Stephen Malkmus and The Jicks At The Echoplex

I would be a liar if I said that Stephen Malkmus' latest album,his fourth titled Real Emotional Trash, was my favorite.

I am a fanatic for Malkmus and all that has to do with him. A friend gave me my first Pavement album, Slanted & Enchanted, for my birthday in college, and I attribute my interest in indie music to that album. Defunct since 1999 when Malkmus went on to his solo projects, but carrying on the tone of what I loved about Pavement. Quirky lyrics sang in a spoken form.

Real Emotional Trash lacks a lot of the hooky happy tracks. Gardenia is the one track that I've globbed onto. The album is dark and heavy with lots of guitar on guitar. Maybe Stephen is going through something. It feels very late 70's, and so was the video backdrop at the show at The Echoplex.



So what I did I get out of the show? Seeing Malkmus, (boy is he greying!, do I feel old?) Learning that when you stand up front at The Echoplex you may not hear the vocals well as the speakers are pointing towards the back. You can have Two Boots pizza while you watch the show (bonus!). I saw Malkmus. Still a fan, just yearning for more upbeat Malkmus. The end.

The Dears At The Echoplex

Why is it that Canadian music just does it for me? I mean, so do the Swedes and the Brits...but there are so many times I go - where is the band from and the answer is Canada. They already have comedy...and music too? Lucky kids.

Saturday night, (May 23) The Dears performed at The Echoplex along with Great Northern and The Eulogies. I missed the first two bands (oops...well caught some of Great Northern), because I was enjoying my dinner so much with my group at Cafe Stella. It was fitting that our waitress there would be Canadian too.

I never really thought about who the Dears sounded like, and I never really explained what they sounded like until that night when a non music friend joined us and asked what they were like. I said, like The Doves meets Radiohead. That probably didn't help him since he doesn't know who The Doves are, and probably only knows the song Creep by Radiohead. So, we get to the show and we're being silly. So much so that I didn't focus so much on the band as much as I did o the fun time I was having hanging in the back laughing so hard....but I heard so many more bands in them than I ever did before. The Swell Season, Bloc Party, Arcade Fire, and even some Seal. Yes, Seal. The singer sort of sounds like him! They were great. I thoroughly enjoyed them, even though my friends were a huge distraction, but a pleasurable distraction.

The Spinto Band & Frightened Rabbit

What I love about going to a show, and when I say show, (I mean in the 300 people range, not concert size) is really seeing who is doing what and leading the songs. Something I can't get by playing the album on my computer, itunes, stereo, ipod, etc.

I never realized when listening to The Spinto Band how they sometimes seemed to channel some Pavement-Stephen Malkmus and even some devo-esque similarities.

The young band from Delaware remarked, on the day prior to the election, how California had so many propositions where in their state they only had one to choose from. They were enthusiastic about the tour with Frightened Rabbit, which followed them at The Echoplex.

Scottish band Frightened Rabbit delivered an uplifting performance for the crowd. With elements of their work comparable to The Bloc Party's "So Here We Are", where the songs progress to a uplifting momentum, it won't be long until we hear one of their songs in a movie or TV commercial in a effort to get across a anthemic vibe.