Silver Jews: Classic or dud

Search: Random Rules, Dallas (the line "How'd you turn a billion steers/ into buildings made of mirrors" is so great -- I always picture the skyline from the opening of the Dallas TV show) How To Rent A Room, Buckinghan Rabbit, Frontier Index, Black and Brown Shoes, Albemarle Station (god, I love that one)...a few others.

I like American Beauty and Workingman's Dead, so I like his music and voice just fine.

www.falsedawn.blogspot.com

http://www.multiply.org/notebook/archives/000476.html

True story:

I have 2 friends, room mates at college, one is a the biggest Silver Jews fan in the known universe, one just likes it cause the other one got him into it. The one who just sort of like them and wants to seem indie gets a fake ID to see the David Berman "poetry reading" in Chi-town, which of course turns out to be one of the only Silver Jews concerts ever also featuring Will Oldham and the guy from Smog and long story short he bought a poster for the real fan but still c'mon

"I love to see a rainbow from a garden hose /
lit up like the blood of a centerfold /
I love the city and the city rain /
suburban kids with biblical names"

Nobody writes lyrics better.

Otto OTM.

Classic, if it needed saying.

But despite their lack of technical ability, they had charisma
and an infectious sense of rhythm.

I don't hear either in Berman's voice. But that's just me.
They have a few great songs, so I can't in fairness dud them.

I say classic, all the way, but i didn't buy his last album. Was it good?

'in 1984 i was hospitalized for approaching perfection /
slowly screwing my way across europe, they had to make a correction

1.American Water
2. Natural Bridge
3.Bright Flight
4. Starlite Walker

According to gygax, it is still coming out. I hope so, because I Ebayed my copy of The Arizona Record when I was broke and hungry and now I miss it. :(

when smog was on tour last year, i asked dan k. about it and he said it was coming out. as expose sang many moons ago: "seasons change, people change..."

I have Bright Flight and American Water, but they have never been favourites. I shall dig them out from where they are stored.

Still, Starlite Walker is great. If they played here, I would go and see them, and as a rule I don't really go to concerts much these days.

I think I like the song about being ill/throwing up that is on the Hey! Drag City comp (I could be wrong about the subject)

I never really got into Smog, Ex-con is the only song I like by them...it's the "casing the joint" line.

The "send in the clouds" b-side "Self-Ignition" is classic

From Pfork Berman interview:

Sometimes I notice that people nowadays seem to build their own context, whatever they want it to be. I see someone like Devendra Banhart, and to me it's fascinating that he's able to create a context in which the scene in Animal House where the folk singer's bashed over the head with a guitar never happened. In his context, not all of America saw that movie, laughed, and agreed that folk music was annoying. And I never thought that I'd live inside a context like that. But I do, so I decided to make my own ones up too.

Thoughts on new album?

I like 3 or 4 songs a lot.

The songs i'm digging are: What is Not But Could Be If, My Pillow is the Threshold and Open Field.

I need to give more listeningz tho.

It's outstanding, maybe album of the year. "Open Field" (A Maher Halal Hash Baz cover, I think), "Candy Jail," "Suffering Jukebox" and "Party Barge" are all genius.

Oh yeah Suffering Jukebox the wifey sings the chorus? That's a great one too.

Wait...there's a new album? When is it coming out, what's it called? Shit, how did this pass me by?

yah mee too im psyched dling now!

l loved tanglewood numbers - so by far their best

I like it.

any sm involvement? american water's by far the bossest

Really not feeling this much beyond "Suffering Jukebox", "My Pillow is the Threshold", and "San Francisco B.C.".

don't think there's any Malkmus on the new one. Smog is a decent comparison--I really only like one Smog song, "Cold Blooded Old Times," and has Berman ever come up with anything like that?

"random rules," "the wild kindness," and "buckingham rabbit" i like better than anything i've heard from smog. smog has always struck me as a little, um, smug. berman's not humble by any stretch, but there's way less standoffishness, and his best lyrics affect like nobody's business

Why must it be a competition?

Anyway, jon / via - crazy! Give it a few more spins. I didn't like Tanglewood Numbers much on first listen, but after absorbing it, it became one of my favorite albums of the year. This one is also a grower. And lyrics? Come on, dude:

"Living in a candy jail
With peppermint bars
Peanut brittle bunk beds
and marshmallow walls...
the warden keeps the data on your favorite brands..."

I need to catch up on the joos .... I was big into them around the time of Starlite Walker / American Water but I've only heard a couple tracks since then ("Punks in the Beerlight" off Tanglewood Numbers is pretty classic)

reading back on the thread I'm surprised there's only scattered mention of "Advice to the Graduate," that was by far the "hit" as far as my friends were concerned. awesome lyrics.

"sleep on your back, and ash in your shoe, and always use the old sense of the words ... "

Oh shit, I love me some Silver Jews. Gotta get on this.

I think it's one of his better albums.

I miss the old sloppy, gritty Joos. Not that I was expecting that with this new one, but the slicked up stuff can't help but make me think back fondly of the older albums. I end up thinking the same thing with each new Will Oldham and Smog album too. It loses some of its charm all cleaned up.

Anyway, I like what I hear so far OK. These things take some time to digest.

Boy wants a car from his Dad
Dad says, first you gotta cut that hair
Boy says, hey Dad Jesus had long hair
and Dad says
that's right son, but Jesus walked everywhere

When I was younger I was a cobra
in every case I wanted to be cool
Now that I'm older and sub-space is colder
I just want to say something true

When the governer's heart fails
The state bird falls from its branch

Oil paintings of x-rated picnics.
Behind the walls of medication I'm free.
Every falling leaf in a compact mirror
hits a target that we can't see.

Grass grows in the icebox.
The year ends in the next room
It is autumn and my camouflage is dying
instead of time there will be lateness
and let forever be delayed.

I had this friend, his name was Marc with a C.
his sister was like the heat coming off the back of an old tv.

I too miss the sloppiness. Starlite Walker to me is a near perfect album, even if it's sometimes a bit of a mess. It feels like a concept album. Tanglewood Numbers in comparison just seems like a collection of songs... but I guess sometimes you just wanna record some tunes.

Has anyone watched the clips of them just put out on P-Fork? Good god, man, what has happened to his voice? I mean he was never Caruso but what on earth is that sound he's making? That's some of the worst singing I've ever heard, including my tone deaf grandpa, and I (used to) like SJ

DB's never really been that into playing live. I'd suggest listening to the records and just ignoring the live stuff.

Except for the fact that his live show was the best concert I've even been to.

Oh man, I was at the first Irving Plaza show when Tanglewood Numbers came out, it was incredible. His encore of There Is A Place was like a life-affirming moment

not sure what you're on about re: his voice, but there isn't much evidence in those videos that he's ever attempted to play guitar before.

new album is totally amazing.

really, you didn't think his voice sounded hi-lariously offkey and weird? kind of like a baritone rosanne barr singing the star spangled banner

I've been putting off buying the new one until listened to the promo that should be coming to wnyu soon. I have high hopes though.

maybe off-key and weird, but not that different from he normally sounds

ok, for some reason I always go through the same schizophrenic swing when I hear something new by the Joos, from "this is terrible" to "I love this" to "eh". Except American Water, Starlite Walker, and Natural Bridge, of course...

I don't think he sounds bad at all on that pitchfork show. I actually liked the songs better live.

all my favorites singers couldn't sing

really, you didn't think his voice sounded hi-lariously offkey and weird? kind of like a baritone rosanne barr singing the star spangled banner

:D

haven't watched the clips in question yet, but I definitely thought there were points on the last album where his voice sounded ten times worse than it ever had before. could just be that he finally decided to raise it above a mumble, though.

he's gone country and he warn't talking to me this time out at least, but I think this is his best record ever or at least the most listenable

what the shit?

whoa

whaaaat???

wow

My life has been riddled with Ibsenism.

am i crazy or is that second post ten times more wtf than the band breaking up?

i kinda prefer it when artists announce they're done, rather than just disappearing

http://www.bermanexposed.org/

yeesh, no wonder db was suicidal.

"what you have become is a major tool... for corporate america." - from 60 minutes.

That's nuts. It's kind of strange how he felt the need to confess it "now that the Joos are over." I don't see why he couldn't reveal it before and I don't know why he feels the need to reveal it now.

hmmm (from an old pitchfork interview)

I've never gotten a grant. Well, that's not true. I had a fellowship to go to graduate school. I never had to pay for tuition while I was there and teaching paid your other living expenses. My father paid for my undergraduate tuition. There's this famous story in my family of when my father took me out to eat when I was 18. I had been too lazy to apply to college so he'd had his secretary apply for me late. To the University of Texas and the University of Virginia (because I romanticized Virginia as a kid).

Well, I got into both (Texas was automatic). The tuition difference was large. UT back then was $350 a semester. Virginia was, what $12,000 a year? My dad likes to make games of things. He told me he wanted me to go to UT so I'd be closer to home and said that if I went to UVA he'd pay my tuition but that would be it until death. And four years of health insurance, I guess. Instead, if I chose Texas he'd pay for that plus give me the difference between the two schools' tuitions to live on. I am frankly amazed I chose Virginia. I don't remember my reasoning.

I worked in the morgue at the UVA hospital all through college to pay my rent. In the 15 years since I've graduated he's loaned me $5,000 two times when I was in trouble. The first one in my 20s, which he kindly absolved, and a second one last year trying to get back on my feet. I still owe him that one and I hope this album will enable me to pay him back because he holds it over my head every single time we get into an argument.

I guess I should add that he did pay for my rehab, which I let him, figuring at the time it was his fucking idea, and what did I care?

woah. he has a book of drawings out on drag city in a couple of months. i liked the new lp but it'd be real sad if it turned into some morrissey thing where people twanged along in the background while he spat bermanisms.

Jeezus. And I thought my dad was bad.

All the Best Cowboys Have Daddy Issues

i cant call myself the biggest joos fan, but berman is a very gifted writer and, judging from various interviews, a smart and interesting guy. hope he sorts his shit out :/

Silver Jews End-Lead Singer Bids his Well-Wishers Adieu

Hello, my friend.

Cassie and I went to the cave and it looks great. 58 degrees but the humidity makes it feel like 72.

I'm just going to play fifteen songs. My fifteen favorite ones.

A dollar per song. Plus Arnett Hollow. I don't want to keep you underground for too long. Fall Creek Falls State Park State Lodge is great by the way.

Yes I cancelled the South American shows. I'll have to see the ABC Countries another way.

I guess I am moving over to another category. Screenwriting or Muckraking.

I've got to move on. Can't be like all the careerists doncha know.

I'm forty two and I know what to do.

I'm a writer, see?

Cassie is taking it the hardest. She's a fan and a player but she sees how happy i am with the decision.

I always said we would stop before we got bad. If I continue to record I might accidentally write the answer song to Shiny Happy People.

What, you thought I was going to hang on to the bitter end like Marybeth Hamilton?

love david

Last edited by DCB on Thu Jan 22, 2009 6:38 pm; edited 1 time in total


DCB

Joined: 19 Jan 2008
Posts: 47
Location: Nashville

My Father, My Attack Dog

Now that the Joos are over I can tell you my gravest secret. Worse than suicide, worse than crack addiction:

My father.

You might be surprised to know he is famous, for terrible reasons.

My father is a despicable man. My father is a sort of human molestor.

An exploiter. A scoundrel. A world historical motherfucking son of a bitch. (sorry grandma)

You can read about him here.

www.bermanexposed.org

My life is so wierd. It's allegorical to the nth. My father went to college at Transylvania University.

You see what I'm saying.

A couple of years ago I demanded he stop his work. Close down his company or I would sever our relationship.

He refused. He has just gotten worse. More evil. More powerful. We've been "estranged" for over three years.

Even as a child I disliked him. We were opposites. I wanted to read. He wanted to play games.

He is a union buster.

When I got out of college I joined the Teamsters (the guards were union organized at the Whitney).

I went off to hide in art and academia.

I fled through this art portal for twenty years. In the mean time my Dad started a very very bad company called Berman and Company.

He props up fast food/soda/factory farming/childhood obesity and diabetes/drunk driving/secondhand smoke.

He attacks animal lovers, ecologists, civil action attorneys, scientists, dieticians, doctors, teachers.

His clients include everyone from the makers of Agent Orange to the Tanning Salon Owners of America.

He helped ensure the minimum wage did not move a penny from 1997-2007!

The worst part for me as a writer is what he does with the english language.

Though vicious he is a doltish thinker

and his spurious editorials rely on doublethink and always with the Lashon Hara.

As I studied Judaism over the years, the shame and the shanda,

grew almost too much. my heart was constantly on fire for justice. I could find no relief.

This winter I decided that the SJs were too small of a force to ever come close to

undoing a millionth of all the harm he has caused. To you and everyone you know.

Literally, if you eat food or have a job, he is reaching you.

I've always hid this terrible shame from you, the fan. The SJs have always stood autonomous and clear.

Hopefully it won't contaminate your feelings about the work.

My life has been riddled with Ibsenism. In a way I am the son of a demon come to make good the damage.

Previously I thought, through songs and poems and drawings I could find and build a refuge away from his world.

But there is the matter of Justice.

And i'll tell you it's not just a metaphor. The desire for it actually burns.

It hurts.

There needs to be something more. I'll see what that might be.

DCB

if you want to know what evil Herr Attackdog is currently up to look here:

http://www.alternet.org/workplace/120426/ad_wars:_'dr._evil'_vs._unions_over_employee_free_choice_act/)

for posterity's sake.

awwwww. :(

i hate my father
i hate my father
hate my father
On disowning my father

not to get all grand proclamation but this is a loss to song in general - his are/were great, and if he's really not going to write any more of them, the craft is diminished somewhat. the available supply of awesome drops.

I am bummed out. I look up to this guy, he sets a standard of writing one can aspire to.

yeah def a top 5 alive lyricist for me

:(

Yeah, this is sad, if true ... Not a whole bunch of songwriters his age or younger out there who so obviously put a lot of care into their lyrics (J0hn D. being a notable exception). Might be a lofty thing to say, but he's up there in the tradition of Dylan, Cohen, etc. Didn't think his last couple albums were his best work, but I had the feeling he still had a classic or two left in him.

Berman's dad is the guy behind all those front groups you see represented as the voice of reason on Penn and Teller's show Bullshit!

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Penn_and_Teller:_Bullshit!

"In 1984 I was hospitalized for approaching perfection/Slowly screwing my way across Europe they had to make a correction" has to be one of my favorite opening couplets ever. Shucks.

^ seriously.

"Boy wants a car from his Dad
Dad says, first you gotta cut that hair.
Boy says, "hey Dad Jesus had long hair"
and Dad says
that's right son, Jesus walked everywhere."

from "the frontier index" (I think) was the first Silver Jews track I heard and that's still one of my favouritest lyrics.

this rainy weekend seems like a perfect time for the natural bridge.

Had a feeling this was coming. I'm glad you've made a decision you're happy with DCB. Hope you get to punch your dad in the face some day.

When I saw his note I wanted to say - the joy that his music and writing have brought me outweighs any harm his father may have caused me. Because it's true, though I suppose in the scheme of things I'm probably a special case. I haven't had a minimum wage job since before 1997. All you can hope for is that he finds some peace and happiness in whatever he does next I guess.

his father harmed you?

maybe try reading the post?

uh

or just the thread in general?

i think im coming off as a dick here so i apologize, but i must have missed something

no, you're not coming off as a dick, but it's just that there are links here to things about Berman's dad being a douche lobbyist behind fronts that oppose union rights, minimum wage laws, obesity awareness etc. so dude is saying that David has had more of a positive impact than his douchey dad's possible impact. There's not much more to get there?

more of a positive impact to him.

doink. thx

dcb should join the family business.. and then destroy it from the inside.

(glib revenge fantasies aside, i wish him the best)

So, do any of y'all have tickets to this thing in McMinnville, TN?

My friend Rachel's going. I expect she'll be taking pictures.

This really makes me hate myself for not going to see him when he was in the area.

I was trying to fenagle an extra ticket for a friend and it's like...tickets just don't exist.

I mean it makes sense, why would someone sell one?

silver jews in a cave last show make an offer

!

http://i44.tinypic.com/25yujph.jpg

Chandelier in a cave? whoa.

ummmm?

that looks cool, fuck

yeah that looks intense. that's the way all concerts should look.

did malkmus show up for "wild kindness" or anything?

Dude from American Songwriter magazine (who posted the pic) said this on twitter: "Just saw Silver Jews' final show in a deep cave. in crowd: Dan Deacon and Animal Collective fellows, Bradford Cox, S. Malkmus, B. Bare Jr."

"uh huh, i was at the final show. the audience was amazing"

Yeah, that is weird now that I think about it. : /

i bet it was super, but they're kind of a weird band to see live i think. what you get from the records isn't at all present from hearing it live. they have that great velvetsy guitar player but it sounds kinda heavy and thick. the dynamics should be like a james brown strings song or something, with his voice big and booming.

i mean whatever about the crowd. i was just wondering if malkmus jammed with berman one last time. some of both their finest moments are on american water

berman's, definitely

Tanglewood Numbers is actually my favorite Joos record, but I'm way in the minority there.

sleep on your back
and ash in your shoe

http://www.knoxkoupons.com/ktown_photos/photo_gallery/images/RockCity-1.jpg

tanglewood demos > tanglewood. less pounding and intense, more a guitar sound.

tanglewood demos

Are these easy for anyone to find?

first google result yields links

lol indeed it does, thanks

np that sounded a little snotty, not my intent, i just didnt wanna post links here ya know

Tanglewood Numbers is actually my favorite Joos record, but I'm way in the minority there.

― Johnny Fever, Sunday, February 1, 2009 12:47 AM (7 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

love this album - less of the sad sack aspect more reveling in absurdity - prob for the hardcore they demand the heavy depressio tho

Oh my god, I went to Rock City when I was a kid and lived in Lookout Mountain...is that where they did their final show?

interesting showdown tonight between rachel maddow and dave's dad

San Francisco BC is some kind of aweseome epic

Classic for Tanglewood Numbers alone. That's the record, trust me.

San Francisco BC is some kind of aweseome epic

Recently been admiring the rhyme scheme of "Since her dad a local barber had been beaten to death /
She had become a vocal martyr in the vegan press"

What is Berman doing these days?

http://mentholmountains.blogspot.com/

Pleased to see he is still active

"Lookout Mountain" is probably me favourite these days

when i was hungover the other day i spent a long time phasing in and out to 'the natural bridge' and i went: huh! i think every song on this album mentions rain! or even: 'the rain!' but i stopped paying attention when i had to go and vomit around track six

Does anyone remember what magazine had that harrowing profile of DB around the time of Tanglewood Numbers, the one where he told of being holed up at the hotel where Gore conceded the 2000 election and was going to kill himself?

That was "Dying in the Al Gore Suite," by Nick Weidenfeld, in Fader 31 (Jul/Aug 2005). Part of it can be read on Google Books here.

Thanks, one way street

no problem

Was kind of surreal to hear Marc Maron talking about this stuff...

Maron's trying to reach out to Berman via Twitter to set up an interview as he's going to Nashville in a couple weeks...doubt he'll have much luck

http://www.stereogum.com/1728068/silver-jews-had-band-practice-in-nashville-last-night/news/

!!!

cool news, was hoping berman would get the itch to write songs again.

WHAT

i never realized that the 15 songs performed during the last silver jews performance in the Cumberland Caverns were apparently his very favorite songs. here's the setlist:

1) We Are Real

2) Trains Across the Sea

3) How to Rent a Room

4) Slow Education

5) K-Hole

6) What Is not but Could Be If

7) The Wild Kindness

8) Room Games

9) Suffering Jukebox

10) I'm Getting Back Into Getting Back Into You

11) Random Rules

12) Tennessee

13) We Could Be Looking for the Same Thing

14) Pretty Eyes

15) Smith & Jones Forever

Happy enough to hear this news , but sure hope if there is a record involved it moves away from the last one's trajectory (it had very little staying power with me and kind of made me think it was a good time for him to walk away). Would love to get to chance to hear something new though, as really I just hope Berman is doing well and does whatever the hell he wants to do.

Happy enough to hear this news , but sure hope if there is a record involved it moves away from the last one's trajectory (it had very little staying power with me and kind of made me think it was a good time for him to walk away). Would love to get to chance to hear something new though, as really I just hope Berman is doing well and does whatever the hell he wants to do.

― grandavis, Thursday, January 8, 2015 11:03 AM (5 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

^^this

I suspect the break from music has reinvigorated him. Glad Nast is involved.

Yeah, agree on both fronts.

i liked the last two records when they came out, but they are definitely not the jews i reach for when i'm in the mood for Berman.

further news: http://www.wonderingsound.com/silver-jew-band-rehearsal-first-new-song-veranda-toy-shoppe-nashville/

Yes!!!!!!

xxp I agree on the last record but Tanglewood Numbers is all-time classic imo.

haha you're right -- i just looked at the tanglewood tracklisting and i was like "those songs are all fucking great"

It is only the last record that really does very little for me, though I would cut "The Farmer's Hotel" from Tanglewood in a heartbeat. Skip it every time but really enjoy the rest of the record.

I've never bothered with the last one before. No good?

kinda like news of new twin peaks; wonderful as much for the thought of its creator's renewed activity as for its individual merit. really great to hear.

faraway gaze of dcb redolent of historic presidents

maybe on my own, but I really love the last one - Suffering Jukebox and San Francisco BC are two of my favourite SJ songs & I keep coming back to the whole thing, has so many moments that make me happy - language of virtue in 2nd verse of Strange Victory, Strange Defeat (ha and also of course "What have they done with the fat ones? The bald and the goateed?"); the jolly/bleak mania of Party Barge; whole ornately developed conceit of Candy Jail.

It is an odd album - What Is Not But Could Be If feels a bit like he's writing against his talents & trying this slightly mystical abstract style, and a couple of tracks don't quite come off (never been keen on My Pillow… and We Could be Looking…). But it's between this and Tanglewood Numbers for my favourite.

I have a lot of time for LMLS, although the fact I did a moderately indepth review of it probably meant I gave it more attention than might otherwise have been the case. there are less ~quotable vignettes~ on it than others which (understandably) disappoints ppl I suspect. (unsure how much crossover there is in the fanbases but the new Half Man Half Biscuit album has a comparable deal in that regard I think)

I love LMLS. I got a friend of mine into the band on the back of that album

xp HMHB: the English Silver Jews?

Maybe.....There's similarities but Berman likes to poeticise more than HMHB

yeah I guess Berman is the frustrated* poet to Nigel Blackwell's frustrated standup comedian

*albeit published, and even without this I think both have proved their aptitude for the respective mediums

good analogies and I agree neither have anything to prove

interesting parallel - Berman & Blackwell both have really masterful sense of verbal form & sonics (eg I'm almost disturbed by the way 'Deck quoits with the French trance vets' is just in my brain like a barbed hook, regardless of sense), both brilliant at running syntax over a verse and nailing the rhymes; there's a books thread somewhere with a digression on 'what happened to English light verse' & HMHB were a sort of answer to that iirc - so sometimes there's a touch of class-variant Betjeman to them.

But yeah, Berman's more obviously a *poet* - sense for an image especially.

also something of the music hall/vaudeville with HMHB, what with the pastiche, vignettes etc. There's little ironic distance with Silver Jews I don't think, which is very different to HMHB.

arguably their relationship w/ the country music/Nashville tradition functions in a similar way, ie it's clearly heartfelt but recognises its wealth of cliches

Not as many pop culture references with Silver Jews too

still a fair few though "we saw BB King on General Hospital..." is a favourite line of mine

I praised LMLS pretty highly in a review when it came out, and included on my top ten list for that year. It's not terrible, just pales in comparison to most of the discography (for me Natural Bridge just towers over the rest). "San Francisco B.C." may be in my top 5 Jews tunes though, I could listen to that all day.

Tanglewood Numbers I respect for what it represented (emergence from addiction/nightmare) but I really, really have a hard time listening to it or enjoying it.

don't know how anyone could have a hard time enjoying "I've been working at the airport bar. It's like Christmas in a submarine."

that was a good line, sure. there were good moments on that album! it's just when I'm looking at the various albums TJ is the one i least wanna reach for.

Tanglewood Jumbles

oops

TN track I ride for:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ieb3qkMHhaw

"I'm Getting Back into Getting Back into You" is probably top 5 Silver Jews for me.

xp Sorry, it's Friday, I couldn't help it. :)

I think "Sleeping Is the Only Love" may be the only song on TN that I couldn't see showing up in my personal top 5 at any given moment.

This thread inspired me to put TN on and it's really hitting the spot rn.

TOULOUSE-LAUTREC!

find Sleeping is the Only Love a bit of a plod but that "back of an old tv" line is all-time

very true

I really wish he'd publish a new poetry book. When my friend and I saw the band live in 2006 or whenever the last tour was, Berman signed my friend's copy of Actual Air with "better shit is coming."

The issues with LMLS for me are not that I was let down by the lyrics, just that it represented a side of the band (well, Berman) that did not seem nearly as vital or invested as previous incarnations. It is enjoyable on plenty of levels when taken outside the context of the other work, but as Raymond points out it pales in comparison (to me) to the other records. Of course, it seems somewhat to be a record purposely grappling with/embracing this other side, and maybe represents a happier and healthier Berman, which I would not sacrifice merely to get more great records from him, but it really just does not resonate with me. With some more distance on it maybe, but I still listen to most of the other records but when I continue to try with this one it just doesn't stick.

hold the world to its word

http://www.nashvillescene.com/nashvillecream/archives/2015/01/11/david-berman-on-silver-jews-reunion-bob-pulled-a-prank

;_;

not cool, bob

Lame

actually relieved (and unsurprised) to hear this. one of my favorite bands ever, but I see absolutely no reason for them to reunite. Then again, I'm against reunions in general.

It's not so much that I really want Silver Jews to get back together. I just want to hear some kind of good news from David Berman. Obviously he's comfortable keeping it low key and under the radar and that's cool.

Agreed. But would much rather see an announcement of a new Berman book than a new Jews LP tbh

Yup

does he still have the poetry and paranoid ramblings blog from a few years back

yup

http://mentholmountains.blogspot.com/

this episode has reinforced my belief that you just do not, under any circumstances, trust anyone who drinks Michelob Ultra

I had this friend his name was Marc with a C
his sister was like the heat coming of the back of an old TV

well, that's off, clearly. Damnit.

It's no surprise I come back to this band when I'm drunk, I guess.

menthol mountains hasn't been updated since July. I wonder what he's been up to.

Anyone else ever just worry about Berman?

like, a lot, actually.

There are still a few stragglers on The Silver Jews Bulletin Board. Like 3 of 'em

I think I started that board.

o rly

I could be wrong, the one I started was very basic and barebones, back in...oh god, 1999? 2000? maybe earlier.

disc server, very basic. similar color scheme to this board. it's riddled with ads, but still it was fun to fuck around on in 2002.

the original board for Civil Jar fans to dig

I'm against people who are against reunions in general so I'd welcome their return, if only to enjoy the inevitable UB40 comparisons

hour-long podcast interview with bob, talks a lot about jews: http://vishkhanna.com/2015/02/18/ep-165-bob-nastanovich-of-silver-jews/

apparently berman doesn't have wifi in his house because he believes it inhibits creativity, so he goes to coffee shops in Nashville to get his fix

I read something about how lack of boredom in the post-iPhone era is affecting creativity. He's probably onto something.

he also says berman is looking and feeling well and sounds like all the pieces are in place to make shit happen

oh man, the quote that's basically like "he's discovered that there are a lot of very funny people on the internet these days..."

Having a major Silver Jews phase after "rediscovering" them while drunk. When I say "rediscovering" I mean "seeing a CD on the shelf and happening to play it". But I really, really am enjoying them.

CD-R80: A Silver Jews Compilation

What If Not Could Be If
Night Society
Like Like The The The Death
Inside The Golden Age of Missing You
I Remember Me
Ballad of Reverend War Character
The Frontier Index
How To Rent A Room
People
Dallas
Black and Brown Blues
Albermarle Station
Random Rules
Federal Dust
Send In The Clouds
The Wild Kindness
Pet Politics
Honk If You're Lonely
Smith and Jones, Forever
Strange Victory, Strange Defeat
The Right To Remain Silent

* Compiled from "Bright Flight", "Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea", "The Natural Bridge" and "American Water".

Would anything make it on from "Starlite Walker", "Tanglewood Numbers" or "Early Times"?

Sorely missing New Orleans, Advice to the Graduate, Trains Across the Sea, and Punks in the Beerlight off the top of my head.

I'm Getting Back into Getting Back into You, How Can I Love You If You Won't Lie Down, and Sleeping Is the Only Love from Tanglewood are three of my favorites

v fond of starlite walker

New Orleans, Advice to the Graduate, Trains Across the Sea

otm, especially new orleans & trains across the sea

Marvellous. Ta.

"there is a place" closes tanglewood numbers on kind of the same oracular high as "the wild kindness" does american water

http://gothamist.com/2015/08/30/rick_berman_times_square_billboard_fast_food.php

Oh God, David's dad is up to it again...

Found the Silver Jew doc on youtube last weekend, the one that's about their 2006 tour through Israel, but is really just a prelude to the scene of David crying through a prayer at the wailing wall (in a trucker hat). Other scenes of honorable mention include the shopping for dog toys scene, and the broom shopping scene. Both good scenes also.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5fb3vD4uYU

Bob N. talks state o' Silver Jews and Pavement, but it's a video, and my inboxes are crammed stuck w those; watch it and tell me what he says, okay? Thanks in advance.
http://consequenceofsound.net/video/exclusive-bob-nastanovich-offers-update-on-silver-jews-and-pavement/

Basically the only news there is that Berman's writing lyrics for other bands now.

You'll learn more from this: http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/music/ct-bob-nastanovich-ott-0401-20160325-story.html

appreciate that, rc

My pleasure.

I kinda wish Bob could find a new, raw band to be part of, you know? (Though the other news in that video is that his hearing's pretty bad now.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5fb3vD4uYU
wasn't aware of this til now

📹
wasn't aware of this til now

Ah nice! I've been wanting to see that.

sunny, i searched "david berman" on twitter, hoping to find out what's he's been up to lately (didn't uncover much), and saw this mentioned in a random tweet

I believe he is in Cali writing a screenplay

Anyone has seen the documentary about his tour in Israel?

Yeah it’s on YouTube!

https://youtu.be/K5fb3vD4uYU

lol oops it's already there a couple of posts back

Probably where I saw it in the first place

I liked Lookout Mountain/Lookout Sea well enough to give it an Hon Mention on my 10th Annual Nashville Scene Poll ballot ("an EP's-worth, anyway," of the good stuff, but that's what I think about most albums I like). Don't know what he thinks now, but on Rolling Country 2008, leading Scene scribe Edd Hurt went from
Meanwhile, the new Silver Jews Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea is as lugubrious as before but with a, you have to admit it, real sense of humor and some real interesting textures. The thing is, I could as easily hear these particular words, even "Aloysius, Bluegrass Drummer" done over some improvised drone or big punk chords as well as over the country-whatever he's cobbled together here.
to
I think I was wrong about Silver Jews' record; the guy or whoever made the thing did some real interesting music, the old Velvet Underground vibe, and I guess Berman actually did try to match words to music and write "country songs," and he strikes me as one of those guys for whom everything be funny and nothing is, you know. Anyway, some cool sounds on Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea.

re "the old Velvet Underground vibe," I think Edd might agree with me that "Pale Blue Eyes" is a country classick. Here's still hoping for a Willie Nelson & Lee Ann Womack duet---if she declined, LeAnn Rimes 'ud jump on it, I feel sure---c'mon Willie, time's a-wastin'!

The SJ song "Honk if You're Lonely" always struck me as kind of a country cousin to VU's "After Hours."

Yeah---somebody told me they thought of the Silos as countryside of the VU too---of course there are obvious Velvets like "Lonesome Cowboy Bill," "Train Comin' Round The Bend," some stuff on the live double-LP Paul Nelson put together from the 1969 Texas shows, like the slow "Sweet Jane" with lyrics that didn't make the Loaded version (and Cowboy Junkies' medicated dream dirge)

since her dad, a local barber, had been beaten to death/she had become a vocal martyr in the vegan press

Think this was mentioned on another thread, but there was a bit of news in a recent Malkmus interview:

I heard that there's a new Silver Jews record that's in the works, and that you may have made an appearance on it up in Canada. That is not verified, but we did some demos up there. And there are songs that are good songs, but they have not been laid to tape as I know it. Unless it's happening right now.

Would you go back up to play on it? It's not going to be in Canada if it happens, and I don't know. It depends on what the situation is. If it's really going to happen or not. There's potential. The songs exist. They're awesome. They've been vetted through multiple rewrites, and I think that almost all the lines have been put through Google to make sure no one's said them before in any way, shape, or form. (Laughs)

Oh, Google Purity! I remember that. Yeah, it's happening. It's happening in Silver Jews world. We're filthy that way, it's not going to happen with our record. So I think...I'm hoping. All I can say is I'm hoping. I'm not talking much about it. I've been told to just keep it on the down low, whatever's happening. I know there are songs, and they are good. I've heard them.

http://gothamist.com/2018/05/22/stephen_malkmus_interview_sparkle.php

Cana-daaaaahhhhhh

The rumor I heard a while back from some random dude on a Facebook group was that he was recording with Dan Bejar, so now that recording in Canada has been confirmed I don't feel quite as bad about spreading it.

That’s a very beardy combo.

i don't know if this has been posted anywhere else but this seems to be the main Silver Jews thread:

https://variety.com/2019/music/news/david-berman-dead-dies-silver-jews-1203296128/

David Berman, a singer-songwriter who formed the 1990s indie group Silver Jews as well as creating poetry and cartoons, has died, according to music label Drag City. He was 52. Musician Joe Pernice tweeted that he died by suicide.

FUCK this sucks!

RIP

Purple Mountains

we've been talking about it on the purple mountains thread

i don't know Purple Mountains at all, lol. was a HUGE Silver Jews fan however

anyways carry on...

it was his new project that just released an album that is well worth checking out for any silver jews fan

really like the purple mountains record

People ask people to watch their scotch

They’re playing SJ at the bar !

Yr third drink will lead you astray

Amateur hour over here

A Pavement ad from back when they were called Jivement and sounded like bees pic.twitter.com/a7vPdIfKzU

— Matthew Perpetua (@perpetua) February 9, 2021

"Cokehead Quentin Compsons," that's some good stuff.

More Berman ephemera over here: https://doomandgloomfromthetomb.tumblr.com/post/642202376899624960/david-berman-stephen-malkmus-bob-nastanovich

P3rp3tu@ didn't realize it was DCB until it was explained to him in the comments which is uh... par for the course.

he hates berman, right? questionable.

I think so, he just also has some really baffling (trying not to say "wrong") opinions for a guy who has been writing about music for as long as he has.

singing by: Meg Baird Bill MacKay Cory Hanson Cassie Berman David Pajo David Grubbs Matt Kinsey Haley Fohr Emmett Kelly Todd Rittmann Alasdiar Roberts Matt Sweeney George Xylouris Azita Youssefi Sean O’Hagan Ben Chasny Elisa Ambrogio Bill Callahanhttps://t.co/x6hEaBuc1k

— will oldham (@signifyingwolf) February 19, 2021

Wonderful.

<3

That’s an intense one to listen to in the middle of winter.

Holding up the trousers with extension cords

The drums March along like an iv drip like a muffler dragged down the strip !!!

I saw the river playing in the valley
Rushing round a bend and skipping stones
I saw the meadow wobble In the moonlight
I’ve come to get my girl and take her home

The doorbell plays a bar of Stephen Foster

xp That part always gets me.

I still try to write lyrics as I’ve done for 20 years now and it’s mostly cause this dude keeps me hungry

I had never seen the TV clip in this Instagram post… fairly bizarre

lmao

holy fuck

what a piece of work.

Here's the original story that instagram account stole: https://www.brooklynvegan.com/micheal-sheen-sang-silver-jews-how-can-i-love-you-if-you-wont-lie-down-on-last-nights-the-good-fight/

Check out what Lana’s listening to

seems many of the top recording artists of the day are only now discovering the late, great Silver Jews

Just discovered the band Silver Jews. Fantastic songs! RIP David Berman.

— John Hinckley (@JohnHinckley20) May 4, 2023

Thanks to my gf for putting on a car playlist recently that had a couple Purple Mountains tracks on it. It made me realize that enough time has passed for this record to be fun again <³

I also revisited it a few weeks ago (for the first time in forever), and – as good as the album is – it felt to me like it’s not “meant” to be listened to as anything other than a tragic document. Just incredibly sad stuff (a few songs in particular)…

Night Society is one of the best instrumental tracks ever.
They are also referenced in a song by the band Why?

it is indeed.

did it also have a life as a Pavement jam that never turned into a song? i seem to vaguely recall that ... maybe someone else can confirm.

SJ w/ SM is my favorite SJ, but also DCB was smart to move away from SM when he did.

When was that? SM played on every other SJ album (as in, played on one then skipped the next)…

(co-wrote at least one song, too)

Pavement Jews ftw

i'm sorry, i have my history wrong, obviously, and my memory has failed me.

i thought they made American Water, then DCB got frustrated w/ the "side talk" stuff and he went and made Natural Bridge w/ other people, and then on from there. i had those two in the wrong order, and i did *not* realize Bob and SM were on Tanglewood Numbers.

my apologies! i believe myself to be a big fan of all involved but blew it here! :) (i'm getting old.)

You are forgiven!!

:)

I think it's important to remember that Pavement is a Silver Jews spin-off band.

isn't it more accurate to say they're both Ectoslavia spinoff bands?

and yet maybe pavement was a sin-off band of the silver jews who were a spin-off band of Ectoslavia who were a spinoff band of Bag O' Bones.

v. obscure trivia but Spiral was using the name Pavement for a band when he was living in Tempe AZ with 3 other randos, a couple years before Slay Tracks.

so even Pavement is a Pavement-spinoff.

Hi SS!

-SS

Steve Shasta = Spiral

that's my theory

It’s too bad that War Comet never moved beyond the loosely conceptual stage.

Haha shut my mouth https://archive.org/details/warcomet19931110

Hey, that's cool, thx (these are Silver Jews songs, tho... so it's basically the Joos with West swapped in for Bob?)

West was a member of the Jews around that time, from the Starlite Walker reissue liners:

"Starlite Walker was an Oxford, Mississippi record. David resided on the outskirts of town at the time. He was renting a tiny building that was part of a professor's chemistry lab in the woods. He paid $100 a month. It was mildly suspicious. Stephen and I went there to rehearse for about five days. Oxford is a beautiful town. There are lots of beautiful people. We were well. Peaking physically. We built songs around David's words. David had just about all of his lyrics written down in a notebook. When we were 70% ready, we headed up to Easley Studios in Memphis (which burned to the ground a few years ago). Doug and Davis were ready for us. They were cool and it was welcoming. Steve West joined us on the songs that we needed a 'real' drummer. I just wasn't good enough. It didn't bother me. I was proud of my drums on "Trains Across The Sea" and my moog on "New Orleans." We didn't have any significant problems recording and it turned out well. Our host Sherman Willmott (we stayed above his record shop in a small apartment) did a marvelous job of keeping barbecue sauce on our faces the whole time. I gained six pounds. Upon completing Starlite Walker, Silver Jews felt like a band instead of a project. We became formidable.

Bob Nastanovich
2/7/11
Des Moines, Iowa

I've never liked "The Walnut Falcon" too much... :/

SS! Missed you! <3 SS

My favourite SJ song is Suffering Jukebox

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kT_YIk-a8jU

Can anyone ID the final song in that War Comet set? I’ve never heard it before.

sounds like an improvised jam.

src: someone who listened to a lot of pavement improvised jams around that time.

was watching this old Harmony Korine/Gaspar Noe documentary and caught off guard by the Berman cameo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYiN2um9-Zs

Bless you, WBF, but you just posted a YouTube video that's 52 minutes long.

I'm going to take your word on the cameo.

It's in the first few minutes, although he kind of looks like an alternate universe David Berman.

9:00

Bob Nastanovich is with David there but doesn't get the call out.

haha - I didn't even catch Bob there!

Kind of off topic, but is Ryan Davis on anyone's radar? The album this song is from came out last year but I'd never heard of him (or his previous band, State Champion) until the Quietus reviewed the album a couple weeks ago. I have to assume Berman is a major influence, but Davis + bandmates actually put that influence to good use and take it interesting places. And Berman even said "he's the best lyricist who's not a rapper going," back in 2018, apparently.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YyHctZs5n8s

Maybe should have started a dedicated Ryan Davis thread but posting here for now since my point is basically that Joos fans should check this guy out if they haven't already.

Yes, liking this album a lot. Doing dates with MJ Lenderman, which will be a great bill.

His label Sophomore Lounge puts out some good stuff including the new Ned Collette, Lou Turner, Styrofoam Winos, and a bit oddly, Bill Direen/Bilders.

yeah, i love his label more than this record, but obviously lots of people love the record ... it has gotten great reviews and ppl seem to still be discovering it.

State Champion ruled. Fantasy Error is prob my favorite album of the century.

somebody should make a ryan davis / sophomore lounge thread and post all their favs

^

Ryan Davis thread: State Champion, Roadhouse Band, the Sophomore Lounge label, etc.

Thread started, hoping people will post their favorite stuff

Just put on some Silver Jews favorites yesterday for the first time in years. I've found him really hard to listen to since his death.

I Remember Me is an all-time great song imo. Put it in the time capsule.

That might be the song that has misted me up the most.

I get choked up even when the first line hits. "They slow danced so the needle wouldn't skip/until the room was filled with light" is such a great description of falling in love.

That song gets me emotional every time I hear it and has for 23 years.

Purple Mountains 5 years old today

He said you are the highest apple on the tree

I find it really, really hard to listen to Purple Mountains (and did even before his passing, when I was listening to it for a review). It’s just so raw.

Yeah, I feel the same. Great album but I'm not sure I'll ever listen to it again.

I Loved Being My Mother's Son is impossible for me to listen to. I never get moved quite like that by songs. The album is so catchy though, and I always end up stuck on those grim lyrics. He was so brilliant.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CStDjTZnh2s

I was at this show. Probably the only person I could imagine doing it justice.