Sunday 8 June 2008

Stephen Malkmus @ Oran Mor, 8 Jun

preview for the skinny

Stephen Malkmus' new Real Emotional Trash isn't the best LP to have his name attached - look to the first one, self-titled, for that - but any release from the ex-Pavement frontman deserves attention. While Nirvana and their followers proved to be more commercially popular, Pavement represented the other side of American alternative rock in the 90s, trading Cobain's self-seriousness for a laissez-faire attitude to stuff like rhythm, melody, and recording values. Pavement's five studio albums - and relative success on independent budgets - defined a huge part of modern indie-rock, and Malkmus' four solo records since have continued his experiments in the style to consistently engaging ends. In April, this particular Skinny scribe caught the tail end of Malkmus and the Jicks' set at Coachella, just in time to see them play the rollicking 10-minute new title track, and instantly regretted not having seen more of the show. Luckily they're coming to Glasgow; I for one won't get caught napping again.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Couldn't find a better way to get in touch, sorry. Thought I might invite you to the label launch party on Saturday 14th, if you're around. I knew I recognised the name, it just took me a while to connect it with this site! More details here.