New Mp3: Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks - "Cold Son" and "Out Of Reaches"

Download: Stephen Malkmus - "Cold Son"
Download: Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks - "Baltimore"

Matablog posted yesterday the second MP3 from Stephen Malkmus And The Jicks' upcoming Real Emotional Trash, as well as a live video of another new song, "Out of Reaches", taken at a soundcheck.

In contrast to the more open-ended instrumental jams of "Baltimore", "Cold Son" is a fairly straightforward, verse-chorus-verse affair, starting out quietly with guitar and bass, but then adding a rad-sounding Moog synthesizer. The chorus of the song is as cool and collected as its refrain. Overall, "Cold Son" is the kind of nice, breezy and mellow song that Malkmus is renowned for - but this being the man played on "Woweee Zowee", he can't help but throw in a little chaos at the end, as "Cold Son" sputters to an idiosyncratic, almost polyrhythmic close.

Similarly, "Out of Reaches" mines the low-key vibe of the first Malkmus solo record by operating at an easygoing midtempo pace, a groove which allows the band to gracefully segue into the song's smooth, relaxed extended bridge.

As mentioned before, all of the songs are from the Jicks' forthcoming Real Emotional Trash, a record which is a part of Matador's "Buy Early, Get Now" series. Read more about that here.

Real Emotional Trash is out on March 4th.

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(Jonathan Graef)