Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks: 1/2 - 2000

The mercurial career of Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks:

Like most people I like listening to the music of Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks. I like thinking about it too. One fine day I started putting in order all of the official/unofficial stuff I have, and I started writing about the music, about why I like it so.

To a casual fan, I guess I've got a lot of stuff but I certainly don't have all of what circulates. I'm a small-time collector (but with ambitions). I'm not a completist though – when I get a show I keep it all or select the highlights, sometimes I re-sequence for listening pleasure. So this is not the place to find full setlists, it's just my collection. There's a lot of identification missing, so I might draw the wrong conclusions here and there (and everywhere). Correct me where necessary. (Or, fill in the blanks – aka expand my collection!)

Oh, just a disclaimer: I certainly mean no disrespect to anyone. On the whole, I'm thankful all this stuff exists. But I try to be honest, and a listening relation, even for the best artists, is always made up out of highs and lows. And sometimes the lows hit me where it hurts. Just so you know...

(The original version of these notes dates from 2014. This 2015 version includes some additions.)

1
March 2000
'Sin taxi'
Personnel: SM / Michael Schorr / Brian Foote

There was no hesitation once Pavement disbanded, no months of deliberation. Pavement's last tour ended at the end of november 1999. At the beginning of march 2000, Steve was in Magnetic Park studios in Portland, Oregon laying down his first released solo recording. At the request of French magazine Les Inrockuptibles he contributed to a covermount cd reflecting 'what music would sound like in the future'. The track was later included as a b-side on the 'Phantasies' single.

It's no masterpiece, but it's such an oddball goofy creation, I love it. Who writes a line like 'The room is spotless / except for that / you wouldn't know / inhabitants / inhabited / the room'? The track is heavy on cheesy synth sounds – going by some of the stuff on the 1998 solo shows and the Kim's Bedroom show (see further), it seems cheesy synth sounds was pretty much the base idea for his whole new direction at this time. But like an infinitely better version of the Moog Cookbook, this track just grooves along.

And it does pretty accurately nail the future sound of folk-tronica (sort of).

2
2000/03/18, Kim's bedroom, Effenaar, Eindhoven, NL
Folk intro
Sin taxi (pt 1)
Vague space
Phantasies
Discretion grove
Jenny & the Ess-dog
Trojan curfew

Not a shortlived supergroup (as some internet sources would have you believe – though who wouldn't get excited at the prospect of a Malkmus – O'Rourke pairing?), Kim's Bedroom was a Kim Gordon-curated evening of music and art at which Malkmus performed a short solo set, prefacing his solo career. Again, the speed with which he was off amazes. Four and a half months after the last Pavement shows, he's obviously got near-as-definitive demos for 'Vague space', 'Phantasies' and 'Discretion grove' in the can. We know cause he sings and plays guitar over them (and over the finished recording of 'Sin taxi' – but just the 'past' part, you have to buy it to hear the 'future' part). What's striking is how all of the 'random' seeming ornamentations on the finished versions of these songs, are present and identical on these demos. He went into the studios with a bunch of samples ready. The main thing to be improved was replacing the synth rhythm tracks with real drums. Fascinating for that reason alone.

But for me the reason to come back are the three acoustic songs, a lovely short instrumental 'folk intro' (not a melody I can identify as turning into some known song later on), a very early version of 'Trojan curfew' (working title 'F sharp') which has a lovely atmosphere but sadly, there's some struggling with retuning throughout the song which spoils the mood, and best of all, a folky version of 'Jenny & the Ess-dog'. Interesting introduction to that song: inspired by 'Jack & Diane' by John Mellencamp (apparently) and written 'about 8 years ago' (!). Can we take his word for it? It would place its writing in 1992, about the same time as the 'Werewolf song' ('Starlings of the slipstream') with which I've always felt it shares some melodic DNA. But I can't see him writing a storyline like that in 1992 (least of all cause I kinda hear the song as a coded comment on his personal situation of 2000), and I can't quite see him leaving a song like that unheard throughout Pavement's career. He wasn't plotting his solo career that far back! Anyway, the performance is beautiful, a whole other discourse (acoustic singer songwriter) he casually turns out to be a master in. The bridge isn't written yet, just three lovely verses (no screaming). (Pity about the recording quality, puts the audience in audience recording. If you know Dutch, you can catch a thrilling discussion about the merits of Moby!)