Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks: 31/32 - 2002

31
Dynamic calories
Fractions & feelings
Old Jerry

Unlike the debut album's b-sides, which never had a chance at a normal career trajectory, these tracks from the 'Pig lib' bonus disc / the 'Dark wave' single are not just good enough to prop up any of his albums, but could've been highlights.

For an appraisal of 'Old Jerry' – one of my all-time Malkmus favourites – scroll back to entry 27.

I've mentioned 'Dynamic calories' and 'Fractions & feelings' before as well. Both songs written by an adult – looking back on a glorious summer of youth. The first song tackles the fate of an imaginary early '80s underground rock band – one of those bands Stephen and Bob Nastanovich collected the 7” singles from. Vocal panache, angular chops and those wet drums... We'll see the theme return in the coming years. 'Fractions and feelings' captures a more general high school feeling (when the cops foiled all our plots). I would basically kill for a Jicks song with a beautiful piano part like this now.

32
2002/12/07, Warsaw, Brooklyn, NY
Fly
JoJo's jacket
Water and a seat
Vanessa from Queens
Animal midnight
Vague space
(Do not feed the) Oyster
Church on white
Ramp of death
Dark wave
Never my love
Sheets
Witch mountain bridge
Jennifer & the Ess-dog
[Raffle]
Us
Third rate romance
Eagle rock (Daddy cool)
1% of 1

Probably the only recorded evidence of Stephen Malkmus acting as raffle host ('and another t-shirt for number 223 109...'). I know, everybody's a critic, but... he's not very good at all, is he? You can hear why he wasn't asked back ('ok, everyone without a ticket, talk to your friends')

Still a couple of months off from 'Pig lib''s street date of March 18, 2003, in december 2002 the new record seems set. At this date they play all but one song ('Craw song') from the album as it came out, and none of the sidelined material.

It takes a while to get going. Not that they need more practice to inhabit the songs, but there's something about the setlist that doesn't breathe. The new material and the old songs seem to come from different worlds, the covers seem too random and the whole set just sounds disjointed. I wonder what an audience that hasn't even heard the new record would make of it. This is not the most instantly catchy material of his career. It would be a challenge to arrive at an integrated set at this stage of the Jicks' catalogue – but they'd get there.

There's a great section running from 'Ramp of death' through 'Jennifer and the Ess-dog'. I get a kick out of 'Never my love' – not because they play it so exceptionally well, but it's just a great song (by the Association). 'Sheets' rocks way harder than on the record – great version. Just before starting the solo on 'Witch mountain bridge' they pause for a really long time and then they lean into the rhythm, starting really slow and speeding up to the correct tempo. It's a familiar trick, but pretty cool. Mike does his cruise ship piano player bit at the end of 'Jenny...' again.

Like the early 2001 shows there are a number of covers here. 'Fly' makes its last appearance that I know of – not the best version, but I'm kinda sad to see it go undocumented. 'Never my love' is beautiful. '3rd rate romance' and 'Steppin' out' (both unfamiliar songs to me – there's this whole layer of pop song knowledge that passes me by apparently) are intended as light fun (I suppose). The main difference is that the early 2001 covers were used as a springboard to generate the material for the next album. None of these songs point toward 'Face the truth', so there's less commitment there.

Amazing, long and jammed out version of '1% of 1' at the end -maybe not the all time best, but it certainly keeps me hooked for the duration.

One drawback of this recording – there's a bit of banter, but it's nearly inaudible (strangely the singing is perfectly fine). You get these long stretches between songs where you're straining to understand what they're saying, and it just stays frustratingly out of reach. One person in the audience yells 'F U too' loudly just before 'Animal midnight', but why and at whom?