She Seems This Close, But Not To Me

Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks @ Castle Clinton/Battery Park 7/4/2005
Dynamic Calories / (Do Not Feed The) Oyster / Post-Paint Boy / Pencil Rot / Water And A Seat / No More Shoes / Animal Midnight / It Kills / Baby C’mon / Church On White / Mama / Dark Wave / Loud Cloud Crowd (aborted quickly after SM botched the intro) / Jo Jo’s Jacket / Witch Mountain Bridge

Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks “Jo Jo’s Jacket (Live in Malmo, 2001)” – No hyperbole, just facts: This was probably the best non-Pavement Malkmus show that I’ve ever seen. (For perspective, I’ve seen all but one show that he’s played in NYC since 1997.) Interestingly, the setlist’s lack of novelty – no unreleased songs, no covers, no improvs – was exactly what made it very refreshing. For the first time since Pavement, it seemed as though he was making some attempt at playing an accessable show in NYC for people who weren’t super geeky about his solo career. The set summed up the strengths of the Jicks catalog very well, skipping only a few key tracks and generally emphasizing the songs that I would consider to be distinctly Jick-ish – “Water And A Seat,” “Oyster,” “It Kills,” “No More Shoes,” “Witch Mountain Bridge.” It certainly helped that the band was in very good spirits, particularly SM, who was more playful and silly than he usually is when he plays in NYC. I think I’m figuring this out now – they only play “Jo Jo’s Jacket” when they are in a good mood, because otherwise the song just doesn’t work. Why bother playing a song about joy and freedom if you’re not feeling it? (Click here to buy Stephen Malkmus albums from Matador Records.)

Yo La Tengo @ Castle Clinton/Battery Park 7/4/2005
We’re An American Band (YLT song) / We’re An American Band (Grand Funk Railroad cover) / Stockholm Syndrome / Tears Are In Your Eyes / The Summer / jaunty piano song with Georgia singing that I didn’t recognize / Cherry Chapstick / Autumn Sweater / Little Eyes / Big Day Coming / Tom Courtenay / extremely long and boring jammy song with Ira singing a bit towards the end // some cover that I did not recognize / Sheena Is A Punk Rocker

Yo La Tengo “Cherry Chapstick” – Yo La Tengo is a great band, but I find them to be extremely frustrating live. For one thing, with only a few exceptions, I could really do without their penchant for covers. The three of them all have excellent voices for their own material, but their limitations as vocalists is always very apparent whey perform songs by other artists. They have a way of making most any song seem bland and flimsy by dulling down the edges and shrinking the emotion so that it suits their timidity. Their low-key stoicism is often sublime in their own music, particularly in droning rockers like “Tom Courtenay” and “Cherry Chapstick,” which smolder with repressed passion. (I’m not sure if I’ve ever heard another song that articulates the impotent resignation of realizing that lurid fantasy sexuality will almost certainly not be part of one’s own life as well as “Cherry Chapstick.”) Whereas guitar noise usually indicates aggression in rock music, in the context of Yo La Tengo, it’s invariably a signifier of passive aggression. This is poetic in their best compositions, and nagging in others, such as the tedious jammy song at the end of their main set yesterday. Still, in spite of some rather dull moments scattered throughout their set, I’m very glad that I stuck around to watch them play if just for the string of “greatest hits” played through the middle of the show. (Click here to buy Yo La Tengo albums from Matador Records.)

Laura Cantrell’s opening set was very pleasant and ideally suited to the environment (a park full of picnickers on a mild summer afternoon), but I don’t have much more to say about it. Laura started her set with my favorite song in her catalog, “14th Street,” a lovely little tune that I most certainly would have posted by now if Matador didn’t already have the song up for free on their mp3 page and if there was any possibility that I could write something about it that came even close to being as good as Abby’s review of the song from back in May.