Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks

How do you measure up to a rock legend? Maybe, if the guy on stage is Stephen Malkmus, by expecting too much. By expecting something else entirely.

And yet the signs were all there. Malkmus does not mean Pavement; his solo output couldn't be further from that of the band he fronted until about a decade ago.

Solo Malkmus (the Jicks are just backup) is a different animal altogether. Pavement fans will object that exactly those catchy choruses that made the Stockton band popular are missing here. Plenty will grumble that the sound is light years away from the low-fi of the early days. But it's all part of the plan. Because Malkmus is no longer in the mood to joke around. You can see it up there on stage, his face set in a scowl, looking almost bored, as if he senses that a huge chunk of the crowd is there hoping he'll break into a "Shady Lane", a "Summer Babe", a "Cut Your Hair". Instead, nothing.

The show is exactly the opposite of what people expect. No more jokes (just one quick, on-the-spot improvisation of a hypothetical theme for the "Sex And The City" movie, though Malkmus admits he never managed to actually write it), no more "catchy little songs". Even the structure of the tracks goes against the grain, running counter to the typical song form (many pieces run past the six-minute mark). That's because Malkmus (as anyone who knows his records, even just a little, is well aware) is trying, with the Jicks, to build his own, bizarre version of Mad River, or the Groundhogs. A band that looks closely at late-'60s psychedelia, and which, starting from a simple little hook, launches into long instrumental suites dominated by Malkmus's own guitar.

Sure, the voice of the former Pavement frontman is still the same, slapdash and indecipherable, but the music - that has really changed. So, one after another, the Jicks roll out tracks like "Hopscotch Willie", "Dragonfly Pie", "We Can't Help You" (from the latest record, "Real Emotional Trash"), but also "It Kills" and "Pencil Rot" (from "Face The Truth"), "Water And Seat" and "Animal Midnight" (only these two tracks from "Pig Lib", not by chance the Malkmus album furthest removed from the Jicks' current mood). There's a brief flirtation with easier, more bubblegum melodies on the fun "Gardenia", but it lasts only a moment. Evidently not enough to warm up the crowd at the Estragon.

And yet Malkmus does seem engaged (without overdoing it), and the band backing him is ultra-professional. The arrival, on drums, of the supremely skilled Janet Weiss (formerly of Sleater-Kinney) pushes the band's sound toward heavier, more driving territory, further reinforcing the complete overhaul of the Malkmus mindset.

Over an hour and a half of long guitar jams, which nonetheless doesn't feel like a drag (at least to this writer), and then the show wraps up. The crowd files out, perhaps not even fully aware of what they've just witnessed. But was that guy on stage really Stephen Malkmus?

After the show, backstage, this eternal kid stops to sign a few autographs (as does the rest of the band, which also includes Mike Clark and Joanna Bolme) and chat with the longtime fans. Someone tells him, "You're a genius". He replies, "You probably are too, you just don't know it". So much for "legend".

P.S. Worth a mention is young Jeffrey Lewis, who, backed on bass by his brother Jack, opened for Malkmus. Lewis's songwriting is naive and quirky, closer to the indie-pop of Ben Kweller or the Moldy Peaches than to the traditionalist folk of a Bright Eyes. Lewis's melodies are simple and fun, and, on a couple of occasions, spiral off into delirious psychedelic codas, underpinned by the sample of a very '80s drum machine.

The best part, though, comes when Lewis shows, and narrates while humming along, his "films": these are simply drawings projected in sequence like slides. Little sketches of underground culture that leave a mark, somewhere between the world of the Brothers Grimm and Daniel Clowes's "Ghost World".

Ride the wave of great music

Add OndaRock to your favorite sources on Google Discover. Don't miss our reviews, milestones and latest news straight in your feed.

Follow on Google