Pavement never seemed like a band that sweated the details. With their wry, stream-of-consciousness lyrics and disjointed structures, their songs played like first drafts of songs the group never got around to cleaning up, and the band projected a devil-may-care attitude that typecast them as slackers. That lackadaisical confidence...

Another performer has been revealed for the free, Pabst-sponsored Red, White and Blue Ribbon concert on July 4 outside of Burnhearts: Chicago's damn delightful indie-rock group Maps & Atlases, whose summertime guitar-pop recalls Vampire Weekend, sans all the quirks and artifice that could turn one off of Vampire Weekend. They'll join previously announced mega-headliner Stephen Malkmus and the Ji...

Despite all the energy and excitement surrounding our city’s summer events, Milwaukeeans remain a frugal lot, demanding low-cost diversions during the all-too-short warm-weather season. Happily, there are free and low-cost entertainment and activities in spades this summer. Free for all...

David Berman’s latest is an album where the sleeve art outshines the record itself. Think of your most hated prog album (is it Yes’ Topographic Oceans? I bet it’s Yes’ Topographic Oceans) and you’ll get the picture. A beautiful sepia-tone painting depicting Babar (that’s right; the beloved elephant) amidst jagged rocks . . .

Buoyed by wonderful weather and excellent live music line-ups, Saturday�s Record Store Day promotion drove considerable traffic to Atomic Records and Exclusive Records, and from what I�ve read online, the response was similarly encouraging in other cities. Hopefully the organizers will follow through on the promise and make this an annual event. The special releases were pretty great, t...

Even in his 40s, Stephen Malkmus is still as skinny as a teenager and as malleable as a Gumby doll. The former Pavement frontman possesses no discernable backbone: When he leans forward during a particularly impassioned solo, his head hangs nearly eye level with his guitar. Much of the weight that often results from settling down with a wife and a pair of kids never came to Malkmus; neither did the complacency that besets many musicians by middle age. Instead, Malkmus’ solo albums have pushed, often aggressively, against the Pavement template, and never more than on his latest disc, Real Emotional Trash . . .

Last time Stephen Malkmus stopped in Milwaukee, he gave a completely unexpected, one-off set of 18 Pavement songs played in chronological order, while his new band, The Jicks, struggled to keep up with him.

Here�s a long-overdue concession to everyone who told me to ditch of my clunky micro-cassette player and upgrade to something more reliable, like a digital recorder: You were right. Foolishly, though, I stuck with the outdated technology, since despite the occasional tangled tape, I had never lost anything irreplaceable using it. My important interviews were always recorded without incident....

Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks � �Real Emotional Trash� Casual Pavement fans needn�t leave the light on anymore. Malkmus� newest album is so far removed from the succinct, messy pop of Pavement that there�s reason to doubt the Malkmus of yore will ever return. That said, Real Emotional Trash isn�t quite the noodly nod to the Bonarro crowd that some disappointed fans have dismissed it a...