I have somewhat of a strange relationship with the music of Stephen Malkmus. Someone I really hated at university was a massive Pavement fan and my dislike for that unfortunate chap was so severe that it clouded any burgeoning love I could have had of the slacker foursome at that time.
There were similar situations with The Breeders and, a few years earlier, REM. I was an angry teenager and Malkmus bore the brunt of that tumultuous period - blissfully unaware, no doubt, that his record sales would have grown a micro-fraction had I been more able to separate music from identity.
His loss? No, definitely mine - later discovery of Pavement saw me take them to my heart but I always felt they were never a really consistent albums band - many songs of stellar proportions ("Stereo" holds up, as does "Cut Your Hair" and "Shady Lane") true, but much patchiness throughout.
As a solo artist and with the Jicks, Malkmus's sound has always been more melodic but less essential and somewhat sedate at times. The angularity that made Pavement so appealing - the way Malkmus' voice cascaded leisurely across the melodies of "Trigger Cut" or "Range Life" - has been less evident in his solo material. Vocally, he's become a little more restrained over the last ten years, matching voice to tune. The disharmony is still there sometimes, but it's deliberate and controlled.
Malkmus makes an appearance, stage left and mere feet away from me, as support band Glass Rock take the stage. For a brief moment, I realise that a quick cosh on the head with my camera could scupper the Pavement reunion and the dreams of a thousand indie fanboys. Thankfully, Glass Rock - a collaboration between Tall Firs and Soft Location - are damn near hypnotizing, mainly thanks to the languid voice of Kathy Leisen. A ringer for a young Patti Smith, Leisen's honeyed slacker vocal recalls a nicotine drenched Tanya Donnelly and dispels all thoughts of Malkmus-murder.
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When he arrives onstage, Mr M is jovial and bouncy. He looks weather-worn - as do the rest of the Jicks - but they're an incredibly tight unit, each one in sync with the other, full of telling glances mid-song. "Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks" is a cohesive enterprise - not simply a former indie 'legend' and his backing band.
And they're more consistent than Pavement ever were. Jicks' drummer, the ex-Sleater Kinney Janet Weiss, is an absolute powerhouse and provides a noticeable improvement on the pre-2006 Jicks live show (the last time I saw them), driving the songs harder and faster than her predecessor. An interesting fact I recently learned about Jick bassist Joanna Bolme is that she's married to one of The Cribs. I have no idea which one - that whole twin thing they got goin' on kinda creeps me out...
Running through a set that consists less of earlier releases (we get a track or two from the first two albums - which is a shame, as I was looking forward to a fair few from "Pig Lib ") and much of 2008's "Real Emotional Trash", we're also treated to some new tracks which are both bubbly and awesome.
Anyway, Malkmus sounds better than ever and really looks like he's getting off on being who he is, playing what he plays and simply being right here, right now. It's going be all sorts of strange seeing how the sound of Pavement will manifest itself next year.
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