Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks- Real Emotional Trash (2008)

isn't the woman from sleater-kinney in the band now? that would be the best drummer malky ever worked w/if you don't count crust bros.

gary young is pretty epic dude! if you can't hear that you got problems!

SS so OTM

janet's a pretty awesome drummer, too tho. i mean if he can't play with gary, janet's not a bad choice

Only three posts in and the "Gary is Great" thing has started already?

This comes out March 4th by the way

better title= Real Emotional Moustache
http://stephenmalkmus.com/images/0307_langerado/5.jpg

gary young is pretty epic dude! if you can't hear that you got problems!

-- Steve Shasta, Thursday, December 6, 2007 8:49 PM (5 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

where did i say he was bad? i just like janet and michael from skwm better...and the jicks had bad drumming.

nah, i think Steve West is a worse drummer than the old jicks guy. that dude plodded

wau copstache

fact: malkmus did quite a bit of drumming on pavement records.

west was sooooo slow liveeeeee

yeah xpost exactly on ALL of wowee zowee right?

Westeeeee cannot drum = Malkmus is such a dick, why would anyone wanna be in a band with this guy

bcuz he shredz

and because for indie-land, those dudes got paid.

xpost

no writing/pub credits = I sorta doubt it. "Paid" in indie terms means sub-poverty level, in general.

I bet the Jicks do all right. Touring and all that.

no writing/pub credits = I sorta doubt it. "Paid" in indie terms means sub-poverty level, in general.

i think i read somewhere when pavement broke up that SM said that everyone was able to buy houses and shit from pavement $$$. they got paid for lollaaaapalooza

isn't the one dude a horse trader now?

i think those dudes did just fine.

spiral's house in rockridge (berkeley, ca) which he bought pretty early on (1994?) is worth easily over $1M now. I wouldn't shed too many indie tears for Pavement poverty.

lol Malkmus making Spiral Stairs turn his amp all the way down at shows.

stalker steve shasta

Gary Young was a hell of a drummer, but holy mackerel was he annoying live. The dude would not shut up.

I thought John Moen was pretty good. I only saw 'em twice live or so during that era, and the drumming on the records sounded swell to me. Plus he was in an Elvis cover band with my boss!! back in ye olde days.

live twice

isn't the one dude a horse trader now?

he was a jockey agent for a while, now I think he is a chart caller? (dude who maps out the order of finish for the official result charts)

he even had a horse racing blog for a while but it didn't last very long

basically he is the nicest guy ever

Anyway!
Looking forward to this record -- the live tape I have from earlier this year is ragged, but very nice nonetheless. "Hopscotch Willie" and "Real Emotional Trash" are both pretty epic guitar jams.

haven't cared for much of SM's post-Pavement stuff, but i love this record's title, for starters.

i would label his solo stuff dadprog. and his song titles seem to be written by a bot.

oh no oh no oh no, the last one was too much. never have i felt so defeated listening to a record for the first time, lacklustre song after lacklustre song

I liked that one song "Vanessa from Queens," unless that was on the one before the last.

funny that this is being discussed while someone's asking for help making a ridiculous borderline unlistenable prog mix. i don't have much use for the last one either. but the first one and pig lib ("vanessa from queens" is on there) i still listen to a lot. i'm pretty excited to hear this one, partly because i'm hoping janet's involvement will reinvigorate malcolm

Steve West owns a big, historic house on many, many acres in Virginia somewhere. Someone I know went to a wedding there, said it was an amazing spread of land.

song from the new album here:
www.matadorrecords.com/matablog/?p=1071
sounds good! nice guitar work.

On first listen, "Baltimore" is . . . bad.

It just seems to go absolutely nowhere for six minutes.

?? i rather liked it...

listened to Pig Lib last night for the first time in likely 3 years. probably his best batch of songs since going solo.. but M@tt is right, the drumming is zzzzzzz.

I like "Baltimore" a lot, more lush than usual.

rockin' the promo en route to work this morning - good cracking stuff here, and it was a pleasant surprise that 3 of the songs were new to me (i.e. not among the live bootleg mp3s). Early fave is "Cold Son" (or Sun?), which I like to pretend is about The Bachelor.

on the 8th song i mistook a lyric for "Don't get it twisted," and now I know that my life won't be complete until Malk actually incorporates that into a tune.

(also blowing my mind this morning - the Atlas Sound record! but that's another thread)

i'm inclined to put 'pib lib' on as background music when i'm doing other stuff. but it always sucks me in. i guess i'm a sucker for stevie's guitar playing on that album. here's hoping the new one is as good.

http://assets3.pitchforkmedia.com/images/image/43095.emotionaltrash.jpg?

It's not "the" Jicks?

Even bigger disappointment than Face the Truth 3 songs in.

I liked "Face the Truth".

He just doesn't even seem to be trying anymore.

That is to say, he grows more predictable w/ each album, and the lyrics get weaker too!

if i could edit this album, i'd remove "elmo delmo" and MAYBE "we can't help it," which lost something between the live and studio stages.

This is so godawful.

Pavement needed Malkmus, but Malkmus needed Pavement just as much. The evidence is right in front of you.

I'm with everyone who rated the first two albums but thought Face The Truth was boring. Hell, I'll even go as far as saying that Pig Lib was the best album of 2003 for me.

Face the Truth is waaaaay better than Pig Lib; if you guys are bored with hookless jams on this one, they were in abundance on PL.

i like how "stephen" and "malkmus" are lined up off-kilter and the "mus" part is smaller than the rest. on the album cover

only heard "Baltimore" but jeez it's kinda bad

can't stand the winky-winky shit he does all the time now (like when they sing "Ball-ti-mo-whoa-whoaa-wore," ugh, so cringeworthy)

if that's what I can expect vocally then bring on the hookless jams (I liked Pig Lib too ... FTT not so much)

once again Steve-o's better at woozy stoner ballads than the rave-ups.

"Out of Reaches" and "Gardenia" are terrific.

'baltimore' sounded like something off destroyer's rubies to me

i listened to gardenia last night, and i've heard baltimore recently, too zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. i'm officially bored with SM.

There are many hookless jams on this record, that's for sure.

I'm not saying that as an insult... or a compliment...

Pretty good on first listen. Ha the promo I got has a photo of the band on the cover w/ a Radiohead poster in the background. I hoped it was the cover but saw what I assume to be the actual one upthread

i quite like the hookless jams. and its nicely recorded too.

i'm thinking Fever OTM. Or maybe dude is just getting old.

I'm listening to it now and only up to the third track and it really is an awesome album so far. Totally everything I loved about Pig Lib but way more overblown and ridiculous.

PERPETUA TO THREAD

i was thinking about this album yesterday when i realize we're quickly approaching the 10th anniversary of pavement's breakup [i mean, it's like nov '09 or something]. it made me feel v. old.

Is this the first Malkmus solo album that hasn't gotten a total tongue bath from P4k?

wire magazine were quite nice about the new one, bless 'em.

i'm looking forward to hearing it actually.

It's not "the" Jicks?

Weird, it is on AMG

http://image.allmusic.com/00/amg/cov200/drj800/j818/j81875lpkji.jpg

not surprised at the ILM hate, but after two listens it's maybe my favorite SM thing since Wowee Zowee.

Missed him @ amoeba last night due to college reunion but totally would have gone.

This is a bit too "jammy" for my taste.

I like this record a lot. It's certainly one that requires repeated listenings for it to make sense. Sort of like Wowee Zowee.

for me it's my least fave solo record of his. which isn't to say it isn't nifty, but...something's missing.

kinda surprising he didn't put "Mr. Jolly" on the record. Lovely melody, great lyrics, nice backing vocals. Available via the Buy Early Get Now thing. I like this record! But I like pretty much anything the guy has done, so take that with your grain of salt.

RS likes it:

http://www.rollingstone.com/reviews/album/18444729/review/18689578/real_emotional_trash

why would it take repeated listenings? it sounds like everything he's done since pig lib.

yeah it's a pretty straightforward malkmus classic-rock record to me

that said I'm liking it a lot more than I expected ... I wasn't too into Face the Truth

I like it ok, but the production seems flat. that's usually my problem with his solo stuff. Pavement seemed to have a certain chaos factor where everything fell together. I'm not even sure what would make it sound better. I don't think it should be slick or super layered. I often like demo-type recordings. But it just seems to be missing something. Or maybe I'm grown too accustomed to his style?

prolley wont buy this, not a huge SM fan, i merely wanted a chance to say that "Mama" on Face the Truth is an awesome pretty pop song!

bsides that, uh, malkmus doesn't really catch me much...

I liked the first three records on initial listen but this one is boring me so far. It feels like I'm listening to somebody's band practice.

candidate for malk's worst rhyme ever:

whoever said the world is my oyster, I feel like a nympho stuck in a cloister

haha
i've seen that on a couple of blogs/ reviews as a stand-out lyric

I'm more of a "Face The Truth"-Malkmus fan, but this one's pretty good. I like that he's mining the less-overplayed aspects of the '70s classic rock sound - unusual chords, longer songs, expressive solos. It's not prog per se, but it hearkens back to a time when being a rock musician could be a calling and compositional and technical ambition wasn't necessarily a bad thing.

i've seen that on a couple of blogs/ reviews as a stand-out lyric

lol
well it definitely stands out

I like the "drowsy blonde carouses down the avenue" line.

I'll amend my comment above -- I REALLY like this album. I think the Jicks with Weiss on drums sound like a great band. I love the way the songs take long, winding routes. The guitar solos are great, too.

Having completely blown off Malkmus's solo career to this point (tried Pig Lib but thought it was terrible), this is a nice surprise. He's definitely more interested in playing guitar than in lyrics/vocals for the entire record, but he's an excellent soloist and Jicks + Weiss are a fine backing band. Gardenia and We Can't Help You are sweet little tunes.

"Cold Son" Record Store Day 10":

01 Cold Son
02 Walk Into the Mirror
03 Pennywhistle Thunder
04 Carl the Clod

this shit rules. he's just getting better with age. i'm sort of in awe. there's guitar magic toward the end of the title song that gives quicksilver messenger service's "calvary" a run for the money. i'm probably mental but i'm starting to think of pavement as his buffalo springfield

LOL I am actually not opposed to any Stephen Malkmus/Stephen Stills comparison.

"Mama" is his "Tree Top Flyer"

this album rules!

that is all.

i'm really going to have to pick this one up now.

i'm thinking more jicks=crazy horse, but hey

He's definitely more interested in playing guitar than in lyrics/vocals for the entire record

that pretty much sums it up, if you're ok w/ that you'll probably like this album

kinda looking forward to the live show

yeah, first time since '97 or so that I'm actually anticipating a Malkmus-related show

Yeah, I'm excited, I spent way too much money on Stubhub'd tickets for the Boston show. But, it's on the day after Malk-lovin' GF's birthday so it can be justified.

okay so this is pretty good! Gardenia sounds better surrounded by Baltimore and Elmo. Hopscotch Willie & Elmo are my faves. Probably my favorite of his since the first solo record. . .? Makes me almost forget Pig Lib

why would you want to do that?

I think Dragonfly Pie is my favorite and the title track, once it gets going, is awesome.

whoa, is the Boston show sold out?

i really really like this record -- "wicked wanda" just makes me so happy.

and the title track is all kindsa cool

"we're takin' out the wife... it's that kinda night"

x-post the Boston show is sold out as hell, my friend.

people in Boston must love buying tickets, considering the rate at which almost anything sells out up here.

I think the NYC area shows are all sold out already too.

they sold in 2 days or something :/

oh by the way, not exactly breaking news (been reported all over the web) but pavement reunion 2009 seems like it's for real

"sources say"

w/gary young, right?

really though? nothing i read suggested that a pavement reunion was actually in the works. seems like whenever any of the members have been asked about it in the past 5 years or so, they've been like, "yeah, that would be cool someday." not sure why this became such big news. though part of me will laugh when they're announced to be playing coachella 09, considering their first appearance at that festival.

I heard it was in the works for 2009 for real. but before I posted I wanted to google it to see if I was just repeating common knowledge and saw a buncha headlines ... on closer inspection they're all based on that Entertainment Weekly story, which is pretty vague. so I dunno, add it to the rumor file I guess.

never heard nothin about Gary Young.

What I've heard of the album sucks just as bad as later Pavement did. I saw it in the store today and interestingly enough the album cover said "SM & J" as opposed to the "Stephen Malkmus and Jicks"/"Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks" observations a while back.

people in Boston must love buying tickets, considering the rate at which almost anything sells out up here.

-- Garrett Martin

Ian Faith: The Boston gig has been cancelled...
David St. Hubbins: What?
Ian Faith: Yeah. I wouldn't worry about it though, it's not a big college town.

(Spinal Tap)

WRT to Pavement reunion in 09, according to wiki:

Matador was started by Chris Lombardi in 1989 in his New York City apartment.

Just considering some of the stuff that went down at the Touch & Go -- Big Black, Scratch Acid, Negative Approach -- maybe Matador will be doing something similar??

yeah that is what spiral's quote from the EW article is about. everyone else is more coy.

Scott Kannberg, a.k.a. guitarist "Spiral Stairs," who co-founded the band with Malkmus in 1989 and now lives in Seattle and fronts his own post-Pavement band, Preston School of Industry, comes closest to pin-pointing an exact date — perhaps tied to the 20th anniversary of the band's label, Matador Records, in 2009. "Matador is having a 20th anniversary party soon, so maybe we'll try to do something for that. (When contacted, Matador had no response.) The only hurdle might be getting everyone to drop what they're doing, but I'm sure the excitement of playing again will make it okay."

New Stephen Malkmus And The Jicks album "Mirror Traffic" out Aug 23, also Janet Weiss leaves band :-(. MP3 coming soon.

some matador dude tweeted that

i'm excited -- loved real emotional trash. too bad about weiss, she is a heck of a drummer. but then so was the previous jicks drummer (who i guess is in the decemberists now?)

i'm looking forward to it, even though real emotional trash is by far my least favorite of his albums.
think john moen was in the decembrists while he was in the jicks.

http://www.matadorrecords.com/matablog/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/stephen_new_packshot.jpg

The covers of his records are truly awful...surprised his artist wife couldn't help him out!

love that cover!

yeah i like that cover a lot too. don't think he's had really bad cover art -- he does it himself mostly, right?

yeah that cover is rad

his wife did the cover for face the truth

pig lib cover is rad, real emotional trash was crappy, new one is pretty cool, don't like the font.

this should have it's own thread.

I'm hoping this'll be a good one. He lost me at face the truth, despite pig lib being solid as. There's been enough time between this and real emotional trash to feel I can pick up the slack.

yeah that cover is rad

― call all destroyer, Wednesday, 25 May 2011 03:26 (6 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

also isn't weiss working with carrie again :D

I was going to say, Wild Flag is sounding awesome so far and I'm sure Malkmus'll do just fine without her.

Stream "Senator" here: http://www.stan-studios.com/blog/?p=2796

timely, but i guess it often is

okay, I'm actually liking that! (but that's usually the case with Malkmus solo albums...I'll hear a song that makes me excited, then the album comes and it's totally boring.)

Yeah, that's been my experience with the last couple albums. And apparently there's going to be like 13-15 songs on this one, so plenty of opportunity for it to get boring. But I'd anticipate at least a few gems in there.

Beck produced it, so maybe it will sound intriguing.

this new song sounds great...not a huge departure from RET, though (which i love).

Gave RET another listen. I can't enjoy it - it's just too twee! Songs about witches and frogs and dragonflies and stuff...

the only song I still listen to is "Gardenia," mostly because of the way he pronounces "Richard Avedon" as if he learned his name five minutes ago.

twee? i dunno, RET seems like his most muscular solo record, musically.

maybe dog latin's thinking of pig lib? alfred i am touched by how he pauses after walter lippmann

Pig Lib's my favourite through-and-through. I just can't bring myself to listen to songs called Hopscotch Willie or Dragonfly Pie or Wicked Wanda - self parody with added twee.

mine too. wish matador would repress the vinyl. used to feel the way you do about real emotional trash but then the epic title track grew on me and changed how i heard the rest of the album

i don't really like his vocals on this one :/

But Pig Lib had arch horrors like "Do Not Feed the Oysters."

I'll still take the first and third ones, but don't care much. You can make a dandy CD-R out of highlights.

here's malk's update on his site:

"Hey its May 2011-- and we have some updates. Yeah, the new album is called "Mirror Traffic". There was a lot of deliberation on the album title front but in the end we went the cryptic route--for some reason "Madonna in Love" didnt swing it with the test market. FOr a long stretch when it was gonna be called "L.A. Guns", but with lawsuits flying left and right these days, I was talked off the ledge by cooler minds. This is bad form to talked about what might have been, Negative Hypnosis, but in the age of tell-all I thought I'd join in.

We recorded it with Beck over the last year. It took a while to finish due to "Life"--the actual "rock hours" were pretty reasonable........in fact 68% of the tracking, vocals included, took place on one day, a first for me. We pretty much left it all out there, so look for 50 minutes of tunage, 13 songs, and LOTS of good times.

Also, Janet Weiss is not with us anymore--over the last year she started Wild Flag .....its a growing concern--We couldn't hit the daily double. We wish her well in her future shredding. ...

THe silver lining --- Jake Morris of the Joggers and newly hatched Night Moves has assumed the throne, and it's a pretty swank fit. Look for us in all the usual places in September.

THats all for now. Thanks y'all
steve

I have a Malkmus solo playlist on right now. Always heard the first album as a bit wacky and charming, but it has some really nice songs - Trojan Curfew is one I forgot about completely.

"I had a crap gin and tonic/it wounded me" made a lot of AIM away messages in '01.

daddy's on the run

"I came to crave your spastic touch"

man I love the first album -- he was never that fun again

agreed - it takes me back to a very particular (and fun) summer. but i don't agree with you saying do not feed the oyster is no good - Pig Lib is a jam all the way through pretty much.

hey, I'd forgotten about Vague Space too.

first album is great but tentative, like he was the s-dog somehow. he cut loose on pig lib, embraced his groundhogs and mellow candle love

Stream "Senator" here: http://www.stan-studios.com/blog/?p=2796

yuck

not feeling this

yeah it kind of sucks

worst malkmus lyrics

Does anybody what Mirror Traffic has sold thus far?

what do people think of real emotional trash in 2013? i've loved this record for a long time but i get the impression it's not exactly a fan favorite.

it's alright, but jammy malkmus really doesn't hold up in the studio that well

My least favorite by far. The songs are ugly and go on forever. (And I generally like jammy Malkmus.)

Agreed. "Gardenia" is cool though.

"Baltimore" is so good tho

i would have left off "hopscotch willie" -- its placement as the second track does leave a bad taste in the listener's mouth.

love jammy malkmus, love his guitar playing.

"down in sausalito, we had clams for dessert, you spilled some chardonnay on your gypsy skirt" -so good.

"we've got omens that are tailor-made for every situation that you're conjuring"

police me!

it remains the least of his solo albums, though i do have a soft spot for "dragonfly pie."

what's weird is that i heard live versions of most of the songs that wound up on this album before it dropped and was just FLOORED, but then the album itself wasn't half as good.

everyone is so wrong about this! it's the best album malkmus ever made! the best album weiss ever played on!

yeah it is a great record

kinda surprising he didn't put "Mr. Jolly" on the record. Lovely melody, great lyrics, nice backing vocals. Available via the Buy Early Get Now thing. I like this record! But I like pretty much anything the guy has done, so take that with your grain of salt.

was about to post this again ... 15 years later lol. one of SM's best deep cuts.

like this overall but it has 2-3 too many tracks IMO

pig lib is my fave