stephen malkmus after pavement

pig lib 2003

STepheN MAlkMUS STepheN MAlkMUS 2001

the pavement frontman starts the new millennium as a solo artist. his self-titled debut shows a new side of the singer-songwriter, with “Church on White” a soulful eulogy for a dead friend and “jenny & the ess-dog” a generous story-song about mismatched lovers.

STepheN MAlkMUS & The JiCkS

his second album and the first featuring the jicks as his backing band, Pig Lib is loose and jammy and funny, with standout “1% of one” his first foray into the guitar epics that would define later Lps. First pressings included a hidden ep that nearly upstaged the album.

STepheN MAlkMUS FACe The TRUTh 2005

malkmus recorded this almost entirely by himself, making it more of a solo record than a jicks joint. as such it’s one of his weirdest, smashing up classic-rock guitar solos and electronic burps and burbles into a set of songs that move by their own oddball logic. rarely has he made distraction sound so productive.

SilveR JewS TANglewood NUMbeRS 2005

malkmus and songwriter/poet david Berman go way back. Before they co-founded silver jews in the late 1980s, they both worked at the Whitney museum of art as security guards. an on-again/offagain member, malkmus serves a sideman role on the band’s fifth Lp, adding sharp country-rock guitar riffs to Berman’s sad-funny songs about depression and death.

STepheN MAlkMUS & The JiCkS MiRRoR TRAFFiC 2011

produced by fellow ‘90s dadaist songwriter Beck, this was malkmus’s first album released after the 2010 reunion of pavement, but nothing like a response to that ballyhooed event. opening with an ageing nudist shuffling around in Birkenstocks, Mirror Traffic is one of malkmus’s funniest records, full of snappy tunes and pithy punchlines.