Among other notes, Klosterman learns (as we knew in June 2005) that Stephen Malkmus is a fantasy sports junkie, Malkmus answers Isaac's December 2007 question on what the hell's up with his lyrics ("Even though we don't have classic, Bob Dylan lyrics, I think they have a tone that holds up better and is less cringeworthy than most other lyric writing. I don't think any of my lyrics are literal. The way somebody's voice sounds is much more important than how meaningful the words are."), and discusses whether having Slanted and Enchanted called "brilliant" changed the way he thought of it:
"Of course it does, in a way. But no matter how much positive feedback you get, it's never enough," Malkmus says. "I'm not a particularly needy person, but it always seems like every review could be better. With a record like Slanted and Enchanted, that was so much a timing thing, along with the fact that its flaws are a big part of what makes it good. It's not like some Radiohead record, where the whole thing is good. Our records aren't good in that way. Our records are more attitude and style, sort of in a punk way. We're good in the same way the Strokes are good. I think Slanted and Enchanted probably is the best record we made, only because it's less self-conscious and has an unrepeatable energy about it."Below the fold, watch vintage footage of Pavement on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno from 1994, and decide for yourself: "Was Malkmus acting consciously weird given the clash between his band's indie aesthetic and the surroundings, or was he just completely high?" Also, Pavement meets Beavis and Butthead:
As I said to Adam, that Tonight Show performance is exactly the same as their performance when I saw them either a couple of weeks earlier or a couple of weeks later on the west coast swing of that same tour. Malkmus was way out of it (I wouldn't say this detracted from his performance, by the way, with the positive weirdness balancing out any negative effects on technical capability), and at one point stopped playing and just sat down on the stage with his guitar next to him in the middle of a song, with the band continuing to play as if nothing unusual were happening. So I'm strongly advocating the "very high" position.
ReplyDeleteby the way, "try harder, dammit" would have been a great title too.
ReplyDelete... "white guys and white music."
ReplyDeleteTo borrow a lyric from Gordon Lightfoot, "And I've got to say that I just don't get it." Never have. Never will.
ReplyDeleteThe fact that you used Gordon Lightfoot to express your thought says more than the thought itself.
ReplyDeleteThat was me, and I didn't mean that to sound as insulting as it probably sounded. What I meant was that the fact that you used Gordon Lightfoot to express your thought makes the thought itself redundant.
ReplyDelete