Many of Stephen Malkmus’s songwriting contemporaries and forebears invite grand metaphors when considering their work. On this site alone, I’ve written about the closing of the American West in Bill Callahan’s songs “Drover” and “Baby’s Breath” as well as the hero’s journey and Guy Debord’s concept of dérive in “Where Are You Tonight? (Journey ThroughContinue reading “Stephen Malkmus Series: “Lariat””
Tag Archives: Jerry Garcia
Stephen Malkmus Series: “Real Emotional Trash”
As Stephen Malkmus moved further away from his Pavement tenure and put out more solo albums, a pattern began to emerge. Each record was a response to the previous one. Whereas Stephen Malkmus was a platform for him as a songwriter and indie music figurehead, Pig Lib was a full-on rock and roll band albumContinue reading “Stephen Malkmus Series: “Real Emotional Trash””
When I Paint My Masterpiece
The crime novelist James Ellroy, who is known for giant and intricate novels such as L.A. Confidential and American Tabloid, opens his public appearances book readings with a hyperbolic self introduction. Here’s one version: “Good evening peepers, prowlers, pederasts, panty-sniffers, punks and pimps. I’m James Ellroy, the demon dog with the hog-log, the foul owlContinue reading “When I Paint My Masterpiece”
Señor (Tales of Yankee Power)
There’s a moment during the climax of Sam Peckinpah’s 1969 ultra-violent Western The Wild Bunch that is a direct connection to Bob Dylan’s song “Señor (Tales of Yankee Power)” off of his 1978 album Street-Legal. In the film, the outlaw gang, who serve as the plot’s anti-protagonists, are engaged in the biggest, bloodiest shootout depictedContinue reading “Señor (Tales of Yankee Power)”
Romance in Durango
The film critic Jonathan Rosenbaum set the parameters for Acid Westerns as a film genre in his review of Jim Jarmusch’s 1995 film Dead Man. Rosenbaum writes in this seminal piece that Acid Westerns “confound much of our mythology about the western — reversing some of its philosophical presuppositions by associating a westward journey withContinue reading “Romance in Durango”
Recliner Notes 