Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks: 33/34 - 2003

33
2003/03/02, Radio Populaire, Italy
Craw song
Ramp of death

I'm not sure about the date. It's possible, but three days later Stephen would be onstage with the Jicks in Texas. And here he is, by himself, doing a radio session in Italy. It would almost be like a lost couplet from Dylan's 'When I paint my masterpiece'. Maybe it's the transmission date.

What's important is not the how and when. This is a welcome chance (the only one) to hear Stephen alone and acoustic in the Pig Lib timeframe. A kind soul sent me the recording after I wrote the first version of this career overview. I'm told it's only part of a longer session, but no information on what else was played.

Stephen is self assured and means business. No twiddling or improvisations, straight up, honestly felt renditions of two of the more likely candidates from the new album to be played in this format. They probably sounded like this when Stephen presented them to the Jicks for consideration. I sort of miss Mike's contributions, but the songs stand up well. 'Craw song' is the same structure as the album take. 'Ramp of death' shortened. Good singer-songwriter stuff.

34
2003/03/05, Emo's, Austin, TX

Sin taxi
Dynamic calories
(Do not feed the) Oyster
Ramp of death
Phantasies
Water and a seat
Vanessa from Queens
Vague space
It kills
Witch mountain bridge
Never my love
Church on white
1% of 1
100 years from now

The three full 2003 shows I've got are all of them amazing. It could be luck of the draw, but it's led me to picture the 2003 Jicks in near-mythical dimensions of concert prowess. Such force, such telepathy, such good-natured ribbing and stand-up comedy (John and Mike are coming into their own here – picking up the Bob Nastanovich mantle of running onstage commentary – sort of like at a sport event).

The troubles with the setlist are all taken care of. The solution: just attack everything with gusto, introduce a couple of b-sides in the set, and some well-chosen covers. Among the tracks here that benefit from that attack are the folk numbers from 'Pig lib'- the raw lead guitaring on 'Oyster' is excellent, 'Water and a seat' is itching along the road to 'Dragonfly pie'. Even 'Vanessa from Queens' gets amped up – there's an attractive (short) improvisation at the end, which would be further developed in later shows.

What a start to this set – the first three songs are a hell of an introduction. 'Sin taxi' – a nice surprising choice! It's broadly faithfull to the studio version (with all the cheesy synths), but this one is a heavy riff beast, not quite Led Zeppelin but heavy rock all the same. Nice! 'Dynamic calories' and 'Oyster' are just as great.

Of course the other track that immediately draws the attention is the first 'Face the truth' song to appear. Like '1% of 1' was for 'Pig lib', 'It kills' is the gateway song to the third album. In this incarnation (instrumental structure in place, lyrics still a blur) it's even called 'Face the truth' (according to Stephen's introduction): 'think about it', he says, and then another song 'nothing about facing the truth', 'Witch mountain bridge'. 'Pig lib'-era moving into 'Face the truth'-era with its heavy vision of the 'human shitpile' and then again, its 'seize the day' humanist philosophising.

There's some nice talk on the set:
Joanna: I'm here behind this pole in case anyone needs me. Stephen: It's like having a fifth band member. (Better 5th member than when I saw you in 2001! – – – sorry)

Stephen: I got someone to tune my guitars for me. Once you get one, you didn't know you needed it.

Stephen: I'm kind of an original punk... I like Green Day' John: 'Total punk.'

Joanna: 'I would get naked if everybody got naked. But I mean, it's not like it's exciting. I'm just saying.'
John: There's a guy with a beard. He's into it. You can always count on a guy with a beard.'