I think it would be no word of a lie to say that ex-Pavement frontman, Malkmus shook off other Pavement members largely because they found it difficult working outside the band’s cheerfully restrictive 3-chord capabilities and because Malkmus was pretty much doing the whole thing himself anyway by the time the Nigel Godrich produced, ‘Terror Twilight’ hit the shelves. Which is understandable, I suppose. Afterall, what use was Andrew Ridgely when George Michael came out the closet. What could he get from Andrew that he couldn’t get from a Public Convenience? We all need a crutch sometime, and be it a leg-on or a leg-up (or even a leg-over in the case of Mr Michael) its inevitable that once you are up there you are going to throw off any unnecessary baggage you might be handling. So off it was thrown and this is the result: Malkmus’ fourth solo record, his the second with the Jicks and proudly showcasing the kind of broadly indulgent jams you’d expect from someone who has spent the best part of 10 years trying to convince people that he is a real musician with real musician friends (Sleater Kinney, Janet Weiss, Joanna Bolme et al). When is a Jicks album really a Jicks album? When it has the band’s name on the sleeve? When Malkmus gets round to name checking them in interviews? Or – rather like Frank Black’s Catholics – is it when he has the sneakiest suspicion he may be short-changing his fans? It’s not a bad album by any means, but the heavy retro vibe wearily grabbed at by tracks like ‘Dragonfly Pie’ and ‘Real Emotional Trash’ make the Archie Bronson Outfit sound like ticklish, lightweight crowd pleasers. Of course, psychedelic, progressive revivals have their precedent in peeps like Pepe Deluxe and The Heavy, but the last time I heard gentle medievalism giving way to strung-out, inflated jamming with time signatures to match SKY One commercials – as is the case with ‘Elmo Delmo’ and ‘We Can’t Help You’ – was when Jethro Tull exchanged punches with Van Der Graf Generator at a Middle Earth convention.
Recorded with TJ Doherty (Wooden Wand, & Wilco) the album at least goes to prove that a chord-change is as good as rest.
REAL EMOTIONAL TRASH RELEASED 03.03.08