STEPHEN MALKMUS AND THE JICKS

The Title.

New album called Wig Out at Jagbags. Jagbags is a great word. A smeared aspersion, not profanity, but derived from one….watered down for the airwaves, or the assembly line. To Wig out—we’ve all been there. We ARE there, at least I Am.

And the “I” on a record is speaking for/as/to you, so if you’re wigging out, go no further, dear reader…

(and then there is Dag Nasty, which I won’t bother justifying, just a first flourish of the unstoppable need to name drop).

The Album

Produced by the band and Remko Schouten, the Dutch soundman of Pavement  fame, and owner of IJland studio in east Amsterdam.

I don’t know where to start… again. This record is inspired by Cologne Germany, Mark Von Schlegel, Rosemarie Trockel, Von Spar and Jan Lankisch, Can and Gas. Imagine Weezer / Chili Peppers. Slc, Alps, UVA in the late 80’s, NYRB, Aroma, Charlottenburg, inactivity, Jamming, Indie guys trying to sound Memphis, Flipper, Pete Townsend , Pavement, the Joggers, The NBA, home life in the 2013’s…

We (Remko) found a studio over in the Ardennes with a “farmhouse vibe.” It was isolated, rural Belgium…near Luxembourg, the cradle of morbid Tax relief. It went very well cuz the band is quite good…We were (are?) pretty psyched with the result.

I’ve spent the last couple of years in Berlin. Berlin, while very hip and in some ways the “centre” of Europe, is still isolated. At least if you are an American Dad. Pretty amazing place as you probably already know, and so easy to disappear into. Perhaps any “big” city has this quality—but a new one (too me), where they speak German (mostly)….well, you can almost cease to exist. Which, is of course, a liberating fantasy.

 But after two years there, we were starting to exist. It was like an average birth, without pain. O worked the lyrics / chords out on a computer on someone else’s table in someone else’s apartment. And this is what you get: Projected imaginings of rock and roll from the freezing north, rendered by West Coast stalwarts and a Dutch Uncle.

And we feel compelled to share it with you. --SM (&Jicks)