Silver Jews: Classic or dud

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.

:)

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.