Malkmus is definitely in (and on) the air these days. We know we’ve been a bit fixated, and we really did try to resist the charms of this A.V. Club interview between SM and Amanda Petrusich, but it’s just too good. He touches upon Arctic Monkeys, Arcade Fire, U2, Kanye, Jon Brion, Mudvayne, Nickelback, Sebadoh, Drive-By Truckers, Wilco, Silver Jews, Björk, Lenny Kravitz, etc. He’s good at giving interviews that light up lots of Google Alerts. In light of Kim Deal’s “Cannonball” Vs. “Cut Your Hair” deal with Malkmus, it gets especially interesting when Petrusich asks:
How is making an indie-rock record now different from what it was, say, 10 years ago?
STEPHEN MALKMUS: Well, 10, it’s probably not so different. But 15 years ago, or when we started, obviously [the scene] was smaller. I just got back from England, and with the advent of these groups like Arctic Monkeys, and, I don’t know, there are other ones–I can’t remember who was on the cover [of NME] this week. But the major youth music is “indie.” So I don’t know. We just do what we do. I would quantify our sound as more underground than indie, in that it’s not catering to a fashion, so much as indie happens to be a fashion now. But the underground lives on regardless. It always does. Because there are so many people making music, and there are enough people just making it to their own taste. In-your-face type music. The indie moniker has obviously grown with movies like Juno and The Arcade Fire or whatever. U2 wants to hang around with Arcade Fire. U2 didn’t want to hang around with Pavement. It’s too different, you know? Maybe they’re better or something. Or maybe we were, you know, not a threat. The difference between U2 and Pavement was quite vast. It’s grown narrower–closer, I guess. Radiohead being the biggest band in the world.
AVC: Do you think that’s a product of cultural tastes changing? Or because of the Internet?
STEPHEN MALKMUS: Internet and advertising. It just seems new. There’s pop stars like Kanye West–he’s got Daft Punk on his thing, and is playing with that guy Jon Brion, who worked with Elliott Smith. Things kinda come together, I guess. Everyone’s worried, and they want to get an association with something that seems new, that seems modern and of the era. So I don’t know, it just all comes together. Of course, there’s always a pop industry, pop stars, and radio music. That still exists. There’s Mudvayne, Nickelback–radio music for people who don’t love music, but like music. It’s still there.
He also explicates “Gimme Indie Rock,” among other things. Give this man a blog! In the meantime, read more of the interview here. Finally, Malkmus played this at Bowery on Monday, though no YouTube just yet. Anyone?
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U2 just loves to hang out with shitty bands.
Ok: I’m 18 years old, can someone please explain to me his and Pavement’s significance and where one can go to get some type of context? Props on the Nickelback bash.
Not to be a dick, but wikipedia seems a good place to start, no?
HAHAHAHA.
stephen malkmus is a huge G, so true, cause really nobody actually listened to kimya except ex-punk dudes and hella underground WA kids, and now shes this cute pop sensation, but shes fucking dirty, steak for chicken… what the fuck?
call the fire department, quickly. burn injuries can develop fast!
I think Stephen and Pavement just started at the wrong time, in a manner of speaking. I think his works have been an integral part of bringing “indie” (whatever the fuck that means) to this place where it’s finally getting some mainstream respect. So, if they were around today, yes, they’d probably be bigger, but if they hadn’t been around back in the day, there would be no “today” for them to be big in.
Please tell me that some of you understood that. Anyway, I think he makes some valid points, but I think he’s just kind of stuck as one of indie’s grandpappies and he needs to come to terms with that. Stephen, you’re still awesome. It’s okay.
Also, I still want to make sex with Kim Deal.
While I enjoy a few Pavement records ( to the person who asked, start with ‘Slanted and Enchanted’, which is far and away the band’s most enjoyable LP ), there is a real sense of diminishing returns as the 1990’s progressed; SM’s ’solo’ records are a real mixed bag, to be kind, and while I enjoy his intelligence, the fact is a lot of his stuff is just grad-student with guitar smugness ( think Decemberists or just about anything that seems to seep out of the Pacific Northwest ). ‘Indie’ rock existed long before any Pavement records were released, and if they’ve had much of an influence, I’d argue it was a bad one. But I’d say the same thing about Sonic Youth; a couple of great records stretched out over decade ( or two ) does not a pantheon band make. If any body is spending a Wednesday evening laboring through ‘Wowee Zowee’ or ‘Dirty’, I feel bad for you. I do hope that SM doesn’t think that his former band wasn’t a ‘fashion’ statement back in the day; they were a name-drop band just as much as the Strokes, or Arctic Monkeys, or whoever the NME or Pitchfork is praising (Jesus H, I mean…Deerhunter? Payola in action.) these days. Critics at the time loved them 1) because the late 80’s/early 90’s were a HORRIBLE time for music and 2) because they sort of sounded like the Fall. I like Pavement, but if they hadn’t existed, I’m not sure anybody would have felt the loss. But, christ knows, I’d take one of SM’s 23-minute guitar ‘jams’ in a minute over thirteen seconds of ponderous Arcade Fire bluster. Let alone goddamned Radiohead.
For the record, ‘Cannonball’ was infinitely better than most Pavement stuff (but not ‘Summer Babe’. That’s untouchable.). I just heard that Breeders record way too much back then to ever enjoy it much now.
Now, with that out of the way, please continue with your hilarious attempts to one-up each other with fifth grade insults as you try on your sister’s jeans, frat boys.
Obviously, taste is subjective; Wowee Zowee is without a doubt my favorite Pavement album, and I think Title TK. is far better that Last Splash. But for some people, obviously they’re going to cling to S&E or Crooked Rain, because it was the first album they heard or it was the one that kept them going or it was the one that they heard they should name drop to sound cooler.
SM’s solo albums have been really a mixed bag, but this last album is damn solid. And as far as Sonic Youth goes, I think they’re just getting better. Murray Street and Sonic Nurse are probably my favorite albums of theirs.
On the other hand, a lot of people like to cling to the past and wax nostalgic, which is why, ten years after the fact, you still can’t have an interview with SM without bringing up Pavement.
Charlie,
I think you’re going to have some pretty heated responses to that post. Ripping Sonic Youth and Pavement in one post (however gently you’d like to make it seem, ie “I like Pavement, but…”), just won’t fly here. Come on man…they’re like…awesome.
Clipse >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Pavement > Nickelback
WHY DON’T YOU LINK OUT TO SAID ARTICLES? YOU’RE A DICK. PITMAN SOLD YOUR LAME ASS TO BUZZNET B/C YOU SUCK. HOPE U GOT PAID REAL GOOD.
Regarding Charlie Kane’s comments, what if you spent part of this past Sunday listening to Wowee Zowee? Is that different than listening to it on a Wednesday…cuz that’s what part of my Sunday was like. I am so lame. I should have been listening to the Fuck Buttons
why the heck do people here like to compare clipse with stephen malkmus, etc? i’ve seen that comparison twice now.
hooooooo-ly shit.
i don’t care how indie rock you are, non sequiturs don’t make your favorite bands any cooler. or you, for that matter.
Charlie- you’re a moron. The music you (don’t mention but) listen to today wouldn’t exist without the bands of the late 80’s and early 90’s. That time will go down as the most influential period in music in decades if nothing else. If you base your opinion on the stuff popularized as “alternative” that defined the era to tools like yourself (pun intented), then yes- music sucked from 88-94. If you were in the know at ALL during that time then you would have been stoked to have Drive Like Jehu, Steel Pole Bathtub, Medicine, The Pixies, Fugazi and a thousand other amazing bands roll through your town. ‘Sounds like you weren’t. Pavement was a tad overrated as is Malkmus’ solo output but Sonic Youth? Please trade your ears in for a pair that work and try and imagine a time when there was NO internet to spoon feed you music/fashion/etc. If The f-ing Breeders are your take on early nineties music you missed a LOT of great music. Probably because you were five. Do you really think music is better now? There’s certainly more of it and more access to it but that’s because bands can professionally record and promote records in their living rooms. idiot
I’ve forgotten more music than you’ve ever heard, my friend. I apologize if we don’t share the exact same music tastes. As it happens, I’m 40 years old, worked in numerous indie/non-indie record stores for fifteen years, and mostly check out sites like this purely to find out what’s new or when it’ll be released. I admire your devotion to forgettable noise bands ( jesus christ…Steel Pole Bathtub? ) and the relentlessly monochromatic tunings of Thurston Moore’s lazier offerings. I really like a few Sonic Youth records, but for most of the 1990’s, they were pretty paint-by-number. Same with Pavement, and many of the bands of that (and every) era. The Pixies had two records worth knowing about, and then just a couple of singles here and there. I liked Rocket from the Crypt more than Jehu, a band I never really got why people dug at the time. I remember that Medicine LP–everybody just called it a cheap MVB cop, which it more or less was. Actually, I was more into British music at the time, and the likes of Bark Psychosis, Seefeel, and the early shoegaze, but most of that didn’t really coalesce until 1994 or so. That and the ’slowcore’ movement like Idaho, Codeine, Swell and Red House Painters. AR Kane was pretty cool back then, and of course, a lot of the IDM on Warp and Rephlex was pretty interesting, too. But, certainly I don’t have to remind a guy like you about all this, do I?
Well, I could go on pointing out my bona fides to have an opinion about music, but really what’s the point, huh? Clearly, anybody who writes as well, and insightfully, about music as you doesn’t need me droning on and on, does he? You stupid cunt.
Mudvayne weren’t a great band, but they were a mile or two more musically accomplished than Nickelback. Just saying.
im still the coolest guy going, fuck this guy
Hey Chad! You look like a Paddle Pop Lion and nobody likes you…
Oh and I saw Chad Kroeger weeks ago via webcam. He was wicked-cool and we listened to Santana together and it was rad. I contacted him through a sight G ofuckY ourself.c om! I had several of his pics… then I threw them out because I needed the hard drive space.
Which articles?
I’ve really been into Rick Astley lately…I think he was right on the cusp of indie rock’s glorious birth. He doesn’t get enough credit u know.
“never going to give you up” is the unsung hero of the music world. not enough people get the chance to listen to it.
I get what he’s saying, but it’s hard not to take this as sort of bitter gripings.
Is it just me?
pavement were the best band of the ’90s.
arcade fire are an excellent band who made a fantastic debut.
that’s all i gotta say.
Pavement were never a fashion thing, you can’t really argue that. Did you ever watch Slow Century? Those dudes wore khaki shorts!
And Charlie Kane, you’re a bitter old bore. Bark Psychosis? Codeine? Fucking Idaho? Those bands were fine for their time, but there is a reason why that stuff stays out of print, while Pavement’s getting the deluxe, 180 gram vinyl reissue treatment. Those bands were merely genre exercises. And while Pavement did sound a bit too much like The Fall at the start, once they came into their own, they approached guitar-based rock in a completely fresh way that still influences new listeners and new bands.
And IDM? That stuff is as relevant now as math rock, which I bet you loved, too.
there isn’t a single pavement record that can touch the greatness of bee thousand or alien lanes.
Ya know, it’s pretty interesting that indie rock has become the latest mainstream trend. Remember in the late 90s/early 2000s when punk rock was the big trend? Spin Magazine had a special “punk issue”, VH1 had an hour long punk special, mainstream magazines were reviewing punk records in their music sections, etc. Since then, mainstream music trends have followed the exact same pattern as they did the first time around in the 80s. I’d like to think that it just happens this way organically, but it seems more like the record label suits have run out of ideas so they’re just following an old formula. First there was nu-punk.. then nu-new-wave and nu-post-punk came along… and at the same time nu-hardcore was becoming the staple of the underground.. and then came along nu-indie rock. People forget that in the late 80s, there was that huge homogeneous “college rock” trend, where Husker Du got signed to a major, the Replacements were all over Rolling Stone, etc. So… if history continues to repeat itself in the same order as it did the first time, in a few years we’re going to come up on a nu-alternative/nu-grunge era.
Btw, I can see where Malkmus is coming from. Although these drones with their shaggy haircuts and shitty music get on my nerves, I would much rather have a generation of kids aping indie rock than have them emulating Eminem and Fred durst like kids did 8-9 years ago. Everywhere you went back then, people were acting like fucking assholes just like their heroes. At least these indie rock clones seem to be pretty low-key.