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?
― Iago Galdston, Friday, 2 May 2014 22:34 (ten years ago) link
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.
― one way street, Saturday, 3 May 2014 01:28 (ten years ago) link
Thanks, one way street
― Iago Galdston, Saturday, 3 May 2014 01:35 (ten years ago) link
no problem
― one way street, Saturday, 3 May 2014 01:37 (ten years ago) link
Was kind of surreal to hear Marc Maron talking about this stuff...
― Vaguely Threatening CAPTCHAs, Saturday, 3 May 2014 07:02 (ten years ago) link
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
― Iago Galdston, Saturday, 3 May 2014 12:20 (ten years ago) link
http://www.stereogum.com/1728068/silver-jews-had-band-practice-in-nashville-last-night/news/
!!!
― how's life, Thursday, 8 January 2015 16:33 (nine years ago) link
cool news, was hoping berman would get the itch to write songs again.
― tylerw, Thursday, 8 January 2015 16:44 (nine years ago) link
WHAT
― RAP GAME SHANI DAVIS (Raymond Cummings), Thursday, 8 January 2015 16:46 (nine years ago) link
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
― ♪♫_\o/_♫♪ (Karl Malone), Thursday, 8 January 2015 17:00 (nine years ago) link
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, 8 January 2015 17:03 (nine years ago) link
― 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.
― RAP GAME SHANI DAVIS (Raymond Cummings), Thursday, 8 January 2015 17:09 (nine years ago) link
Yeah, agree on both fronts.
― grandavis, Thursday, 8 January 2015 17:12 (nine years ago) link
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.
― tylerw, Thursday, 8 January 2015 17:48 (nine years ago) link
further news: http://www.wonderingsound.com/silver-jew-band-rehearsal-first-new-song-veranda-toy-shoppe-nashville/
― tylerw, Thursday, 8 January 2015 18:42 (nine years ago) link
Yes!!!!!!
― cwkiii, Thursday, 8 January 2015 19:05 (nine years ago) link
xxp I agree on the last record but Tanglewood Numbers is all-time classic imo.
― cwkiii, Thursday, 8 January 2015 19:08 (nine years ago) link
haha you're right -- i just looked at the tanglewood tracklisting and i was like "those songs are all fucking great"
― tylerw, Thursday, 8 January 2015 19:42 (nine years ago) link
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.
― grandavis, Thursday, 8 January 2015 20:11 (nine years ago) link
I've never bothered with the last one before. No good?
― PaulTMA, Thursday, 8 January 2015 23:32 (nine years ago) link
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.
― tender is the late-night daypart (schlump), Friday, 9 January 2015 00:18 (nine years ago) link
faraway gaze of dcb redolent of historic presidents
― tender is the late-night daypart (schlump), Friday, 9 January 2015 00:22 (nine years ago) link
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.
― woof, Friday, 9 January 2015 10:22 (nine years ago) link
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)
― Pair of fun gals argue about the days in a week :-) (DJ Mencap), Friday, 9 January 2015 11:25 (nine years ago) link
I love LMLS. I got a friend of mine into the band on the back of that album
― everyday sheeple (Michael B), Friday, 9 January 2015 11:35 (nine years ago) link
xp HMHB: the English Silver Jews?
― Ratt in Mi Kitchen (Neil S), Friday, 9 January 2015 11:36 (nine years ago) link
Maybe.....There's similarities but Berman likes to poeticise more than HMHB
― everyday sheeple (Michael B), Friday, 9 January 2015 11:39 (nine years ago) link
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
― Pair of fun gals argue about the days in a week :-) (DJ Mencap), Friday, 9 January 2015 11:45 (nine years ago) link
good analogies and I agree neither have anything to prove
― Ratt in Mi Kitchen (Neil S), Friday, 9 January 2015 11:48 (nine years ago) link
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.
― woof, Friday, 9 January 2015 12:07 (nine years ago) link
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.
― Ratt in Mi Kitchen (Neil S), Friday, 9 January 2015 12:26 (nine years ago) link
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
― Pair of fun gals argue about the days in a week :-) (DJ Mencap), Friday, 9 January 2015 13:21 (nine years ago) link
Not as many pop culture references with Silver Jews too
― everyday sheeple (Michael B), Friday, 9 January 2015 13:25 (nine years ago) link
still a fair few though "we saw BB King on General Hospital..." is a favourite line of mine
― Ratt in Mi Kitchen (Neil S), Friday, 9 January 2015 13:42 (nine years ago) link
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.
― RAP GAME SHANI DAVIS (Raymond Cummings), Friday, 9 January 2015 13:44 (nine years ago) link
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."
― $80 is absurd and very ridiculous! (Sufjan Grafton), Friday, 9 January 2015 14:06 (nine years ago) link
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.
― RAP GAME SHANI DAVIS (Raymond Cummings), Friday, 9 January 2015 14:09 (nine years ago) link
Tanglewood Jumbles
― cwkiii, Friday, 9 January 2015 14:16 (nine years ago) link
oops
TN track I ride for:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ieb3qkMHhaw
― RAP GAME SHANI DAVIS (Raymond Cummings), Friday, 9 January 2015 14:24 (nine years ago) link
"I'm Getting Back into Getting Back into You" is probably top 5 Silver Jews for me.
― $80 is absurd and very ridiculous! (Sufjan Grafton), Friday, 9 January 2015 14:26 (nine years ago) link
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.
― cwkiii, Friday, 9 January 2015 14:30 (nine years ago) link
This thread inspired me to put TN on and it's really hitting the spot rn.
TOULOUSE-LAUTREC!
― cwkiii, Friday, 9 January 2015 14:35 (nine years ago) link
find Sleeping is the Only Love a bit of a plod but that "back of an old tv" line is all-time
― woof, Friday, 9 January 2015 14:39 (nine years ago) link
very true
― cwkiii, Friday, 9 January 2015 14:42 (nine years ago) link
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."
― RAP GAME SHANI DAVIS (Raymond Cummings), Friday, 9 January 2015 14:47 (nine years ago) link
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.
― grandavis, Friday, 9 January 2015 15:23 (nine years ago) link
hold the world to its word
― reggie (qualmsley), Friday, 9 January 2015 15:36 (nine years ago) link
http://www.nashvillescene.com/nashvillecream/archives/2015/01/11/david-berman-on-silver-jews-reunion-bob-pulled-a-prank
;_;
― tender is the late-night daypart (schlump), Sunday, 8 February 2015 04:23 (nine years ago) link
not cool, bob
― calstars, Sunday, 8 February 2015 14:14 (nine years ago) link
Lame
― Iago Galdston, Sunday, 8 February 2015 14:38 (nine years ago) link