Stephen Malkmus

dog latin? didn't you used to frequent the old warp records message board, before they took it down?

at least two of the new songs they played sounded like the doors to me. i can't decide if that's a good thing.

1. The Zombies "Time of the Season"
2. Yoko Ono "Walking on Thin Ice"

no, sir. i am not. if i'm anything, it's disappointed that someone w/ so much potential. so little returns

idk where 2 put this but i liked this a lot in 2005 and it's still dear 2 me

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6424258467693494613

now stefan malkamus is walking around w/ my face

This is a very good and interesting interview!
http://www.cowbellmagazine.com/home/2011/8/1/rule-portlandia.html

Good interview but interjections like this remind me why I hate (music) journalism:

In the time of Ke$ha and Katy Perry, in the post-empire era of the music-industrial complex, when radio has become the horse-drawn carriage of the Information Age, songs no longer “mean a lot when songs are bought.”

What does this even mean?

I'm so jealous he's moving to Berlin.

What does this even mean?

I think he's trying to say that it doesn't matter as much as it used to to get a song on the radio.

http://mentholmountains.blogspot.com/2011/08/la-guns-intangible-showdown.html#more

haha

I don't want anybody to get hurt.
I can just see the two factions healing their schism
and coming after you with both barrels blazin.
These headbangers are angry and vindictive.
They've been looking for revenge since '92
and let's face it--
you weren't far from the scene of the crime.

new album sounds good! streaming on the npr today.

lol

Yeah, the new album sounds really good. I've got the NPR thing streaming the thing in full so I'm not sure of the exact track name I'm on right now, but the guitar workout a couple tracks after "Senator" is awesome.

this album is kinda crazy. all over the place. some of it sounds like demos to me. liking the alex chilton-y Tune Grief.

no one is (as i are be) sounds like ode to billie joe.

so excited to listen to this!

"gorgeous georgie" is song titles v much in character

i'm only half-listening to this but this is real clean sounding - the short track lengths and the lightness of his vocals give it this real airy feel. it's all very agreeable, this sounds like the style i want malk to be going for at this stage in his career. i think i'm going to like this

each song is a jam. another great album. malkmus solo > pavement

http://www.avclub.com/articles/stephen-malkmus-forced-to-rename-his-album-out-of,60486/

"fall away" is really nice

"stick figures in love"

Yeah I was just listening to this earlier thinking Fall Away is my favourite song, it's really sweet. The whole album is really enjoyable.

one of these nights i'll have to listen to this when i haven't been drinking but i'm pretty sure i like this album a good amount

there was an ad for the this in spotify telling me to listen to it so i clicked on it and it wasn't available for me to play

this album is already growing on me big time

there was an ad for the this in spotify telling me to listen to it so i clicked on it and it wasn't available for me to play

Yeah, that happened to me too. The ad's popped up several times a day for the past couple of days, not sure who's to blame for that one, but its annoying to keep getting promised something I can't listen to. Luckily we have the NPR stream for now.

ok serious lols at that whole mail exchange

you never know what an unsophisticated consumer might think.

yeah honestly, berman and malkmus need to make another record again.

I think that on some level, when they came out I thought both RET and Wag Out were a bit too silly or goofy, somehow.

I do like jammy Malkmus tho

leaning into the jams is what makes it so great

it was startling recently to pull out Real Emotional Trash and Wig Out and feel, finally, like I fully *got* those albums. Everything kinda clicked.

that happened to me with Wig Out recently too. I'd always thought of it as a lesser retread of Mirror Traffic, but for now I'd rather listen to that than MT. Sparkle Hard felt like a huge step up from both of them though. The S/T and Pig Lib are probably always going to be my favorites for sentimental reasons, but Sparkle Hard is my non-sentimental favorite.

i have not spent enough time with Sparkle Hard, I need to

real emotional trash is the best thing he ever did

― ufo, Tuesday, 27 February 2024 21:29 (two days ago) link

totally otm, really feels like the peak of his playing and arranging post-pavement

I shrugged at RET back when it came out but I pulled it out last night and idk what kind of shit I had in my ears in 2008 because it really is incredible. Pig Lib has always been my favorite and it sounded like that but more

SM@TTTPDX-022424
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFc6q0VNU_A

(shredded vocal tonezzz, raw COVID superspread edition)

Funny that I was about 15 feet away from that, but there was a standing crowd between the table I was at and the stage, so only listened to it.

Thanks, Steve!

Alright which one of you runs the AcidCasualties youtube channel lol.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UhVUME1SC8E

There were rumors... SM was staying with Justine & Damon at the time and ~something happened~ and Damon never brought up SM/Pavement's name again in the press ever afterwards.

also iirc Justine was almost a Jick circa 2001 (to replace Heather or Mike?)

[this is olde internet lore culled from mailing lists]

there's a Magnet interview where Bob is more direct about it:

https://magnetmagazine.com/2001/04/01/stephen-malkmus-being-stephen-malkmus/

lol @ Bob

95% off-topic but former-Jick Heather wrote an amazing song with her brother and I must share it with you in the event you, dear reader, have never heard it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKMR8vAarYo

Steve Shasta, while watching that video that’s exactly what I was thinking about! (The subtext of a Malkmus/Albarn conversation about shoes)

steve and justine played a lot of ping pong on lollapalooza, according to a don't-you-wish-this-was-salacious-because-their-haircuts-and-coolness-match spin or alternative press article i read at the time. their x cover of unheard music is an interesting study of contrasts, it reminded me at the time of the gainsbourg duets in its "why am i even singing this" lazy dude singing with an earnest yet ultimately unknowable hot chick. a romcom with them and damon - i'd half watch it, i admit. unheard music doesn't really fit into either elastica or pavement's discography, although i think i have it in my mp3 collections as a pavement middle era nonlp track and it adds some pep to the turgid brighten the corners b-sides.

I really like the X cover – I think SM says somewhere how Los Angeles is one of his favorite records

The gossip is not that interesting, but I remember this era of music fondly, as it was the beginning of my formative years of listening and reading about music, so I found the clip today and was just remembering about it! (12 year old in BRA reading about this Brighten the Corners import on the music mag of choice)

Soft launched tease going on in social media space of new super band:

Stephen Malkmus, Matt Sweeney, Emmett Kelly & Jim White

More details to follow?

The Malkmus-Sweeney-Kelly-White Axis

There was some talk over on the Malkmus POX thread, but this is probably a better place for it.

🙂

Sweeney-Kelly Sleater-Kinney double bill 2025

Newest detail is that they've landed on a name, The Hard Quartet. New social media accounts launched today.

interesting that it's being presented as a band not "Stephen Malkmus and ..." Could be cool!

Who’s gonna play bass?

Been getting my son into Pavement. He thinks it’s hilarious. Listening to crooked rain a lot and it’s crazy how much mileage they get out him as a vocalist on that album. His, what I’ll call slacker scat, where he creates these great melodies just riffing on the last word of the verse, are so catchy. Does anyone in rock sing like this anymore

Who’s gonna play bass?

― bbq, Tuesday, July 16, 2024 3:10 PM (fifty-eight minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

probably Matt Sweeney, he played bass on that Iggy Pop tour where he and Josh Homme were in the backing band

Nah man no one is going to play bass, bass is just a bring down, just gonna be VIBES man

Counterpoint: the triple bass attack is what will make the quartet "hard".

I like malk's voice and his singing – it's funny to read about it, I just listened to this podcast with Andy Richter where he's pretty open about how he felt bad for a while after some ex-bandmates told him his voice sucks. https://teamcoco.com/podcasts/the-three-questions-with-andy-richter/episodes/stephen-malkmus A nice interview really

The first time I remember hearing Pavement when I must have been about 17 or 18, I was struck by how sloppy and skew-whiff it all sounded. I don't hear it half as much in the music any more - it all sounds quite well played and structured. But what was it they were doing, specifically, that made me think this?

Matt's a great bass player, first time I saw him was in GBV playing bass circa Under The Bushes.

According to their Insta post today, the lineup is:

Malkmus: bass, guitar, vocals
Sweeney: bass, guitar, vocals
Kelly: bass, guitar, vocals
White: drums, vocals

wow i like basically all of the names they scribbled on the notepad more than the one they chose

for reference: https://static.stereogum.com/uploads/2024/07/IMG_9625-1720632519-844x1500.jpg

i would've gone with iron chai or the divorce doulas

Will it be on Matador or Drag City?

Matador still has a fax machine so probably them.

Ha ha, great reference

The Shaaak Jumpahs (to be spoken in an Aussie accent by Jim White--with respect to all these guys, this name/campaign has jumped off mighty rough IMO)

(or: Emm's Atomic Dustbin)

divorce doulas is so good

Been getting my son into Pavement. He thinks it’s hilarious. Listening to crooked rain a lot and it’s crazy how much mileage they get out him as a vocalist on that album. His, what I’ll call slacker scat, where he creates these great melodies just riffing on the last word of the verse, are so catchy. Does anyone in rock sing like this anymore

― Heez, Tuesday, July 16, 2024 3:59 PM (two days ago) bookmarkflaglink

The many ways he sings the word "underused" in "We Are Underused" are just incredible

divorce doulas is so good

That was my pick as well, but I get why they wouldn't use it.

xpost my favourite example of that is the catchy coda from 'Shoot The Singer': "don't expect, don't expect..."

I don't think I've even felt more seen by a lyric than: "It was Mudhoney summer, Torch of Mystics, Double Bummer."

setting the scenes

at last an indie supergroup to challenge the dominance of Shrinebuilder and Drag City Supersession

Was trying to think of a list of who Matt/Emmett/Jim have all backed/collaborated with before (albeit separately):

Will Oldham
Chan Marshall