Mikael and the Ess-Dog

In an interview with The Dallas Observer, indie-rocker and Pavement ex-frontman Stephen Malkmus clears up any doubt about doing another Pavement album. 'It's over.' Malkmus says. 'It's just like, 'That's cool; we did a great job, but no thanks to another record--like, ever.' We'll go on tour again maybe like in 10 years.'

That's about as eloquent as Malkmus gets in the interview which centers on his first album after Pavement's breakup, an eponymously titled collection that plays more jaunty than his group efforts. 'I tried to zing it up a little bit or something, compared to the last albums,' he says.

Malkmus, who paid for the album out-of-pocket, acknowledges it would sell more if it were a Pavement record, but he claims he's 'giving it the college try.' He moved to Portland from New York four years ago and is backed on his album by local rockers Joanna Bolme and John Moen. Although Malkmus, Bolme, and Moen together are a band called 'The Jicks,' the album is entitled 'Stephen Malkmus' because the band members figured the record company would use Malkmus' name anyway.

Offers Malkmus: 'I was like, 'My face is on the cover, and it's all about me a bit,' and they were like, 'That's cool; we understand. Just get us out of Portland.' And they've got their own things going on, too. They've worked with this guy Elliott Smith and stuff, and he's even more of a stage hog than me, so I didn't feel that bad. At least I let them play on the record.'

A poster boy for disaffected youth in past years, Malkmus seems to taking a different direction in this album, which bears a cover photo that is a take-off on posters of seventies heartthrob Shaun Cassidy. Fitting, perhaps, because Malkmus is the kind of indie pin-up that Gen-Xers, men and women alike, love to swoon over.
--Anjula Razdan
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