My Malk

When I was sixteen years old, my big brother gave me four records for Christmas. One of them was "Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain" by Pavement. It was the beginning of a 12 year long addiction/love affair (and running).

Tonight, I got to see Stephen Malkmus for my third time. This show was at the Crystal Ballroom. Just the Malk onstage with his guitar. It was beautiful. I could listen to that man play his guitar all day and all night, because the fact is that no one plays a guitar like Stephen Malkmus does. No one. You might say, "that's impossible, xtina, there are only so many ways to play a guitar, and it's all been done before." Well, you're wrong.

I know it's unfair to expect a performer to rehash old songs that he wrote with his first real band; especially when that singer has moved on to other projects...so I typically don't expect it. When the performer does it anyway, it really makes my day. Tonight, he played "Trigger Cut" and two tracks off the "Watery, Domestic" EP. It meant a lot to me because those particular songs followed me throughout my college years. When you've liked an artist for twelve years, hearing old songs that you haven't listened to for a long time will bring back memories of old places and people you'd long forgotten.

I don't expect people to get this. The depth of this, I mean. I don't know why people don't hear what I hear in this music, but it's something else. People over the years have tried to ruin this music for me (you know who you are). Even Stephen Malkmus himself gave it a go. But there was no undoing this for me. I remember the first time this music actually sunk in for me: I was in Greece and had insomnia, so I pulled out a mix tape that my brother made for me to listen to on my walkman. Yes, we're THOSE geeks. When I finally heard what was special in the song "Grounded," I fell in love. Like all of my most influential bands, I can map my life around Pavement songs, and I can trace Pavement songs to times and events in my life.

I'll close this gusher with a paraphrase from something that used to be on one of the official websites: Stephen Malkmus used to wrongly think he made up the word "jick," so he named a band the Jicks. Of course, he also used to think he could whittle and now he has an extra toe.

I just don't know why people don't get it. Also, Stephen Malkmus can rhyme better than any rapper. Ever.