Introducing . . .

By Matt Ashare

PAVEMENTY: fans will be relieved that Stephen Malkmus is hanging his head over familiar terrain.

If there’s a theme or common thread that ties together the first few months of the year, it’s got something to do with bringing on the new — new faces, new artists, new settings, new challenges. That was, going back at least a couple of decades, the traditional role of the first couple months. And if for a few years there in the ’90s the sheer volume of releases and new signings tended to make one quarter look very much like the next, things have returned to “normal” now, so that the first quarter is once again a time for debuts, developing artists, and new, new, new.

Stephen Malkmus is a familiar name in indie-rock circles — he is, after all, the voice and songwriting force behind Pavement. But Pavement are no more (“They split in 1999,” says Malkmus in the press release he penned for his new solo album), and the proof arrives on February 6 in the form of Malkmus’s homonymous solo debut on Matador. Recorded in Seattle, which is where he’s been hanging his head of late, with bassist Joanne Bolme and drummer John Moen, the disc is very Pavementy: skewed guitars and cracked, warbled vocals and cryptic poetic lyrics all held together by a loose groove and melodies that seem vaguely familiar. Which should come as very good news to long-time Pavement fans.

Taking her second shot at a US breakthrough is the 24-year-old daughter of British folkies Martin Carthy and Norma Waterson. Eliza Carthy is, no surprise, a British folkie herself, only in the mold of Beth Orton rather than Fairport Convention. Her first album got her nominated for a Mercury Prize in England: her second, Angels and Cigarettes (Warner Bros.), comes out on January 30 in the US. Also arriving on the 30th — from an even more exotic corner of the pop universe, Tokyo’s ultra-hip Shibuya-kei district — is Hi-Posi, the eclectic one-woman brainchild of Miho Moribyashi. Her 4n5 (Tokyopop) is a retro-futuristic kitchen-sink amalgam of new wave, techno pop, and exotica that brings to mind Pizzicato Five, Kahimi Karie, and Cornelius.

Having failed to cash in fully on the alterna-grunge thang as the frontwoman of half-a-hit wonder Eve’s Plumb, Colleen Fitzpatrick changed her name to Vitamin C and recorded a slick pop debut that shamelessly aped some of the more popular sounds of ’99. It got her foot in the door at radio, so she’s back, having updated her formula by jettisoning the fly Sugar Rayisms, the sunshiny Smash Mouth moves, and the Jewálry of her debut and replacing them with the hyperactive techno-funk groove of an already-charting single co-penned by Madonna man Billy Steinberg (“The Itch”), some Everlasting folk-hop, and lots of teasy/sleazy girly pop. More (Elektra) hits stores on January 30. At the other end of the spectrum, the once commercially successful Frank Black nds himself on yet another label, W.A.R.?, with his latest disc backed by the Catholics — Dog in the Sand. It’s an even more straightforward guitar-rockin’ work then his last one.

No Depression alterna-country fans will be happy to hear that the latest twangy emission from Minneapolis’s hard-working Honeydogs is finally coming out. Here’s Luck™was originally slotted to drop last fall; now it’s set to appear, on Palm, on January 30. Sludge-rock/space-metal devotees will be pleased to hear that Monster Magnet are ready to deliver the follow-up to their modern-rock breakthrough Powertrip — God Says No (A&M/Interscope) — in late February. Post-rockers will get theirs too when Chicago’s Tortoise drop their new Standards (Thrill Jockey) on February 20. And the underground hip-hop duo the High & Mighty (a/k/a Mr. Eon and DJ Mighty Mi) hook up with MC Cage to form the Smut Peddlers, a humorous trash-talking project whose debut, Porn Again, comes out on Rawkus on February 13, proving that the underground isn’t just about righteous messages.

Propellerheadz already had an electronica hit by bringing the voice of James Bond film chanteuse Shirley Bassey (Goldfinger, Diamonds Are Forever out of retirement, so Nettwerk has sponsored a disc of Bassey remixes by the likes of Kenny Dope, Nightmares on Wax, Groove Armada, and, of course, Propellerheadz. Diamonds Are Forever — The Remix Album comes out on February 13. The following week, on February 20, Boy George returns as a house-pumping DJ on his Essential Mix CD (London/Sire).

And by March and April it’ll be time for the bigger names to take over the release schedule: expect Indigo Girl Amy Ray’s solo debut to hit stores on March 6, hard-rockers Buckcherry to deliver their sophomore disc on March 27, and Aerosmith to keep on ticking with a new studio album sometime in early spring.