So whilst browsing t’interweb I note that Stephen Malkmus is embarking on an UK tour. Might be interesting, so I check out the dates:
Sept 13 – CCA, Glasgow
Sept 16 – YES (The Pink Room), Manchester
Sept 17 – Hare and Hounds, Birmingham
Sept 18 – Moth Club, London
If a couple of small pubs constitutes a tour then my and my mates are the Rolling Stones every weekend.
I realise that finances are tight in the music biz these days, but I have far more respect for those that jet into London, do a gig, then jet out again than this nonsense. That’s the trouble with middle-aged people, they’re just not prepared to put the work in.
More Graham Lister-inspired threads please.
“Music by doctors, dentists and architects”
“Bot George – LUH-ARRD-UH”
“I find prog rock far too elaborate “
By the title of OP, I thought he wanted to work in a record shop that had closed down. Besides, hasn’t he worked hard enough? Can’t he just have a bit of fun and rely on his children to finance his daily living requirements?
I suspect his children may be social-media ‘influencers’, in other words: unemployed.
I think this might just be because he is touring his recent “experimental” electronic album. He was playing (and filling) 1000 cap venues last October with his usual indie rock plod schtick.
There are few acts that can tour the same ‘territories’ twice in the same year – apart from Gaz Numan, The Alarm, Spear of Destiny and that bloke from It Bites who seem to be on tour constantly.
Malkmus did indeed do a full tour a few months ago with his band and as Kid correctly points out this is a solo jaunt. I went to one of the gigs as a +1 for a mate – I like Pavement but his solo stuff is a bit “Look Mum…No Tunes”. He was alright though and played a track off my favourite Pavement LP (their last one – which apparently nobody apart from me likes).
I’ve listened to his new album and thought it was enjoyable, but it is a rather sketchy 30-minute dabble in electronica (Malkmus’s “Trans”, if you will) and not really the stuff of a major new tour.