Tag Archives: stephen malkmus album

#1457: Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks – Vague Space

Aha! Surprise ‘V’ attack. Yeah, there were only 16 songs to write about beginning with the letter ‘U’. Wasn’t quite the marathon the ‘T’-section was. I don’t need a break after writing 16 posts. There are only 11 songs starting with ‘V’ that I have at my disposal. Might as well go straight into them. The first ‘V’ tune we’ll be looking at is ‘Vague Space’ by Stephen Malkmus (and the Jicks). The track’s from his 2001 self-titled album, his first ‘solo’ effort after Pavement’s split the previous year. I’ve noted it as my favourite solo Malkmus album in the past. Listened to it for the first time in September 2012. Returned to it in January 2014 ’cause Wig Out at Jagbags had arrived. I then listened through Stephen Malkmus on a train ride from Manchester to Coventry the following month, and I think it was that occasion that made me very familiar with the whole package. Nothing that aids musical understanding like the motion of a locomotion. By the end of 2014, the album was on regular rotation in my library, and, according to my Spotify files, ‘Vague Space’ was a song on there I repeated many, many times.

Don’t want to assume, but I don’t think ‘Vague Space’ would be one of those titles that fans would be shouting out, requesting to hear at Stephen Malkmus shows. As I write, it’s currently the eighth most-played track from his solo debut on Spotify, bettering opener ‘Black Book’, ‘Discretion Grove’ – weird ’cause it was a single, ‘Trojan Curfew’ – needs justice, and closer ‘Deado’. All very solid songs. It’s low in the pecking order, a little low on the ladder. If Malkmus did jokingly ask for requests during a live performance, I’d try and get my shout in for it if I was there. I hold ‘Vague Space’ as one of the songs from his first album that really show just how much fun he was having now that he was on his own. In the introduction, you’re greeted with a two-note melody on an organ followed by a descending scale on wah-wah pedal’d guitar. Just the back and forth between the two feels very playful in its intention immediately. Two very different elements that somehow manage to sound great when placed together. Then there’s the addition of keyboards during the verses that have been set to a steel drum preset to, I don’t know, add a little flavour or something. I’d like to think this was the thing that was being referred to when the album was originally titled Swedish Reggae before it got changed somewhere down the line.

This does however go down in a list of Stephen Malkmus songs where you do have to question, “What is this guy talking about?” I wish I could provide either the video or interview where Malkmus said – I’m paraphrasing – that he usually sees writing his lyrics as little wordplay exercises. He did say that somewhere. And I think that’s more or less the case with ‘Vague Space’ too. But even so, there’s usually still something to grip on to, at least Malkmus listeners like to think so, and that’s what always keeps them – but myself included – wanting more. So, let’s see. “Do you want to know where it stands right now / Do you really care what, when, why or how / I came to crave your spastic touch / The honest ways you move’s too much.” First verse. And then the chorus is simply “I looove to teeear you off” and the instruments rise in intensity as it’s sung. Hell, I don’t know. Maybe the whole thing is a love song in Malkmus’s own way. Some context, he moved to Portland after Pavement broke up and that’s where he met the lady he’d get married to. Craving a touch and being affected by someone’s movements. People in love experience that, right? “Tear you off”… maybe it’s referring to something a lil’ naughty. I also like to think this song has some additional importance, because a slowed down version of it arrives as a hidden moment after last track ‘Deado’. Always wanted to know why it’s there. Only SM will know.

#1418: Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks – Troubbble

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Stephen Malkmus by Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks again? Ah, okay then. You can understand, I don’t have anything new to add in regards for an introduction, considering the literal previous post was about another song from the album. But let’s see… let’s see. The first song from the album I covered on this blog was ‘Deado’, in a post dated the 19th March 2014, so clearly I was aware of the album by that point. A website archiving the radio shows I did in university exists. Not just mine, but you get the idea. Hearing my 18-year-old voice, not so much fun. On one show I hosted on 19th January 2014, I had ‘Jo Jo’s Jacket’ in the playlist. I was definitely listening to the Jicks’ Mirror Traffic in late 2013, so maybe Stephen Malkmus was in the iTunes library at that point too? If only my old laptop got itself together, I could have some concrete facts to give. It’s very frustrating. But to sum up, somewhere along the way, ‘Troubbble’ dug itself into the brain after album revisitations. Might have even happened around the same time ‘Trojan Curfew’ did.

‘Troubbble’ starts off the second half of the self-titled album, a bit of a punky, freakout session to kick things off again after ‘Discretion Grove’. I always think of ‘Troubbble’ as being an indication of how Malkmus’s spirits were at the time. There weren’t any signs of its kind of fun, throw-at-the-wall-see-what-sticks feeling to be found on Terror Twilight, which I love as an album, but it’s definitely moody in places. And at this point, Malkmus was freed from his shackles and able to just let loose a little. The lift of the Pavement burden was off his shoulders, and it was reflected in the music. It’s a sentiment I’m sure I’ve shared in similar words before, only because I really think it’s true. ‘Troubbble’, I really have no clue what it’s about. It may just be a lyrical exercise that Malkmus made to fit the music. A bit of existential stuff going on with “The world passes by in a flash / From the birth of the earth to the curse of your desperate math.” A great line, some catchy rhyming. Otherwise, it’s anyone’s guess. Here’s the demo. It doesn’t remotely clear anything up. Very interesting to hear, though.

You know, I found out sometime last year, Stephen Malkmus played the drums on Pavement song ‘Speak, See, Remember’ on Terror Twilight. I know it was initially said he took charge of almost every instrument on that album. I don’t think that’s true. But he did say in an interview that he played drums on one. Wasn’t expecting it to be ‘Speak, See…’. John Moen is credited as drummer on Stephen Malkmus, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Malkmus recorded everything on ‘Troubbble’ at least. I really like how those drums sound like a kid’s playing them during the verses before kicking into a proper driving momentum for the choruses. It’s a great change-up. And in general, ‘Troubbble’ is a track filled with oddities. All the squirty synthesizer work that goes on throughout adds to the playfulness of everything. There’s that moment where, I don’t know if it’s feedback or what, there’s that little melody that arrives after Malkmus sings ‘Literal swine drop’. In the background, an overdubbed Malkmus belts out “IF HE COULDN’T STAND YA” at the same time his singing counterpart delivers the line. I could describe more things, but it’s best for you to discover. What I’ll say is, for a song that doesn’t reach two minutes in length, I think there’s something new to hear in ‘Troubbble’ with each successive listen.

#1417: Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks – Trojan Curfew

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There was a time in 2014 or 15 when I was playing this song in my iTunes library nearly every day. ‘Trojan Curfew’ by Stephen Malkmus, not credited alongside the Jicks officially, but they’re in the music too. Stephen Malkmus is my favourite of the guy’s work outside of Pavement, his first to be released, in 2001, after the band split up two years prior. Not to say that there aren’t any quality gems that followed in the 17 years The Jicks went on to add to their catalogue. But as a package, a whole, the front-to-back, it’s his self-titled solo debut that’s done the business for me for more than a decade at this point. Reasons why, I’m sure I must have laid out in previous posts for songs from it. Why was ‘Trojan Curfew’ my favourite song for a period during those years? It’s not the most popular number on the album. I’m very sure when I was getting into it, a comment on a YouTube went along the lines of, “The ending was how the whole song should have went.”

But that’s doing the whole track a disservice. Every time those drums fall in and the rhythm gets going, I feel like I’m floating on air. The production’s just so damn dreamy. I could sink into the thickest beanbag listening to this song. It may be the feathery, delicate approach that some listeners may find as a reason to be nonplussed by it all, but I guess I’m just a sucker for those kinds of songs when they’re done right. And this one feels good. The track isn’t too difficult to explain. At least, I think so. In the first verse and chorus, Malkmus depicts a scene of Greek gods gathering underneath some Doric architecture, being merry and talking about whatever Greek gods would discuss in those days, with fields of green and nature bursting with life around them. And in a “look how far we’ve come” kind of commentary, the second verse and final choruses fast-forward to the “present day” of 2000/01 where the Doric architecture remains, but normal, you-and-me people are there instead, wasted on alcohol. There’s a little less green field, a bit more concrete in the area. So I guess it’s a bit of an environmental song, a bit of a poke at how insignificant we are as human beings in comparison to the supposed mythical figures that existed in the past. There are layers to this tune.

The briefest part of ‘Trojan…’ that I remember getting stuck in my head first off was the way Malkmus sings, ‘Field of green’. Just that little melody there. But it took a listen or two more to fully gauge the context the lyric was used in. Once it all came together, the music and the words, I was swept off my feet. Malkmus’s vocal take, so perfect. So laidback, it’s almost like he’s sighing. Sighing with a beautiful melody all the way through. The slide-guitar playing the song’s riff in the breaks, I guess, almost acts a chorus itself. Nothing like a slide guitar to create a swooping, soaring feel in a piece of music. There’s an organ that comes in during the second “We got smashed on Ios” verse that adds another flavour to the proceedings. And then of course, there’s the “bring it on home” rock ending that officially closes out the song after the fake-out that occurs a few moments before. So forget whatever that old YouTube comment said. I’m telling you, as a real person in the year 2026, the whole four minutes and six seconds ‘Trojan Curfew’ lasts for is worth the time.

#1033: Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks – Phantasies

#671: Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks – Jo Jo’s Jacket

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Another one from Stephen Malkmus’ debut solo album, ‘Jo Jo’s Jacket’ was released as that record’s second single in 2001. It is not about anything in particular. Its title has nothing to do what appears in the verses. The closest thing relating to Malkmus that I think ‘Jo Jo’ could be is The Jicks’ bass guitarist Joanna Bolme, and even then it doesn’t make things any clearer. Though if there’s anything Stephen Malkmus is known for, it’s somehow making a coherent lyric out of the most random things.

It starts off as a song from the perspective of actor Yul Brynner, known for his shaved head and starring in the film Westworld in 1973, who provides the spoken word introduction taken from an old interview. It then switches to a kind of stream-of-conciousness type lyric in the second verse which may or may not be a slight dig at Moby. And then, sandwiching these verses, is a joyful wordless chorus that glides along with the track’s tempo and general breezy atmosphere.

Whatever the subject matter may concern, it really doesn’t matter in the long run, the song’s infectious groove and melody can’t be denied. It’s one of the straighter rockers on Stephen Malkmus but, compared to say ‘Discretion Grove’ which I think is okay but never really loved, it gets my foot tapping every time those first power chords hit.

The Music in My Ears

A blog about music (and sometimes other things).