| Solo and enchanted
When Stephen Malkmus talks about his latest solo outing Face the Truth, he mentions a lot of names you wouldn’t necessarily expect to hear from the guy who once claimed to be “an island of such great complexity” with his 1990s band Pavement. He cites a simple formula of Joy Division drums, Gordon Lightfoot melodies and Simon and Garfunkel harmonies, and that’s just one song. Elsewhere on the disc, he experiments with higher-register vocals, straight-forward lyrics and – gasp - even sincerity, singing lines like “now I need some help to find out how I feel.” “It’s just a different side of a personality and a different side of music,” he says via telephone from his Portland home. The album is wrapped up in what he calls “teenage boy mythology,” with headphone-rewarding synthesizers gushing through many of the tracks. But don’t be fooled into thinking that Malkmus is riding on the steed of the prog rock pretend-trend that seems to have been forced into resurgence as of late. “I don’t think I’m an ambassador for prog,” he says. “There are some of these things that are coming up and I’m like ‘what the hell?’…It’s just the kind of world that boys create where they draw airplanes or space-bands.” The album sounds like at 38 he’s still having fun, making rhymes like “give it to me Timmy, I’m out here on a limb-y"  Although the songs may not be as slanted as Malkmus’ earlier offerings doesn’t make them any less enchanted. The songs that you might think have gone in one ear and out the other creep into your consciousness until you need to listen more and more. Malkmus made most of the album on his own in his basement studio, but he is joined on many tracks by The Jicks, who will share the stage with him on his current tour. He talks about how on the last tour the Jicks planned one specific show in the midwest with a set full of Pavement songs. Milwaukee’s significance for Pavement is minimal, Malkmus said it was partially just to watch the message boards freak out about it. “We thought it’d be a strange place to do it, and there are some fans of Pavement in the band. The drummer’s not really, but it was fun for Mike (Clark) the keyboardist to figure everything out.” When asked about his former band, he is cagey about whether or not they will catch the same reunion fever that struck alternative forefathers like the Pixies and Dinosaur Jr. within the past year. “We’re not from Massachusetts, so we’re completely different.” PAT HEALY Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks play Monday night (June 6) at 7 at the Paradise, (967 Commonwealth Ave.) MBTA: Green Line to Pleasant. For info, call (617) 423- NEXT. Back |
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