Stephen Malkmus and/or/not The Jicks
By Aaron Tassano

Less than a year after he disbanded Pavement, Stephen Malkmus released his official solo debut on Feb. 13. The self-titled project was provisionally titled Swedish Reggae, and was supposed to have been released under the moniker of a band called The Jicks.

The release released under Malkmus' name as a self-titled solo album after the CDs had been pressed with The Jicks logo. Malkmus has been quoted in interviews that the change was for marketing reasons.

Marketing, indeed. Press shots feature Malkmus posing in waist-high and neck-high water. His face takes up the entire album cover. Are the powers that be selling Malkmus as a sex symbol? Perhaps, or at least as sexy a symbol the most self-aware musician on the planet can be.

For a band that in the early going experienced five of the easiest years in rock and roll history, Pavement paid the piper over its last five.

In the beginning, the Stockton, Calif., outfit proved you could take a genius songwriter like Malkmus, surround him with just about anyone, and have a band adored by critics and loved by fans. A prog-rock drummer in his late 30s? An uncoordinated teddy bear of a guitar player? A guy who couldn’t play a note but had a fine handshake? Pavement played a joke on rock 'n' roll and not only made a career of it, but etched a permanent spot in its history books.

But you get the sense that over the band's final five years, Pavement was anything but a laff. Its third album, Wowee Zowee, was trampled by the American press, a development that brought to the surface a rivalry between Malkmus and fellow founding member Scott Kannberg.

Wowee Zowee was Malkmus' album. The followup, Brighten the Corners, was essentially Kannberg's. Keeping with the every-other-album trend, Terror Twilight, was largely a Malkmus solo effort. Each record had its own idea of what Pavement was and should be. They were very different ideas.

Only Kannberg and Malkmus know how personal the rivalry ever got, but anyone who saw Pavement in concert over the last three years might have noticed the tension. Kannberg had trouble keeping up with the Malkmus-penned guitar parts and Malkmus’ frustration often surfaced on stage. During a May 1999 set at the Fillmore Auditorium in San Francisco, Malkmus mocked the simple chord progressions of the Kannberg-penned "Date With IKEA" as he himself played them. In his final London performance as a member of Pavement, Malkmus attached handcuffs to the mic-stand.

Following the tour there was talk of the band going on hiatus, but Malkmus cut to the quick and disbanded the group.

During his U.K. debut at The Garage in London, which sold out the day tickets went on sale, Malkmus revealed himself as a boy who now has what he’s wanted for years, but is now perhaps unsure of its worth.

Standing in the same right-of-center stage position he occupied for the duration of Pavement, Malkmus — along with The Minders' bassist Joanna Bolme, Dharma Bums' drummer John Moen and guitarist/keyboardist Mike Clark, who was supposed to have been Elastica’s Justine Frischman — played an uneven 70-minute set.

And Malkmus' girlfriend Heather Larimer, who has played tambourine onstage at U.S. shows, wasn't even there.

While an "uneven" Pavement show was acceptable, if not reveled in by fans, a similarly sloppy Malkmus solo show is less forgivable.

Granted, Malkmus is new to the solo performer spotlight, but his performance came across as tentative. Semi-witty banter gave way to hacking away at a setlist that included most of the album, a new song, several cover tunes and bunch of guitar solos.

Malkmus, who has been quoted saying both that he would and would not play Pavement songs, did not.

The album itself is similarly spotty, but given that Terror Twilight, which ranks with Pavement’s best work, was essentially Malkmus recording everything except the drums, it's safe to say Malkmus is at least somewhat comfortable as a solo artist. He's been quoted in interviews simply describing The Jicks as Pavement with a new rhythm section.

There are moments on Stephen Malkmus that perfectly showcase his talent as it stands now. "Phantasies" mixes classic Malkmus falsetto melodies and fine '70s-style pop songwriting, along with a few bells and whistles unheard in Pavement: a beat-era chorus, goofy samples and percussion.

Another standout song on the album, and the radio single in the U.K., is "Jenny & The Ess-Dog," a song about a hippie chick 18-year-old and her 31-year-old, '60s-cover-band boyfriend. Mojo magazine dubbed it a "pop classic." Being the set's only familiar song, the crowd responded accordingly during the performance.

Malkmus’ affinity for classic rock is no secret. During a 1999 solo performance in Los Angeles, he played and sang over samples of Creedence Clearwater Revival.

Not surprisingly, there are plenty of meaty guitars and cowbells on the new album. "Black Book" and "Church on White" are especially reminiscent of John Fogerty. "Pink India," the album’s best track, winds along as if Fairport Convention got a hold of Pavement's "Range Life." These songs translated particularly well live, as did the numerous other '60s-era covers.

"Trojan Curfew," a spacious jam in the tradition of Pavement songs "Type Slowly" or "Stop Breathing," was a highlight of the performance. Like those songs, the live version eclipsed the studio version, capturing Malkmus' always-improving guitar playing. The song is one of two from the new album written while he was still in Pavement.

Compared to the five Pavement albums, Stephen Malkmus doesn't fare well, but you can't help but assume that as he becomes more familiar with being a solo artist, his talent will emerge on its own. There won’t be an urgency to include things like a silly sample of Yul Brenner's voice as on "Jo Jo's Jacket," or the meandering, instrumental interludes that finish "Discretion Grove" and "Deado."

Perhaps this should be expected; Brighten the Corners, a Pavement album for which Kannberg did the tracklisting, flowed better from song to song than any of the group's other albums. That fact, coupled with the uneven-ness of this debut shows Malkmus maybe didn't realize everything he had with Pavement.

While he was clearly the brain of Pavement, Stephen Malkmus wasn’t the entire heart. Ultimately, it seems his heart was quite smaller than the others'. What that means to The Jicks is not apparent.

The T-shirt sold at the Garage show said both SM (Malkmus' initial nickname in Pavement) and The Jicks. It seems Malkmus is unclear which way he wants to go … back to basics or toward the future.

E-mail Aaron Tassano at aaronaroundthecorner@yahoo.com.