A musical update - pt. 1: Stephen Malkmus
So… lots going on. Saw a bunch of good movies - ate a bunch of good meals - took a bunch of cool pictures. That’ll all come soon. Don’t want to muck up a simple post with too much stuff….
Anyway, for 4th of July week, my pal Jeff came down from San Francisco. We took in a lot of what LA has to offer - mostly by car. During that time, I had my iPod plugged into my car stereo. We listened to some Louis XIV and The Mae Shi, because we had gone to their shows (seriously… more about that later). But mostly, we listened to the new albums by Spiritualized and Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks.
Depending on what level of “hipster” you are, you have either: a. never heard of either band; b. have heard them on your local indie radio station (KCRW here in LA, for example); or c. know all about them, but think they pale in comparison to their original incarnations.
I must admit that when I was a younger music fan, the running joke was “The Beatles? I didn’t know Paul McCartney had a band before Wings!” The true hipster (ok, “music snob”) rejects all that is new and potentially popular and embraces what was groundbreaking and more obscure.
I’m past being a snob, because it only serves to alienate me from cool (read: “not snobby”) people and shuts me off from experiences that I might otherwise really enjoy. But since I still have the pop historian brain - I’ll give you a little background into these two acts - just to provide some context. If you know all this stuff already, feel free to jump ahead to the videos… they’re pretty amazing.
First up, Stephen Malkmus.
Malkmus was the leader of perhaps the indie band of the 1990s - Pavement. Formed in Stockton, CA in ‘89 with his pal Scott Kannberg, aka “Spiral Stairs” - Pavement quickly became darlings of the indie rock scene. They were massive in Europe, played Lollapalooza, and were “the next big thing” several times (especially after Nirvana’s ascent from indie stars to rock gods). Their jangly guitar sound and quirky production often overshadowed their clever lyrics and brilliant song construction. I enjoyed Pavement, but I often felt that their need to be obtuse was a little off-putting. They would talk about how they didn’t know how to play their instruments and would put on “ramshackle” performances that obscured their real genius. I know many people will dispute this point, especially the fans who constantly yearn for a Pavement reunion, but I think that being in the band held Malkmus back. With their dissolution at the turn of the millennium, Malkmus “went solo” (not really, he formed a new band called “The Jicks” - but his label wouldn’t let him call his first post-Pavement record anything but “Stephen Malkmus”). On that album and the three that have come out since, Malkmus has continued his infectious songwriting and performing, while stripping away the quirkiness that Pavement espoused. Maybe it’s because he’s older - maybe it’s because I’m older - but I absolutely love what he’s done for the last several years.
His latest album, Real Emotional Trash, could be his best work yet. His love for “Loaded”-era Velvets and early ’70s Krautrock are apparent in his arrangements and perfomance - but at the heart of it all, there’s some damn fine songwriting.
While trolling through the web looking for a gem to share with you, I found this neat acoustic version of “Wicked Wanda”. The electric version closes the album. This video is Malkmus raw. Hope you dig it.