Egon Schiele and French Knee-Highs: A thread for Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks, "Sparkle Hard"

xp
He also missed the chance to "point out" that the contrast SM apparently draws in this "Bike Lane" song is v similar to theme of "Grounded," from many moons ago

Reading this description by Malk, I'm gonna bet very little of this actually comes thru in the song itself:

The song starts really minimal, like Queens of the Stone Age on Xanax, and then changes into glam, like the Clash or something. In my mind, I was singing like the Ramones. It’s totally dark, like the cops and robbers stories of rock’n’roll: I fought the law and the law won, a lot of classic imagery of the outlaw.

(also: "glam, like the Clash or something"?)

RE:

Middle America's chorus sounds a lot like Loud Cloud Crowd's, cf:

Crush me back to where I belong
Hold me down with anchor strong

vs

Fractured knees, calamaties
Enfold me in serenity

― Jersey Al (Albert R. Broccoli), Friday, March 30, 2018 11:56 PM (one month ago)

On Vish Khanna's podcast/interview with SM, SM mentions that "Middle America" shares the same tuning & chord relationships as "Freeze The Saints", "Shoot The Singer" & "Zurich Is Stained".

"Solid Silk" reminds me of a 90s Thurston song off of EJST&NS or Psychic Hearts.

"Middle America"'s line: "Men are scum I won't deny" also echoes back to Thurston's line on Dirty's "100%": "But I've been around the world a million times/And all you men are slime"...

I loved Jagbags but after listening to this one a few times I think I'm ready to declare it my least favorite SM album.

i think this is my third fav SM album behind Pig Lib and the s/t

He's been closing his sets with "No Tan Lines" of late.

ha, that's a funny one to dig out — i don't think pavement ever played it live.

Wow, that’s a great one!

^It occurred to me that maybe he’s playing that song b/c of the (now-opportune) lyric, “I live to be grey, I live to be GREY!”

Does anyone get a STRONG Wilco vibe from a lot of this record?
Kite sounds directly influenced. His singing is very Tweedy, the krautrocky momentum, even the guitar solo blasts off in a very Nels Cline way.
Not the only song to give off a Wilco vibe.

they should've left the Kim Gordon / country song off of this

wasn't expecting to really love this record

the last 2-in-1 track is so great

they should've left the Kim Gordon / country song off of this

I like it, it's like an American Water outtake.

what's a jick?

Now it’s 2003, Stephen Malkmus is in a new band called the Jicks (the name derives from the intersection of “Jerk” and “Dick” or Mick Jagger in reverse, depending on who you ask, and when)

https://www.believermag.com/issues/200310/?read=interview_malkmus

SM & Jicks have recently been added as an opening act for the Courtney Barnett show I’m seeing in October.

wtf

Don't ask me to find the source interview but I believe it's "a Jick is a girl jock," or something to that effect? But who knows?