“Slate” Helpfully Provides Potential Stephen Malkmus Stalkers With Map Of Indie Luminaries’ Homes

Today Slate ran a piece on why Portland, Ore., is like omg so awesome because of its impeccable indie cred, which is apparently epitomized by bands moving there once they’ve hit it medium. “It’s easy to live here,” says author Taylor Clark, although how easy that might be there will probably change at least a bit for the artists whose dwellings are pointed out in Clark’s Tour Of the Indie Rock Star’ Homes:

Allow me to illustrate. From Brock’s house, drive–or bike, if you want to avoid hipster scorn–up Southeast Belmont Street for a bit and hang a left and you’ll run into the residence of James Mercer, lead man of the Shins. Go about six blocks north of there and you’ll see the palatial home of Stephen Malkmus, whose former band, Pavement, created today’s incarnation of indie rock with 1992’s Slanted and Enchanted. A few blocks west stands Beulahland, a bar where for years a team made up of Malkmus and the members of the all-girl punk group Sleater-Kinney thoroughly (and irritatingly) dominated the weekly trivia challenge. Follow East Burnside Street for a mile or so and you’ll land at the Doug Fir, the club where newly minted Portlander Britt Daniel of Spoon recently unveiled his critically lauded new album, Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga, at a secret show. Or, alternatively, you could follow Northeast 28th Avenue up toward the Alberta Arts District, where Death Cab for Cutie guitarist and producer Chris Walla lives. His place is just a few short blocks from the lovely home of singer-songwriter Laura Veirs, where I attended a party a few months back and met her boyfriend, Tucker Martine, who–aside from being responsible for the sound clip you hear every time you start up Windows Vista–produces records for Portland favorite sons the Decemberists.

Clark goes on to mention the type of car former Sleater-Kinney drummer Janet Weiss drives, and where she gets her coffee, and how Mercer is really into the city’s public transportation, and how Malkmus’ house looks like a “castle.” Seriously. I look forward to future installments of Slate‘s Guide To Stalking Your Favorite Indie Rock Luminaries–if only because maybe it’ll help further drive nails into the coffin of this little boomlet that the genre has joined, since everyone will either move or want to go into hiding.

The Indie City [Slate; HT Matthew Perpetua]