{"id":9672,"date":"2012-03-02T23:07:06","date_gmt":"2012-03-03T07:07:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thelefortreport.com\/blog\/?p=9672"},"modified":"2012-03-04T12:11:10","modified_gmt":"2012-03-04T20:11:10","slug":"stephen-malkmus-the-jicks-at-soho","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thelefortreport.com\/blog\/2012-03\/stephen-malkmus-the-jicks-at-soho\/","title":{"rendered":"Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks at Soho in Santa Barbara"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks<\/strong> played Monday at Soho<\/strong> in Santa Barbara in support of their new album, Mirror Traffic<\/strong>, brought to us by the indie-music maestros at Club Mercy<\/strong><\/a>. \u00a0 Mirror Traffic<\/strong> is the Jicks’ best album in recent memory, and so expectations were high for the show.\u00a0 After years of superb live shows in support of their earlier albums, we had been sorely disappointed by their last show at Soho in support of 2008’s Real [Emotional] Trash<\/strong>.\u00a0 Aptly named, we ultimately said.\u00a0 What had evolved from Pavement<\/strong> as intelligent, quirky and melodic music accompanied by clever and challenging lyrics had devolved by 2008 into long-winded, prog-blues jams and uninspiring guitar-noodling by Malkmus at Soho that year.\u00a0 Then came the Pavement<\/strong> reunion and their tour de force show at the Fox Theater in Pomona in April 2010.\u00a0 And all was right again.\u00a0 But we were concerned when we learned that\u00a0<\/strong>Beck would helm the new Jicks album as its producer.\u00a0 But Beck correctly steered Malkmus back to shortened and melody-favoring songs on Mirror Traffic<\/strong> without the prog-jam trappings of the last album.\u00a0 And so with the strong new album in hand we were keyed up for this night’s set at Soho.<\/p>\n

After opening band Nurses<\/strong> gave us an interesting mix of songs and complexities in their set, Malkmus and the Jicks sauntered onto the Soho stage, Malkmus<\/strong> doffing a red-glitter ballcap and nimble bassist, Joanna Bolme<\/strong>, working a working-class\/prison-garb onesy (beguiling to many of the male workers\/prisoners in the audience nonetheless).\u00a0 Utility infielder, Mike Clark<\/strong>, on keys, guitar<\/strong> and vocals, and great replacement drummer, Jake Morris<\/strong>, rounded out the band.<\/p>\n

Their set opened with Tiger<\/strong><\/em> from the new album and, like many of the Jicks’ songs, it is filled with complex chords, stop-starts, tempo-tantrums (all of which smacks of rock-jazz) and nearly-indecipherable, Scrabbled lyrics.\u00a0 Such are Malkmus and the Jicks, and we love ’em when they’re on.\u00a0 We have a love-hate relationship with Malkmus’s guitar-playing.\u00a0 Most of the time it’s accomplished, challenging and riveting, but at other times when Malkmus seems unmotivated or un-mused, he sputters and spews before giving up the ghost.\u00a0 We heard both this night.<\/p>\n

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The band moved from Tigers<\/strong><\/em> to the comparatively simple crowd-pleaser, The Hook<\/strong><\/em>, off their fine first album.\u00a0 But then it was back to the fervent rock-jazz complexities of Spazz, Share the Red<\/strong><\/em>, and Forever 28<\/strong><\/em> (the latter with its charming chorus-chant, “this just might hurt!”), before they slowed it down for the sweetly-sung Asking Price<\/strong><\/em>.\u00a0 The Jicks then kicked matters back up with the Pavement-esque and poignant Stick Figures in Love<\/strong><\/em>, before playing another “hit,” Jenny and the Ess-Dog<\/strong><\/em>.\u00a0 After a few more obscure new and old songs, the band elected to play their new singalong charmer, Senator<\/strong><\/em>, before ending the set with a couple of longer songs, Animal Midnight<\/strong><\/em> (off of Pig Lib<\/strong>) and the unreleased, circumambulating rock-jam, Surreal Teenagers. <\/em><\/strong>
\n<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

After some solid prodding from the audience, the band returned for an encore that started off with the familiar Vanessa from Queens<\/strong><\/em>.\u00a0 And then the unthinkable happened.\u00a0 Adding to a disturbing new trend amongst “indie-rock” bands in which they waste time covering heinous 70s “hits,” the almighty Malkmus lowered himself to cover (albeit energetically) the horrific and hoary 1976 Boston<\/strong> song, Peace of Mind.<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0 While many in the audience were enamored (it’s called “pandering,” Stephen, and it isn’t pretty), we tapped our foot and awaited an improved finish.\u00a0 Unfortunately one sensed the life had gone out of the band, and next was a desultory Velvet Underground<\/strong> cover (What Goes On<\/em><\/strong>) that segued into a daft jam that ultimately ended with the band throwing in the towel and resorting to a singing of the chorus to the Doors’ The End<\/em><\/strong>.\u00a0 The end of everything.\u00a0 Indeed.<\/p>\n

On the whole, the band played with verve and sounded far better than in support of Real Trash.\u00a0 And the new Mirror Traffic songs definitely helped the cause this night.\u00a0 It obviously was no help that the band seemed tired (“we just came from Vegas,” explained Bolme) and were anxiously awaiting the following night’s tour-ending show in San Francisco.\u00a0 Matters would be helped immensely if the Jicks would cede their setlist to someone else (a manager, a parent, anyone really).\u00a0 Then perhaps heinous covers and lesser obscurities could be supplanted by more deserving songs (e.g., where were their best songs this night:\u00a0 Church On White, Trojan Curfew, Ramp of Death, Freeze the Saints,<\/strong><\/em> etc.?).\u00a0 Still, Malkmus has written some of the best songs in the American oeuvre, and he and the Jicks can play with incredible aplomb, so we’ll cut the slackers some more slack.\u00a0 Until next time.\u00a0 But then the jick’s up.<\/p>\n

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Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks played Monday at Soho in Santa Barbara in support of their new album, Mirror Traffic, brought to us by the indie-music maestros at Club Mercy. \u00a0 Mirror Traffic is the Jicks’ best album in recent memory, and so expectations were high for the show.\u00a0 After years of superb live shows […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9672","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelefortreport.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9672","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelefortreport.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelefortreport.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelefortreport.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelefortreport.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9672"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelefortreport.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9672\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelefortreport.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9672"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelefortreport.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9672"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelefortreport.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9672"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}