What makes Pavement so compelling is that, for a bunch of total oddballs, they sound completely self-assured. The kernel of the band’s charm is frontman and chief songwriter Stephen Malkmus, who’s full of witticisms, but shows no desire to put his intellect towards anything that mothers of the world would deem sensible.
It’s been 15 years since Pavement split up, but Malkmus has never stopped making music. Following the release of an eponymous LPin 2001, he teamed up with The Jicks, with whom he’s now put out five LPs. These days, Malkmus is a father of two, in his 40s, but his worldview remains as crooked as ever.
“The most ‘dad’ songs I made were like Major Leagues, with Pavement,” he says. “That was fine though, it was what it was. But my heart is in the weird and I can’t do those kinds of lyrics with a straight face, so it always comes out this way.”
Malkmus & The Jicks’ latest release, Wig Out At Jagbags, celebrated its first birthday last month. The 12-song LP finds Malkmus in fine form, chortling amusing refrains such as “I’ve been tripping my face off since breakfast/ Taking in this windswept afternoon… Onward ye Christian sailors/ You smooth-talking jack-off jailors” atop beds of unhurried instrumentation. Wig Out At Jagbags and its predecessor, Mirror Traffic,feature the most contained compositions Malkmus has delivered in over a decade. Though, there’s a bit more going on than meets the eye, he explains.
“[The songs on those two albums] have un-traditional song structures, but I try to make it so you don’t notice. It’s kind of secretly weird. I try to make it flow smoothly, to make it seem sort of effortless, and the band is great at that. I’m worried, I like those two albums a lot, but sometimes they’re too smooth or they glide past you.”
Given that he’s a lifelong weirdo, it makes sense for Malkmus to be concerned about slipping into convention. However, even if his recent output is relatively relaxed, he’s still seeking ways to fuck with the form.
“At this point, there’s certain kinds of rock songs or moves that are a little tired-feeling to me, even if they’re loud and they rock,” he says. “Sometimes I’ll want to hit that feeling because some of those things, they’re not necessarily tired, they’re universal. I’m trying to think, ‘How can I still hold a guitar and not feel like it’s kind of quaint?’ So I try to make my way around it and mix it up with the balance of the instruments and voices.”
Since the release of 2003’s Pig Lib,The Jicks lineup has undergone a couple of alterations. Despite this, it’s not a revolving door situation. Malkmus is certainly the creative leader, but he values his relationship with the band.
“I think that’s better for me to work with people,” he says. “It’s too alone to be by yourself, and it’s not that fun. Everyone’s collaborating, even when they’re solo. Like Panda Bear released a cool new record, but he’s got Sonic Boom on it and whoever engineered it. It’s probably basically a band, in a certain way.”
Everything Malkmus has done since Pavement carries forward the distinct strain of artistry he gave birth to in the early ‘90s. The first trio of Jicks records – Pig Lib, Face the Truth and Real Emotional Trash – feature some meandering and occasionally explosive instrumentation, but his curious perspective still conducts the action. This continuous thread suggests Malkmus dictates how The Jicks behave. However, that’s not quite true.
“My band, and most bands, they want to get loud and tear the roof of things,” he says. “Sometimes I’m a little more restrained. It’s good for me to play it to them and see if it’s too restrained or to see, ‘Am I an old man or something? Is this dad music? Is it weird enough?’
“It might be interesting if we switched our instruments around a couple of times,” he adds. “I could see that happening – ‘Why I don’t I drum on this one? You play bass.’ But that can also be a bad idea. Some people can probably do it, like Jonny Greenwood, he can do everything. But there’s very few of those people that can actually do that. Stevie Wonder and Jonny Greenwood. I’d pay to see that.”
Super band fantasies aside, later this month, Malkmus & The Jicks head back to Australia. While they’re here, they’ll take part in the Melbourne Zoo Twilights series. Stephen Malkmus performing at a zoo, could it be any more perfect? Well, he has some minor scruples.
“You’re welcome to bring your family to see us, that’s fine,” he says. “We have nice songs and stuff, but we’re also unruly at times and there’s profanity. I don’t need to cuss, but I might. So watch out.”
BY AUGUSTUS WELBY
