Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks, The Forum

When alternative rock group Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks come to The Forum on January 16th, their sixth album, Wig Out at Jagbag will have been out for almost two weeks. Fans of the band will greet the arrival of Wig Out with a mixture of excitement and unease—excitement because it will surely be a continuation of what have been a string of well-received albums. Unease because it will mean Stephen Malkmus will have made more albums with his current line-up than with Pavement, his seminal ‘90s band. To many, it will feel like the end of an era. 

As much as its members would hate to admit it, Pavement have become synonymous with the ‘90s alternative rock scene. Their lackadaisical ‘slacker’ attitude (Malkmus only ever really sounded like he was singing along to some other song entirely) belied their knack for writing strong melodies that nonetheless flirted with distortion and noise. Pavement made intelligent music that also happened to be catchy. But they didn’t take themselves too seriously—unlike that era’s dark prince of indie rock, Kurt Cobain. The video for ‘Gold Soundz, which music-mecca site Pitchfork has named the best song of the ‘90s, is low-key, mildly amusing—the band come across as normal guys just mucking about. They weren’t. Pre-eminent American rock critic Robert Christgau has called Pavement ‘the finest rock band of the ‘90s’.

But as the ‘90s came to a close, Pavement called it quits. Since then, Malkmus has been with backing band The Jicks. They sound like what Pavement might have been had they stuck together through middle age. Liberated from the existential crisis plaguing Pavement in their later years (how to remain true to themselves as ‘normal guy’ rockers, while also accepting that this was the reason for their loathed mass popularity) Malkmus seems more at ease with himself, like he’s having fun. ‘No One Is (As I Are Be)’ somehow manages to combine the feel of an early Velvet Underground song with French poet Arthur Rimbaud’s irreverent approach to syntax and Malkmus’s humour. (The best way of justifying your physical ineptitude: ‘I cannot even do one sit up / Sit ups are so bourgeoisie). 

Fundamentally, Malkmus sounds like he’s playing music he wants to be playing—and after 25 years in the business, you shouldn’t be doing anything else.

Ticket price: £20.90