Stephen Malkmus
Artist Website: stephenmalkmus.com
Face the Truth
Face
I was reading somewhere recently about aging indie guys. It was scary how much of me I saw in the article. There's no denying we've gotten older. That teen angst and slacker shit is too hard to pull off when we're working behind a desk every day and paying a mortgage. Luckily for us there's Stephen Malkmus. The once brash and pissy leader of Pavement has settled into his life as a thirty-something with a sudden comfort and understanding that makes the rest of us know that it's okay that you'd rather listen to that new Grandaddy album than your stack of old Jesus Lizard CDs. Malkmus has put away his bratty thing that has so far been his trademark in his solo career and opted for what can only be called Adult Indie. I mean there are tinges of The Steve Miller Band in there! The tunes are less cutesy and pop-laden. There aren't the light, breezy tunes of the last couple of albums. He's--and I know it sounds like a bad thing, but it's actually good--more of an adult. Good stuff.

Mirror Traffic
Mirror Traffic - Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks
As an aging hipster, it is a moral imperative that I buy this album. Pavement is the ultimate touchpoint for any throwback hipster and having Beck on the boards gives this thing like double insta-hipster cred. After all, tell me that Beck in his "Loser" video wasn’t the world's first modern-day hipster. And Malkmus on this album is at his esoteric best, stringing together vaguely political, vaguely heady sentences, not the least of which is the chorus in "Senator:" "what the Senator wants is a blowjob!" Malkmus is a funny guy. I mean, listen to him and he’s got a whole lot of hippy shit going on. Or is it anti-hippy shit? It’s really hard to tell, honestly. But I, of course, hate hippy shit, so I’m going to assume it’s actual hippy bashing in the guise of chill. I mean he talks about Birkenstocks and smoking weed in his truck and at times lapses into almost jam band-y country guitar noodling. But instead of fuckin' Allman Brothers, it's still pure Cali slacker twang -- but like a more mature twang. The songs meander and feel loose and natural and organic and not at all forced or attempting to be anything other than what they are. That's called being cool while not trying. That's Malkmus.

Pig Lib

Real Emotional Trash

Stephen Malkmus


Musical Connections:
The Decemberists
Dharma Bums
The Minders
Pavement
Quasi
Silver Jews
Sleater-Kinney
Wild Flag
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