Early years Malkmus was born on May 30, 1966, in
Santa Monica, California, to Mary and Stephen Malkmus Sr. His father was a property and casualty
insurance agent. At age 16, he spent the night in
jail after consuming alcohol, urinating in the bushes, and walking on the roofs of several residential homes. In the late 1980s, he was employed as a
security guard at the
Whitney Museum of American Art in
New York City, along with Berman and
Bob Nastanovich. Their first album,
Slanted & Enchanted, was released to critical acclaim, and the band continued to receive attention for subsequent releases. Pavement, and Malkmus in particular, were hailed as spearheading the underground indie movement of the 1990s. Pavement reunited in 2010 and embarked on a world tour, and reunited again in 2022 and 2023 for another tour.
Solo work and The Jicks In 2001, following the 1999 dissolution of Pavement, Malkmus released his first self-titled album with his new band, The Jicks (although they were uncredited). Malkmus's fourth studio album with
The Jicks,
Real Emotional Trash, was released in March 2008. In August 2011, he released his fifth studio album with
The Jicks,
Mirror Traffic. He played the album
Ege Bamyasi, originally by the band
Can, in its entirety on December 1, 2012, at WEEK-END Festival in Cologne, Germany. A recording of this performance was released as a limited-edition live album on Record Store Day 2013. Malkmus's sixth studio album with
the Jicks,
Wig Out at Jagbags, was released on January 7, 2014. On February 7, 2018, Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks released "
Middle America", their first material in four years. It was their first single from their seventh studio album,
Sparkle Hard, which was released on May 18, 2018. Malkmus released an electronic album titled
Groove Denied on March 15, 2019, after having worked on the album for 12 to 13 years. After he submitted the album in 2017, Chris Lombardi of Matador Records, which had released all of Malkmus' records thus far, told Malkmus that it was not the right time to release the album. The album features Malkmus on all instruments and production and engineering. Malkmus released
Traditional Techniques on March 6, 2020. The album was produced by
Chris Funk of
The Decemberists and features guitarist
Matt Sweeney and musician
Qais Essar.
Side projects Malkmus was a member of rock group
Silver Jews along with David Berman. In early 1999, Malkmus participated in a
Sonic Youth side project called Kim's Bedroom that included bassist/vocalist
Kim Gordon, guitarist and vocalist
Thurston Moore,
Jim O'Rourke, and drummer
Ikue Mori; they never released an album, but did play a few live shows. By 2001, Malkmus was performing as frontman of
The Jicks. In 2007, Malkmus provided 3 songs to the
Todd Haynes' film ''
I'm Not There'', based on the life of
Bob Dylan. He contributed on the songs "
Ballad of a Thin Man", "Can't Leave Her Behind", and "
Maggie's Farm". Malkmus has admitted that he was never "a really big fan of Dylan," but noted that his involvement with the film had made him listen "to him again a little closer." In 2024, Malkmus started the band
The Hard Quartet with
Emmett Kelly,
Matt Sweeney, and
Jim White. == Artistry ==