Stephen Malkmus was the front man for Pavement back in the day. Admittedly, I wasn’t a Pavement fan in the 90’s when they were blowing people’s minds. I was late to the party. I didn’t discover Pavement until four or five years ago and by then it was too late, as they broke up in 1999. Missing them by four years means I wasn’t along for the ride, but over the past few years I’ve definitely come to be a pretty big fan. In fact, I’ve developed quite a little man-crush on Senor Malkmus.
Since the breakup of Pavement, Malkmus has released four albums: Stephen Malkmus, Pig Lib, Face the Truth, and Real Emotional Trash (released last week). All of them are great and worth owning.
The most recent installment, Real Emotional Trash seems to be a little more ‘jammy’ sounding than his previous stuff. It still has that indie-rock, Malkmus feel, with the ballads and distortion and fuzzy guitar riffs, but this one seems to lean slightly more to the ‘jammy’ side (Elmo Delmo reaches the 10 min mark). Which isn’t a bad thing…especially for me since I’m a recovering jamband kid. Baltimore and Hopscotch Willie my two favorites tracks so far.
In short, this album kicks ass. It’s fucking awesome. It really is. It’s not my favorite Malkmus album (I think I’d give the nod to Pig Lib), but it’s Malkmus, which means it’s damn good and way better than a lot of the stuff coming out these days. It’s my early front runner for album of the year.
You can sample some of the goods here.
4.5/5
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I got into pavement in ‘94, when they released “Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain.” Didn’t know too many other people who were into them. So imagine my surprise, when at Star Lake ‘99, Phish does a first set cover of “Gold Soundz,” much to the bewilderment of the crowd. The setlist-o-philes were clueless, and I remember telling a few people around me what the song was – and it spread like a wave through the pavilion.
Good times!