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About Street roots. (Portland, OR) 1998-current | View Entire Issue (May 18, 2018)
Street Roots • May 18-24, 2018 MALKMUS, from page 4 these days - how people make their living with the way the business is today. Sometimes the answer is still music, or at least, music-adjacent. But a lot of times it’s not. He didn’t do this before. We worked a little more solidly in the aughts. But I’ve been slowing down. It’s a question everyone has to ask himself in this business of art. What is viable? Can I do it? When do I transition? Or can I, even? Do you double down on the music or look around (for something else)? It’s a scary question. J.C.: Well, I assume because o f Pavement’s past success you have a certain amount of luxury to just make the records that you want to make. You don’t have to go play “Cut Your H a ir” at a state fair. (Pictured left to right) Jo a n n a B olm e, M ike Clark, Jake Morris and Stephen M alkm us o f the Jicks release Sparkle Hard, the band's seventh record (and first since 2014), May 18. The Jicks will play in Portland on August 5 at the Star Theater. P H O TO BY JA M E S REXROAD S.M.: That’s true. I mean, that doesn’t sound so bad! I saw Los Lobos at the Stockton State Fair. It was during the time of “La Bamba.” I was totally psyched. We grew up with the punk rock notion of “selling out,” but it seems like the internet generation has learned the hard way that it’s actually cool - and valid and necessary - to get paid for your art. Yeah. I think that’s not a bad thing. A band like Pavement, or even Big Black, it was kind of a signal of eliteness, you know? Like, we’re above the struggles. This is pure. The indier-than-thou thing kind of reads pretty badly now, especially when it’s white males doing it. That being said, there was a sense of community I felt, and also, expectations were pretty low to begin with. Most of us were happy to just be playing a t (the Hoboken, N.J., club) Maxwell’s. That’s where the bands we saw were. Two hundred people was like, massive. J.C.: The new record was produced by the Decemberists’ Chris Funk. H ad you known him long? S.M.: I didn’t know him very well. I know John Moen, because he was in the Jicks. But Chris had this new place that is like a cool studio that he’s managing, and so we went to tour it. And Chris, if you were to ask him, he would say probably “of course I want to work with Steve, I liked Pavement News when I was a young man!” So it kinda just fell into place. I thought to work at home would be a good idea, but it’s also on the West Side, so it actually felt like a commute to work. And besides that, Chris, is, you know ... he’s very good at music (laughs). He can play, and he knows way more people than I know in the music community, so he amassed some different players: strings, a fiddler bro. It was fun to have somebody arrange different things to happen. J.C.: You’ve said that phrase, “good at music, ” a few times. It seems like everyone who starts out in punk or indie-rock, i f they keep playing long enough, gets to that point eventually. S.M.: That’s true. But there’s usually somebody that’s really good in almost all bands. Of course there are amateurish miracles made by outsiders or non-players that are amazing, too. I kind of like being, you know, the modern primitive guy. I’m not bad or anything. Songwriting - I got that, so I can get away with playing with some sick players like Joanna, when I’m doing my thing. J.C.: Last year, after the Trump inauguration, you and Colin Meloy and Sleater-Kinney and a bunch o f other bands played the “Hell N o!” concert, benefiting the A C L U and Unite Oregon. Onstage you said: “It’s pretty fucked up i f I ’m being political.” S.M.: Yeah, that’s right. I’m not big into ... I’m post-politics, man. I see through it all. J.C.: Well obviously you didn’t make som ething like the S u p erch u n k record, which is an explicit protest album, but I ’m assuming the last two years must have had some effect on your writing? S.M.: Not as much ... I mean, (our generation) has been through a lot of stuff. Reagan. The Iraq War. George Bush. When that election happened, there were a lot of tears and broken hearts for many reasons, including it being a woman that was running, and having that kind of shot down by this guy. But through all the noise, I see these problems that are constant, even before Trump. I don’t think he’s gonna cause a nuclear war, so I kind of put my Page 5 faith in that. And just hope for it to end in the next chapter to come. J.C.: Well, let’s talk about the song “Bike Lanes, ” which is pretty topical. S.M.: Yeah man. Portland. Have you ever looked on these bike forums? They’re intense. It’s like, real tears, and a lot of anger is vented, and passive-aggression, but also positivity, and good things. Change happens. And then, this wasn’t about bike lanes but I saw there was a benefit for something, and it seemed kind of like ... like it could have been for something else. It was a good thing. Good was done. But it got me thinking about, “Where do you spend your time? How are you going to use your We grew np w ith the punk service, and your helping rock notion of “ selling out," time?” And so the bike hut It seems lik e the internet lanes stood in for that. It generation has learned the was like, what are you hard way that it's actually into, if you’re just caring cool - and valid and about the bike lane so necessary - I© get paid for much? yonr art« And then the song changes pace. There’s a - STEPHEN M A L K M U S myriad of ways I could have gone. It would have been a bit preachy and didactic to criticize people’s kin-folky obsession with lifestyle. Or you know, how people are gonna hunker down with a good book by th e firep lace an d rid e o u t this Trump thing. There’s a lot of kind of, almost Portlandia bullshit I could’ve put in there. But I wasn’t keen on it. So I decided to make it dark. Police brutality. Combine my obsession with “Baltimore” (the name of a song on the Jicks’ 2008 record “Real Emotional Trash”) and a story that I also followed really intently. Freddie Gray. Just the name sounds like an outlaw folk hero to me. He got fucked with in a bad way. J.C.: You’re a Blazers fan and a fantasy baseball player, so what do you think of Portland’s latest baseball fantasy? S.M.: I don’t want it, to be honest. I hate to say it, but I am happy with baseball the way it is. I’m happy watching games in other places when I’m traveling. And I just imagine it being a traffic nightmare, and also taking up space where people could live. I’m happy with just the basketball team. I don’t need the soccer team even. That’s enough for me, personally. It doesn’t seem real to me, and Portland doesn’t seem like a baseball town to me. I’m use to the Mets and the Yankees and the Dodgers and the Giants, where it’s like this totally intense thing. But I suppose it could happen. People are very supportive of things here. Portland Arts and Lectures. The soccer team. People geek out on things - even doughnuts. “Sparkle H a rd ” is out on Matador Records/ May 18. On August 5, Stephen M alkm us and the Jicks will end their summer tour at the Star Theater in Portland.
