The Jicks become more cohesive

By Joel Schafer

Published March 11, 2008

What a colorful and commodious career Stephen Malkmus has had in his 20-plus years as an icon of indie rock.

Pavement alone could have been enough to make the man a hero in the eyes of most music lovers, but since its demise in 1999, Malkmus has released three studio albums with The Jicks and has been involved in multiple side projects.

Now at 41 years old, Malkmus has released an album, Real Emotional Trash, which diversifies his body of work even further.

The Jicks have been an interesting and eclectic outlet for Malkmus. Much like the polarized Pavement discography, The Jicks have many different sounds and talents that can be executed quite genuinely.

From sticky-sweet bubblegum ditties to striding behemoths that would make Tony Iommi jealous, The Jicks can cover a lot of ground, and they try their hardest to do so on this release.

Real Emotional Trash presents The Jicks as more of a cohesive band rather than just a solo project.

Though Malkmus’ awkward yet powerful guitar riffs take center stage most of the time, the rest of the band (now including former Sleater-Kinney drummer Janet Weiss) isn’t far from the spotlight, following immediate left turns taken by the THC-influenced guitar lines into uber-melodic segue with ease.

Immediately after the foggy, fuzz drenched “Dragonfly Pie” one realizes that song structure is not the most important aspect of this album.

While there’s a lot of focus on the instrumentation and interplay between band members, there’s not a whole lot of effort put into the literary aspect of the lyrics.

Malkmus sings with eccentricity and his distinctive matter-of-fact delivery, but the context of his words is not as weighted as those found on any Pavement album.

He places his lyrics around a song as if they were odd, quirky (possibly worthless) trinkets situated throughout a room.

Often this odd lyricism works to the songs’ advantage by complimenting the already odd structure.

On the surreal lead single “Baltimore,” Malkmus slyly sings, “For of your hustle, what did you win/Woe is the man with the Cheshire Cat grin.” It might not make sense, but it’s great wordplay.

For most of Real Emotional Trash, however, the band simply meanders and wanders.

Not to insinuate that they are lost by any means, but simply that they have difficulty getting to the point of a song (or perhaps there is no real point or goal at all).

This trait is most obvious on the title track of the album, which clocks in at just over 10 minutes.

One can only follow The Jicks for so long on this cut before wondering if there is a reason for it all, especially when a yucky comparison to Meat Loaf pops into mind.

But besides the aimless nature of it, Real Emotional Trash offers some very memorable moments.

Maybe not all Pavement fans will embrace this album, but those who long for more of Malkmus’ guitar reverie in all of it’s multi-toned glory will embrace it whole heartily.