Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks played Monday at Soho in Santa Barbara in support of their new album, Mirror Traffic, brought to us by the indie-music maestros at Club Mercy.   Mirror Traffic is the Jicks’ best album in recent memory, and so expectations were high for the show.  After years of superb live shows in support of their earlier albums, we had been sorely disappointed by their last show at Soho in support of 2008’s Real [Emotional] Trash.  Aptly named, we ultimately said.  What had evolved from Pavement as intelligent, quirky and melodic music accompanied by clever and challenging lyrics had devolved by 2008 into long-winded, prog-blues jams and uninspiring guitar-noodling by Malkmus at Soho that year.  Then came the Pavement reunion and their tour de force show at the Fox Theater in Pomona in April 2010.  And all was right again.  But we were concerned when we learned that Beck would helm the new Jicks album as its producer.  But Beck correctly steered Malkmus back to shortened and melody-favoring songs on Mirror Traffic without the prog-jam trappings of the last album.  And so with the strong new album in hand we were keyed up for this night’s set at Soho.

After opening band Nurses gave us an interesting mix of songs and complexities in their set, Malkmus and the Jicks sauntered onto the Soho stage, Malkmus doffing a red-glitter ballcap and nimble bassist, Joanna Bolme, working a working-class/prison-garb onesy (beguiling to many of the male workers/prisoners in the audience nonetheless).  Utility infielder, Mike Clark, on keys, guitar and vocals, and great replacement drummer, Jake Morris, rounded out the band.

Their set opened with Tiger from the new album and, like many of the Jicks’ songs, it is filled with complex chords, stop-starts, tempo-tantrums (all of which smacks of rock-jazz) and nearly-indecipherable, Scrabbled lyrics.  Such are Malkmus and the Jicks, and we love ’em when they’re on.  We have a love-hate relationship with Malkmus’s guitar-playing.  Most of the time it’s accomplished, challenging and riveting, but at other times when Malkmus seems unmotivated or un-mused, he sputters and spews before giving up the ghost.  We heard both this night.

The band moved from Tigers to the comparatively simple crowd-pleaser, The Hook, off their fine first album.  But then it was back to the fervent rock-jazz complexities of Spazz, Share the Red, and Forever 28 (the latter with its charming chorus-chant, “this just might hurt!”), before they slowed it down for the sweetly-sung Asking Price.  The Jicks then kicked matters back up with the Pavement-esque and poignant Stick Figures in Love, before playing another “hit,” Jenny and the Ess-Dog.  After a few more obscure new and old songs, the band elected to play their new singalong charmer, Senator, before ending the set with a couple of longer songs, Animal Midnight (off of Pig Lib) and the unreleased, circumambulating rock-jam, Surreal Teenagers.

After some solid prodding from the audience, the band returned for an encore that started off with the familiar Vanessa from Queens.  And then the unthinkable happened.  Adding to a disturbing new trend amongst “indie-rock” bands in which they waste time covering heinous 70s “hits,” the almighty Malkmus lowered himself to cover (albeit energetically) the horrific and hoary 1976 Boston song, Peace of Mind.  While many in the audience were enamored (it’s called “pandering,” Stephen, and it isn’t pretty), we tapped our foot and awaited an improved finish.  Unfortunately one sensed the life had gone out of the band, and next was a desultory Velvet Underground cover (What Goes On) that segued into a daft jam that ultimately ended with the band throwing in the towel and resorting to a singing of the chorus to the Doors’ The End.  The end of everything.  Indeed.

On the whole, the band played with verve and sounded far better than in support of Real Trash.  And the new Mirror Traffic songs definitely helped the cause this night.  It obviously was no help that the band seemed tired (“we just came from Vegas,” explained Bolme) and were anxiously awaiting the following night’s tour-ending show in San Francisco.  Matters would be helped immensely if the Jicks would cede their setlist to someone else (a manager, a parent, anyone really).  Then perhaps heinous covers and lesser obscurities could be supplanted by more deserving songs (e.g., where were their best songs this night:  Church On White, Trojan Curfew, Ramp of Death, Freeze the Saints, etc.?).  Still, Malkmus has written some of the best songs in the American oeuvre, and he and the Jicks can play with incredible aplomb, so we’ll cut the slackers some more slack.  Until next time.  But then the jick’s up.

The Shins today released a new song (and video), Bait and Switch, in advance of the release of their new album, Port of Morrow on March 20th.  Check it out below and go over HERE to hear another song and to order Port of Morrow.  The first two songs from the album bode well.

As a part of Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band Week on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, Elvis Costello performed Brilliant Disguise and Fire (web only) with The Roots last night.  Costello is one of our best performers extant.  We’ll write more about Costello and Fallon’s Springsteen Week later (along with our thoughts on Springsteen’s impending new album), but in the meantime check out the performances below courtesy of the Audio Perv.

Caveman just released this Backyard Session in which they performed Vampirer/Old Friend live in Silver Lake from their debut album, CoCo Beware.   The new album will be released on March 27th on Fat Possum Records.  Check it out and then find below it a date on their tour to attend.

Caveman Tour:

3/6: Chapel Hill, NC @ Local 506
3/7: Athens, GA @ Georgia Theater Rooftop
3/8: Savannah, GA @ Savannah Stopover Festival
3/9: Atlanta, GA @ 529
3/10: Orlando, FL @ Orange You Glad Festival
3/11: Tampa, FL @ New World Brewery
3/13: Austin, TX @ SXSW
3/14: Austin, TX @ SXSW
3/15: Austin, TX @ SXSW
3/16: Austin, TX @ SXSW
3/17: Austin, TX @ SXSW
3/20: Louisville, KY @ Zanzabar
3/21: Cleveland, OH @ Beachland Tavern
3/22: Hamilton, ON @ This Ain’t Hollywood
3/23: Toronto, ON @ Lee’s Palace
3/23: Toronto, ON @ El Mocombo
3/24: Buffalo, NY @ 9th Ward
3/29: Syracuse, NY @ Syracuse University
3/30: Bethlehem, PA @ Nowadays Festival
4/9: Washington, D.C. @ Red Palace
4/10: Columbus, OH @ The Basement
4/11: Ann Arbor, MI @ Blind Pig
4/12: Chicago, IL @ Schubas
4/13: Madison, WI @ UW Madison
4/14: Minneapolis, MN @ 7th St Entry
4/16: Omaha, NE @ Waiting Room
4/17: Denver, CO @ Larimer Lounge
4/18: Salt Lake City, UT @ Urban Lounge
4/20: Vancouver, BC @ Biltmore
4/21: Seattle, WA @ Barboza (Neumos)
4/22: Portland, OR @ Mississippi Studios
4/24: San Francisco, CA @ Brick & Mortar
4/25: Los Angeles, CA @ Echo
4/27: San Diego, CA @ Casbah
4/28: Tucson, AZ @ Club Congress
5/1: Kansas City, MO @ The Record Bar
5/2: Columbia, MO @ Mojos
5/3: Cincinnati, OH @ MOTR Pub
5/4: Philadelphia, PA @ MilkBoy
5/5: Brooklyn, NY @ Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) w/ Beirut