House Playlist: The Drums, Lloyd, and Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks

Stephen Malkmus continues to make not-exactly-Pavement music with his band the Jicks.

House Playlist: The Drums, Lloyd, and Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks

The Drums, “Money.” Despite just one EP and one full-length to their name, surf-rocking Brooklynites the Drums have mastered the art of delivering a catchy tune, and single “Money,” from their forthcoming Portamento, is no exception. The antsy track offers everything listeners have come to expect from the trio: a mixture of tongue-in-cheek inanity and genuine despondency from leadman Jonathan Pierce, three-note guitar hooks, electro-synth punctuations, and the wonderfully dense reverb of an affected chorus. As always, the Drums continue to deliver on their unassuming, indie-everymen personas: “I want to buy you something,” Pierce opines, “but I don’t have any money.” Kevin Liedel

YouTube video

Lloyd featuring Lil Wayne and André 3000, “Dedication to My Ex (Miss That).” Considering how Lloyd refers to the titular ex almost exclusively as “that pussy,” and that, between Lloyd and his backup vocalists, “pussy” is repeated upward of 150,000 times in three minutes, it’s hard to deny that the song is reductive and object-driven in its gender politics. It’s even harder to imagine how it will be edited for the radio play it deserves. Because even though it probably would have killed Andrea Dworkin had Ying Yang Twins’ “Wait” not already done so, “Dedication to My Ex (Miss That)” is one hell of an earworm, thanks to Powlow da Don’s slickest production job in years. Everything about the track is so over the top (Lloyd’s unhinged “Why is this happening to me?” ad lib in the second chorus makes the song’s wink-and-nudge POV unmistakable, to say nothing of Weezy’s narration or Andre3000’s wiseass guest verse) that it works as pure, unadulterated pop rather than, you know, hate speech. Jonathan Keefe

YouTube video

Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks, “Tigers.” Stephen Malkmus continues to make not-exactly-Pavement music with his band the Jicks. For “Tigers,” another recently released track from the upcoming, Beck-produced Mirror Traffic, we’re treated to a short track that’s upbeat and summer-ready, with the whole band gleefully chipping in on the backing vocals. While the music might seem to be a bit more polished than his past work at first, Malkmus still trots out the oddball lyrics (rhyming “Birkenstocks” with “sticker shocks”) and offers up a lazy guitar solo that barely tries to break out of the melody. It’s the wonderful sound of a slacker growing up. Michael Kilpatrick

Advertisement

YouTube video

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.