Stephen Malkmus has been teasing Groove Denied for some time. In an interview with The Washington Post last May, the one-time Pavement frontman revealed that the title for Groove Denied—Malkmus’ so-called “electronic album”—is also the record’s origin story. Once Malkmus had crafted the collection of keyboard-centric music in his basement, using programs like Ableton and Pro Tools, he sent it over to his label, who promptly rejected it. “They didn’t want to put it out,” he told the Post. “Or they thought it was dumb to put it out first because it was a head-scratcher. Maybe some of my more traditional fans that know Pavement would scratch their heads.”
In place of that electronic record, Malkmus and his band The Jicks put out Sparkle Hard last year. Now, in a new interview with The Chicago Tribune, Malkmus has revealed that the once-rejected Groove Denied will be coming out in March. “It’s not that experimental,” said Malkmus. “It’s just me with drum machines. … It’s only me on all the instruments and production and engineering.” See where Sparkle Hard placed on our list of the 51 best albums of 2018, and expect more details on Groove Denied as we get closer to the March release date.
