Stephen Malkmus | |
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 Malkmus performing in 2005 at the River To River Festival | |
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Stephen Malkmus |
| Also known as |
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| Born | May 30, 1966 Santa Monica, California, U.S. |
| Origin | Stockton, California |
| Genres | Indie rock |
| Instrument(s) |
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| Years active | 1982–present[1] |
| Labels | |
| Member of | |
| Formerly of | |
| Website | stephenmalkmus |
Stephen Joseph Malkmus (born May 30, 1966)[2] is an American musician best known as the primary songwriter, lead singer and guitarist of the indie rock band Pavement. He performs with Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks, Pavement, and as a solo artist.
Stephen Malkmus was born in Santa Monica, California, to Mary and Stephen Malkmus Sr.[3][4] His father was a property and casualty insurance agent.[4] When Stephen Jr. was 8, the family moved north to Stockton,[4] where he attended Carpinteria's Cate School and Lodi's Tokay High School. As a teenager, Malkmus worked various jobs, including painting house numbers on street curbs and "flipping burgers or whatever" at a country club.[5] At age 16, he spent the night in jail after consuming alcohol, urinating in the bushes, and walking on the roofs of several residential homes.[3] Later, he was placed on probation for underage drinking,[3] and was also expelled from school "for going to a party in the woods where people were taking mushrooms. I didn't take them, but some guy narc'd on me."[3]
Malkmus learned the guitar by playing along to Jimi Hendrix's "Purple Haze".[4] Around the age of 16, he started playing in several Stockton-based punk bands: Bag O Bones, The Straw Dogs, and Crisis Alert. After graduating from high school, Malkmus followed in his father's footsteps by attending the University of Virginia, where he majored in history and was a disc jockey for the college radio station WTJU. During this time, Malkmus met fellow WTJU DJs David Berman (who would later front the Silver Jews) and James McNew (of Yo La Tengo) and formed the lo-fi band Ectoslavia.[6][7] In the late 1980s, he was employed as a security guard at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City, along with Berman and Bob Nastanovich.[3]
Malkmus formed Pavement with Scott Kannberg (aka Spiral Stairs) right after finishing college at UVA in the late 80s.[8] Their first album, Slanted & Enchanted, was released to critical acclaim, and the band continued to receive attention for subsequent releases. Pavement, and Malkmus in particular, were hailed as spearheading the underground indie movement of the 1990s.
Pavement reunited in 2010 and embarked on a world tour,[9] and reunited again in 2022 and 2023 for another tour.
In 2001, following the 1999 dissolution of Pavement, Malkmus released his first self-titled album with his new band, The Jicks (although they were uncredited).
Malkmus's fourth studio album with The Jicks, Real Emotional Trash, was released in March 2008.[10]
In August 2011, he released his fifth studio album with The Jicks, Mirror Traffic. He played the album Ege Bamyasi, originally by the band Can, in its entirety on December 1, 2012 at WEEK-END Festival in Cologne, Germany.[11] A recording of this performance was released as a limited-edition live album on Record Store Day 2013.[citation needed]
Malkmus's sixth studio album with the Jicks, Wig Out at Jagbags, was released on January 7, 2014. On February 7, 2018, Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks released "Middle America", their first material in four years. It was their first single from their seventh studio album, Sparkle Hard, which was released on May 18, 2018.[12]
Malkmus released an electronic album titled Groove Denied on March 15, 2019, after having worked on the album for 12 to 13 years. After he submitted the album in 2017, Chris Lombardi of Matador Records, which had released all of Malkmus' records thus far, told Malkmus that it was not the right time to release the album.[13] The album features Malkmus on all instruments and production and engineering.[14][15] Malkmus released Traditional Techniques on March 6, 2020. The album was produced by Chris Funk of The Decemberists and features guitarist Matt Sweeney and musician Qais Essar.
Malkmus was a member of rock group Silver Jews along with David Berman.[16] In early 1999, Malkmus participated in a Sonic Youth side project called Kim's Bedroom that included bassist/vocalist Kim Gordon, guitarist and vocalist Thurston Moore, Jim O'Rourke, and drummer Ikue Mori; they never released an album, but did play a few live shows. By 2001, Malkmus was performing as frontman of The Jicks.[17]
In 2007, Malkmus provided 3 songs to the Todd Haynes' film I'm Not There, based on the life of Bob Dylan. He contributed on the songs "Ballad of a Thin Man", "Can't Leave Her Behind", and "Maggie's Farm". Malkmus has admitted that he was never "really a really big fan of Dylan,"[18] but noted that his involvement with the film had made him listen "to him again a little closer."[5]
In 2016, Malkmus scored the soundtrack to the Netflix series Flaked, which stars Will Arnett.[19]
Malkmus moved to Portland, Oregon, where he met his wife, artist Jessica Jackson Hutchins.[20][21][22] The couple have two children: daughters Lottie (born 2004)[23][24] and Sunday (born 2007).[25] In 2011, before the release of Mirror Traffic, Malkmus and his family moved to Berlin.[24] By the release of Wig Out at Jagbags in 2014, however, the family had moved back to Portland.[26]
Malkmus is a sports fan, supports Hull City Football Club and is known to play tennis[27] and golf.[citation needed] He also played second base for the Portland-based Disjecta softball team.[28] Malkmus also previously played lacrosse in his high school.[29]
Malkmus currently plays a Fender Stratocaster and a Guild S-100.[30] Other guitars used are a 1960s Fender Jazzmaster that can be traced back to the Brighten The Corners era, a Gibson Les Paul Deluxe, and a Fender Stratocaster that was his guitar of choice during the majority of his time with Pavement. He used a Gibson SG with Pavement during the Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain era. For the 2010 Pavement reunion tour he used his Stratocaster extensively. During his 2011 tour in support of Mirror Traffic he played a Guild S-100. He has also played a Danelectro Silvertone (Sears model dating to 1962 or 1963) for one-off solo shows.
Typically, he uses an Orange Retro 50 head through a 1970s Marshall 4x12 cabinet when playing live, though he has used various other Orange, Marshall and Fender amps, including a vintage Silverface Twin Reverb during the early Pavement years, an Orange OR120 during later Pavement years, and a single channel Orange AD30 with the Jicks. Malkmus's other confirmed (though not constant) gear includes: Z.Vex Fuzz Factory, Diamond J-Drive, Line 6 DL4 Delay Modeler, T-Rex Replica, Lovetone Big Cheese, Lovetone Meatball, BOSS TU-2, DigiTech Whammy, Crowther HotCake, Kaisser Instruments Reamer and Pro Co RAT.
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See also: Pavement discography |
| Year | Title | Director |
|---|---|---|
| 2001 | "Discretion Grove" | Grant Gee |
| "Jenny & the Ess-Dog" | ? | |
| "Jo Jo's Jacket" | Shynola | |
| 2003 | "Death and the Maiden" | Mitchell Hawkes |
| "Dark Wave" | Scott Lyons | |
| "Baby C'Mon" | Lana Kim & Andy Bruntel | |
| 2005 | "Mama" | E.J. McLeavey-Fisher |
| 2008 | "Gardenia" | Daniel Woods |
| 2011 | "No One Is (As I Are Be)" | Steve Doughton |
| "Senator" | Scott Jacobson | |
| 2013 | "Lariat" | Michael Leblanc |
| "Cinnamon and Lesbians" | Jay Winebrenner | |
| 2018 | "Middle America" (acoustic) | Brook Linder |
| "Solid Silk" (acoustic) | ||
| 2019 | "Viktor Borgia" | Jan Lankisch |
| "Rushing the Acid Frat" | Robert Strange & James Papper | |
| "Come Get Me" (lyric video) | Marisa Gesualdi | |
| 2020 | "Xian Man" (lyric video) | |
| "Shadowbanned" | Jan Lankisch |
