Album Of The Week: Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks Wig Out At Jagbags

If you don't know Stephen Malkmus by now, you will never never never know him. The former Pavement frontman's signature sound was cemented somewhere around 1999's contented, side-eyed sigh Terror Twilight -- the fifth and final Pavement LP in name but Malkmus' solo debut in spirit -- or if you really wanna be a dick about it, circa 1994's Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain, where post-punk's most melodic disciples discarded their Swell Maps albums and embraced a skewed take on classic rock. You can at least tell those Pavement albums apart, though, whereas Malkmus' 13-year solo career with the Jicks has been like snapshots of the same haircut at different points in the growth cycle. Not that he's alone in his stasis. As indie rock has evolved beyond recognition, its founding fathers have remained steadfastly in their lanes. Malkmus' fellow Mount Rushmore candidates from Guided By Voices, Dinosaur Jr., Pixies, Sonic Youth, and Built To Spill all settled into comfortable predictability in middle age. In Malkmus' case, that means continuously kicking out quirky rock songs built from off-kilter hooks, refracted blues and prog riffs, and the obfuscated phraseology he's been honing for decades. Band members come and go, and the material's quality waxes and wanes, but it's always that same old SM, love him or hate him. (And many do.)