Stephen Malkmus long-in-the-works, unreleased electronic LP out in March
Noted indie rock guitar noodler Stephen Malkmus went through an electronic phase sometime over the last 19 years and actually made an album that has never seen the light of day. Malkmus dropped mentions in interviews for last year’s terrific Sparkle Hard, and at a press event at Matador’s HQ last year he talked with friend and food writer Peter Meehan a little about it, saying “every artist goes through this and, finally, I did… maybe it’ll come out, who knows.”
As Stereogum points out, a clip of this Q&A just went up on Malkmus’ YouTube page (watch it below), and according to a new interview in The Chicago Tribune, the record is finally coming out. Stephen says it’s called Groove Denied and will be out in March via Matador. “It’s not that experimental,” Malkmus told the Tribune. “It’s just me with drum machines. … It’s only me on all the instruments and production and engineering,” he says. “Guitars are not the focus. They’re on there, but the guitar player’s not really the alpha. Towards the end, it starts bleeding into guitar-ness. It’s waters I don’t usually swim in. I don’t think it’s too much of a head-scratcher.”
While we wait for an official announcement on that, Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks have shows next week in Chicago (1/23 @ The Metro) and NYC (1/25 @ Brooklyn Steel), and they’ll tour Europe after an appearance at Barcelona’s Primavera Sound. All dates, plus a stream of Sparkle Hard, is below.
Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks – 2019 Tour Dates
January 23 The Metro, Chicago *with DEHD
January 25 Brooklyn Steel, NYC *with Gold Star
May 30 Primavera Sound, Barcelona
June 4 De Casino, St. Niklaas
June 5 Knust, Hamburg
June 7 Debaser, Stockholm
June 11 Parkteatret, Oslo
June 12 Bergenfest, Bergen
June 14, Lille Vega, Copenhagen
June 14-16, Maifeld Derby, Mannheim
June 18, De Kreun, Kortrijk
June 19, La Gaîté Lyrique, Paris
