Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks: 77/78 - 2008

77
2008/??/??, unidentified (tv appearance?)
Real emotional trash

Maybe someone can help me date this performance. A band version of 'Real emotional trash. For some reason I've got it in my head that it's from some award show or on TV or something. At the end, Stephen says 'We're the Jicks, by the way. We're not Radiohead.' It sounds to me like it's still at the start of the campaign trail, so I'm placing it here in april 2008.

Anyway, I really like it. They don't rush through the song to get to the improv section – they play it with feeling. They don't improvise just cause it's on the menu,. You can hear them collectively think it through as they're playing it. I like the part where it almost comes to a standstill while Stephen plays these ascending chords.

78
2008, early april?, Buckman Bash
We have laid here

Another undated fragment of a solo acoustic show Stephen played as a benefit to a Portland elementary school. I'm guessing it happened in early april.
(Btw, you know the drill, if the rest of this show was recorded, I'm dying to hear it – I told you 2008 is a fragmentary year in my collection.)

'We have laid here' is of course the Bill Fay song. It looks like Bill Fay is a big favorite of Stephen. It's surprising it took so long before we got to this cover, as Bill's songs regularly feature in Stephen's solo sets. This performance doesn't realize all the possibilities – I think Stephen's got a better version in him, but it's really fine. You can tell he really digs this music.

Is it too early to suggest these singer-songwriter covers (Bill Fay, Randy Holland) point forward to 'Mirror traffic''s sparse, somewhat downcast mood and its many ballads? I think there's something to it – the new direction is slowly crystalizing. In a little while the first new songs would start turning up.