Stephen Malkmus jamming at Beauty Bar
As a singer/guitarist in California’s sunbaked and just plain baked Pavement, Stephen Malkmus became synonymous with equally literate, noisy, artful and sardonic indie rock, performed with the nonchalance of a group of record store clerks on a smoke break.
They pretty much defined the terms of the sound with which they were so closely associated.
As a solo artist, backed by his band the Jicks, Malkmus doesn’t stray too far from that path, but that’s only because it was such a wide path to begin with.
Malkmus and the Jicks’ latest disc, “Mirror Traffic,” produced by Beck, is a light-on-the-feet batch of sly, guitar driven jams that remind us of the last time Malkmus was in town, with Pavement, where he played his six-string from behind his head at one point, reminding everyone what a beast he can be on said instrument.
Contact reporter Jason Bracelin at
jbracelin@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0476.