Stephen Malkmus

at least two of the new songs they played sounded like the doors to me. i can't decide if that's a good thing.

1. The Zombies "Time of the Season"
2. Yoko Ono "Walking on Thin Ice"

no, sir. i am not. if i'm anything, it's disappointed that someone w/ so much potential. so little returns

idk where 2 put this but i liked this a lot in 2005 and it's still dear 2 me

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6424258467693494613

now stefan malkamus is walking around w/ my face

This is a very good and interesting interview!
http://www.cowbellmagazine.com/home/2011/8/1/rule-portlandia.html

Good interview but interjections like this remind me why I hate (music) journalism:

In the time of Ke$ha and Katy Perry, in the post-empire era of the music-industrial complex, when radio has become the horse-drawn carriage of the Information Age, songs no longer “mean a lot when songs are bought.”

What does this even mean?

I'm so jealous he's moving to Berlin.

What does this even mean?

I think he's trying to say that it doesn't matter as much as it used to to get a song on the radio.

http://mentholmountains.blogspot.com/2011/08/la-guns-intangible-showdown.html#more

haha

I don't want anybody to get hurt.
I can just see the two factions healing their schism
and coming after you with both barrels blazin.
These headbangers are angry and vindictive.
They've been looking for revenge since '92
and let's face it--
you weren't far from the scene of the crime.

new album sounds good! streaming on the npr today.

lol

Yeah, the new album sounds really good. I've got the NPR thing streaming the thing in full so I'm not sure of the exact track name I'm on right now, but the guitar workout a couple tracks after "Senator" is awesome.

this album is kinda crazy. all over the place. some of it sounds like demos to me. liking the alex chilton-y Tune Grief.

no one is (as i are be) sounds like ode to billie joe.

so excited to listen to this!

"gorgeous georgie" is song titles v much in character

i'm only half-listening to this but this is real clean sounding - the short track lengths and the lightness of his vocals give it this real airy feel. it's all very agreeable, this sounds like the style i want malk to be going for at this stage in his career. i think i'm going to like this

each song is a jam. another great album. malkmus solo > pavement

http://www.avclub.com/articles/stephen-malkmus-forced-to-rename-his-album-out-of,60486/

"fall away" is really nice

"stick figures in love"

Yeah I was just listening to this earlier thinking Fall Away is my favourite song, it's really sweet. The whole album is really enjoyable.

one of these nights i'll have to listen to this when i haven't been drinking but i'm pretty sure i like this album a good amount

there was an ad for the this in spotify telling me to listen to it so i clicked on it and it wasn't available for me to play

this album is already growing on me big time

there was an ad for the this in spotify telling me to listen to it so i clicked on it and it wasn't available for me to play

Yeah, that happened to me too. The ad's popped up several times a day for the past couple of days, not sure who's to blame for that one, but its annoying to keep getting promised something I can't listen to. Luckily we have the NPR stream for now.

ok serious lols at that whole mail exchange

you never know what an unsophisticated consumer might think.

yeah honestly, berman and malkmus need to make another record again.

While I feel a little jaded on the whole Malkmus Schtik this record sounds like his best set of songs since Crooked Rain.

!

that's a big claim

more like dinglepicker

Yeah well it is a big claim I suppose, but I didn't really rate the consistency of latter period Pavement myself. And found the other solo records, apart from the first to be collections of mostly jams in search of songs, or an excuse to show us how much he had improved his soloing. As I implied upthread I'm a bit over his whole style anyway and so I can't say my comment comes for someone who is truly invested and cares deeply about the guys work anymore. I feel a lot more detached than I was when Westing or Slanted or Watery Domestic came out and he meant everything to me. I listen to his stuff now out of respect for those earlier records but not expecting much. Hell, its only a claim - an early claim at that, I've only listened a couple of times and was pleasantly surprised- if unexcited. Thanks anyway Buzza for yer constructive and enlightening reply.

first malkmus solo album was his best set of songs since 'crooked rain.' pavement is his buffalo springfield and the jicks his crazy horse. looking forward to seeing these new jams live

bullshit analogy imo, and i like solo Malkmus

pavement kind of sucked after their first two albums

die

this is awesome partly because it is sooo late pavement

be mellow bro

i was just foolin

Yeah I see the sound of this as somewhere between Wowee Zowee and Brighten the Corners and as being overall more consistent than both. It has the kind of laid back, off the cuff feel of WZ combined with some of the more elegant, composed BTC feel. Nothing as good as We Dance though, and maybe Grounded.

You guys get pretty 'het up' if anyone expresses an opinion different to your own, for Malkmus stuff. I don't feel like I am being unreasonable. Must be Sacred Cow syndrome. If you don't agree then explain why and get a conversation going- after all that's the point of this thread and board isn't it?

new board description

explain why and get a conversation going about music.com ??

maybe not. tee he.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/21/arts/music/stephen-malkmus-the-jicks-and-beck-mirror-traffic.html?_r=1&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha28 Malkmus and Beck and bandmates

Mr. Malkmus generally stuck to his songwriting strategy of creating riffs inspired by favorite or recently heard songs and improvising his lyrics on the spot. (This accounts for tracks like “No One Is (As I Are Be),” which combines the gentle acoustic guitar of Bobbie Gentry’s “Ode to Billie Joe” with the Malkmusian line “I cannot even do one sit-up, sit-ups are so bourgeoise.”) Mr. Hansen said he tried not to put his thumb on the scale too much, though he was sorry to see Mr. Malkmus lose a lyric that rhymed “Vietnam” with “lip balm.”

The decision to write and record “Mirror Traffic” before last year’s Pavement reunion tour, Mr. Malkmus acknowledged, was his, though he could not say for certain if that impending commitment had an effect on the album.

“I knew that it was coming,” he said, “so if people try to say it’s somehow Pavement-y, it could be in my mind, that I had to do that tour.” He corrected himself. “Or wanted to do that tour.”

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.