Stephen Malkmus

I really hope this means we’re closer to a new Malkmus solo record

Yeah, hoping the same.

More Traditional Techniques, plz.

I wouldn't complain, but since it's been six years now I'm primed for another full on Jicks record too.

SM has not one but 2 albums recorded, it's just a matter of getting them released.

Jicks are probably done. Jake (the 7th and final Jick?) is the only one still actively performing music, albeit with Malkmus.

!

is it correct to assume one is a traditional techniques follow-up and one is a more typical malkmus rock album (though i guess without the jicks)

I had totally missed that about the Jicks being done, that's a bummer.

More Traditional Techniques, plz.

i vaguely remember something about him working on a follow-up with the band he'd put together to tour it since the tour was cancelled due to covid?

My personal dream album would be SM applying his current songwriting approach backwards to the S&E-era sonic palette. Probably never gonna happen.

Traditional Techniques suffered so much from the Covid lockdown, I think they cancelled that whole tour but the band was going to be great for that.

Traditional Techniques and the Dylan album were my soundtrack to the paranoid first months of Covid.

Trad Tech should've been right up my alley but I just couldn't get into it beyond a couple of songs. I should revisit.

That electronic album was terrible.

Proggy rock SM is still my favorite SM. I'd take something like Sparkle Hard in a heartbeat.

^^ Yeah, I like Trad Tech a ton and even Groove Denied, to a lesser degree, but an album with some trademark SM prog swerves would be great.

Sparkle Hard was such a relief (could they ever really play like that again?) and remains the best of his late records.

Traditional Techniques has been a slow grower for me, but I love it. And honestly, Groove Denied isn’t among his better records; it’s an interesting side path.

I'm still bummed the Trad Tech tour dates never got rescheduled. A "normal" Malkmus album along the lines of Sparkle Hard is what I'd most like to hear now though.

Trad Tech = best SM album imo

^^^agree

My people!

(though I like Pig Lib equally).

I'd go top three:

Pig Lib
S/T
Trad Techniques

Groove Denied was abysmal

I like Mirror Traffic and Real Emotional Trash a lot

Even the albums I don’t much like, when I go back they’re better than remembered - it was startling recently to pull out Real Emotional Trash and Wig Out and feel, finally, like I fully *got* those albums. Everything kinda clicked.

real emotional trash is the best thing he ever did

I must try RET again, I thought it was a bit wanky at the time although I thought that about Pig Lib for years too

I think that on some level, when they came out I thought both RET and Wag Out were a bit too silly or goofy, somehow.

I do like jammy Malkmus tho

leaning into the jams is what makes it so great

it was startling recently to pull out Real Emotional Trash and Wig Out and feel, finally, like I fully *got* those albums. Everything kinda clicked.

that happened to me with Wig Out recently too. I'd always thought of it as a lesser retread of Mirror Traffic, but for now I'd rather listen to that than MT. Sparkle Hard felt like a huge step up from both of them though. The S/T and Pig Lib are probably always going to be my favorites for sentimental reasons, but Sparkle Hard is my non-sentimental favorite.

i have not spent enough time with Sparkle Hard, I need to

real emotional trash is the best thing he ever did

― ufo, Tuesday, 27 February 2024 21:29 (two days ago) link

totally otm, really feels like the peak of his playing and arranging post-pavement

I shrugged at RET back when it came out but I pulled it out last night and idk what kind of shit I had in my ears in 2008 because it really is incredible. Pig Lib has always been my favorite and it sounded like that but more

SM@TTTPDX-022424
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFc6q0VNU_A

(shredded vocal tonezzz, raw COVID superspread edition)

Funny that I was about 15 feet away from that, but there was a standing crowd between the table I was at and the stage, so only listened to it.

Thanks, Steve!

Alright which one of you runs the AcidCasualties youtube channel lol.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UhVUME1SC8E

There were rumors... SM was staying with Justine & Damon at the time and ~something happened~ and Damon never brought up SM/Pavement's name again in the press ever afterwards.

also iirc Justine was almost a Jick circa 2001 (to replace Heather or Mike?)

[this is olde internet lore culled from mailing lists]

there's a Magnet interview where Bob is more direct about it:

https://magnetmagazine.com/2001/04/01/stephen-malkmus-being-stephen-malkmus/

lol @ Bob

95% off-topic but former-Jick Heather wrote an amazing song with her brother and I must share it with you in the event you, dear reader, have never heard it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKMR8vAarYo

Steve Shasta, while watching that video that’s exactly what I was thinking about! (The subtext of a Malkmus/Albarn conversation about shoes)

steve and justine played a lot of ping pong on lollapalooza, according to a don't-you-wish-this-was-salacious-because-their-haircuts-and-coolness-match spin or alternative press article i read at the time. their x cover of unheard music is an interesting study of contrasts, it reminded me at the time of the gainsbourg duets in its "why am i even singing this" lazy dude singing with an earnest yet ultimately unknowable hot chick. a romcom with them and damon - i'd half watch it, i admit. unheard music doesn't really fit into either elastica or pavement's discography, although i think i have it in my mp3 collections as a pavement middle era nonlp track and it adds some pep to the turgid brighten the corners b-sides.

I really like the X cover – I think SM says somewhere how Los Angeles is one of his favorite records

The gossip is not that interesting, but I remember this era of music fondly, as it was the beginning of my formative years of listening and reading about music, so I found the clip today and was just remembering about it! (12 year old in BRA reading about this Brighten the Corners import on the music mag of choice)

Soft launched tease going on in social media space of new super band:

Stephen Malkmus, Matt Sweeney, Emmett Kelly & Jim White

More details to follow?

The Malkmus-Sweeney-Kelly-White Axis

There was some talk over on the Malkmus POX thread, but this is probably a better place for it.

🙂

Sweeney-Kelly Sleater-Kinney double bill 2025

Newest detail is that they've landed on a name, The Hard Quartet. New social media accounts launched today.

interesting that it's being presented as a band not "Stephen Malkmus and ..." Could be cool!