Stephen Malkmus

Lead singer of pavement Stephen Malkmus (does this mean that they broke up?) has struck out on his own with a few albums, and the work is pretty impressive. The vocals are still "fractured," but the instruments are different. The electric piano is killer, as is the guitar. The style is less all-over-the-place, and the tempos are more unified than Pavement.

However, none of this is to say that Pavement fans are going to go hatorade all over the new tracks. I like Pavement; I like Stephen Malkmus. The styles are not altogether that different, but different enough to distinguish the two bands. The work does stand up on its own, though.

"Baby C'mon" has some decidedly psychedelic guitars, as well as some pretty legit normal instruments that don't channel Woodstock. I always kind of zone out his lyrics, so I still don't know what it's about, but I'd guess his baby features in it.

"The Hook" is pretty mellow too. It reminds me of a song that I can't remember, from a place I've never been...Actually, email me if it reminds you of any song, as I really can't think of whatever song it is. On the plus side, it mentions pirates, my favorite genre of international badass, so I automatically like it. Plus, I like mellow.

Since I've already broken my rule about comparing to other bands in this post, as well as referring to myself, I'll go ahead and say that "(Do Not Feed The) Oyster" channels Cream in the beginning, The Beatles circa The White Album in the middle, and Pavement circa Crooked Rain by the end. It's pretty low key until the end, but it still rocks.

"Jenny & The Ess-Dog" does have a bridge in it, which is sort of welcoming after hearing the tracks that sound together all the way through. Disjointedness is still cool, even if tightness is the new disjointedness.

--P.S. sorry about not posting for a week, but AP exams are kind of killer. However, the English Language one had "describe how the following article from The Onion expresses satire. That was actually a really fun question

Link to Stephen Malkmus