STEPHEN MALKMUS AND
THE JICKS
Pig Lib
Matador
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AUDIO CLIP
"Water and a Seat"
The icon of unemployed guitar slingers everywhere, former Pavement front man Stephen Malkmus and his Jicks offer up a winning mix of too-cool-to-really-sing vocals, clever melodies and guitar hooks that are alternately meaty and lithe. Malkmus' guitar skills are evident in the classic rock licks of the first track, Water and a Seat, and while the nine minutes of 1% of One turns into something of a wankfest, the record otherwise has a fresh, unstaged quality to it. Songs are free of structure and convention, solos pop up just about anywhere, and Malkmus' dada lyrics ("ballerina tights around my head/in a samurai pose on the bed/Vanessa from Queens"), often delivered in goofy falsettos, make for a record that's refreshingly different from most anything else out there. The dean of college rock is still too cool for school.
-- Michael Malone
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