Pavement's Stephen Malkmus Goes Solo

Dec. 22 -- Mending thousands of broken indie hearts, singer-songwriter Stephen Malkmus has emerged from the indefinitely defunct Pavement with his new band, the Jicks. Also including drummer John Moen (Dharma Bums, The Maroon) and bassist Joanne Bolme (The Minders, Spinanes), the group recorded 12 tracks this summer at Jackpot Studio in Malkmus’ adopted hometown of Portland, Ore.

For marketing’s sake, however, the album, due Feb. 13, will be packaged as Malkmus’ eponymous solo release. “We’re the Jicks,” the 34-year-old asserts, “but the album’s just me … Steve. Steve on the cover, Steve on the inside. I know it’s going to confuse a lot of people. We’ll see when we tour and release our second album if that changes”

Malkmus says two tracks — “Hook”and the alt-country-tinged “Trojan Curfew”— originally failed with Pavement. “We weren’t doing them justice, so I put them on the back burner. It’s happened before in Pavement,”he explains. “’Hook’ is about pirates, where people think it’s all steel hooks and treasures, but they’re really just mean … It’s like the music business — you might think it’s all sex, drugs, rock ’n’ roll, and good times, but it’s really just a dirty job and you’ve just got to get in there and do it … and take people’s money”

The album is distinctly quieter and less off-kilter than Pavement, though Malkmus’ typically quirky lyrics receive an invigorated dose of humor on the new project.

“I was just trying to make [Moen and Bolme] laugh,”he explains. “Like, ‘See how good it is over here in the Malk camp? It’s good times and we have fun making albums.’ Pavement didn’t necessarily have that. I tried to make it fun there too, but we would occasionally have these protracted struggles that would try your soul”

In January, the band will release the first single, “Discretion Cove”— a throbbing, mid-tempo pop song that should do well on alternative radio (though Malkmus dutifully denies that it’s got “chart potential”).