Matador Records | Stephen Malkmus

02/02/04 — Curating All Tomorrow's Parties
Stephen is curating a night for All Tomorrow's Parties in the UK. Be at Camber Sands, Rye, on Friday, April 2. One confirmed band is Mission Of Burma.

11/05/03 — London show; upcoming West Coast dates
Our London correspondent was lucky enough to witness a brilliant Jicks set as part of the Domino label's 10th Anniversary celebrations, one that included a surprise version of Pavement's "Range Life" and an encore featuring Sam Coomes and Janet Weiss of Quasi. OK, that's enough rubbing your nose in it. SM + Jicks have the following Western US dates forthcoming:

12/1/03 - Los Angeles, CA - El Rey Theatre
12/2/03 - San Francisco, CA - Slim's
12/3/03 - San Francisco, CA - Slim's
12/5/03 - Portland, OR - Crystal Ballroom
12/6/03 - Seattle, WA - Showbox

06/26/03 — SM & Jicks tour w/ classy, famous band this Aug
As tipped on virtually every site we like to pretend we're competing with, Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks will be supporting Radiohead on the eastern leg of their August tour. Tickets go on sale this coming Saturday, June 21. (Editor's note : that's last Saturday, June 21. As in, the Saturday all the Radiohead tickets sold out).

We cannot comment on widespread rumours that Radiohead's current album, 'Hail To The Thief' is the last one they owe Capitol Records because it would kind of sleazy to suggest we're "after" the band, as though they are mere cattle to be bid on at auction. Or to imply that Capitol are likely to hit some kind of a ceiling on this album and the band need a bigger company like Matador to take them to "the next level". All of those things are unfair and just pure speculation on the part of industry observers, most of whom fail to credit Capitol Records with doing such a fine job.

The dates are as follows :

Wed 8/13 Mansfield, MA Tweeter Center For The Performing Arts
Fri 8/15 Montreal, QC Parc Jean Drapeau
Sat 8/16 Toronto, ON Molson Amphitheatre
Mon 8/18 Camden, NJ Tweeter Center
Wed 8/20 Columbia, MD Merriweather Post Pavilion
Thu 8/21 Cuyahoga Falls, OH Blossom Music Center
Sat 8/23 East Troy, WI Alpine Valley Music Theatre
Sun 8/24 Maryland Heights, MO UMB Bank Pavilion
Tue 8/26 Denver, CO Red Rocks Amphitheatre
Thu 8/28 West Valley City, UT USANA Amphitheatre
Sat 8/30 Vancouver, BC Thunderbird Stadium
Sun 8/31 Auburn, WA White River Amphitheatre

Tickets are available for all shows from Ticketmaster, and in Canada from Ticketmaster Canada, except for the Montreal show, where you should go through Admissions.com.

By the way, you don't need to be Naomi Klein to be bummed out Mansfield and Camden each have a Tweeter Center. (I hate to speak out of turn but I'm pretty sure our label's general manager wouldn't be caught dead in a Tweeter shop). The naming rights phenomena is neither new or necessarily a war crime, but does it have to be this unoriginal? The naming rights to Matador's offices are very much up for grabs, by the way (Chris' office, at least).

On the other hand, I did just sell the promotional rights to all future home movies to Clear Channel. Just in case. It would really suck to invite any of you to my home to watch these great video tapes and find out at the last minute that we couldn't hire enough off-duty police officers.

The new video for the Jicks' "Dark Wave" can be seen on MTV2 and other providers of musical entertainment on television, as well as our own site.

05/20/03— The contest results!
Perhaps you've seen the tv commercials, those that say "real people really win Matador online competitions". Like the time we gave away Ricky Luanda's house (perhaps we should've found him somewhere else to live first). So we were thrilled to award Mike Guillen a brand new iPod for his winning entry in the Stephen Malkmus trivia contest. We're in the process of loading up Mike's new iPod with some Gordon Lightfoot rarities, but we promise he'll have it soon. In the meantime, there's a new SM/Jicks UK single of 'Dark Wave' (taken from 'Pig Lib') along with the bonus tracks from the US value-add CD. There are some heavy rumours about August dates supporting a world famous-yet-not-sucky-at-all arena act (hint : not Audioslave!) that we can neither confirm or deny, because fuck it, we're not Pollstar. Do we come round to your place of work and knock the mineral water bottle out of your mouth?

04/14/03— Off to a great start
Damn, that 'Pig Lib' album is off to a fast start. We're hearing reports of supplies running low and chaotic scenes of lawlessness in our nation's retailers - though perhaps we're getting this mixed up with that Interpol story.

Part Two of the Stephen Malkmus trivia contest is up, with nine fiendishly difficult questions submitted by Malkmus/Pavement fans, chosen out of 946 by Patrick Amory and Jesper Eklow, and vetted as accurate by SM himself.

We'll see if anyone actually is able to answer all 9!

Remember, the contest is closed to Matador employees, I suggested closing it to Spin Art employees too, but we can't find any legal reason to do so. Grand prize is an Apple iPod supplied by smalldog.com.

03/05/03— Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks Trivia Contest
Check out the overly complex, two-stage SM/Jicks Trivia Contest, have fun, win prizes.

02/05/03— Pig Lib is imminent!
We'd like to sincerely thank Pitchfork for providing so many details about the upcoming SM & Jicks CD/LP during our absence. Though we do take

issue with any claims that the reception to the MP3 of "Us" was anything but favourable (several correspondents have even sent us their lunch money in thanks --- not necessary, of course, but we appreciate the gesture). For the 1% of the persons reading this that do not read Pitchfork 7 or 8 times a day, the following is the track listing for the forthcoming 'Pig Lib' CD/LP (March) :

01 Water and a Seat
02 Ramp of Death
03 (Do Not Feed The) Oyster
04 Vanessa From Queens
05 Sheets
06 Animal Midnight
07 Dark Wave
08 Witch Mountain Bridge
09 Craw Song
10 One Percent Of One
11 Us

Stephen & crew have the following shows confirmed, with more to come throughout this spring and beyond :

02-25 San Francisco, CA - Bimbo's (Noise Pop Festival)
05-16 Boston, MA - Avalon Ballroom
05-25 Minneapolis, MN - First Avenue

Check the tour page for updates.

11/13/02 — new album in March
OK. Now we're getting dizzy. March '03 will mark the release of the 2nd album from former Pavement visionary Stephen Malkmus. This time around, the contributions of Joanna Bolme (bass) and John Moen (drums) are formally noted in a hey-check-it-out way, in that this is not being touted by us as a "solo" album because it isn't. SM & Jicks are very much a band and we don't mean in "band" in the way Rudy Sarzo got the Whitesnake job because he looked ok getting his hair blown around in a video. If you've seen the Jicks over the past 2 years you already know what we're talking about. If not, the forthcoming 'Pig Lib' CD/LP might make you rethink SM's past and present musical oeuvre if not your feelings about guitar playing (and how they were formed). This is brave stuff. Just because Stephen makes it look and sound easy doesn't mean it is easy (and no, that doesn't mean we're inviting you to try it yourself).

We'll have more news about this album, Jicks touring and other things very soon. Keep in mind that the Jicks are curating the September 2003 edition of All Tomorrow's Parties at beautiful Asbury Park, NJ.

06/07/02 — Stephen says :
"...jicks went into studio. in bear creek washington end of may. working title:"pig lib" trax: doctor drop, do not feed the oysters, the calories, vanessa from queens, grab it and gone, fractions and feelings, chromatic advisor, 1% of 1, animal midnight, couple more..... "

03/07/01 — Probably the best self-titled album of early 2001
Stephen & Jicks will continue their worldwide touring in support of the excellent ‘Stephen Malkmus’ CD/LP, and be on the lookout (or alternately, just tune in) to SM & band performing “Jenny & The Ess-Dog” on “The Late Show with David Letterman” on April 10. The snazzy single of the same name comes out that same day, what a coincidence.

02/06/01 — Stephen Malkmus —
Network television is your best entertainment value
In the aftermath of the an incredibly well-received NYC solo debut last week, and with a mountain of press acclaim building up all over our offices, Stephen Malkmus will be bringing his mind and mouth to CBS’ “The Late Show With David Letterman.” Stephen and the Jicks will be playing on an early April telecast, and once we’re allowed to tell you the date (currently being kept secret for fear of provoking America’s enemies — they’d like nothing better than to take a shot at a respected youth icon and symbol of truth. And Stephen might be in danger, too) that’s exactly what we’ll do.

On April 10, we’ll be releasing a CD single of “Jenny & The Ess-Dog” along with non-album material. There’s been widespread speculation on what the 2nd single from this album might be, and now there can be widespread debate over whether or not this is the right choice. Hey, maybe you should start your own record label!

01/22/01 — Stephen Malkmus — The Voice That Makes It Happen
Stephen recently took time out from his busy interview schedule to... get interviewed again. Sick of softball questions like “how did you get your name?” and “is there a law that says you can only fall in love once?” Stephen willingly submitted to a harsh interrogation at the hands of Nils and Matt. Not sure who played good cop and who was bad, but you can see the results for yourself in beautiful real video footage at

Contest time! As you might have read, Stephen’s solo debut was provisionally entitled ‘Swedish Reggae.’ For fear of getting filed in the “reggae” or “world music” section at Tower, a corporate decision was made to force Stephen to call the album something really crazy. Like, ’Stephen Malkmus.’ Anyhow, if you can name another practicioner of Swedish reggae, you might win yourself a pair of tickets to Stephen’s sold out show at the Bowery Ballroom this Thursday night (1/25). The most creative answers will be unveiled in this space.

To Enter: Send your full name and answer to contest@matadorrecords.com. We’ll contact the winners via email, so make sure your return address is right. You’ve got to be 18 or older and will need to present ID at the door to claim your tickets. We’ve got 10 pairs to hand out.

Q: When does a “party” not have food, drinks, good conversation or any possibility of sex? Other than a party at my house, that is? A: An Internet “listening party.” The entire Stephen Malkmus album will be streaming through February 16 on broadcast.com

12/06/00 —Stephen Malkmus —
Formerly of a band we love and respect
The following is official news from officialdom. If anyone claims that know the real story and it doesn’t look like the words below, well, they are just messing with your head.

Stephen Malkmus debut solo record entitled ‘Stephen Malkmus.’ In North American stores on the Matador label (OLE-444-1,2) on Feb 13, 2001.

Final track listing: