Poll: Can Steve Malkmus actually sing?

Cafe Society
1

Several years ago, I put some Pavement on my wife’s computer. Several years later, this has ended up on her iPod. My wife plays her iPod in her car all of the time. Today, she complained about this guy that was constantly being selected, but he couldn’t sing at all. Then it came on while I was in the car, and I immediately identified the problem. The problem is that she didn’t understand the music.

I quickly pointed out, that the guitars weren’t in tune either. In my opinion, the whole point of the music, was to rebel against the people that called themselves grunge, but recorded in multimillion dollar studios. They deliberately sung and played out of tune to create an unrefined sound in response to the “alternative” music of the time.

My opinion, is that nobody could sing in a band for that long without learning how to hit a note. Just like with the guitars, Steve Malkmus is intentionally singing out of tune.

So that’s a yes from me.

2

Not on the earlier stuff, but he’s become a professional male vocal performance artist by the time Brighten the Corners comes around.

3

Not in a conventional sense, but his voice is interesting.

4

That might be part of it, but at first they really just could not play. There was steady progression toward a more refined sound.

5

I think there is a conscious indie/lo-fi primitive quality to his singing. Yeah, it started from just being a beginner, but Malkmus has always strived for a certain archness to the overall feel of Pavement. I would argue that the basis for success for Slanted and Enchanted was more that he caught a bit of that indie-cool archness in its tracks more than the actual songs.

A weird connection, but kind of like with **Bowie’s Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust **: there’s aspects of the production that are just so non-standard, like the placement of punched-in guitar dubs in Lady Stardust, weird guitar tones (I love Mick Ronson and his depressed wah pedal, but it sits in a weird place in the mix), etc. - but it all comes together perfectly into a single feel.

That’s what I get out of Pavement - although of course the feel Malkmus is looking for is completely different from the one Bowie targeted. I think Malkmus has gotten more experienced as a singer, but never stopped going for that feel.

6

He’s no tunesmith, wouldn’t say he was deliberately singing out of key though. There’s plenty of bands featuring singers who really can’t sing well by a strict musical standard. Mark E Smith of The Fall is in a category all by himself here, and was a big influence on Pavement. ‘Two States’ on slanted and enchanted is Pavement trying to do a Fall song. Bernard Sumner of New Order is another extremely atonal singer that Malkmus reminds me of sometimes - Sumner’s voice is awesome on peak New Order stuff.

If Pavement really could not play at first, as 2.5" of fun says, it’s interesting that their albums got progressively worse as they got better. S&E is their best by a mile, crooked rain and wowee zowee are both great, and the rest are agreeable without being that special.