Name: Sparkle Hard
Brand: Stephen Malkmus and The Jicks

Bonus disc

Bonus disc: No

Catalogue number

wigcd429

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Colour

Colour details

Discogs ID

Format multiplier

Download code

Download code: No

Rough Trade Exclusive

Rough Trade Exclusive: No

Extended format

Extended format: No

Format detail

Format Music GB

Limited edition

Release date

2018-05-18

Signed copies

Signed copies: No

Supplier GB

PIAS

Tax rate GB

Standard:20

UPC / Barcode

0887828042920

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Total Cap

1 / CD / Extended format: No / Rough Trade Exclusive: No / Signed copies: No

wiglp429

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Heavyweight Vinyl with Insert.

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0887828042913

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1 / Extended format: No / LP / Rough Trade Exclusive: No / Signed copies: No

Artist

Stephen Malkmus and The Jicks

Genre GB

Alternative / Modern

Label GB

Domino

Domino is an independent label founded in Putney, South West London by *a694357* and his partner Jacqui Rice in 1993. The label initially focused on American acts such as *Sebadoh*, *Pavement* or *Royal Trux* before signing British acts in the late '90s.

The label operates a US division, located in Brooklyn, which output was initially identified by its own catalogue number schemes, DOMUS then DNO (used until 2013), when the releases handled by the UK headquarters are identified by WIG (albums) and RUG (singles and EPs) catalogue numbers.

The company operating the label, *Warp Records*, diversified, establishing a publishing arm and a series of labels (*Double Six Recordings*, *Weird World Record Co.*, *Rephlex*, ...).

Modesty and plain good manners might prevent them from saying so themselves, but the fact that Stephen Malkmus and The Jicks have thrived, rather than simply endured over 17 years and delivered six albums of buzzy, sub-cultural significance, constitutes an impressive legacy. The challenge with album number seven is one that any successful band with integrity faces: how to safeguard that legacy and hold on to their identity without rehashing old ground (unthinkable), and also say something meaningful while (crucially) having fun doing it? Meeting that issue head on in the run up to The Jicks’ seventh record involved some “navel gazing”, according to singer, songwriter, and guitarist Malkmus and not only in terms of what it means to be releasing music in 2018. If, like him, you’re a voracious consumer of all kinds of culture and feel the need to interact with it, rather than just react, then inevitably “there’s a world that prompts you to put your best foot forward”. With Sparkle Hard Malkmus, Mike Clark (keyboards), Joanna Bolme (bass) and Jake Morris (drums) do exactly that. And they hit the ground running – on air treads.

It’s light ’n’ breezy, head-down heavy, audacious, melancholic and reflective, goodtime and bodacious, and it pulls off the smartest trick: it’s both unmistakeably The Jicks and – due to the streamlining of their trademark tics and turns, plus the introduction of some unexpected flourishes (Auto-Tune, a fiddle, guest vocalist Kim Gordon, one seven-minute song with an acoustic folk intro) – The Jicks refashioned. If 2014’s Wig Out At Jag Bags balanced the lengthy prog workouts of Pig Lib with Mirror Traffic’s sparky pop moments, then Sparkle Hard bears less obvious direct relation to what’s come before. It also has turbocharged energy and enthusiasm by the truckload. Malkmus started writing Sparkle Hard in 2015. He’d upgraded his home-recording equipment and bought some electronic drums and had been working on the Netflix series Flaked (he penned the incidental music and the end theme song). Demos were done in one day in April of 2017 and then in May, The Jicks started recording at a new studio in Portland called Halfling, which is managed by multi-instrumentalist Chris Funk of The Decemberists, who produced the album. Self-indulgent escapism has never been The Jicks’ bag, but on Sparkle Hard, the reality of modern life sits closer to the surface, communication cutting to the chase whether it’s a proto-punk grind or a back-porch country duet doing the talking. A cleaner burn for dark and complex times.

LP+ - Limited Deluxe Heavyweight Coloured Vinyl with Insert.

Sparkle Hard

Music GB