― piers (piers), Monday, 20 September 2004 05:53 (nineteen years ago) link
1.American Water2. Natural Bridge3.Bright Flight4. Starlite Walker
― james, Monday, 20 September 2004 16:44 (nineteen years ago) link
― Taxi Dancing in the Soft Prison (Ben Boyer), Monday, 20 September 2004 16:59 (nineteen years ago) link
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. :(
― adam. (nordicskilla), Monday, 20 September 2004 17:01 (nineteen years ago) link
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..."
― gygax! (gygax!), Monday, 20 September 2004 17:05 (nineteen years ago) link
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.
― jel -- (jel), Monday, 20 September 2004 17:17 (nineteen years ago) link
― David Allen (David Allen), Monday, 20 September 2004 17:51 (nineteen years ago) link
― Taxi Dancing in the Soft Prison (Ben Boyer), Monday, 20 September 2004 17:54 (nineteen years ago) link
― jel -- (jel), Monday, 20 September 2004 18:12 (nineteen years ago) link
― adam. (nordicskilla), Tuesday, 21 September 2004 02:39 (nineteen years ago) link
The "send in the clouds" b-side "Self-Ignition" is classic
― yahtz, Tuesday, 21 September 2004 04:03 (nineteen years ago) link
― morris pavilion (samjeff), Tuesday, 21 September 2004 04:13 (nineteen years ago) link
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.
― G00blar, Sunday, 6 January 2008 23:08 (sixteen years ago) link
Thoughts on new album?
I like 3 or 4 songs a lot.
― wilter, Thursday, 27 March 2008 02:57 (sixteen years ago) link
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.
― wilter, Thursday, 27 March 2008 03:04 (sixteen years ago) link
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.
― If Assholes Could Fly This Place Would Be An Airport, Thursday, 27 March 2008 04:21 (sixteen years ago) link
Oh yeah Suffering Jukebox the wifey sings the chorus? That's a great one too.
― wilter, Thursday, 27 March 2008 04:24 (sixteen years ago) link
Wait...there's a new album? When is it coming out, what's it called? Shit, how did this pass me by?
― Z S, Thursday, 27 March 2008 15:08 (sixteen years ago) link
yah mee too im psyched dling now!
l loved tanglewood numbers - so by far their best
― jhøshea, Thursday, 27 March 2008 15:15 (sixteen years ago) link
I like it.
― Herman G. Neuname, Thursday, 27 March 2008 15:39 (sixteen years ago) link
any sm involvement? american water's by far the bossest
― kamerad, Thursday, 27 March 2008 16:17 (sixteen years ago) link
Really not feeling this much beyond "Suffering Jukebox", "My Pillow is the Threshold", and "San Francisco B.C.".
― jon /via/ chi 2.0, Thursday, 3 April 2008 16:33 (sixteen years ago) link
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?
― whisperineddhurt, Thursday, 3 April 2008 16:47 (sixteen years ago) link
"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
― kamerad, Thursday, 3 April 2008 17:18 (sixteen years ago) link
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..."
― If Assholes Could Fly This Place Would Be An Airport, Thursday, 3 April 2008 18:15 (sixteen years ago) link
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 ... "
― dmr, Thursday, 3 April 2008 18:36 (sixteen years ago) link
Oh shit, I love me some Silver Jews. Gotta get on this.
― circa1916, Thursday, 3 April 2008 23:53 (sixteen years ago) link
I think it's one of his better albums.
― wilter, Friday, 4 April 2008 00:05 (sixteen years ago) link
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.
― circa1916, Friday, 4 April 2008 00:43 (sixteen years ago) link
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
― Mark Rich@rdson, Saturday, 5 April 2008 04:54 (sixteen years ago) link
When the governer's heart fails The state bird falls from its branch
― Mark Rich@rdson, Saturday, 5 April 2008 04:56 (sixteen years ago) link
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.
― Mark Rich@rdson, Saturday, 5 April 2008 04:58 (sixteen years ago) link
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.
― Mark Rich@rdson, Saturday, 5 April 2008 05:01 (sixteen years ago) link
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.
― sonderangerbot, Saturday, 5 April 2008 12:12 (sixteen years ago) link
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
― iago g., Tuesday, 17 June 2008 01:39 (fifteen years ago) link
DB's never really been that into playing live. I'd suggest listening to the records and just ignoring the live stuff.
― Z S, Tuesday, 17 June 2008 01:44 (fifteen years ago) link
Except for the fact that his live show was the best concert I've even been to.
― filthy dylan, Tuesday, 17 June 2008 01:51 (fifteen years ago) link
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
― iago g., Tuesday, 17 June 2008 02:03 (fifteen years ago) link
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.
― mizzell, Tuesday, 17 June 2008 02:13 (fifteen years ago) link
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
― iago g., Tuesday, 17 June 2008 02:19 (fifteen years ago) link
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.
― jonathan - stl, Tuesday, 17 June 2008 02:21 (fifteen years ago) link
maybe off-key and weird, but not that different from he normally sounds
― mizzell, Tuesday, 17 June 2008 02:39 (fifteen years ago) link
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...
― iago g., Tuesday, 17 June 2008 03:14 (fifteen years ago) link
I don't think he sounds bad at all on that pitchfork show. I actually liked the songs better live.
― circa1916, Wednesday, 18 June 2008 02:14 (fifteen years ago) link
all my favorites singers couldn't sing
― Mr. Que, Wednesday, 18 June 2008 02:16 (fifteen years ago) link
:D
― Lowell N. Behold'n, Wednesday, 18 June 2008 06:20 (fifteen years ago) link
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.
― bernard snowy, Wednesday, 18 June 2008 11:44 (fifteen years ago) link
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
― whisperineddhurt, Wednesday, 18 June 2008 12:53 (fifteen years ago) link
what the shit?
― Socktor Duperman (k3vin k.), Friday, 23 January 2009 03:36 (fifteen years ago) link
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.
― pplains, Saturday, 29 July 2023 13:21 (ten months ago) link
It's in the first few minutes, although he kind of looks like an alternate universe David Berman.
― ヽ(´ー`)┌ (CompuPost), Saturday, 29 July 2023 13:22 (ten months ago) link
9:00
― New No-No Bettencourt (Sufjan Grafton), Saturday, 29 July 2023 13:58 (ten months ago) link
Bob Nastanovich is with David there but doesn't get the call out.
― citation needed (Steve Shasta), Saturday, 29 July 2023 16:42 (ten months ago) link
haha - I didn't even catch Bob there!
― Western® with Bacon Flavor, Saturday, 29 July 2023 17:14 (ten months ago) link