“Cast Off” is the lead-off track of 2018’s Sparkle Hard, the last album that Stephen Malkmus released with the Jicks: The song and album open with a dramatic chord and then Jicks’ keyboardist Mike Clark plays a beautifully gentle passage on the piano, which is repeated a few times with variations to create a senseContinue reading “Stephen Malkmus Series: “Cast Off””
Tag Archives: Mike Clark
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””
Stephen Malkmus Series: “Freeze the Saints”
Stephen Malkmus is one of our great melodists and balladeers. There are so many other aspects to his music to that compete with this simple statement, whether it’s the obvious influence of The Fall on his early songwriting, the Zeitgeist-y “reflection of a generation” labels forced on Pavement’s music, or Malkmus’s gradual acceptance of hisContinue reading “Stephen Malkmus Series: “Freeze the Saints””
Recliner Notes 