Word: malkmus
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Every touring rock star deals with sarcastic audience requests. Very few deal with them like Stephen Malkmus, who, when asked to perform an Oasis song at a recent New York City show, deadpanned, "Sounds like we have some Vassar people here tonight." As lead singer and guitarist of Pavement--one of the most influential indie rock bands of the '90s--Malkmus was a hero to the college nerdoisie with his wry humor, obtuse lyrics and a string of critically lauded albums that failed nobly at the cash register. Pavement broke up last year, and Malkmus has wasted little time...
...They're really simple ditties, by my standards," says Malkmus, 33, of the album's dozen songs. "They're not as simple as Blink 182 or something, but it's just a couple of chords." He's half right. Unlike the music of Pavement, which often defined itself by taking a couple of chords and finding the loopiest way possible to descend into chaos, Stephen Malkmus is instantly catchy, though still weird enough to satisfy the cult. The song Jo Jo's Jacket is a vague tribute to Yul Brynner, and The Hook may be the first indie-rock pirate...
This is interesting stuff for those with rock'n roll aspiration, but I fear for its universal appeal. Scrawled in the liner notes is a boxed phrase: "NOTHIN TO SING BOUT." In a recent interview in Raygun Malkmus addressed this problem, admitting that when he recorded this album he didn't have anything "poetic and beautiful to say, and I wasn't having girl-friend problems." He just didn't have the inspiration, I guess; the best moments are those that reveal a vague angst, best summed up in the melancholy chorus of "Range Life": "If I could settle down...
Having made these criticisms, I have to admit that this record has grown on me a whole lot, and all of my friends seem to be having the same experience. (One just walked out the room, saying, "This has grown on me, a ton.") Malkmus has become addicted to REM (covering "Camera" on a b-side and writing a silly tribute to them for No Alternative) and Crooked Rain features a few gorgeous pastoral tunes--"Range Life" and "Gold Soundz" in particular--that are a million times better than anything Mssrs. Stipe, Buck, Berry and Mills have produced in years...
...have any interest in rock music at all, you should buy or tape this record, and tell me what you think. As Malkmus himself says, speaking for the countless bands who are accused or ripping him off, "Look, we don't want to do blues or techno, so what else is there to do but this?" We still do need him, whether he likes...