Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks: 99/100 - 2011

99
2011/08/08 (or aug 7?) , Zeit Online Rekorder
Tigers

Another acoustic version of 'Tigers' – on a sunny German bench between the flowers. Taken at a brisker pace than in Paris, more like the album version. Though I like the Paris version better, this one's nice. Must be nice, just sitting there, in the sun, strumming your guitar. Makes you feel like Ray Davies maybe.

What a way to make a living...
Except it turns out he's been having trouble with his microphone, hence the 'sorry''s at the end.

100
2011/08/13, Disjecta, Portland, OR
Benny and the Jets
J Smoov
Independence street
Cold blooded old times
Unknown cover
Surreal teenagers
Wildfire

Here's one of my favorite moments of the last couple of years. I found the footage by chance on YouTube and converted it to audio. It sounds like there could be more to this show than the seven songs I've heard. The sound is a little muffled, not ideal – though listenable if you turn it up a little. But with all the drawbacks, I play this a lot, enjoying its quite unique mood in the Malkmus live archive. (I can't seem to locate the YouTube clips just now to link them here. Where have they gone?)

At about the time of 'Mirror traffic''s release, this audience hears no songs from that album, no older Jicks songs, no Pavement songs (unique for a Malkmus solo show – and the show's all the better for it), but a bunch of Americana covers and three songs he's writing for the next album, to be released – oh, about two and a half years from this show.

Compared to another great solo show, the SF show from february 2009, here Stephen isn't walking the tight rope, he isn't making a virtue out of being unprepared, he isn't off-the-cuff'ing it. (Maybe he is, but you certainly can't hear it). He's also not selecting his setlist around what he thinks his audience expects. Instead he plays a set of seven songs, none of which the audience can be expected to have heard him play before. Except for opener 'Benny and the Jets' most of the audience should be completely unfamiliar with any of these songs. This is the music Stephen's writing and enjoying right at this time. He plays it from the heart (corny as that sounds) and, for the originals in the set, straight from the writing desk.

From the covers we learn that his 'Americana' influences (mentioned in july's interviews) run even deeper than expected. Stephen's tuning into a countryfolk vibe as the years pass! And the originals – these are the earliest recordings of three 'Wig out' highlights. 'Independence street' is roughly finished – bar some lyrical tweaking in the next couple of years –, but there's an argument to be made it never sounded as majestic as it did between august and november 2011. 'J Smoov' is embryonic, he's mumbling large parts of the vocal and some of the instrumental sections aren't included yet – but it's already got that warm, relaxed glow that anticipates how great it would turn out. 'Surreal teenagers' is musically finished (you can hear the entire arrangement in his guitarplaying), but at this point contains all of two words as the lyrics. It's played completely instrumental bar the title over the chorus.

In the fall 2011 shows three more songs would be added to a rich first batch of new material. Unlike the previous albums here I can't pinpoint a gateway song into the 'Wig out' era. Too many songs appear all at once (and besides, the oldest 'Wig out' song is a resurrected 'Cinnamon' from 2008), but more importantly, it's not that kind of record. Instead there would be three distinct writing phases leading into 'Wig out', but we'll discuss that later.

This show convinces me that a complete solo album (say acoustic guitar, voice and orchestral arrangements) could be amazing. Don't laugh, I'm serious.

Can you believe the beautiful falsetto singing on 'Benny and the jets'? That guy can sing.