Silver Jews: Classic or dud

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

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.