Stephen Malkmus

Ok, finally figured out why the Senator/blowjob line irritates me: it's too reminiscent of the Bob Packwood line from Vanessa From Queens. Like if you're going to go for such an attention grabbing line, it shouldn't be a retread...

^^^ that's what I said in my review. He wants to make sure we hear the vulgarity.

Yeah, when I was relistening to this over the weekend, it did bug me how much he overemphasizes that bit. Still not enough to completely ruin the song though.

just now really digging into this record. mixed bag, maybe, but lots of great moments.

I don't know what to say about the legacy overall, except that a certain strata of middle-class hipsters (lthe word laughs in parens, which ILM doesn't seem to like) share Pavement, and that's great. Hipsters (in quotes, which ILM also doesn't seem to like) doesn't have to be a pejorative or about trend-jumping, either. I wouldn't want to be called a hipster, but there's nothing really wrong with it. To me, it can be just about exploring, or an openness to finding the best things.

wait, Malkmus reads ILM?

No, remember, he only likes fantasy baseball--repeat ad nauseum

Is baseball stage chatter a regular thing w/ Malkmus? Only saw him live once, and I remember him doing it then.

It's more like a constant refrain in many articles about him, usually his band members talking about he could care less about following music, etc

“Stephen is a pretty difficult guy to access,” Nastanovich explains via telephone, calling from a racetrack in Illinois where he’s working. “If you’re not in the same town with him, you don’t really hear from him. I’ve found that the easiest way to get in touch with him, even if it’s about a Pavement-related issue, is to propose a trade in one of our fantasy leagues and attach my question in an e-mail memo.”

after about ten listens:
1) best album i have listened to this year, clearly distancing the low album which hit directly into the middle of my heart but which is a little too simple to be truly great.
2) best album of malkmus and/or pavement. i said it upthread, it is extremely varied & full of ideas & tunes. somehow it reminds me of the early roxy music albums, songs start & stop n the middle, never go where you expect they would go, a bag full of surprises. pure genius.
3) the last couple of songs before "georgeous georgie" are not really essential but quite ok.

Wow.

I cannot bring myself to care about this album, despite the praise it's getting. Couldn't get into the last one either although i enjoyed solo Malkmus up to that point

I haven't stopped listening to the six songs I like but the whole thing is quirky in an anodyne way that bugs the hell out of me.

but quirky nails quite well what was always great abour pavement & malkmus. i wouldn't call the music anodyne though, it's more like relaxed or slack. another quality i have always like about them.

this album is seriously great, been listening to it a lot. i agree with alex that it's his best solo album, by far even. so relaxed and so melodic. i'm genuinely shocked he can still make an album this good.

yeah this isgood

I like "Tigers" a whole lot, and "Stick Figures in Love" is really nice, too -- the rest is decent but nothin' special.

this is his best record since Wowee Zowee I think

Last album's "Gardenia" is slyer and faster than most everything here.

so?

so get yourself to "Gardenia"

such a lame use of "bourgeoisie" as an adjective in whatever the first single is called! how did his reader david berman let that get through?

i'm not sure that the fact that this record sounds like Pavement is an advantage,cause it says something about the artist when he fails to develop from his roots. and it's now Wowee Zowee.
it was maybe better if it wasn't like Pavement, but still great (as they were).
still, a nice record.

anyone doubting the new record should watch/listen to this, i think they totally shred

http://pitchfork.com/tv/dont-look-down/1793-stephen-malkmus-and-the-jicks/

yeah, those are great. jicks really are a pretty killer band, even with the revolving drummer door. i think they've really figured out how to play along/be flexible with malkmus' eccentricities in a way that pavement never did. of course, in some ways that push and pull was what made pavement great, but i really dig what the jicks are doing.
loving mirror traffic more and more. beck & his engineer did a nice job, guitars/drums have a great sound.

yah totally on the sounds of the record

the sound/engineering of the pitchfork video is excellent as well

The album's a grower, his guitar playing more than makes up for how tossed off the lyrics are. Maybe it's me, but been listening to MT against Brighten the Corners and I don't think he's lost much -- it's just a more laid back style. Hardly McCartney, or Wilco (The Album) for that matter.

Saw him last night in Portland. At about the hour mark of his set, i.e. 11:15 pm, my wife, who was tired and had to get up at 6 am, told me she needed him to play something faster so she wouldn't die. Cue a 15-minute version of 'real emotional trash'; the last four minutes of which featured the entire band staring at S.M. expecting the song to end at any second. My favorite song from that record, but I was dragging at that point as well. Saw 'Baby C'mon' from the back then left before encore(s). Didn't play 'senator' since i assume they were saving it for the end but that is one of my least favorite songs from the record, not sure why it warrants a jack black/gary cole video.

I think mirror traffic is great but overall disappointed with the live experience.

Highlight was opening act Ty Segall, who you should see live before his vocal cords explode in 2 months.

Seeing a Jicks show 2/22 in Austin! FINALLY!!

haha, my much younger self started this thread. hello young dog latin

i was a little disappointed of the berlin concert a couple of weeks ago too. according to the papers he lives in berlin now but his german was totally inexistant, he said "danke" at one point, that was it. the problem with the band was that it seemed very much focussed on him, somehow he behaved a little like a prima donna, eg getting a different guitar from the roadie after almost every song. the drummer reminded me of ringo starr, his drumming was rather basic and not really exciting. all in all it was a nice evening but i found that the album which they more or less played completely was much stronger than the live performance.

yeahhh, i'm going to see him in Boulder next month. haven't seen a jicks show since 2003, for some reason. he's been doing the "different guitar for every song" thing since pavement i think. he's got a lot of tunings!

Good show last night in Austin, heavy on MT tunes

Will report back soon w more details

Alex: the Austin show was a lot like what you describe, though I'd add that Mike Clark is like the band's Flea or something

Also: set needs more blasted oldies

posted this over in some other malkmus thread:
Saw malkmus/jicks this week in boulder-- pretty sweet show, though some of the long jams never quite reached the climaxes they seemed to be searching for. it was pretty proggy, that's for sure. jicks are an excellent band, they really seem to have figured out how to play with malkmus. whereas he always had to kind of carry pavement up the hill (not necessarily a bad thing) he can groove with the jicks a bit more. anyhoo, just found a recording of the show over yonder: soundcloud.com/fatah-ruark/sm-jicks-the-fox

so the Can - EgeBamyasy cover turned out to be quite awesome:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=eUFQ3Ue-rBs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Loju93Ep57c#!

ha, I like that, but something tells me that the people who were aghast at the very idea of malkmus doing this won't be convinced.

i see where you're coming from, but i'm enjoying this

http://25.media.tumblr.com/5c58c382810248f28a8bfcef5e237f97/tumblr_muf3rgNdDl1r2xls3o1_400.jpg

I thought that was a new picture for a second

apparently he's one of those rare individuals that is skinnier as an adult than as a high schooler.

ha that's so perfect

Pumped for his new album Athletics, Punk Band

^hahaha

Cate is in Carpenteria not Santa Barbara, just a little pedantism from yours truly.

Carpinteria, even.

pedantry

More errata from the article: http://www.stereogum.com/1015681/see-stephen-malkmus-in-high-school/news/

It says the article is from Cate's paper but that's not true...

Malkmus went to Cate for grades 9-10, then got kicked out of the elite preppy boarding school for alcohol/drugs violation and then got shipped home back to Stockton. That clipping is from Tokay High School's paper after Malkmus had returned home. Located in nearby Lodi, the Tokay Tigers are the arch-rivals of the Linden Lions.