Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks: 118 - 2011

118
Late 2011?, recording location unknown
Wheels of fire
(released split 7” with LA Guns, january 2012)

The almost four years of Jicks Mark III (so far) have yielded a surprisingly small crop of recorded output: just 14 tracks. It's a bit like the restaurant sketch: the food is great, but the portions are awfully small. The earliest of those 14 tracks is this LA Guns cover. You know the backstory: the Jicks considered naming 'Mirror traffic' 'LA Guns' after the hair metal band (or at least that's what David Berman wanted us to believe). Hair metal band heard about it. Jicks and LA Guns cover each other for a split 7” single released as part of Matador Record Subscription series.

It's certainly the most rocking performance they've recorded. The whole song rides on a heavy, circulating groove. And it might just be the rawest sounding studio recording of Stephen's solo career. For a while I hoped the sound of this one-off might point towards the next Jicks album, but that obviously was never the intention.

The most amazing thing about it is how the Jicks can make a hair metal track (I've never heard the original in case you're wondering) sound uncannily like an early '90s Sonic Youth single. Just listen to the way Stephen breathes 'I'm burning baby / Can't you see that my heart is aflame / I'll be the one / to call you by your name' (at 1'55”) over those power chords humming, and tell me it couldn't be Kim Gordon on 'Goo'. And the extended amplifier hum starting around 3'30''. For that matter the sound isn't all that far off from some ca. 1990 shoegazing.

I love the coda that starts from about 4'30”. I presume that's from another LA Guns song entirely? Great idea.
No, I never heard the LA Guns version of 'Gorgeous Georgie'.
But I'm disappointed this never made it into the live show.
A weird idea, but the result is outstanding.