

give up now, sell your possessions, commit suicide, qed, pdq

I just can't get with The Silver Jews at all. I just really dislike Dave Berman - I think he's a decent poet, but a very bad songwriter. The only Silver Jews song I like is technically a solo Malkmus number, "Blue Arrangements".

after about six songs, though, i left. the new songs sounded really one-dimensional; the time changes and spastic bridges seemed forced and uninspired. the band was really pandering to the hipster crowd; the bass player was particularly unfunny and unintelligent. she kept mentioning that the show was only seven dollars (far below the typical ticket price); at first it appeared as though she was doing so jokingly to explain their mistakes, but she kept repeating it in such a way that i felt as though she really thought we were privileged to pay so little for _the jicks!_. malkmus actually began wincing every time she mentioned the dollar amount.

i hope the new songs sound better in their studio forms, and that he was improvising the lyrics live.

david berman has definitely crafted two albums far superior to the solo malkmus efforts. he just seems more relevant.

I can't agree about Berman, and I'm particularly repulsed by the use of the word 'relevant', but trust me, the studio versions are better.

Westie Can Drum

3:03
The seconds they are sequins
And the minutes string
Raveled round a mannequin
A formless space
A party line at last that
We can all embrace
And segueway to the burning masses

ten to eleven
Don't question, just get in
I think that we are losing our way
Westie--he cannot drum

Half past noon
Visualize a centaur baying
At the moon
His profile is a silver circle
Brings to mind
The portraits of the presidents
And Lincoln's beard
Then why's he got a horse's body?

??
You'll love her
You'll lose her
I think that we are losing our way
Westie--he cannot drum

5:19
Deluded like a Dixiecrat
Why dont'cha
Clog latrine
And clean it like a Dixiecrat
And deck the halls with spirulina

Slow road to Devon
So great, like heaven
I think that we are losing our way
Westie--he cannot drum
No, Westie, he cannot drum

I'VE GOT A KNIFE
I'VE GOT A KNIFE
I'VE GOT A KNIFE

I agree that Jews' output (AW & BF) is superior to the 1st Jicks, as good as that was (someone said bullshit about Church on White just about garnering his respect!? It's the best song on it, I agree, but take your head out of your ass will you.) Bright Flight, in particular, is a humdinging shot of bourbon in the urethra. Berman's lyrics are far superior to Malkmus's, from the opening sweep of 'When God was young ..' all the way on in. He has an inflated poet's vision and perspective that dwarfs Malk's trite and quirky figures. As American Water showed, Malk makes a good lead guitarist in David's band. Why doesn't he stay there? Would Berman even have him?

Greetings from Spain.

Maybe this way?

(pulls out hair, freaking out)
b-b-b-but Malkmus is such a better singer and songwriter than Berman! Berman has no charisma and has no ability to write a decent melody! Eeee!
(/pulls out hair, freaking out)

It's all in good fun.

I'll grant that Malk is a more natural and interesting vocalist. But his voice carries little real emotional weight for me, whereas Berman's deadpan vulnerable drawl and clear diction are heavy with experience. Malkmus's voice is a glorious instrument: he whelps and yelps and does that falsetto and changes register like a vocal trapeze artist turning oval hoops. His 'melodies' are beautifully dissonant and delivered uniquely, like his guitar playing. But so far as emotional gravity is concerned, what does Malk's voice carry to you? I'll tell you what it carries to me: arrogant little slacker kid with his head in the clouds of his own cool. I'm talking about his tone and his posturing and everything that makes his voice so distinctive. And that's appealing on one level, I grant you. He spits on you from a great height, and you are bathed (and grateful). And as far as I can tell, his lyrics are are just slick rollers for his vox sound. He makes lots of incongruous formulations that jar or sweeten as the need arises. But there are no statements, and no simplicity. It's all show. Berman on the other hand has a load of unexpected incongruities (eg 'my horses legs look like four brown shotguns'), but he also hits deep with the kind of simple and direct statement that Malkmus would never write. His croaky brogue is just the ticket for conveying his own America. As is Malkmus's, i spose. I just find Berman's vision more engrossing and feel stronger empathy for what seems his inordinately more compassionate temperament. Malkmus's ego is cool for the kids, and I'm a kid and think wow cool. But for a more elevated justification of being, I turn to DCB. I hope he writes another like Bright Flight and I'd welcome a line to compare with 'My ski vest has buttons like convenience store mirrors and they help me see/ That everything in the room right now/ Is a part of me, oh yeah/ Is a part of me.' (from AW) Malkmus can't write like that. And the argument that Berman doesn't know melody is a nonsense in my view. That line is made by its melody, Berman's effortless execution of it and (yes) the companionship of Malkmus's whining seizure guitar.

I think Berman and Malkmus are like apples and oranges - just because they were/are friends, and Malkmus did the guy a favor by being his guitarist for a while, it doesn't mean they are meant to be compared. I don't really begrudge you for having some unfair feelings about Malkmus, because I'm not very fair about Berman - I just hate that guy's singing so much, and his music just seems like bland faux-Dylan to me. And I don't have much love for Dylan.

or am I wrong? except for a couple of interweb mentalists on this here board (indeed this here thread) I don't know anyone familiar w/this album who doesn't l-l-l-love it, and I'm starting to wonder. (I got rid of my promo copy and no I will not be purchasing it again.) what am I missing here?

Were you one of those people whose interest in Pavement was swayed by that New Yorker article? I was.

Unfortunately, I bought it before I realized that there was a limited edition with a free bonus EP available. How much am I missing?

i saw him live, and the band had want to be better rehearsed than they were that night, let me tell you.

poo! that was what I liked about it. Tracks like The Hexx would've been crap without it and I loved the way the tracks changed style and tempo without warning allt he way through. Not exactly Westing by Musket and Sextant, sure, but something completely different (and imho better).

It's 18 minutes worthy of the album itself.

don't worry about it, people are wrong all the time... it's part of being human.

honestly, i gave up on not "getting" anything long ago (only exception: indie guilt, but only for socialogical research). i can't read record reviews/music writing any more for various reasons.

but if i panned a record, i'd take a stand. this may surprise you but some artists actually read their reviews... continue panning it. ride that fukkerz into the ground. did you listen to it once or twice? maybe that 3rd time will give you the fodder to absolutely kill malkmus dead with the might of your pen.

or blog, whatever.

the reason I bring this up at all is that, like anyone, I've misheard records in the past and wound up changing my mind over time. maybe that will happen here, but I still don't like Terror Twilight apart from three good songs, and the six or seven times I played Pig Lib I didn't hear three good songs. maybe in five years I will hear the error of my ways, but I just wondered if anyone else agreed w/me.

You missed your big chance to tell malkmus that you trashed his new record!!!

"Slanted" just happens to be a terrific fucking album. EVEN IF lots of other people think so!

lots of super hot 18 year old chicks in the crowd, huh?

You attend John Mayer concerts often, do you?

Yeah, Mayer loves those Mellow Candle covers.

dude, don't.

I think the older Malkmus is indeed sexier than ever, in a way. It's weird: he doesn't necessarily look older - his face has just sort of gotten a little wider or something. He looks like some other guy mixed with Steve Malkmus.

Nah, I don't believe it, either. But maybe somebody who knows more than me can help.

And "Us" is a break-up/love song!

Even when he's making an effort to be heart-on-sleeve, people still want to force him into being esoteric through sheer force of will!

Nothing by Malkmus is overrated. Everything he does is perfect. Believe me.

"Matthew, have you heard any songs SM wrote post-Pig Lib that haven't be released yet?"

i have a specific song in mind here -- "we gotta get you a woman" from runt (the song that starts "leeeeroy, boy, is that you?").

It is getting more proggy, though, but only so much. It's not fucking Rush or Yes, it's more like...Pig Lib.

Speaking of two-disc Malk....I got the one that had a bonus disc of b-sides (I'm assuming some of you have it)....Was I the only one that thought "Dynamic Calories" would have been one of the highlights of Pig Lib? I have no idea why they didn't sub that for the Craw Song, which I still hate.

I don't get the dislike of BTC. I adore that record. Most of it was better live, though.

Hmmm, I thought conventional wisdom was that it's Pavement's only misstep, too self-consciously wacky and not cohesive enough. I disagree; there are some days it's my favorite.

I think "Dynamic Calories" wasn't on the record perhaps out of a concern for leaning too heavy on novelty, lyrically. It'd be a better fit on the first Jicks record, probably. Malkmus clearly likes the song a lot, since it was played very frequently on the 2003 tours.

I get what you guys are saying about it having a different feel....however, "lyrical novelty"....what about "Cooked her a din...ner/and, boy, it's a win...ner" Yikes that drives me nuts...

Y'all are right about "Old Jerry" that would have been good on Pig Lib...

Maybe I just take too many things at face value, but I always interpret "Witch Mountain Bridge" as being a song about the occult.

Not strictly on topic, but am I alone in feeling "Pink India" is tremendously underrated? I've been really loving that one lately. I love the live versions, when he usually freaks out on the "Punjabi's finest, bring me your wine list" part.

Ugh. And Spiral's new record - eeek. That's just no good. I want to love that guy, but he's lost it big time. He went alt-country! Bad idea.

I'm a frickin illiterate, so I'll take your word on eliot pount coleridge and wordsworth....but DMC is by no means below Run in terms of importance or delivery....in fact, they are two equally necessary and great parts of the whole....

M@tt, don't take me to mean Run or DMC's better than the other. My point about all those guys is they're word-people who complement each other.

That was Spiral, but with another guy (who is pretty dull) singing. Kelly something. -- Matthew Perpetua (fluxequalsra...), January 11th, 2004.

wait a second here... you are saying that that ISN'T malkmus singing on pavement's cover of "the killing moon"??? of course it is!

Some of the guitar solos seem influenced by Robin Trower - or am I imagining that. That made me think that what was uncool about some of those seventies albums wasn't the guitar solos, as I had begun to think, but the old-fashioned singing style (Trower's singer is unlistenable now, but some of his guitar still stands up, in my opinion. No matter how retro Malkmus tries to get, his voice always sounds 90s slacker-indy, which, in my opinion, is what saves Pig Lib from ludicrousness.

Former Pavement frontman Stephen Malkmus has begun work on a new album which may wind up either as a solo project or a collaboration with his band, the Jicks. "I've been down in the basement working on a different kind of record," he wrote on his official Web site. "The band has been contributing a bit but it has more of a solo vibe than anything I've done in a long time."

Malkmus adds that "we're probably gonna do some group recording" sometime this month. The finished product "looks like a January release though may come earlier," presumably via the artist's long-time label Matador.

Malkmus' last release was 2003's "Pig Lib," which bowed at No. 5 on Billboard's Top Independent Albums chart and has sold 49,000 copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan. He and the Jicks will return to the live stage July 2 at the AV Festival in Malaga, Spain, which will also feature Morrissey, Squarepusher, Stereolab, Trans Am, John Cale, ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead, Four Tet and Shellac.

In related news, Pavement's legacy is chronicled in Rob Jovanovic's new book, "Perfect Sound Forever," released last month by Justin, Charles & Co.

i cringe just hearing his name anymore. it's like watching someone become a junkie- a slow, rotting, bore.

where have all the neo-guys gone?

I am really looking forward to the new Malkmus album. I'm still under the impression Pig Lib is (very possibly) the best thing he's ever done. Definitely my favourite album of 2003.

Hello? Hello hello? Hellooo?

love this album

have listened to this one more than his other solo stuff combined. love the bonus disc too

I saw Malkmus in 2001 at age 14 at a festival and I thought the last song was great, and I spent a while fruitlessly trying to figure out what it was - none of the songs on the s/t sounded like it and I didn't know the lyrics. 19 years later figured out it was "1% of One."

This is among my favorite Malkmus solo albums - in the top three somewhere

yeah this was probably his best imo

Until his latest, the last thing I liked that he did. I would probably take it over the last two Pavement albums.

1. Pig Lib
2. Stephen Malmus
3. Traditional Techniques

Those are my top 3 as well, but I would flip 2 and 3. I like weirdo folky Malkmus.

1. Pig Lib
2. Stephen Malmus
3. Traditional Techniques

^i need to relisten to the ones that came in between but this feels right. def feel comfortable saying his first two solos deserve to be in the top 3.

Maybe

1. Pig Lib
2. Sparkle Hard
3. Traditional Techniques

Sparkle Hard is terrific and should be in any SM solo top 3

1. Pig Lib
2. Mirror Traffic
3. Sparkle Hard
(4. s/t)

you know, the only SM solo album (with or without jicks) I didn't really enjoy is Wig Out at Jagbags, which just felt boring and by the numbers. Agree that Sparkle Hard is extremely strong. Real Emotional Trash also sounded great the last time I played it ...

i dunno, jenny and the ess dog, church on white, the hook i like sparkle hard but i don't think it has songs as strong as that
i'll check it out again

Wig Out was where I thought "he's finally totally lost it". It was so Malkmus it hurt, like an impression of himself. But the solo album he released recently made me think he might have found it again.

first album has a lot of strong songs and manages to be playful but not annoying

otm. the 1st album doesnt feel like a lost pavement album to me, but the best (or at least my favorite) songs on it def feel like they could have been from a version of pavement that retained the sense of fun that was ebbing from on the later records. pig lib resonates for me as his first album as a fully formed solo artist, very much its own thing

xxp That's funny -- Wig Out is the only one that has sort of caught my ear! (not counting the Pig Lib bonus EP, which I do really like.)

Wig Out was where I thought "he's finally totally lost it".

Have you heard Groove Denied?

as a Malkmus lifer, i have to say, i thought Groove Denied was ... bad. and seeing him do it live didn't change that opinion at all.

yeah kinda cool in theory but not good

sparkle hard really sounded good today

yeah, i was really excited when it was announced, mostly because when he is indulging his weirder interests, i always dig it. but...

underground

Must be twenty years eh? I had Animal Midnight stuck on my head the other day. This is easily in my top three Pave-related albums

But seriously this is such a classic album. I underrated 'Sheets' at the time but that whole "Hwah Hwah Hwah Hwah Hwah!" section is so great

How to score the bonus EP in 2023? #YSI #Leonardo

This is my favorite SM solo (at least until Traditional Techniques), but my version swaps a couple songs from the bonus disc for Animal Midnight and I think Sheets.

Wait, my version subs:

Vanessa from Queens
Sheets
Animal Midnight

For:
Dynamic Calories (opener)
Fractions & Feelings
Old Jerry

Hmmmm

Old Jerry is straight up one of my favorite Malk solo songs

how to score ;-)

Those are good songs but it's swapping out some of the highlights

Times are gonna change. You will be amazed...

Steve Shasta, I know it's a dirty word but if you're desperate Sp*tify has the Dark Wave EP with those tracks on it

"(Do Not Feed the) Oyster" is the most obnoxious song he'd written to date.

I was quite enjoying it listening back last night.

Think the outliers here are Dark Wave and Craw Song, but they've grown on me now. He got a lot more obnoxious on Face The Truth. 'Pencil Rot' is pretty much 'Dark Wave' but with the annoying factor amped up.

Craw Song took forever to charm me, now it seems essential.

I don’t know if I’d revise the overall tracklist. Every piece is where it needs to be.

Yeah and the little xtra EP works as a piece too. I still can't get into the following two albums despite trying a few times. Might go do a deep dive on what I've missed

Steve Shasta, I know it's a dirty word but if you're desperate Sp*tify has the Dark Wave EP with those tracks on it

― ...eh you get the gist of it (dog latin), Thursday, December 7, 2023 2:53 AM (one hour ago)

I need to move to UK I guess. :`(

https://www.discogs.com/release/683373-Stephen-Malkmus-The-Jicks-Pig-Lib

Had no idea Poet And The Witch was a cover!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6Qw-J00Dek

there is def something a bit presidents of the united states of america to '(do not feed the) oyster' but there are some elegant flourishes that give it a little extra, he's written more obnoxious songs

Haha yeah, I don't really like it when he flips into wilfully whacky surrealism (following up a track called 'Dragonfly Pie' with a song called 'Hopscotch Willie', I mean"