STEPHEN MALKMUS & THE JICKS
New Album
SPARKLE HARD
Out Now
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Praise for Sparkle Hard
“There’s a real depth to the painstaking and wonderfully unpredictable arrangements.” The Music ★★★★½
“The former Pavement leader has given us hundreds of perfect Cali-gold guitar hooks. But the tender beauty of his latest with the Jicks is rare even by his high standard.” Rolling Stone
“Nearly two decades since the last Pavement record, Stephen Malkmus is in the best form of his career.” The Line of Best Fit, 8.5/10
“Stephen Malkmus is still making music that matters—and his excellent (and very wry) new album Sparkle Hard proves that brutal honesty is the secret to a long songwriting career” GQ
“Few artists can write a hook as immediately infectious or distinctive as Stephen Malkmus” NPR
“ [Sparkle Hard is] both tenderly melodic and provocative” New York Times“A true return to form from the Jicks” The Guardian
“A collection of well-crafted rockers that blend a wry voice with our insane modern moment.”Consequence of Sound
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Following the release of twangy single ‘Middle America’, old-school stomper ‘Shiggy’ and latest country-tinged number ‘Refute’ featuring Kim Gordon, Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks share their new album Sparkle Hard out now via Matador Records / Remote Control.
Modesty and plain good manners might prevent them from saying so themselves, but the fact that Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks have thrived, rather than simply endured over 17 years and delivered six albums of buzzy, sub-cultural significance, constitutes an impressive legacy. The challenge with album number seven is one that any successful band with integrity faces: how to safeguard that legacy and hold on to their identity without rehashing old ground (unthinkable), and also say something meaningful while (crucially) having fun doing it?
Meeting that issue head-on in the run-up to The Jicks’ seventh record involved some “navel gazing”, according to singer, songwriter, and guitarist Malkmus and not only in terms of what it means to be releasing music in 2018. If, like him, you’re a voracious consumer of all kinds of culture and feel the need to interact with it, rather than just react, then inevitably “there’s a world that prompts you to put your best foot forward”. With Sparkle Hard Malkmus, Mike Clark (keyboards), Joanna Bolme (bass) and Jake Morris (drums) do exactly that. And they hit the ground running – on air treads. It’s light ’n’ breezy, head-down heavy, audacious, melancholic and reflective, goodtime and bodacious, and it pulls off the smartest trick: it’s both unmistakeably The Jicks and – due to the streamlining of their trademark tics and turns, plus the introduction of some unexpected flourishes (Auto-Tune! A fiddle! Guest vocalist Kim Gordon! One seven-minute song with an acoustic folk intro!) – The Jicks refashioned.
Malkmus started writing Sparkle Hard in 2015. He’d upgraded his home-recording equipment and bought some electronic drums and had been working on the Netflix series Flaked (he penned the incidental music and the end theme song). Demos were done in one day in April of 2017 and then in May, The Jicks started recording at a new studio in Portland called Halfling, which is managed by multi instrumentalist Chris Funk of The Decemberists, who produced the album.
Self-indulgent escapism has never been The Jicks’ bag, but on Sparkle Hard, the reality of modern life sits closer to the surface, communication cutting to the chase whether it’s a proto-punk grind or a back porch country duet doing the talking. A cleaner burn for dark and complex times.
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Listen/Stream Sparkle Hard: https://stephenmalkmus.lnk.to/sparklehard
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Sparkle Hard Tracklisting:
Cast Off
Future Suite
Solid Silk
Bike Lane
Middle America
Rattler
Shiggy
Kite
Brethren
Refute ft. Kim Gordon
Difficulties / Let Them Eat Vowels
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Follow STEPHEN MALKMUS & THE JICKS
WEBSITE FACEBOOK TWITTER
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AMNPLIFY – SS
[Sparkle Hard is] both tenderly melodic and provocative” New York TimesListen/Stream Sparkle Hard: https://stephenmalkmus.l
Cast Off
“A true return to form from the Jicks” The Guardian
“A collection of well-crafted rockers that blend a wry voice with our insane modern moment.”Consequence of Sound
.
Following the release of twangy single ‘Middle America’, old-school stomper ‘Shiggy’ and latest country-tinged number ‘Refute’ featuring Kim Gordon, Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks share their new album Sparkle Hard out now via Matador Records / Remote Control.
Modesty and plain good manners might prevent them from saying so themselves, but the fact that Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks have thrived, rather than simply endured over 17 years and delivered six albums of buzzy, sub-cultural significance, constitutes an impressive legacy. The challenge with album number seven is one that any successful band with integrity faces: how to safeguard that legacy and hold on to their identity without rehashing old ground (unthinkable), and also say something meaningful while (crucially) having fun doing it?
Meeting that issue head-on in the run-up to The Jicks’ seventh record involved some “navel gazing”, according to singer, songwriter, and guitarist Malkmus and not only in terms of what it means to be releasing music in 2018. If, like him, you’re a voracious consumer of all kinds of culture and feel the need to interact with it, rather than just react, then inevitably “there’s a world that prompts you to put your best foot forward”. With Sparkle Hard Malkmus, Mike Clark (keyboards), Joanna Bolme (bass) and Jake Morris (drums) do exactly that. And they hit the ground running – on air treads. It’s light ’n’ breezy, head-down heavy, audacious, melancholic and reflective, goodtime and bodacious, and it pulls off the smartest trick: it’s both unmistakeably The Jicks and – due to the streamlining of their trademark tics and turns, plus the introduction of some unexpected flourishes (Auto-Tune! A fiddle! Guest vocalist Kim Gordon! One seven-minute song with an acoustic folk intro!) – The Jicks refashioned.
Malkmus started writing Sparkle Hard in 2015. He’d upgraded his home-recording equipment and bought some electronic drums and had been working on the Netflix series Flaked (he penned the incidental music and the end theme song). Demos were done in one day in April of 2017 and then in May, The Jicks started recording at a new studio in Portland called Halfling, which is managed by multi instrumentalist Chris Funk of The Decemberists, who produced the album.
Self-indulgent escapism has never been The Jicks’ bag, but on Sparkle Hard, the reality of modern life sits closer to the surface, communication cutting to the chase whether it’s a proto-punk grind or a back porch country duet doing the talking. A cleaner burn for dark and complex times.
.
Listen/Stream Sparkle Hard: https://stephenmalkmus.lnk.to/sparklehard
.
.
.
.
Sparkle Hard Tracklisting:
Cast Off
Future Suite
Solid Silk
Bike Lane
Middle America
Rattler
Shiggy
Kite
Brethren
Refute ft. Kim Gordon
Difficulties / Let Them Eat Vowels
.
Follow STEPHEN MALKMUS & THE JICKS
WEBSITE FACEBOOK TWITTER
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