Steven Malkmus has just released his sixth studio album with The Jicks, ‘Wig Out at Jagbags’, which I haven’t listened to, but I can’t say I am a fan of his music. And reading his recent interview with Salon isn’t going to make things easier! Sure, it’s entitled ‘I still hate the Eagles’ and this is even this title that triggered my curiosity, because I find the Eagles pretty lame myself — despite the Los Angeles Times praising their current series of concerts at the Forum. In the Salon article Malkmus supposedly ‘unloads on the 70s classic rock that poisoned his early adolescence’, but there’s not too much focus on the 70s until he talks about Pavement’s ‘Crooked Rain’:
‘It’s almost like when Pavement did “Crooked Rain,” we thought “We’re going to do the Eagles and Free, but like, indie rock. We’re going to see how much of this people can take, or how much we can take.” There’s a certain self-hate involved in it or something.’
Already, I can’t understand the idea of making music modeled after the one you dislike, but when asked if this has changed his appreciation of the California band, Malkmus answers:
‘I still hate them. There’s too much — it’s not even the music. It’s kind of like “Graceland” for me, that album too. There’s levels of evil in it to me. We know what they are but I don’t want to go in print saying too much. Not the Eagles. I already knew — my parents had the Eagles’ greatest hits. I’m a child of the greatest hits. Eagles’ greatest hits, Elton John’s greatest hits, Carpenters — there’s maybe two albums they had that weren’t greatest hits, like “Tapestry” or something by Carole King and “Rumours” or something — so that’s basically a greatest hits.’
‘It’s not even the music. It’s kind of like “Graceland” for me, that album too. There’s levels of evil in it to me’? And the interviewer doesn’t rebound on this unfortunately. What does he mean exactly? Evil? Is he once again referring to the accusations against Paul Simon, accusations that he ignored the boycott, that he exploited South African musicians? I thought we have been there a million times and there was even a documentary recently made around the whole issue… the conclusion was that Simon was at worst naïve but certainly not evil. Malkmus sounds arrogant and says he doesn’t want to say more. I am kind of new in this Malkmus world, but this is not the only time that I dislike his tone. When asked about Vampire Weekend’s recent success in this 2009 interview, he had this condescending reply:
‘Yeah, this is a new thing, it’s a bone of contention with many musicians rolling their eyes at the instant success of this band more than the songs I think. It’s like, how did they get to make this one record and get a lot of attention. I think if you boil that away from it, it’s kind of like a friendly pop record, and it’s not something to be that upset about. There’s some good songs on there, and it’s catchy. If you see them on a bigger stage or playing on Saturday Night Live right away, you know they’re probably not ready for it. And I’m not going to be crying too many tears when it all goes south for them because of that. Because they got it maybe a little too easy. How did they know it was gonna turn out that good though, they probably didn’t. When people say it kinda sounds like Graceland, that scares me. I just try to think of it as just a Strokes without the leather and the cigarettes and rockstar posing. They’re also wealthy kids from New York, they’re just a little more nerdy about it or something. I’m alright with them.’
Once again he slams Graceland with a ‘that scares me’? Anyway, if he does think that the first Vampire Weekend album sounds like Graceland, I guess he is deaf.