Stephen Malkmus vs Dan Bejar

Bejar without hesitation

SM, fivefold

*bites nails*

i'm also on team bejar

Malkmus by a country mile

malkmus voters share a post-pavement song that's like incontrovertible proof he deserves the win. he makes me cringe tbh but i'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt for the purposes of this poll.

I got nothin, he's coasting on Pavement for me. I'm sure Raymond can recommend a few things. I just can't stand Bejar! It's personal I think, I blame ILM. Just needlessly verbose indie fluff, but SSW stuff bores me esp when crossed with indie. I want NOIZE which Pavement delivered in spades.

not sure that’s a fair framework since he has about 100 classic songs from the pavement era alone

my one post-Pavement Malkmus experience was seeing him do an endearing, half-assed solo set based on loops and shit, as an opener for Ann Magnuson & The Bongwater Experience, which fucking ruled. He came out at the encore to help sing "You Don't Love Me Yet", see this is another thing I have never heard of Bejar doing a cover of any sort or nodding to the past in any way, which also leaves me cold.

Bejar folks, gimme a stone cold killer song under 3 minutes that's catchy and not slow?

Brevity isn't really Bejar's thing, but excluding the length requirement, "The Sublimation Hour," "Your Blood," "Destroyer's The Temple," "The Space Race" (all pre-Kaputt and all stone cold killer songs)

ok fair enough. pavement isn't excluded here. i've listened to a lot more pavement but they also make me cringe. bejar's full-band arrangements are just ... so much more my cup of tea. maybe i like the touchpoints more (bowie and glam, dylan, van morrison) idk. i just think they're so much more interesting. the funny stuff is funnier, the emotional heft is realer.

anyway i think it makes some sense to compare them. both their lyrics and their music. i think they both tow a line between humor and seriousness. the songs tend to amble and shamble and sort of take shape in weird progressive ways.

xp

this is an early destroyer jam with some of my favorite lines - "farrar, straus & giroux (sea of tears)". i think he really evolved as a songwriter though. now that i listen to it for the first time in years i realize it sounds A LOT like "range life". paul mentions some other great ones.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6o5-_7NF1iQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6o5-_7NF1iQ

whoops sorry for the double post

now that i'm thinking more about this i think bejar is on a completely different level when it comes to writing lyrics. he's actually aiming for poetry and art. he doesn't always hit but when he does it's amazing. malkmus is good at sounding cute, that's all. so vapid.

man I love the new Bejar album a lot, a whole whole lot -- and my favorites among his "mature" I guess catalogue -- Your Blue & Trouble in Dreams -- are for me big touchstones, but when I hit play on those Streethawk tunes above, man do I wish he hadn't fallen in love with vocal reverb and grand visions. We all gotta grow, if he'd just done that it would have gotten old, but Thief and Streethawk for me are very special records. Some of that is down to who & where I was at the time, but there's something winning for me in the combination of giant ambition and scaled-back means.

still a Malkmus vote here, leaving Pavement aside, whose work I know less well than most other people of my scene. But the Malkmus solo debut is a flat out masterpiece, and the rest of the run with the Jicks, I just love those records. Any time I play one song off em I just wanna let the record play through. I think the point of comparison is really that Bejar accepts his own bookishness and Malkmus is severely conflicted about his. I like little better than a deeply conflicted intellectual.

malkmus is good at sounding cute, that's all. so vapid.

I think this is absolutely false, btw - they are coming from different ideas about poetry. Malkmus is an American lit guy. Bejar is incredibly European.

bejar has higher highs and has definitely been stronger for the past 15 years but malkmus has had a better career overall, the only of albums his i don't really care for are mirror traffic and groove denied. pavement were pretty good and the jicks were even better

I mean at the current moment in time I would feel slightly more enthusiastic about checking out a new Bejar album than a new Malkmus album and that’s been true for a minute, however there’s no denying that Malkmus has made more music that has been a bigger part of my life over the years.

Importance? Malkmus. Cumulative good song output? Bejar all day.

Dan gets extra points for being great no matter who is backing him. Also I think you lose integrity points every time you embark on a reunion tour.

good litmus test = solo acoustic performances

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

vs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zDPNeZ2dAI-

i don't think solo acoustic performances do either of them any favours

The songs stand plain

malkmus is good at sounding cute, that's all. so vapid.
I think this is absolutely false, btw - they are coming from different ideas about poetry. Malkmus is an American lit guy. Bejar is incredibly European.

― J Edgar Noothgrush (Joan Crawford Loves Chachi), Friday, May 16, 2025 6:53 PM (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

yesss

Except Dan Bejar Canadian.

if this poll is just their body of musical work: Malkmus

If this poll is just them as a human: Bejar

I’m going with SM on general principle. Bejar I’ve only experienced as a member of New Pornographers (he was ok there but not, like, “this person is my personal pantheon” which SM is)

I’m going with SM on general principle. Bejar I’ve only experienced as a member of New Pornographers (he was ok there but not, like, “this person is my personal pantheon” which SM is)

how are you on this board and have never listened to destroyer

Bejar has mentioned pavement as an influence if that matters at all

I think this is a sweet late-career Malkmus song (Amberjack, from 2020):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pN9KmIgK9ak

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00PSlDdXRMo

my favourites are when the jicks get really noodley

bejar but i like post-pavement malkmus plenty too

Neither one of these guys seem like they'd be fun to hang out with. Voted for Malkmus only because of PAVEMENT. Would have voted Gary Young over Bejar. Nothing against Destroyer. I've heard plenty of their stuff. Maybe a little too verbose/literate at times for me.

I keep my distance from both men these days: I gorged on Pavement in my '20s and love the Malkmus debut, while Destroyer albums boast two or three bits of synthy rumination per album before I tune out. I can't stand Bejar in The New Pornos, though.

Poor Stephen, being forced into this fight, he didn’t deserve this!

Poor Stephen, being forced into this fight, he didn’t deserve this!

Bejar is/was the third-best songwriter in the New Pornographers, imo. I know many won't agree.

and he still wasn't George Harrison

Weird to hear anybody describe Bejar’s songwriting as “European”. Who do you mean? Jacques Brel? George Aznavour? Serge Gainsbourg? I kinda get it, if so.

Bejar has always struck me as being quintessentially Canadian, like a mashup of Leonard Cohen and SCTV (or Ken Finkleman, Don McKellar et al.)

Bejar for me. He's had an amazing run of albums since City of Daughters - I can listen to any of those albums and have a good time.

Neither one of these guys seem like they'd be fun to hang out with.

Bejar is in fact the best hang, just mellow and witty and fun. Can't speak to SM.

Weird to hear anybody describe Bejar’s songwriting as “European”. Who do you mean? Jacques Brel? George Aznavour? Serge Gainsbourg? I kinda get it, if so.

well, I meant more in terms of his poetry -- malkmus is a confirmed ashbery stan, I'm sure dan likes ashbery too but his writing is much more like Spanish poets & novelists, all recursive self-reference & and layers of affect. Malkmus writes like a guy who was bound for grad school. (I like both, mind, but I think Malkmus is at his best when he finds a spot in between arch and the medicinal allowance of sentimental he gives himself.)

Bejar sounds like a cross between Doug Henning, Snagglepuss and a 14th century court jester, so Malkmus for the win.

I think this is a sweet late-career Malkmus song (Amberjack, from 2020):

this is pretty good, thx

Musically Bejar goes for a pre-Brexit lush romantic Bryan Ferry Roxy Music sound which is therefore kind of European to me

they both sound pretty west coast to me but sm - sunnier, bejar - rainier

they should buddy up - Bejar & Malkmus, Danny & the Steph

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tBFVAb1rcE0

Steevy & The Dan

Bejar is/was the third-best songwriter in the New Pornographers, imo. I know many won't agree.

I don’t agree, but I think Slow Wonder and Fox Confessor are easily as good as Destroyer’s best

hard quartet > new pornographers

The last Malkmus album that I really like is Real Emotional Trash. It’s hard to believe that as much time has now passed since that came out as had passed between Slanted and Enchanted and that one.

Malky. Besides, he's a tentpole for Bejar's schtick -- which I also love. Destroyer's Rubies is an all-timer.