Wig Out at Jagbags
Most of Stephen Malkmus' newest solo effort, Wig Out at Jagbags, sounds like 70s guitar-rock rendered as some kind of ergonomic desk toy: compact, brightly colored, unlikely to stir the depths of the soul but nifty nevertheless. He's never resisted age but has never seemed younger.
After Stephen Malkmus put out his last record—the upbeat, Beck-produced Mirror Traffic—he moved from Portland to Berlin with his wife and daughters, settling down for a few years in a large English-speaking expatriate community in central Europe. The album that has emerged from that relocation, Wig Out At Jagbags, was…
Love Stephen Malkmus for what he is - not what he was - and just enjoy the wig out on his sixth album with The Jicks.
In this day and age, the idea of the rock star is dead and gone, having been replaced by the less self-destructive, more…
The title is quintessentially Stephen Malkmus -- a conflation of two slang terms, one dating back to the hazed-out '60s, the other a vulgar remnant of modernity -- and, as it happens, Wig Out at Jagbags also sounds quintessentially Malkmusian. It's elastic guitar rock constructed partially out of cannabis guitar jams and partially out of punk rock squalls, both sides distinguished by wry melodicism and dexterous wordplay, not to mention Malkmus' lingering tendency to hide his accessible inclinations under sheets of six-strings.
“Actually,” remarks Stephen Malkmus, halfway through his sixth solo record, “I’m not contractually obliged to care.” He’s right too – of the many strengths on display throughout his twenty-four year career, sincerity has never been a particularly notable feature. He’s an ironist; a smart-arse who gets more kicks from not giving a fuck than from giving his all.
Seeing as Stephen Malkmus has spent the last couple of years living in Berlin, one might expect Wig Out at Jagbags to be his version of Low, or The Idiot, or Drum's Not Dead.
Pavement's former mainman is having fun again on the sixth Jicks album, writes <strong>Kitty Empire</strong>
Wig Out at Jagbags is mostly another opportunity for Stephen Malkmus to get his ’70s-stoner-superstar on.
Review Of "Wig Out At Jag Bags", the New Stephen Malkmus Album The Jicks. "Wig Out At Jag Bags" will be out on January 6th via Matador/Domino Records.
It does sound a bit like a bunch of hipster dads messing about in the garage, but Stephen Malkmus's latest still has some great moments, writes <strong>Harriet Gibsone</strong>