Loose Record :: So You Know What You're Missing

If there exists indie rock royalty, a band that pioneered a movement...a band that is the the very dictionary definition of indie rock for a generation, it would be Pavement. The band who definitively proved that bedroom intimate recordings were important, that the 4-track was an instrument unto itself... and at the center of Pavement was Stephen Malkmus. Even after their hiatus, Malkmus' self titled release was out on Matador within months, he just couldn't stop recording, still making it sound so deceptively easy.

The thing that struck me most, watching him play at the Music Hall of Williamsburg, is that he is hands down an incredible guitarist, not only was he effortlessly delivering the lyrical wandering of the songs, but he's accompanying it with this amazing guitar work. It all makes perfect sense now...of course the melody follows the lyrics, the irregular lines all over the place, kind of sloppily delivered, are just sketches for the vocals. But it's not indifference or just going through the motions, he's making the song his again, pausing just a little too long, keeping the audience and the Jicks on their toes. The Jicks are undoubtedly a supergroup - drummer Janet Weiss from Sleater Kinney, guitar and keyboard player Mike Clark, and bassist Joanna Bolme are all amazing in their own right and they seemed to be right at home enjoying the drawn out jam parts, waiting for Stephen to slump onto his amp as the feedback takes over the sound, watching for the change that doesn't come as they go back again for another measure of solo.

I'm sure I must have seen Pavement at some three day concert, I know they played Lollapalooza at some point, during the salad days of alternative rock's lucrative major label end, but I must not have been paying attention, or was stupidly at one of the the 10 sidestages. My point is I don't have anything before to compare it to. But standing there watching him genuinely enjoy performing, doing a Neil Young impression for the crowd in between tunings...I imagine it was much like this, he is after all a regular guy off in this new direction of Real Emotional Trash with classic rock influenced prog jams. It's a show undeniably run by Steve and he's been let go unchecked off on his own completely.

The critics might have panned Pig Lib but it was great, it had to be...yes it might kind wander too much at times, "1% of 1" could have been 4 minutes shorter, but maybe I should just listen and appreciate every extra minute, after all, I don't want to live in a world of unreleased Malkmus ideas. Much like Ween's epic jam "Woman and Man" from La Cucuracha, maybe it's not meant to be taken so seriously, maybe it's part of a conceptual new direction, trying on the progressive rock jean jacket to see if it still fits. Playing to see if there's any life left in this tired genre, or maybe it's just plain fun to play. But where's the problem? He's got an undeniable presence onstage, he's a natural recreating this stream of consciousness, it sounds better every time and that's how it really shines, it's even easier for him.

Am I just beating a dead Pavement horse? Too wrapped up in the mythology to even objectively examine this performance, or the album? There's just no way that whatever incarnation Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks take that it's going to sound like the strangely familiar '93 vintage indie rock tracks. I guess that's the burden of monumental success... but let's face it we're both older, we've both changed. I don't have the same attention span, and he isn't playing the same no-fi, experimental pop, but I feel lucky still to have witnessed this icon in any form he takes.