Stephen Malkmus
Stephen Malkmus
- Matador Records
Release Date: 2001
Is that really what Stephen Malkmus looks like? I am a Pavement fan. I have pretty much all of their full-length albums. And if you like the way that Pavement has been going in the last few years, than you should like this album. Its cleaner than Slanted and Enchanted and Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain, and maybe even Terror Twighlight (they're last album).
I was in Freddy's in Brooklyn the other night for the first time. They were playing some older Pavement (Slanted and Enchanted or Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain (I bought them at the same time, so the kind of melt together for me)). Boy what great music! It also helped that Freddy's looked exactly like a generic San Francisco bar, like the one's where we used to hang out listening to Pavement all the time...but I digress. Stephen Malkmus is/was the singer for Pavement (the band is technically on hiatus) perhaps one of the most influential indie rock bands in the last decade. They avoided falling into ruts like so many other bands, staying somehow fresh and interesting, they created songs which seemed to materialize directly (and dissonantly) out of their suburban environment combining catchy-pop hooks to a noisy (and seemingly haphazard) underpinnings.
I am a Pavement fan (but not a fanatic). I have pretty much all of their full-length albums. And if you like Pavement's last few releases, than you should like this album. It's perhaps a bit simpler and cleaner, with even more tasty hooks. Some of the songs border on cute, but fortunately just as they come close to crossing the line, Stephen breaks them down, deconstructing his elaborately created melodies with a little rhythmic chaos or dissonance, keeping it real. The album has a real warm vibe, with an almost country flavor. The songs sing-song around in a typically Malkmus way, opening and closing up the rhythms between verse and chorus. He also layered these in a pleasingly complex way.
--Sean Ross
seanross@mac.com
