He used to say it would never happen. But lo and behold, there was our veteran fighter of the indie-rock nerd wars, Stephen Malkmus, performing with his old band Pavement last fall. The oft-celebrated yet over-ignored purveyors of witty, idiosyncratic '90s rock finally launched a reunion tour that was warmly received and musically more proficient than many of their heyday outings.
Now, however, he insists it won't happen again.
"It's like when there's a special on the menu at a restaurant one night, and then you go back next week and there's the same special," Malkmus said in his usual droll demeanor. "That's not cool. We want that tour to live as a one-time thing that you can say you saw. And if you didn't see it, these days it's all up on YouTube anyway."
Even before that tour, Malkmus started working with another alterna-rock star to make a record that's on par with his best-known material. The new album "Mirror Traffic" -- which Malkmus will promote Saturday with his backers the Jicks at the Pantages Theatre -- was produced by Beck. We talked with Malkmus by phone last week:
Q: Last we saw you, you were playing in a cavern in St. Paul [Roy Wilkins Auditorium] with Pavement. Was it good for you, too?
A: Yeah, that was really a fun one. It was kind of like playing in an old-fashioned '70s hockey rink, minus a few thousand people [laughs]. But I saw a lot of old friends there I haven't seen in a while.
Pavement had a lot of really good times in Minneapolis, honestly. All those kind of drunken, guitar-fried shows at First Avenue stand out. They never had that place grounded very well, so there was always a lot of guitar zzztttt! That was cool. We would've played there this time, but it was already booked [by the Naked & the Famous; yeah, who?].
Q: How did Beck wind up producing your new disc?
