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| STEPHEN MALKMUS & THE JICKS |
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| We are sorry but STEPHEN
is not due to perform for a while. |
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album... Real Emotional Trash ... out now!
(Matador Records)
"Real Emotional Trash is a fantastic psychedelic feast, full of cosmic guitar crackle and electric piano and batshit poetry.It's the album Malkmus has been driving at ever since he learned how to rip off the Velvet Underground and Quicksilver MessengerService at the same time...downright glorious." - Rolling Stone
"The indie Frank Zappa creates his post-Pavement masterpiece" - Mojo
"There's never been a better time to turn on to him, and tune in" Uncut
"The most feted songwriter of the slacker explosion" - The Times
As one of the principal members of the band Pavement, Stephen Malkmus helped define the sound of 1990s American indie-rock. While his solo work retains Pavement's abstract literary sensibility, Malkmus indulges a broader musical palette when on his own, evoking everything from British folk and '70s prog to psychedelia and blazing guitar-rock. With the assistance of his backing band, the Jicks, Malkmus has established himself as one of the most respected guitar players in underground rock. In 2007, drummer Janet Weiss, formerly of Sleater-Kinney, became a full-time Jick.
"The great guitar romantic of his era, a poet, a con man, a slave to love, a badly drawn boy, a flannel man-cub troubadour whose smartass lyrics barely veil the cosmic emotional climaxes of his voice and guitar." Rolling Stone
"Malkmus deploys six-string fireworks as a Greek chorus…like a hybrid of Jerry Garcia, Thurston Moore, Kevin Shields, and Tom Verlaine." Revolver
"The most notable development is Malkmus's stepping forward as a shit-hot guitar player…his ample pop charms seem as much a revelation as a reintroduction to an old friend." Time Out
"An album that swaggers with a confidence and verve that used to be verboten in the field in which he was once the standard bearer…and the Jicks are a damn sight tighter and more exhilarating than any Pavement show I ever saw." NY Observer
"The most unapologetically exhilarating record with which his name's been associated since Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain." Mojo
"Malkmus has emerged as nothing less than the coolest cucumber since Bob Dylan." LA Weekly
"Bold, brainy, and brilliant rock." Us Weekly
"A playfully brilliant generational icon." W
"An album of brilliant songs." Billboard
"The first rock 'n' roll classic of the 21st century." Shout
"A guided tour of a vivid inner life." New York Times
"Instantly catchy." Time
"A revelation." Time Out
About Real Emotional Trash, the new album from Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks
“I am not a present to be opened up and parceled out again,” our man insists on “Gardenia,” track seven on his new album. Ha! That’s what you think, pal. From the day nigh two decades ago when the first scratchy sounds of Pavement floated in the ether above Stockton (crown jewel of California’s Central Valley, the sprawling breadbasket that neither the North or the South have claimed in California’s ongoing “two states” culture war; just providing some historical context that will be useful a few sentences later), the music of Stephen Malkmus has been the gift that keeps on keepin’ on.
Did SM not offer the eternal promise of “perfect sound forever”? Was this sly appropriation of a digital age boast for Pavement’s low-bandwidth treble-kicks not a prescient example of that “irony” thing everybody talked about in the ‘90s? Can we then conclude that that by invoking “paralyzed dreams forever” on this album Malkmus foretells some sort of bad moon on the rise?
Hell, I don’t know, and I’m the omniscient narrator of this artist bio. But I will point out that much of Real Emotional Trash, his fourth "solo" LP (this one credited with The Jicks, like his second, Pig Lib), is decidedly low-down and heavy. It could hardly be otherwise with monster drummer Janet Weiss now a full-fledged Jick, alongside bassist Joanna Bolme and guitar/keyboardist Mike Clark.
Meanwhile, Malkmus the guitar hero is on full display here. “Dragonfly Pie,” “Baltimore,” and the title track are alchemic combinations of intricate composition and unfettered jam. Whoa, did I actually type the phrase “unfettered jam”? Scratch that. (Did I actually say “scratch that”? It’s a good thing I'm anonymous as well as omniscient.)
Malkmus’ genius is that he knows exactly when to fetter. These songs may sprawl like the Central Valley (told you), they may spread out like a jet’s flame, but when they reach that last tract house they gracefully spread their wings and head for the unclaimed land beyond. Indeed, although Malkmus makes the Pacific Northwest his home, this feels like a “California” album. Check out how “Real Emotional Trash” begins as a modern-day “Tonight’s the Night,” before evolving into a road trip from the Mexican border to Marin, in the tradition of Pavement’s “Unfair.” And dig those Allman Bros. leads (really!).
Elsewhere, “We Can’t Help You” channels the Band’s “The Weight,” tapping that same vein of late-night melancholia and early-morning lucidity. “Cold Son” sounds like a cruise down the Ventura Highway. And if another song released this year makes you smile as much as “Gardenia,” I have a rare Crust Brothers bootleg with your name on it. While I cannot get with the song’s insistence that its singer is not a “present,” I can sympathize with one line: “don’t want to damn you with the faintest praise.” That’s what it feels like to write about this record, tossing around those historical comparisons, making you read about it when you could be listening to it. So listen, already.
The Band...
Joanna Bolme
Born on April Fool's Day. Descendant of Kintpuash. Attended first concert, The Who/Three Dog Night, at 5 years old. Did not speak for two days after Jackson was killed on The White Shadow. First "complicated" bass line ever learned, Strutter, KISS. Lets dog sleep on the bed. Likes avocados, beer and black licorice. Dislikes litterbugs, WAL*#%MART and cars that hog the passing lane. Can dance bulerias but aspires to siguiriyas. Thinks Gregory Peck is the most handsome movie star of all time.
Mike Clark
Mike Clark = Capricorn! Still buys R.E.M. records. Collects Bicentennial Quarters. Likes Thai food and argyle socks. Can't believe Low are LDS. Knows his Dewey Decimal system. Went through a big Lew Archer phase. Obsessed with cassowaries. Loves candy and magazines. Plays to win!! When he's not Jicking, Mike can usually be found behind the bar at Sagittairus, the bar he owns with his wife, Robin.
Steve Malkmus
the true Victims Family fan . Born in Los Angeles...... Spends his free time hitting a large bell....... Majored in Leprosy at Inkblot Tech.......Feels most at home around Darts... At some point established himself as a group to keep watching....Presently a Trustee of the Crystal Gayle Theater of the Perfoming Arts in Pullman Washington.
Defines a Jick as: "J from Jagger plus Mick minus M"
Janet Weiss
ON DRUMS: Janet Lee Weiss lives in Portland with her two winsome dogs, Mac and Isobel. She's a Libra (the superficial sign of the group) who loves gambling, fancy hotels, clean water, getting in the zone, and triplets. She hopes to someday plunk the Olympic theme song at the opening ceremonies. Janet is thrilled to be a Jick, except for the fact that Mike hates two-piece bands. Then again, he did teach her how to pass an orange back and forth while juggling. Fair enough, dude. Eventually, Ms. Weiss will happily end up the enthusiastic drummer of a bar band, grinding out classic rock covers Thursday nights.
www.stephenmalkmus.com
www.myspace.com/stephenmalkmus
www.matadorrecords.com/stephen_malkmus
www.myspace.com/matadorrecords
www.dominorecordco.com/artists/stephen-malkmus-and-the-jicks
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