Stephen Malkmus beckons for someone to rescue him in his new song, “Come Get Me,” which appears on his forthcoming solo LP, Groove Denied, due out via Matador on March 15th. The song follows the previously released LP tracks “Rushing the Acid Frat” and “Viktor Borgia.”
In the song’s accompanying lyric video, a series of paintings solely featuring the singer line an empty gallery. As the camera pans across the various pieces of artwork – which depict him in various outfits that range from suits to ruffled shirts; in some he strikes campy poses with a sword or dons a guitar and smiles, in others he looks serious and pensive – he seeks escape via the lyrics. “Won’t someone come get me/I’m all alone here I can’t see,” he sings over resonant melodies and a loping beat. It culminates in his falsetto-reaching repeated plea of “somebody come get me please I’m alone.”
He told Rolling Stone that he started working on Groove Denied about three years ago. He began writing the synth-pop laden solo excursion on a refurbished Memorymoog synthesizer and some demos for Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks’ Sparkle Hard, which was released last year, also came from that time period.
“It’s an open palette,” he said. “There was a lot of scrolling through [synth] presets, saying, ‘I like that sound.’ I didn’t ask anybody if something’s dated or hip. It’s kind of like being a kid.”
In May, Malkmus embarks on a solo tour in support of Groove Denied. It launches on May 1st in Toronto, Ontario, Canada at The Great Hall and wraps in Los Angeles, California with a pair of Lodge Room dates on May 15th and 16th.