Stephen Malkmus

Terrible record, saw SM do quite a bit of it solo (with a groovebox) and it was much more engaging. The Godrich touches have aged like 80s CGI.

godrich's tracklist:

Ground Beef [AKA Platform Blues]
The Hexx
You Are the Light
Jesus in Harlem [AKA Cream Of Gold]
Ann Don't Cry
Folk Jam
Major Leagues
Terror Twilight [AKA Speak, See, Remember]
Carrot Rope
Shagbag [A short instrumental track that was never released]
Billie
Spit on a Stranger

Not bad! I would switch tracks 1 & 2

yeah I gotta listen to that now

Malk and a 12-string is a good combo

― Οὖτις, Tuesday, May 15, 2018 4:54 PM (six hours ago

yeah this is so good. love the video

Wow that looks like a very sluggish A-side xps

not wrong...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9KQP3Cbt_g

was this posted? this guy

xxp

Malk, re: the big tracklist argument: So Nigel was like “I’m done with this. This is the wrong move. We made a stoner album and you’re going halfway.” He’s right probably.

I think where the Nigel tracklist falls apart is toward the end (after “Speak, See”).... I can’t see “Carrot Rope” working anywhere other than as an addendum/bonus track.

What did they think it would sound like w/ Goodrich at the helm? It's warm and bubbly and years on I find it an easier listen than BTC

― DACA Flocka Flame (Hadrian VIII), Wednesday, 16 May 2018 01:35 (ten hours ago)

I've grown to love TT over the years. BTC is a bit of a slog nowadays.

He's a good interview (doing them with everyone for this record), but I am not sure I will like the new album

unless you count westing as the debut then sparkle hard is one "more" album than pavement ever did. go jicks

Think it’s technically his 7th album with the Jicks (counting his first, in 2001 – Malk wanted to credit the band on it, but Matador said no). Pavement was around 10 years, and he’s spent 17 years with the Jicks so far... time flies.

Sparkle Hard ranks with the first three Jicks LPs for me.

So Malkmus recorded another album that Matador won't put out yet:

Malkmus, wearing a trucker’s hat and T-shirt, brought a laptop, picked up a microphone and sang an album’s worth of the songs he planned to release as his next record.

“I was blown away,” said Steve Doughton, who helped organize the event meant to kick off PICA’s exhibition of his 1997 art film, ­“DELTA.” “The album is phenomenal.”

Malkmus had created the music in his basement with Pro Tools, Ableton software and keyboards. It felt good to experiment, to move away from the guitar-driven songs that dominated his catalogue. Then he dropped the files to Matador Records. It had been more than three years since the last Malkmus record. His longtime label wasn’t thrilled to get a keyboard-based set driven by drum pads.

“They didn’t want to put it out,” said Malkmus. “Or they thought it was dumb to put it out first because it was a head-scratcher. Maybe some of my more traditional fans that know Pavement would scratch their heads.”

...This is the first time Matador rejected anything from Malkmus. But instead of rage, the label’s dis actually inspired a name for his then-untitled electronic album: “Groove Denied.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/stephen-malkmus-had-his-groove-denied-he-was-upset-for-about-five-minutes/2018/05/17/384e7994-57a2-11e8-858f-12becb4d6067_story.html?utm_term=.e79f43ed86aa

Last year, in the midst of the “Groove Denied” dilemma, Lombardi and Matador co-president Gerard Cosloy flew out to see Malkmus to explain why they thought the electronic album would be wrong right now. Lombardi remembers Malkmus answering the door.

“Am I dropped?” he asked.

lol

What did they think it would sound like w/ Goodrich at the helm? It's warm and bubbly and years on I find it an easier listen than BTC

― DACA Flocka Flame (Hadrian VIII), Wednesday, 16 May 2018 01:35 (ten hours ago)

I've grown to love TT over the years. BTC is a bit of a slog nowadays.

― well bissogled trotters (Michael B), Wednesday, May 16, 2018 7:01 AM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

these are some wild bad opinions

lol at "Groove Denied" ...

malk's publicist is really earning their pay for this album, feel like i see stuff about it absolutely everywhere

he says in that interview he wants to give the press what they want doing promotion this time and get more attention than usual, seems to be working so far

curious about Groove Denied though i have no idea if it'll be any good

Last month, during a Malkmus appearance at New York City’s Town Hall for public radio’s “Live From Here,” host Chris Thile gushed about one of his favorite rhymes, of “Tennyson” with “venison” in the 2011 song “Lariat.”

“Where did it come from?” Thile pressed.

“Well, Tennyson just comes to my mind,” Malkmus said, without a pause. “I think I like tennis a lot. I like sons. I like daughters. And then Venice. I like the town of Venice a lot. It’s both in Los Angeles and Italy. And I also love the sun. Who doesn’t? Today was a beautiful, sunny day!”

Good snappy answer to a stupid question. Who asks a songwriter that – “where did that rhyme come from?”

Id rather hear groove denied than another jicks album

I'm reasonably certain I won't like Lariat but his answer there is lol because it's just more wordplay/misdirection

Lariat (and video) is great:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zYC5JASqWnI

Four thoughts:

1. Lariat is my favorite Jicks song in recent memory.

2. Thile's question isn't *that* dumb. It's not complex, but it's fine for one celebrity asking another celebrity something in a public setting, imo.

3.

Last year, in the midst of the “Groove Denied” dilemma, Lombardi and Matador co-president Gerard Cosloy flew out to see Malkmus to explain why they thought the electronic album would be wrong right now. Lombardi remembers Malkmus answering the door.

“Am I dropped?” he asked.

This is amazing.

4.

Id rather hear groove denied than another jicks album

― calstars, Thursday, May 17, 2018 9:37 AM (two hours ago)

yeah, this is about where I'm at.

seems like a safe-ish guess that Groove Denied sounds something like what's at the beginning of this video, doesn't it?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKpi9cAmnfo

if it is, it just confirms that i'd be more interested to hear it than new Jixx. (though i also would assume that it will wear out its welcome quickly.)

Oh wait – Chris Thile is the guy from Nickel Creek, who did that great Pavement cover! I thought he was a radio host or something. Yeah I agree it’s different, one songwriter to another.

that show was the new prairie home companion but then got re-titled after the keillor scandal

pretend the crowd is germany

"kite" (welcome to the top / well i thought so / bring it to an end without hassle / no disaster, i guarantee / do do do do do do)

Sign me up for the SM/ Berman tour in ‘28. Until then zzz

When they play self ignition, that’s the joint

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

Prime-time Berman is still so, so good

Thank you Ray

I live to serve

Mirror Traffic is better than any of the other albums after Pig Lib, right?

I always wondered if this song was about mr godrich but not sure if the chronology works out

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTqiKgAux-k

This seems to be a newly posted promo film thing (of course, the album’s out today):

https://youtu.be/MSFTlFEQXW4

Mirror Traffic is better than any of the other albums after Pig Lib, right?

― alpine static, Thursday, May 17, 2018 9:40 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I would agree but Face The Truth exists, and every time I revisit it it's better than I'd remembered it being.

Can we talk more about the press/promotional push this thing is getting?

I'm sure there have been bigger/more expensive ones for pop stars and arcade fires or whatever ... but this record? For Malkmus? At this time? This is crazy.

I wonder why. Why this record, why now?

Does Matador think the time is ripe for appreciating an indie rock icon?

Do they just think this record deserves way more ears than, like, Jagbags got? (They'd be right.)

Does S.M. have two girls to put through college in a few years and so he's willing to play the game?

I'm just very, very curious about the roots of this.

I get that you put out a record and you promote it, especially one of your best-known artists. But this has been something else. Dude must've spent all winter doing interviews.

He talks about it in that WaPo interview -- wanting to make more noise with this one, make more $$, play bigger venues, etc. Don't know if the add'l press will deliver that goal.

Also, reading between the lines a bit, my guess is he told Matador something like -- "OK, we'll hold off on the electronic album and release the rock LP first, if that's what you think is the way to go, but then you need to really try to move the needle on this one...".

digging sparkle hard so far!

i want to hear the synth record

maybe that castle he bought in PDX costs a lot to heat

I wonder how "well" his albums generally sell... that article said that each Jicks release has done worse than the one before it; and the last one (Jagbags) sold 21,000 copies. I have no idea where that ranks in the indie world, compared to Parquet Courts albums or whatever.

Are any of his "peers" (indie folx from the '90s) still trying to move units in any significant way? Seems they've mostly settled into niches or gotten into other things.