Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks @ SoHo

MALKMUSTACHE!!!!


So, either I'm the only dinosaur alive, or the only one lame enough to post the last half-dozen blogs. And I know I'm not the only one alive, cuz I just talked to Sam-bone last night. Anyway...

If I had made a "Best of" list for 2005, Stephen Malkmus woulda been at the top. I feel into his post-Pavement stuff with "Pig Lib," but found his 2005 LP "Face the Truth" really fantastic. Full of the sort of brips, drips, and slips, that Stereolab pioneered, Malkmus really hit his stride with songs like "Freeze the Saints," "Mama," and "Baby C'mon" where he managed to navigate uncomfortably close emotional territory with Malkmus' signature absurd literary refrences. (Case in point: " Upstairs mama's making some crepes, yeah / From a fancy recipe book /To me they just look like tortillas /Boy, that mama can cook) For those of you who still haven't put down your Pavement discs, imagine "Father to a Sister of Thought" juxtaposed inside "5 + 4 = Unity."

So, I was pretty jazzed to see Malkmus play in Santa Barbara at this club/bar called SoHo, which I'd been to a couple times to attend "Drama Prama" - the "Prom" for the Drama kids at UCSB. SoHo's a bit yuppie for my taste, but have managed to get some really solid indie acts in the past year (TV on the Radio, Calexico, etc). The place is pretty small and ridiculously mismanaged. By the time opening act "Entrance" had begun their set, about 10% of the crowd had been let in. Even Malkmus came out to see what the hold up was.


I swear to God I saw Entrance in High School while watching local hippies play blues songs for a reallllly long time on a friends couch. Talking to a friend during the dreaded between band break, she bemoaned. "They're a little jam-bandy." Which, was completely acurate. But, I will say this...good jam-bandy. Really solid bass lines, a very strong drummer, a few too many guitar solos, but what're you gonna expect from 3 people playing barefoot? And as I reminded my friend. This is a Stephen Malkmus show. There's gonna be some jamming.

And there was. Standing next to the stage, about 5 feet from the Malkmustache itself, I had a clear shot at the set list which featured about 12 songs total. At least 6 of which I had no idea what they were. Not on any of the 3 previous Malkmus albums, I gotta think that we were getting the preview of the new Jicks material. And, it's pretty rawkus. The Jicks new drummer - Janet Weiss of Sleater-Kinney - and Malkmus seemed to be having a great time, just rocking. It was one of the most lively shows that I've seen. All members of the band were shooting jokes to one another, but as a crowd we were really left in the dark. Malkmus rarely threw in a
"Thank You" and his only response to drunk guy yelling "PLAY THE SONG ABOUT BOBCATS" was "Don't tempt me."

Still, the show was really solid and Malkmus' virtuosity on the guitar shone through. I've always thought of him as a lyricst primarily, but this show completely changed my mind. He muttered through verses all in favor of hitting the big riffs, spinning the song out of control and then bringing it back around like a skilled orchestrator. And the songs from "Face the Truth" really rock. I don't think I've seen a band be able to work to gether as well as the Jicks. Really tight despite the sonic detours, Malkmus showed why he's one of the best voices in Indie rock, still.