New Reviews: Stephen Malkmus Shows Off His Soft Side

Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks 'Mirror Traffic'

Courtesy amazon.com

In this week's slate of Rolling Stone reviews, Jon Dolan praises Mirror Traffic, the latest album from former Pavement frontman Stephen Malkmus and his band, the Jicks. "The guy really is a nuanced guitar player, probably the most underrated of his generation," Dolan writes, noting that the indie rock legend's "softer side has become his best side." Also, Will Hermes says that the new Patti Smith anthology Outside Society is the "perfect primer for those who've discovered her through her recent National Book Award-winning memoir" Just Kids, and Simon Vozick-Levinson endorses the "tweaked-out beat" of Das Racist's new single "Michael Jackson."

ALBUMS

Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks - Mirror Traffic (stream one song)

Patti Smith - Outside Society

Bobby Charles - Bobby Charles

Ana Egge - Bad Blood (stream one song)

SONGS

Das Racist "Michael Jackson"

Blink-182 "Heart's All Gone"

Coldplay "Hurts Like Heaven" (stream)

Coldplay "Princess of China" (stream)

Coldplay "Charlie Brown" (stream)

Coldplay "Us Against the World" (stream)

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Song Stories

“Piano Man”

Billy Joel | 1973

Billy Joel’s first hit, “Piano Man,” was – ironically – an autobiographical lament about how his first album wasn’t a hit. When Cold Spring Harbor didn’t take off, Joel briefly became a lounge pianist in Los Angeles, and this song, about that experience, expressed his frustrations and fears at the time: “And they sit at the bar and put bread in my jar/And say, ‘Man, what are you doing here?’” “It was all right,” Joel said later, about the gig. “I got free drinks and union scale, which was the first steady money I’d made in a long time.”

More Song Stories entries »

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