Stephen Malkmus Covers “Margaritaville” In Will Arnett’s New Netflix Series Flaked
Stephen Malkmus, of ’90s indie rock powerhouse Pavement and currently fronting Stephen Malkmus And The Jicks, scored Will Arnett’s new Netflix series Flaked, which premiered in full today. In addition to writing the show’s theme, Malkmus gathered friends to perform interstitial music and combined it with curation from Chris Douridas and Chris Muckley that highlights the show’s understated humor, visceral moments, and awkward silences. He also covered Jimmy Buffett’s tropical-tinged hit “Margaritaville” which Arnett tells SiriusXMU his “longtime friend” Buffett personally approved. Arnett says he was crashing at Buffett’s place due to details he didn’t want to get into, so it was easy for him to ask. “I got to ask Jimmy if it was cool, which of course he said yeah because he’s rad, and then I got to play it on my iPhone for Jimmy — Steve’s cover — and I was like stuck in this absurd reality.” The cover plays for about a minute and half during the end credits of the fifth episode and you can watch/listen here if you subscribe to Netflix.
Hear the theme song, and listen to Arnett talk about Malkmus’ scoring and how the cover came about, below.