Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks: 128 - 2012

128
2/12/2012, Alte Kranhalle, Cologne, Germany
I'm so green
Sing swan song
Pinch / Soup
Spoon
One more night
Vitamin C
(Stephen Malkmus + Friends [Von Spar] play Ege Bamyasi LP)

Given the least opportunity I will talk at length about what Stephen should do next. I don't expect him to follow my advice, I just like thinking along with one of my heroes. The gist of my argument hardly alters: either do an acoustic, orchestrated album with Van Dyke Parks on arrangements and Jim O'Rourke on production/backing musician or do a psychedelic, messy double mixing synth home demos, live jams, different bands, studio experiments and so on. I've been saying it for so long. It took me by surprise when half of that psychedelic double suddenly appeared.

I had a frustrating experience trying to actually purchase the record, which is too boring to get into. But I'm sure Record Store Day is much the worse for my absence henceforth. I hear they were down to hawking 7”s of the Ghostbusters theme last year! Suffice to say, I obtained the music and am very pleased with this album indeed.

It took me a while to get into it – no, I liked it from the first, but I could hardly hear it as a Malkmus album. Not only is it all covers, but the band's definitely on an equal footing with Stephen here. Much more so than in the Jicks, I'd say. The heart of the sound is the interplay between bass, drums and keyboards. There's a second guitar player who adds subtle details. And Stephen free associates lyrics and messes around on the guitar. I didn't recognize it as Stephen's guitar for a while there. He plays totally different from his usual style these days. Very rhythmic, more clicks and rustles than melodies. The sound is quite clean, but he hits almost random note clusters or miniature flourishes – and he makes optimal use of a delay pedal, letting sounds whir buzzily and then shutting them off. It's quite chaotic. Looking at the videos, at some points he puts the guitar down and plays it from a distance.

It's a record that needs a little while to work its way into your system. It's heavily improvisatory, but not like 'Real emotional trash'-era Jicks, not as rock, not as aggressive. This is more rubbery, uncomfortable groove, mood music, more Krautrock. I think it was Nguideau on the Malkmus boards who wrote it's more like Pavement covering 'Ege bamyasi' than the Jicks covering 'Ege bamyasi'. That's true, there was a lot more Krautrock influence in Pavement. But I don't think we should kid ourselves Pavement could've pulled this off. I don't know Von Spar, but they sound like frighteningly good musicians. I mean, this record sounds open and random, but it's advanced stuff.

I like Can, but my go to records are more 'Tago mago' and 'Future days'. It's been a long while since I played 'Ege bamyasi'. I did last night in preparation for writing this – and (Can fans, I'm sorry) I prefer the Malkmus version. They take a lot of liberties with the record, that's for sure. To me, they condense the right parts of the record – the two ten minute outré jams on the original, 'Pinch' and 'Soup', are combined in one 12 minute sequence. Just long enough to hit all the spots and short enough to maintain momentum. Even the live album's most out there jam ends up surprisingly catchy. A couple of the shorter songs from the original ('I'm so green', 'Spoon', 'Vitamin C') get hard hitting arrangements, all fluttering rubber bass, nervous drums and strong vocals. Sort of like a Talking Heads I can love.

But my favorites are two songs they extend way past their original length. 'Sing swan song' is moody and dark, oppressed and beautiful. To me it realizes the potential I can hear in the searching Can version. 'One more night' is a hypnotic groove-a-thon, gaining layers and layers of melody and noise but always slithering on underneath. Marvelous. On the whole it brings the record to life, removes the dust. It's more in the moment and exciting.

When 'Wig out' appeared, for a second I was disappointed they hadn't followed up on this exciting direction for the Jicks album. But even though it appeared way before 'Wig out', the Can concert took place after the 'Wig out' sessions. So it may still influence the next album. I hope so, but then, I also hoped the Jicks would pick up 'Sing swan song' or 'One more night' for their own sets. They could totally pull them off. It hasn't happened yet.