Concert Review: Malkmus, Jicks all About the Chick with the Sticks at Bowery Ballroom

Review by Noah Mallin

Standing at the t-shirt booth and checking out the road wares at the Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks show at the Bowery ballroom in New York last night, a swaying gentleman in a blazer and t-shirt breaks away from an intense negotiation with the fellow behind the table to swivel his head in my direction.

"Hey..." he says to me as his eyes focus behind his glasses, "I'll buy you two shots of tequila at the bar if you buy me a t-shirt. All I have is a credit card." I look at the placid guy working the shirt stand -- he's seen it all before. He shrugs his shoulders," Cash only..." So it's going to be that kind of a show.

Upstairs the band is clearly having monitor issues. Bassist Joanna Bolme keeps gesturing to the mixer to turn up her bass. Every time she waves her arms the guy behind me intones, "Gawd she's hot."

To be fair, the whole band is hot in every sense of the word: Sweaty in the humid funk of the sold out club, attractive sure, and blazing musically. Bolme has always been a sharp bass player, anchoring Malkmus' twisty-turny songs. Malkmus himself is an ace guitarist changing tones from Allman-like lilting runs to heavy distorto sheets within a single tune, his voice squawking and cooing like dyspeptic songbird. Mike Clark hops around from guitar to keyboards seamlessly, his silver lame flashing.

The real deal last night was the newest member of The Jicks, drummer Janet Weiss. Weiss was the powerhouse behind the late Sleater-Kinney's crunch and the whomping swing of the band Quasi which she formed with her ex-husband. Her unerring timing, Bonham-like attack, and turn-on-a-dime tempo shifts have freed Malkmus into even wilder guitar runs -- The Jicks are finally the jam band of his dreams.

There's a cry from the crowd for "Box Elder," a song by Malkmus' original band Pavement. Malkmus murmurs a succinct "No." into the mic. Though Pavement began to take a more expansive view of 60's rock archetypes as they soldiered on before splitting at the end of the 90s, it would have been hard to imagine them as the liquidy groovesters the Jicks were last night. A whole room full of achingly hip indie kidults were doing the deadhead shuffle-sway dance thing as jazzy riffs rang out from the guitar and the rhythm section locked in while Clark did a Ray Manzarek impression behind the keys. Yet, just when you think you have the band pegged as hippie revivalists they switch it up with a cover of hardcore band Fear's "I Don't Care About You."

Most of the set was made up of new songs from Real Emotional Trash with nary a peep from Malkmus' poppy first solo record. Highlights included a sweaty workout on "Baltimore", a plaintive version of "Baby C'Mon" from the last album and a wrung out full-on Woodstock take on "Hopscotch Willie."

Music Review: Malkmus Trash Has Flash, Songs That Last

Malkmus -- Check off "Ironic Mustache" on your Hipster Bingo card...

Pavement were the most indie of indie bands -- they were None More Indie. Initially low-fi, never on a major-label, often obtuse as much as catchy, even their most widely played video looked like something that cost $25. Yet as they went along, in the wake of the critically reviled Wowie Zowie (which has since seen something of a re-evaluation) they began to take on more attributes of what can only be termed as classic rock. Mellotron flutes swirled on "Transport is Arranged" and "Date With Ikea" was nearly Byrdsian with it's ringing guitar figure.

It was around this time that Phish began to cover the occasional Pavement song, striking what for many fans was the final death knell of a band that once trafficked in 2 minute bursts of tangled noise like "Baptist Blacktick." The jazzy expansiveness that jam-band aficionados were responding to has since been given free reign on Stephen Malkmus' post Pavement work with the Jicks.

Malkmus fans are further split over which SM they want to hear, as each of his albums have subtly changed the dynamics between poppy, quirky, jammy, and noisy while still essentially sounding more like each other than anything else in the music world. His first album was poppy, quirky, and for detractors a bit soulless. Album two, Pig Lib was weird and twistingly jammy, my personal favorite but a dud for some fans. His last album Face The Truth promised a return to eclectic noisy experimentism but to me sounded like a disjointed mess. Which brings us to Real Emotional Trash.

At this point Malkmus' style is pretty much set and there is nothing here that deviates from what he's done before. What does set this apart are sharp hooks and memorable melodies. Generally this falls into his jammier work with songs that crest the ten minute mark. It's the majority of shorter punchier songs that connect though, as much fun as it is to hear The Jicks work.

Drummer Janet Weiss, late of strident girl punks Sleater-Kinney and stripped down rockers Quasi adds a great deal of muscle behind the drumkit and the band is clearly having fun. Malkmus is one of the best guitarists out there, spinning out twisty phrases and solos and generally going all guitar god on everybody's asses.

This stands with Pig Lib as the strongest display of what Malkmus does as a solo artist. Songs like "Baltimore" combine his expansive instincts with his hooks ably, tremendous opener "Dragonfly Pie" stops around and suggests a pleasing skronkfest like the last albums "Pencil Rot" before finding its way to a sweetheart of a chorus. At this late stage Malkmus is unlikely to win over any converts but for those of us who enjoy the Gospel this comes on as a treat, even if the long stuff is simply too long.

New Music: New Release Tuesday

Malkmus in the middle -- of some Jicks

This week features the recording debut of former Pavement honcho Stephen Malkmus' new Jicks -- his backup band now includes former Quasi and Sleater-Kinney drummer Janet Weiss. They get all granola-y and jamlike with the new one Real Emotional Trash. Here they are doing "Out of Reaches" at a soundcheck:



Bauhaus feels it necessary to bring us all down again with what they claim is their last album -- also their first since reuniting after many years of solo earth-wandering. It's called Go Away White and it's not a very nice thing to say to Jack and/or Meg. Here's the video for oldie "She's in Parties":


Mark Lanegan and Afghan Whig-ster Greg Dulli team up their super bachelor powers for the new album under the name The Gutter Twins. Here's "Idle Hands" live at the Bowery ballroom in New York:



Black Crowes return from the H.O.R.D.E tour circuit with Warpaint -- a finalist for Maxim's album of the year no doubt. I would show you a video from rocking new tune "Goodbye Daughters of the Revolution" but the idiots at RED Distribution, the Crowes' label, have disabled embedding because they have no clue how this business of actually promoting a record works in the 21st century.