Not sure this is the case, but if you tell someone who has cleaned up their act that their new music is half-assed...
― ... (Eazy), Sunday, 21 July 2019 04:38 (four years ago) link
I think Berman's reaction makes more sense if you remember just how bad Pitchfork and the media ecosystem that had developed around it were by 2008. Their ability to make or break indie acts with a single review was at an all-time high, but the level of actual engagement with the music in those reviews had ebbed. Dan Bejar registers this same phenomenon in his weird "Grief Point" monologue, speaking about an album that came out the same year as Lookout Mountain and received a similarly lazy and disinterested, pro forma good review from PF:
The message from the critical reception of [Trouble in] Dreams was quite clear: We will not be listening to you any further.
― Keep poltiics OUT of Dancing!!!! (bernard snowy), Sunday, 21 July 2019 10:52 (four years ago) link
(Btw I just looked up the Pitchfork review of that Destroyer record and it's truly pathetic, just a bunch of indie rock horse-trading and market analysis. The reviewer wastes multiple paragraphs drawing parallels between Bejar's career arc and Guided By Voices, a band that his band sounds nothing like, a band that at that point had been broken up for 4 or 5 years. The concluding paragraph tells us "I caught only one pun, two snippets of others' famous lyrics, and two references to other bands" but I guess the writer+editor thought readers of this review would be more interested in William Bowers's parodies of GbV song titles than in knowing, e.g., that one of those famous lyrics is Crystal Waters' "Gypsy Woman (She's Homeless)". I could go on, I won't.
― Keep poltiics OUT of Dancing!!!! (bernard snowy), Sunday, 21 July 2019 11:16 (four years ago) link
I was talking to one of the screenwriters of Top Gun 2 after its Comic-Con panel last weekend. Turns out the guy is a big Purple Mountains fan, believe it or not. He told me he managed to work in a last-minute line for Aging Maverick to say: "I feel the need... the need to speed into the lead suddenly decline."
Anyway, this album is basically unruinable for me, and that's good, because otherwise the sound of that third line being snuck into "Nights That Won't Happen" as an obvious last-minute overdub might've just shot the whole thing down for me like a MiG over the Indian Ocean.
― del griffith, Thursday, 25 July 2019 19:13 (four years ago) link
How does PM come up in conversation with an action movie screenwriter?
― calstars, Thursday, 25 July 2019 19:24 (four years ago) link
Easy, it's all I talk about anymore. Also, he writes rom-coms too.
― del griffith, Thursday, 25 July 2019 19:33 (four years ago) link
Was listening to the album on headphones in a small shop then took them off to hear 'Darkness And Cold' playing on their speakers. Felt nice, can't say that has ever happened before, strange for it to be a Berman-related experience
― PaulTMA, Thursday, 25 July 2019 19:36 (four years ago) link
Paul, you're gonna wanna register that here, I think.
Obscure Singles Heard at CVS
I know "Darkness and Cold" is the single with the video starring Steve McNair, but I hadn't picked up on the "first and goal" football reference in "All My Happiness is Gone" until someone pointed it out to me this morning.
Fittingly, I'm very proud of myself for being the only one I know so far to have discovered the lil reference to Starlite Walker in "Maybe I'm the Only One for Me."
― del griffith, Thursday, 25 July 2019 19:59 (four years ago) link
I wonder how many clicks per week pitchfork would lose if they did away with patronizing aspies by summarizing works of art on a numerical scale.
please don' talk like this on this board or elsewhere. instead, choose not to be an asshole. thanks.
― she carries a torch. two torches, actually (Joan Crawford Loves Chachi), Thursday, 25 July 2019 20:07 (four years ago) link
You're right that I shouldn't have used the a-word there, but I do think numerical ratings does a great disservice to the written language. Which is kind of the whole point of a review.
― del griffith, Thursday, 25 July 2019 20:09 (four years ago) link
Excuse me, do! Do a great disservice to it. Heh
― del griffith, Thursday, 25 July 2019 20:10 (four years ago) link
I agree with you on that point massively actually, I think numerical ratings as a default did irreparable damage to music criticism
― she carries a torch. two torches, actually (Joan Crawford Loves Chachi), Thursday, 25 July 2019 20:11 (four years ago) link
i give this album 5 bag of popcorn
― bookmarkflaglink (jim in vancouver), Thursday, 25 July 2019 20:12 (four years ago) link
and a grape Fanta
― del griffith, Thursday, 25 July 2019 20:20 (four years ago) link
Anyway, this album is basically unruinable for me, and that's good, because otherwise the sound of that third line being snuck into "Nights That Won't Happen" as an obvious last-minute overdub might've just shot the whole thing down for me like a MiG over the Indian Ocean.โย del griffith,ย Thursday, 25 July 2019 21:13
โย del griffith,ย Thursday, 25 July 2019 21:13
I hadn't noticed that. Now I'll hear it every time. Thanks for ruining this album for me forever (joke)
― Duke, Thursday, 25 July 2019 20:30 (four years ago) link
DB albums have always had weird, obvious overdubs. Which is why I find it so strange he left the weak go of the first line of the album.
I agree it's great though.
― kraudive, Thursday, 25 July 2019 21:34 (four years ago) link
Hadn't caught that, thanks for pointing it out! I'm a little surprised I haven't seen anyone note how Snow Is Falling in Manhattan is kind of an extension of "We're trapped inside the song."
Anyway I love this album and I'd say the first five tracks are a perfect album side.
― Vaguely Threatening CAPTCHAs, Thursday, 25 July 2019 21:41 (four years ago) link
Finally listened to this in full... I dig it (natch), and can also see why he used a different moniker this time around; somehow it doesn't feel like a Joos record.
― the last Berry La Croix in the work fridge (morrisp), Thursday, 25 July 2019 22:03 (four years ago) link
Holy fuck.
Just heard from Peyton Pinkerton. I wish it was a sick joke. Our friend David Berman has committed suicide. Devastated beyond words.— Joe Pernice (@JPernicious) August 7, 2019
― self-clowning oven (Murgatroid), Wednesday, 7 August 2019 23:01 (four years ago) link
GODDAMN.
We couldn't be more sorry to tell you this. David Berman passed away earlier today. A great friend and one of the most inspiring individuals we've ever known is gone. Rest easy, David. pic.twitter.com/5n5bctcu4j— ๐ฏ๐๐๐ ๐ฎ๐๐๐ (@dragcityrecords) August 7, 2019
― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 7 August 2019 23:01 (four years ago) link
fuck, awful news
― bookmarkflaglink (jim in vancouver), Wednesday, 7 August 2019 23:07 (four years ago) link
oh no.... goddamn it. what a talent
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Wednesday, 7 August 2019 23:13 (four years ago) link
Fucking hell. RIP
― Simon H., Wednesday, 7 August 2019 23:15 (four years ago) link
what the fucking goddamn fuck
― jakey mo collier (voodoo chili), Wednesday, 7 August 2019 23:19 (four years ago) link
Aw man
― The World According To.... (Michael B), Wednesday, 7 August 2019 23:21 (four years ago) link
:(
― Thus Spoke Darraghustra (Oor Neechy), Wednesday, 7 August 2019 23:27 (four years ago) link
oh fuck
― JoeStork, Wednesday, 7 August 2019 23:32 (four years ago) link
Oh no
― calstars, Wednesday, 7 August 2019 23:33 (four years ago) link
Rest in peace, few as great as him. Felt something so friendly and warm in his voice and words.
― Van Horn Street, Wednesday, 7 August 2019 23:36 (four years ago) link
I was just introducing a friend to his work and life story yesterday. He'll be spoken of long, long after many of his contemporaries are forgotten.
― Simon H., Wednesday, 7 August 2019 23:46 (four years ago) link
Damn.
― โฎ (peace, man), Wednesday, 7 August 2019 23:50 (four years ago) link
wasn't a huge fan but this is such a punch in the stomach after reading a fair amount of the press about this album and the last few years of his life
― call all destroyer, Wednesday, 7 August 2019 23:51 (four years ago) link
Just.... man.
― Lactose Shaolin Wanker (Raymond Cummings), Wednesday, 7 August 2019 23:52 (four years ago) link
โNights That Wonโt Happen,โ christ
― JoeStork, Wednesday, 7 August 2019 23:52 (four years ago) link
Actual Air is a legit great collection of poetry, and it unlocked Berman's catalog for me -- the only artist in my personal history who's ever done so.
― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 7 August 2019 23:53 (four years ago) link
terrible newslife is brutal
― The Ravishing of ROFL Stein (Hadrian VIII), Wednesday, 7 August 2019 23:54 (four years ago) link
Thinking now of his friends, family, bandmates, and how they must be coping or trying to process this.
― Lactose Shaolin Wanker (Raymond Cummings), Wednesday, 7 August 2019 23:54 (four years ago) link
ugh been thinking so much about him the last few months as well, this is awful awful news
― Clay, Wednesday, 7 August 2019 23:56 (four years ago) link
Wow
― husserl gang (rip van wanko), Thursday, 8 August 2019 00:13 (four years ago) link
This is a total fucking crusher
― circa1916, Thursday, 8 August 2019 00:14 (four years ago) link
Dammit.
― Mazzy Tsar (PBKR), Thursday, 8 August 2019 00:21 (four years ago) link
Awful news. RIP DCB
― badg, Thursday, 8 August 2019 00:23 (four years ago) link
ughyh
― ciderpress, Thursday, 8 August 2019 00:27 (four years ago) link
Horrifying I have no words.
― weird woman in a bar (La Lechera), Thursday, 8 August 2019 00:42 (four years ago) link
oof
― gbx, Thursday, 8 August 2019 00:44 (four years ago) link
wasn't a huge fan but this is such a punch in the stomach after reading a fair amount of the press about this album and the last few years of his lifeโ call all destroyer, Wednesday, August 7, 2019 7:51 PM (fifty-six minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink
โ call all destroyer, Wednesday, August 7, 2019 7:51 PM (fifty-six minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink
Me too.Not many songs better than "Random Rules"
― flappy bird, Thursday, 8 August 2019 00:49 (four years ago) link
yes
― Dan S, Thursday, 8 August 2019 00:50 (four years ago) link
horrible
― cheese canopy (map), Thursday, 8 August 2019 01:03 (four years ago) link
fucking hell man. RIP.
― ้พ, Thursday, 8 August 2019 01:09 (four years ago) link
with touring scheduled to start next week, it almost feels like he wanted to prove once more that he could still do it before he decided to travel on
― alpine static, Thursday, 8 August 2019 01:10 (four years ago) link