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The Rice Thresher
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Mariel Tam Thresher editorial staff
"What?" I said. "Like in movies and fashion and jokes and things," she explained. Now, I sure haven't heard anything about black eye patches or wooden legs on the catwalks this season. But if there's anybody with the seafaring swagger and bravado to lead the pirate-minded indie-rati, it's Stephen Malkmus, former frontdude of Pavement and current leader of the Jicks, who appear tonight at the Engine Room. Malkmus makes piracy chic in "The Hook," off his first post-Pavement album, the self-titled Stephen Malkmus. The track kicks off with a stealthy bass line and quickly leads into a character sketch worthy of the Kinks seal of approval: "At age 19 I was kidnapped by Turkish pirates/Mediterranean thugs." At the Austin Music Hall Saturday during one of South by Southwest's larger shows on its last night, Malkmus and the Jicks performed with his trademark nonchalance. He sings like a lanky, overgrown kid walks - awkwardly, squeaking the rare word, with some lines lazy and slow, and then all of a sudden the words stumbling over each other in a rush to catch up with the music. Malkmus did some gender-bending on the lyrics to "Jenny and the Ess-Dog," another catchy character sketch, this one about a May-December relationship. Onstage, he reversed the sexes to change the dynamics: Jenny became an 18-year-old "he" and the Ess-Dog was a 31-year-old woman for the night. Another highlight of the album is "Phantasies," a song that's bright pop at turns and occasionally flips into a snippet of psychedelia. Live, however, the Jicks had some problems harmonizing during the Blur-like chorus of "whoa, wuh-oh." No worries about staying true to the recording throughout the show - but Malkmus' guitar playing was in fine form regardless. Stevie still dishes out the Malkmusisms like "I used to crave your spastic touch" in "Vague Space," which also has keyboards that sound like steel drums. Crowd members called repeatedly for "Jo Jo's Jacket," a song about Yul Brynner. The studio track starts off with Brynner talking about how shaving his head was "a liberation from a lot of stupid vanities." Live, Malkmus improvised his own version about growing out his hair: "I felt in touch with my counterculture vibes." About a third of performance consisted of songs not on the Jicks' debut album, demonstrating how much new material they've been working on. One promising tune is called, apparently, "The Blind Soundman from Netherlands," and it's about exactly that. Malkmus' voice turns falsetto in the end over jamming guitars. Claiming to have one song left, the Jicks tore into a roaring guitar rocker that lasted some 30 seconds. But they were just kidding - instead, they closed the set with the not-much-longer "Troubbble," a bit of bubblegum punk-pop that clocks in at under two minutes. The plonky toy piano on the studio version is replaced onstage by somewhat less playful keyboards. You might have left feeling that the Jicks jerked you around with the last two songs if it weren't for the encore, a rarity during SXSW. Malkmus & Co. brought out two new guitar-heavy jams with sparse lyrics, the first song about an alien and the second with repeated shouts of "That's what mama said." Bassist Joanna Bolme and Malkmus faced off with their axes in hand, noodling along in a kind of guitar duel. A mysterious tambourine player burst onstage during the final song, banging away and dancing blissfully. Aye. Your chance to catch the dirty Jicks is tonight at the Engine Room (1515 Pease). Bright Eyes opens, and tickets are $16 at the door.
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