Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks "Dragonfly Pie" (Track Review)

i like the track enough, but i've never liked any of his solo stuff the way i loved pavement.

I really liked his self-titled album. That album to me was pretty much TERROR TWILIGHT VOL 2, so I was pleased. His solo work since has impressed me the same way.

I still miss Pavement. A lot.

Well apparently if Steve throws some structural curve balls he runs the risk of you saying "something is off" and that you smell a "mismatch!" I understand, though, you felt good in that smoke filled bar room, and you didn't want to leave! You felt like a gangster or maybe you felt like an affable old adulterer or perhaps a character who is talking to Scarlett Johansson's character.

I hear your point about having it both ways, with the mismatch thing. I guess I should have said there are no structural curveballs that worked for me. I mean it's possible that I'm too tainted by old feeling to be subjective about the Malk-man, which I at least tried to quantify at the start...

I liked Malkmus a WHOLE lot better when he was fronting the Groundhogs!

Klingman your opinion isn’t an odd one. It seems most people either think SM is less inspired and just cruising on Pavement’s rep or that his solo work stands up with Pavement’s catalog. There doesn’t seem to be much middle ground. Seems logical though b/c Pavement was so important in developing and exposing so many of us to indie music and we have a strong emotional connection to him. I love SM’s solo work and after a few listens, Real Emotional Trash, feels like a logical progression for SM.

The difference, for me anyway, is that Pavement's music always sounded innovative and surprising, whereas SM's solo material always seemed more like good craftsmanship-- pretty great, but no surprises.

That's not exactly bad, it just doesn't melt my brain the way Wowee Zowee would/could/does.

breidy is right. Though SY is always known as "my favorite band," it was Pavement that led me to a world I didn't realize existed, initially. So Malk's solo career sometimes feels like my Mom is dating some new dude that tries to give me high-fives or something.

Hahahah. Good image, noise.

I'd say I'm a middle-ground Malkmus fan. Perhaps it's because I was only 5 when Slanted and Enchanted came out, but I think Malkmus/Jicks are a very good, though not miraculous, band. There's something about his lyrical and instrumental suppleness (?) that can never go wrong; the dude still hammers out the best jams and solo's around.

Maybe the weight of the Sleater-Kinney drummer has allowed Malkmus to relax and thus to commit to a band-ness that his post-Pavement stuff has lacked. Who knows how this album will turn out?

All kinds of people!

I have listened to Dragonfly Pie 1000 times and still have not tired of it so it is one of the all time great songs. The Dragonfly is struuunngg ooouuuttt. The heavy guitar verses followed by the whimsical "shake me off the knife" chorus - it's just great. The new album is as good as anything Pavement ever done, if only because it is new. And boy do I love Pavement.

I think the bright chorus contrasts the verses nicely. The lead in to the chorus is smooth, and i also really like the transition when the chorus ends, and malkmus jumps back to rocking out. It's just down and dirty.