Posts Tagged ‘Malkmus’

Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks @ Irving Plaza 2/10/07 (Plug Awards)
Baby C’mon / Dragonfly Pie / It Kills / Pennywhistle Thunder / Hopscotch Willie / Jo Jo’s Jacket / Walk Into a Mirror

Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks @ Maxwell’s 2/11/07
Pencil Rot / Water and a Seat / Merry Go Round / Dragonfly Pie / Real Emotional Trash / Freeze the Saints / Walk Into a Mirror / Baltimore Again / Animal Midnight / Baby C’mon / (“Psychopath” improv) / Pennywhistle Thunder / Hopscotch Willie / The Hook // Mama / (band intros, including a bit of “School” by Nirvana) / Wicked Wanda / Oyster

Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks “Dragonfly Pie (One Music session, 10/3/05)” – This early version of “Dragonfly Pie” was recorded back when John Moen was still the drummer in the Jicks, and though it is quite good, you just have to take my word for it that it’s about ten times better with Janet Weiss behind the kit. Since the Jicks started up, I’ve been excited about John Moen, not just because he’s a cool, funny talented dude, but because his presence in the band meant that Stephen Malkmus finally had a kick-ass drummer rather than someone who was just adequate and/or exceedingly charming. Finally, I thought, Malkmus is collaborating with an equal!

In retrospect it seems that for all his chops, Moen was still subordinate to Malkmus’ style — they were on the same wavelength, but SM called all the shots. Not so with Janet Weiss. She’s an unstoppable force with a distinct, hard-hitting, fill-heavy style that complements Malkmus’ post-Pavement songs so well that it seems as though they were made to play together, and pose creative challenges to one another.

The older songs were pumped up with a level of kinetic energy alien to Malkmus’ career to date, as though the skinny, lanky compositions had all gone off to a gym for two solid years and emerged as buff, toned behemoths without losing any of their melodic grace. “Merry Go Round” and the lovely “Walk Into a Mirror” were tight, poppy, and harmonic, but the majority of the new tunes were epic in structure, but placed a greater emphasis on rhythmic shifts and instrumental passages than meandering solos. I’ve seen people refer to Pig Lib as being almost pornographic in the way that it panders to the taste of Malkmus fanboys such as myself, and this new material is the same way, though also for Janet Weiss. Whenever the album comes out later this year, it’s going to sound like the musical equivalent of indie rock slash fiction. (Click here for the official Malkmus site.)

If you were wondering, the Plug Awards was a total mess. I’ll let Idolator cover the details, but let’s just say that they were damn lucky that a guy as skilled at making fun of stupid shit as David Cross was the host, and was able to salvage its many poorly planned, ill-conceived bits and the generally haphazard nature of the production. The bands were a mixed bag — El-P was good but only performed two songs, Deerhoof sounded like 1993 on stage whereas they sound like 1997 on their new album, and the Silversun Pickups were so bad that I wanted to slap some sense into everyone I saw in the audience who was visably enjoying their set. I’d only skimmed over their music before, listening to enough to know that I had no interest in writing about them, but seeing them live shifted my apathy to outright disdain. Basically, the Silversun Pickups sound like the Afghan Whigs if Greg Dulli had somehow lost his genitals in a horrible accident when he was 8 years old. I’ve seen people compare them to the Smashing Pumpkins, and that just seems totally preposterous to me — they could only sound like the Pumpkins to a person who has never heard any of their albums but is nevertheless convinced that they hate the music based on the fact that Billy Corgan is kind of a douchebag.

Elsewhere: Slate’s Jim Lewis suggests that Factory Girl is actually a mean-spirited homophobic allegory.

Pavement “Black Out (Wow Out 7″ Version)” – For most (if not all) of the tour for Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain, “Black Out” was included on setlists as “New Gold Soundz,” which is fair enough given its general vibe, though this early draft is more along the lines of “New Stop Breathin’.” Interestingly, with its original chorus (which incidentally repurposes the lyric “haunt you down,” and makes me wonder whether or not this was recorded before or after the “Haunt You Down” 7″) the song takes on an accusing, wounded tone whereas the final version is notable for its contented aimlessness. Several lines that made it to the finished recording appear in a slightly negative variation — “your own hall of shame,” for example — and the implication of “the lessons you’re learning” shift over to a darker sort of self-revelation. Malkmus’ voice couldn’t quite handle the demands of his own arrangement (though I think he could probably do okay with this now that he’s grown into a more confident vocalist), but I would kinda love to hear someone with a full, commanding voice take on this version of the song. (Click here to buy the Wowee Zowee reissue via the Wow Out site — this 7″ is now out of print and unavailable.)

The National Gallery “Barbaric, Classical, Solemn” – Though every era produces its fair share of weird, ambitious projects, it must have been very amusing back in the ’60s when people seemed to have no idea what pop art was capable of and thus went off in all sorts of wild directions, attempting to harness the power of the zeitgeist for just about any purpose. In the case of The National Gallery, the idea was to produce an album of psychedelic pop songs that were “musical interpretations of the paintings of Paul Klee.” The songs are catchy and amiable, but their style seem arbitrary in relationship to Klee’s work, which seems to be at odds with the album’s prim and chirpy arrangements. Lyrically, the words come across as snippets of dense, enthusiastic reviews of the paintings, and so when the songs work, it is like a peculiar sort of arts criticism. Maybe that should be someone’s mp3 blog shtick — a serious review site in which everything is expressed in the form of original songs. (Click here to buy it from Dusty Groove.)

Stephen Malkmus “Kindling For The Master (Major Swellings mix)” – There are many strange things about this double 12″ of “Kindling For The Master” remixes, but chief among them is the fact that it seems to be released on a random whim quite some time after Face The Truth came out last year, and that all of the remixers somehow agreed to make sure that SM’s original recording was still the perkiest and most danceable version available. I am fairly certain that “Kindling” (easily one of my favorites from FTT, by the way) would make for much peppier remixes than what’s on offer — was MSTRKRFT too busy, too expensive, or too ’00s to deal with the Malk? The Major Swellings mix by Prins Thomas does alright by the song by keeping the structure and key instrumental components intact and extends the track into a bleak, sinister groove that kills a lot of the fun in the song, but at least sounds pretty cool. (Click here to buy it from Domino.)

Young and Restless “Satan” – This cut may not be long on ideas, but is a nearly perfect specimen of a particular sort of punk song from this period, and may actually sound better in a few years when no one is doing this sort of thing, or doing it quite like this, anymore. The screamo bits are a nice touch, but the singer doesn’t go too overboard, or maybe I just say that because I’ve been giving that new Blood Brothers record a shot a few times recently, and I find myself really going for the songs until I invariably reach the moment when I just can’t take the gratuitous shrieking that comes up in every single song. Is it a total lack of imagination on their part, or are they just trying to please their audience, or are they actively attempting to devalue their own currency? (Click here for Young & Restless’ official page.)

We’ll Watch Our Heroes Trip And Fall

Archers of Loaf “Nevermind The Enemy” – No, I’m not posting this to complete the 90s indie trifecta along with Malkmus and Pollard, but it doesn’t hurt. I’m mostly featuring this track out of the realization that in the four years that I’ve been doing this site, I’ve never written anything about this song even though it’s a pretty big deal to me. For one thing, there’s a strong nostalgia factor – I bought this when I was 15, and I have a lot of vivid teenage memories tied in with it, almost all of them quite positive. On a lyrical level, this song and pretty much the rest of the Vee Vee album holds a strong appeal to me for its unabashedly competitive sentiment, even if it’s laced with cynicism and pessimism. Virtually all Archers of Loaf songs were about scrappy underdogs fighting for their fair share, and in retrospect, the 90s was the perfect time for them, at least much more so than the Goliath-favoring decades bracketing their era. More than any of that, my enduring love of this song is rooted in that it’s like a sort of Platonic ideal of indie rock guitar for me. With its casual artiness, raw exuberance and impressionistic effects, “Nevermind The Enemy,” illuminates exactly what I dislike about the drab, uncreative style and guitar tone of the overwhelming majority of contemporary rock bands. (Click here to buy it from Amazon.)

Vivien Goldman “Launderette” – Unfortunately for the world, this brilliant a-side from 1981 accounts for a massive chunk of music writer Vivien Goldman‘s discography as a performer. It’s a shame given Goldman’s charismatic vocals and sharp lyrics about a love that begins, ends, and lingers on in an uncomfortable sort of afterlife at a tiny launderette. The bassline is particularly great, evoking both the churning of a nervous stomach and the gentle rumbling of a washing machine. (Click here to buy it from Amazon UK.)