Stephen Malkmus: Melody-obsessed heir to H.P. Lovecraft

A recent review of the new album "Face the Truth" proclaimed that
Malkmus, once the "prince of indie rock", was now settling into an
"almost British-like eccentricity", which reminded me immediately of
Lovecraft. Both artists possess an odd paradox of high aesthetic
innovation and achievement, mixed with seemingly conservative social
values (HP's notorious racism, Malkmus's belief that the "dance
faction" was "a little too loose for [him]", not to mention his open
pining for the "range life"). Perhaps Malkmus is an example of the
newly-coined phrase "South Park conservative", one not afraid to offend
the status quo in pursuit of art, yet decidedly wary about some of the
more extremes of postmodern liberalism. Perhaps its the University of
Virginia in him, or his blue blood roots, who knows.

But that "eccentricity" is posited in the review as something directly
askance to the emerging new "dance faction" of pseudo-New Wave dance
punk bands (many of whom I dig), and in fact Malkmus brags about his
ignorance of the current music scene he once presided over. The
question for me then is: can one be BOTH? I've been to Pavement shows,
and one of them in particular sticks in my head: the date they played
in Buffalo, NY during the "Brighten the Corners" tour. I have NEVER
seen in a more uninspired, dead-from-the-neck down bunch of dark-rimmed
slackers in my life. NO amount of rhythm would have gotten the boring
hipster fucks to budge beyond so much as a slight repeating head-nod,
let alone the more subtle tempos of Pavement's latter work.

And so it was a blessing in 2001 when hyper-cognitive Pavement-style
literary indie rock lost favor in the face of the
Dancepunk/Art-funk/Garage-glam charge lead by everyone from the Strokes
and the White Stripes to Liars, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and even noise
freakers Black Dice, who all put the BEAT front and center and made
sure that, no matter how many obscure 1970s British bands they
referenced in their guitar licks (very few compared to herr Malkmus),
they at least let the audience leave sweating, exhausted, happy, and
hopefully, laid. But, as all things do, this wave has gone trendy, and
it's not just a few people who've noticed some of the more unsavory,
anti-intellectual white-belted fashion-obsessed kids caring ONLY for
the Beat, art bedamned.

So it's refreshing to see eccentric ol' Malkmus giving it a go once
again, stretching our sensibilities beyond the incessant 4/4 hi-hats
and sleaze keyboards of The Rapture's many apers. And the tide may
indeed by turning, if the neo-folk thing gains a bit more ground. But
then again, motherfuckaz still need to dance....