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Stephen Malkmus Q&A: On 'Wig Out at Jagbags,' Hating Twitter & Trying To Write Like Taylor Swift

In the song “Lariat” I love the lyric “we grew up listening to the music of the best decade ever.” What to you was so special about the tunes you grew up with?

I was trying to write something that Taylor Swift would write, or maybe even more Katy Perry. I was thinking in wide ways. For me I’m a seventies guy, and sometimes when you’re in your early adolescence or when the chicks are just a little older, and kind of out of your reach, they’re the ones you sort of like at that young age. Seventies chicks and seventies rock.

Of the crop of up and coming bands now, who are you a fan of? Who excites you?

Have you heard the Magic Markers? They’re a noise wave band on Drag City. I really like them. Kurt Vile on Matador is amazing. Cass McCombs, another singer-songwriter dude. And then a lot of people mention some Pavement-y bands like Parquet Courts and Joanna Gruesome. I like that.