Stephen Malkmus keeps pace with Mirror Traffic

Mr. Indie Rock: Stephen Malkmus

I was listening to Mirror Traffic, the brand new solo work of Stephen Malkmus, the 45-year-old frontman of the quintessential '90s indie rock outfit, Pavement, and realized that Malkmus epitomizes my generation's real classic rock.

In the world of serious popular music, where the holy grail is to find that new sound, calling something classic can be tantamount to insult. The term "classic" denotes over-ripe records that have topped radiostation turntables for more than 50 years now. Classic is out-of-date bloozerock. It's "Layla" pumping out of the tattered speakers of a riverside purple van. (Is that freedom rock? Turn it up man!)

That's not what I mean with Malkmus. 

Malkmus and Pavement defined indie rock in the '90s. Pavement was relentlessly indie. It remained on Matador Records when it could have easily scored a larger contract from the majors. The band wrote it's own rules for what rock sounded like. Malkmus was wordy and flat as a vocalist, but he was (and still is) a first class songsmith with a gift for catchy melodies that find a snug fit ontop of often-discordant and sometimes sloppy guitar rock. They were, as a band, devoid of style, looking like a group of college dorm refugees more likely to skip calculus than tour as part of Lollapalooza. The band defined the indie slacker ethos.* It was, really, all about the music -- the quirky musical vision of Malkmus.

Now, when I hear Malkmus, whose voice, songs and guitar craft really was the sum and total of Pavement, I hear the '90s.  What I hear is classic, and by that I mean it is not only of that time, but timeless, too. In other words, it's evocative of that time but not out of date, at least not any more than any guitar-driven rock.  It sounds like the '90s, but does so not because Malkmus is aping trends or simply playing it safe. Malkmus sounds like Pavement because he was Pavement. It sounds as authentic now as it did then.

Of all of Malkmus' records, Mirror Traffic might be the one for which this observation is the most true. Mirror Traffic is the third to be credited to Steve Malkmus and the Jicks (Real Emotional Trash and Pig Lib are the others, his solo debut, Stephen Malkmus and Face the Truth are his others). It is, perhaps the closest to Pavement in sound and scope. Malkmus sticks closer to songcraft than he was with other Jicks records that have had more choreographed guitar excursions. And it is less experimental than Face the Truth or as pop-minded as the debut.

And like Pavement at it's best, Mirror Traffic sounds effortless and breezy -- as if its 15 songs were not much more than accidental, as if Malkmus can simply fill a a whole record with little more than a week of studio work. Of course that quality is what makes Malkmus great for his fans. It's what I like about his songs, he has the ability to make chaotic and difficult songs sound simple. No one else does it so well.

You can call '90s Indie classic, but that doesn't make it easy. The form was never formulaic and Malkmus brings to that open form a willingness to push boundaries with really expert musicianship, driving into jammy territory, but pulling out just in time to keep his songs intact. Musically his songs  are sharp, and lyrically they are remarkable. Who else can pull off the following stanza from the opening of "Senator" in a rock song: "The toxins American made / Weapons-class gray sludge for migrants / Dioxin the chemical sunset / The number one subset for all." But you never get hung up listening. It all sounds easy.

Credit for this should also go to Beck Hansen, an indie figure who may be Malkmus' opposite in some ways. Both are inscrutable, slacker icons, perhaps, but while Beck turned an idiosyncratic genre-hopping career into making himself practically a household name, Malkmus worked to perfect his own sound and never let Pavement or his own career lift into the stratosphere. Thankfully, Beck seems to have largely taken a hands-off approach to Malkmus' songs, doing, instead, what a good producer should do: make the record sound great.

There are a few moment that betray Beck's hand a bit, particularly track 2, "No One Is (As I Are Be), an acoustic number that builds into a larger horn arrangement with a final, sparse harmonica melody to finish a tune that would have sounded right at home on Beck's Sea Change. Perhaps that is only evidence that the two have more in common musically than is obvious. Both are now old pros at song craft and both took it far more seriously than appearances ever suggested.

For Pavement fans Mirror Traffic will sound like the good times never stopped rolling. For anyone who hasn't tried Malkmus' solo records, I'd urge them to start listening. While the rest of us have been chasing down new sounds and trends, Malkmus has built a catalog of excellent records without a dud among them. All five are excellent -- flawlessly executed, fun and thoughtful rock records that, as far as I'm concerned, secure Malkmus' place among the greatest songwriters and musicians of my generation.  

* Note: There were/are others: Sebadoh for sure, Guided by Voices, Archer of Loaf, etc. None, as good as those bands may be, has Malkmus' or Pavement's stature, in my opinion. Lou Barlow gets second place, though, I think.