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FEAST OF STEPHEN

The former Pavement frontman promises a "stranger, more progressive" follow-up to his solo debut...

Stephen Malkmus
is recording his second solo album at SEATTLE’s BEAR CREEK STUDIOS and promises some tracks will have a "stranger, more progressive" feel.


The ex-Pavement frontman said five of the 12 songs are in the same mould as his last album - "melodic, standard-tuning, slightly traditional".


But the others are "stranger, more progressive, acid rock or something with more parts - maybe too many parts - more solos and stuff like that," he said. The album is due early next year on Matador Records.


Stephen Malkmus
is abandoning the jokey tone of his self-titled 2001 debut. "The last album was kind of funny, and I'm trying to curb that, but it's hard to do," he said.


The songwriter says he wanted his debut to feel like a traditional "solo guy’s first album" so put his picture on the cover "in a Sixties way, like Tim Buckley or even Captain Beefheart."


And he sees his new release as fitting the second album trend when artists "grow their hair longer and do weird shit and get dropped and take drugs or something. So we're at that long-haired weird part before we get dropped," he said.


On breaks from recording, Stephen Malkmus and his band, The Jicks - bassist Joanna Bolme and drummer John Moen - pass the time by throwing stones to a German Shepherd, rollingstone.com reports. "You can throw a rock, and the dog will find it," he says. "The exact rock. You can throw it, like, eighty feet into the woods. They think he's crazy. They say it's [because] the Afghan Whigs fed him acid or something, supposedly. I don't know. Never been the same. Gotta find rocks."


Matador will reissue Pavement’s 1992 debut album, 'Slanted and Enchanted', later this year. The tenth anniversary edition will feature bonus tracks, extensive liner notes and photos.

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