There are no words that can describe how much I want to hang out with this guy. Maybe my Myspace stalker post on his site can clarify this…. “I would love to interview you Stephen for a really good blog I’m trying to grow by myself (thebigmuff.wordpress.com). It’s really quality. My dad thinks Pavement is unlistenable. I think he is stupid. I also [used to] trip LSD in basements and listen to “Billie”, “Post-Paint Boy”, and “It Kills” (Not an original member of Pavement out of money deepthroating your solo-stuff and referencing our last album). I attend the University of Wisconsin- Madison and am majoring in journalism. I would rather interview you then any other artist on Myspace. I take your side in the Billy-Corgan-beef-patty. Just let me know…”. I’ll leave it at that. This guy is quality and really intelligent. Here is some video from an acoustic show where he is playing tracks from his solo album, “Face The Truth” on Morning Becomes Eclectic on Sunday June 26, 2005. I could not make fun of this guy if I tried.
1. “No More Shoes” (Face The Truth, Matador Records)
Lyrics:
Warm and direct
No more shoes
No more news
No more blues
Iranian gown on your frame
Born to the game
No more shoes
No more news
No more blues–getcha back!
All my stray thoughts
They are unarranged
All my stray thoughts
They are impure
Give me sidearm compliments
Give an autopsy of the event
Such uneven principles
Time and time and time again
Spare me your contrarian thaw
Beautiful nerves, send you wild
Lost in a pile
Of old shoes
Of old news
Of old blues
A gallery of vivid dreams
Torn and extreme
No more shoes
No more news
No more shoes
No more blues
No more, no more, no more, no more
No more more more more bluesI was made for lovin’ you, baby
2. “Freeze The Saints”- (Face The Truth, Matador Records)
Lyrics:
We meet again
Riding our divisible bodies
Feel no shame
Luck is love is on
If you need the pain
Well you are, yes you are so much like me
Seasons change–nothing lasts for long
Except the earth and the mountains
So learn to sing along and languish here
Help me languish here
It was long ago
That all of your willing dimensions
Lost the flow
And vanished in vaneer
But iI want to know
If you are, yes you are so much like me
Steel restraints
Zodiac ballet, everybody play
There’s no more counting days, you languish here
Help me languish here
You said, “done is good,”
But done well is so much fucking better
Share the wealth
And cauterize the tears
If you want to know
Well you are, yes you are so much like me
Freeze the saints
Such a subtle read, exquisite pedigree
Just let yourself be and languish here
Help me languish here
3. “Post-Paint Boy” (Face The Truth, Matador Records)
Lyrics:
So fed up with hypocrisy
There isn’t a label large enough to fit your bill
Act like you deserve to win
Trade up for a thicker skin
For scraps of acceptance from coked-up quasi-urbane kids
I’m really, really, really,
Really proud of what you did
Post-paint boy, with your art
You’re penny rich and dollar dumb
In a style that they call
So non-European
You’re the maker of modern
Minor masterpieces for the untrained eye
You’re the maker of modern
Minor masterpieces for the untrained eye–yep!
Belarus Biennial
You surely surely made them wow
Minds were blown and bombs were thrown–oh no!!
Seventeen anteaters
Sequestered in a room
With the sisters of mothers of famous gluttons I don’t know
You really, really, really,
Really, really, really showed
Who can blame you for becoming
Penny smart and dollar dumb
In a world that has become
So American
You’re the maker of modern
Minor masterpieces for the untrained eye
You’re the maker of modern
Minor masterpieces for the untrained eye
You’re the maker of modern
Minor masterpieces for the untrained eye
You’re the maker of modern
Minor masterpieces for the untrained eye–yep!
4. Interview (He has some legitimate things to say about the switch from analogue to digital. Motherfucker is literate… but you knew that right.. you have Pavement albums? )
5. “It Kills” (Face The Truth, Matador Records)
Lyrics:
What you gonna do?
I don’t know, my friend
But I’m open to suggestion if you’ll proffer two cents
Give me something I can hang my coat on, yeah!
Nine times out of ten
I’m not the guidance type
I’ve been sitting on a fencepost for the brunt of my life
And now I need some help to find out what I feel, it kills
It kills the time
Until you fill your heart, you’ll see
There’s more to you than what you think and need
Where you gonna go?
I don’t know, my friend
But I’ll take this road forever or until it does end
Here or there or someplace else, man, anywhere!
Maybe to the west
Where they don’t fall down
In a canyon of a valley in a twenty-horse town
A voluntary rest home where they lecture you, it kills
It kills the time
Until you fill your heart, you’ll see
there’s more to you than what you think and need
We can share our bland opinions
About the quality of air
and all will be right
All will be right on top
There’s a place in old dominion
Near that courthouse by the square
Where all will be right
All will be right on top of the day
6. “Malediction”
Lyrics:
Good bye to the nervous apprehension
I certainly won’t miss ya
My heart is unable to stay so unstable no more
Go now
Leave this place and if you do not know how
You’ll learn along the way
The road to rejection is better than no road at all
If I see your negative shadow
I will lead it from the room
A media-sized headache is not enough to break it
If you’ve already assumed the malediction
Certain
Kinds of people that we like to know, yeah
And others gotta go
If you wait ’til you’re ready, then you’ll never make an amends
7. “Loud, Loud, Crowd”-
Lyrics:
From eternal grey
Fantastic times await
So let them rake in
All they wrought
No one can get at you
If you’re caught on a wave
Fractured knees, calamaties
Enfold me in serenity
And loud cloud crowds
Are taking over
Front and center, we all sit
In a stadium of our own devising
Don’t let reputation pre-decieve you
It is one on none
Inside this fieldhouse
For the brain
Fractured knees, calamaties
Enfold me in serenity
And loud cloud crowds
Are taking over
The loud cloud crowds
Go up and over
The loud cloud crowds
Go up and over
He is the man: and a funny one at that.
P.S.- My mystical-moderator informs me that “Real Emotional Trash” is coming out March 4, 2008. Apparently he doesn’t know I went to my local record store and requested a promotional poster for this album 2 months ago. You can read the best review of this album on that date. Thank you. The title of the album is a joke only me, Stephen, and God get… He’s fucking past 40. How can his music not be real emotional trash? Slanted & Enchanted is the real trashpile… but you are way indie and don’t have a standard for sound right? Try Wowee Zowee…
you mean “baltimore” and a pitchfork interview where he states “i’m in the basement”. that’s all i really need to know. do you have it?
that’s also stephen malkmus and the jicks. not stephen malkmus.