― The Lady Ms Lurex (lucylurex), Saturday, 6 November 2004 19:10 (nineteen years ago) link
― jed_ (jed), Saturday, 6 November 2004 19:19 (nineteen years ago) link
― jed_ (jed), Saturday, 6 November 2004 19:30 (nineteen years ago) link
"I saw BB King on General Hospital/in the Cleveland dramhouse where we stayed"
"When the governor dies, the state bird falls from his branch"
"Oh Dallas you shine with an evil light (2x)/How'd you turn a billion steers into buildings made of mirrors/and why am I drawn to you tonight?"
"My ski-vest has buttons like convenience store mirrors and they help me see/that everything in the room right now is a part of me"
"I didn't really wanna die, I only wanted to die in your eyes/grant me one last wish/life should mean a lot less than this"
I'm quoting from memory, so I can't remember it all, but the one about "that tan-line on your ring finger"
"My mother named me after a king/I'm gonna bury my name in you"
― Hurting (Hurting), Saturday, 6 November 2004 22:00 (nineteen years ago) link
― Hurting (Hurting), Saturday, 6 November 2004 22:03 (nineteen years ago) link
smog: "i'm going to be drunk/ so drunk/ at your wedding"
― duke streggae, Saturday, 6 November 2004 22:05 (nineteen years ago) link
Some that come to mindThe drums march along at the clip of an ivory drip like sparks from a muffler dragged down the strip, uh huhWhen the sun sets on the ghetto all the broken stuff gets coldYou can't change the feeling but you can change the feelings about the feeling in a second or two, uh uh huhBlue birds lodged in an evergreen altar--I'm gonna shine out in the wild kindness
He writes really good lyrics.
― steve hise, Saturday, 6 November 2004 22:06 (nineteen years ago) link
"When God was young, he made the wind and the sun/But since then, it's been a slow education"
"He was a rebel jew, he was a rebel jew, and he died for you, and your sins/he was a rebel jew, he was a rebel jew, let him in"
― Hurting (Hurting), Saturday, 6 November 2004 22:08 (nineteen years ago) link
I prefer the more strangely poignant, simple ones like that. It's like, Yeah, man, that's totally true! Fuck.
― Roger Fidelity (Roger Fidelity), Saturday, 6 November 2004 22:16 (nineteen years ago) link
― Hurting (Hurting), Saturday, 6 November 2004 22:18 (nineteen years ago) link
I don't agree with this about Berman. I always feel like there's something more to them than just being clever nonsense -- at very least it's clever nonsense that always gives the impression of approaching meaning, of some sort of weight. This is what separates him for me from other *indie* songwriters that do silly lyrics.
― Hurting (Hurting), Saturday, 6 November 2004 22:25 (nineteen years ago) link
― mattp, Saturday, 6 November 2004 23:22 (nineteen years ago) link
"I could tell you things about this wallpaper /that you'd never ever wanna know"
― Roger Fidelity (Roger Fidelity), Saturday, 6 November 2004 23:26 (nineteen years ago) link
I wish they didn't put mirrors behind the barcuz I can't stand to look at my facewhen I don't know where you are
What if life is just some hard equationon a chalkboard in a science class for ghosts
― mcd (mcd), Saturday, 6 November 2004 23:31 (nineteen years ago) link
― mcd (mcd), Saturday, 6 November 2004 23:32 (nineteen years ago) link
time cum sand and surfthese are the building building blocksof life
I know you laughedwhen I leftbut you really only hurt yourself
Now there's a lot of things that I'm gonna misslike thunder down country and the way water drips
If cars could run on teardropsI'd be long long gone
When I was summoned to the phoneI know in my bones that you had died alone
the things that you do will always make your mama cry
Smog doesn't really have a lot of one-liners, his songs work much better as coherent (compared to Berman, anyway) narratives, although lines like "I was a teenage smog/sewn to the sky" and "my father said to me/but you can't swim/and I never dreamed/of the sea again" have brought me to tears based on the power of the image alone.
― D.J. Anderson, Sunday, 7 November 2004 10:41 (nineteen years ago) link
― 57 7th (calstars), Sunday, 7 November 2004 13:18 (nineteen years ago) link
My favorite Berman lines are all in Self Portrait At 28 in Actual Air.
― David Allen (David Allen), Sunday, 7 November 2004 15:48 (nineteen years ago) link
― Mark (MarkR), Sunday, 7 November 2004 23:15 (nineteen years ago) link
― Raw Patrick (Raw Patrick), Sunday, 7 November 2004 23:26 (nineteen years ago) link
― Roger Fidelity (Roger Fidelity), Monday, 8 November 2004 00:01 (nineteen years ago) link
― f ath, Monday, 8 November 2004 00:07 (nineteen years ago) link
Best one-liner live:He had just read a longer piece with a lot of sexualized imagery, though not succinctly "about" anything so concrete, when, in the same breath he drawn to read the last line of the poem he says "That one was about a handjob."
That was very very good.
― Sonny, Ah!!1 (Sonny A.), Monday, 8 November 2004 01:42 (nineteen years ago) link
― maracas (maracas), Monday, 8 November 2004 16:36 (nineteen years ago) link
"Tanning beds explode with rich women inside."
― joseph cotten (joseph cotten), Monday, 8 November 2004 18:52 (nineteen years ago) link
Robot walks into a bar / Orders a drink, lays down a bill / Man says I'm sorry we don't serve robots / The robot says, "Oh, but someday you will"
― southern lights (southern lights), Monday, 8 November 2004 18:56 (nineteen years ago) link
Bumping this thread for "souvenirs only reminded you of buying them" from Governors on Sominex in Actual Air
― Kath, Friday, 9 May 2008 09:32 (fifteen years ago) link
Yeah, that's a killer line. When is that new album out again? I hope he does another book.
― Savannah Smiles, Friday, 9 May 2008 09:40 (fifteen years ago) link
About a month I think. It's one of the best things of 08 IMO and there are some pearlers on it
― DJ Mencap, Friday, 9 May 2008 09:57 (fifteen years ago) link
"I throw my thoughts like tomahawks into this world which I disown" is such a badass line.
― circa1916, Friday, 9 May 2008 18:28 (fifteen years ago) link
^^^ yes. also loves when he says "what looks like sleep is really hot pursuit" in that one
― mizzell, Friday, 9 May 2008 18:30 (fifteen years ago) link
I love all of Aloysius, Bluegrass Drummer especially
Aloysius woke at 5 am and the hungry girl was gone There was blood on the bedding, forks in the ceiling and bones all over the lawn
― mizzell, Friday, 9 May 2008 18:33 (fifteen years ago) link
new album sux
― iiiijjjj, Saturday, 10 May 2008 01:00 (fifteen years ago) link
You're crazy
― If Assholes Could Fly This Place Would Be An Airport, Saturday, 10 May 2008 05:54 (fifteen years ago) link
you probably like Band of Horses
anyone have anything to say about the new jews record? i had lost all faith after tanglewood numbers, which i found for the most part crushingly dull and oddly charmless, but having heard the jukebox one several times on the radio i'm ready for berman's rumours. am i about to be disappointed?
― cw, Wednesday, 28 May 2008 12:18 (fifteen years ago) link
That's kind of how i felt about tanglewood numbers, but haven't heard the new one
― Hurting 2, Wednesday, 28 May 2008 12:46 (fifteen years ago) link
i think the new one is quite good. but i need some more listens for a valid verdict. just heard a couple of the songs at the concert and heard the album maybe twice.
― alex in mainhattan, Wednesday, 28 May 2008 13:03 (fifteen years ago) link
DB is on the new avalanches album!
― calstars, Wednesday, 6 July 2016 23:30 (seven years ago) link
is it cowboy eclipse ? that's a beautiful poem. 'it gets late so early, now'
― schlump, Wednesday, 6 July 2016 23:34 (seven years ago) link
IDK why I woke up with "San Francisco B.C." stuck in my head today. I go back and forth on the rest of Lookout Mountain, but that song certainly deserves a spot in the canon (... the canon of what, though? not for me to decide)
So many evocative turns of phrase: dollhouse lightning, fist cuisine, sarcastic hair, a jeweler's hands and a blurry face.
Best of all, there are moments on the record when Dave is so clearly having FUN... just like the crooks in the movies when they do that bit.
― bernard snowy, Sunday, 21 January 2018 14:01 (six years ago) link
he said the power of metal will never be harnessedI thought the wages of metal should be heavily garnished
that's not bad. but it's still the only Silver Jews song that's a They Might Be Giants song
― del griffith, Sunday, 21 January 2018 16:43 (six years ago) link
When they turn on the chair something’s added to the air
― Mule, Sunday, 21 January 2018 19:25 (six years ago) link
Forevah
― calstars, Sunday, 21 January 2018 19:50 (six years ago) link
What’s “swa disantra “ anyway? Anyone know?
― calstars, Sunday, 21 January 2018 19:51 (six years ago) link
"soi-disant roi"... pretty sure it's a call-back to the title of REM's "World Leader Pretend".
― Jersey Al (Albert R. Broccoli), Monday, 22 January 2018 01:41 (six years ago) link
Oh, neat. Thanks Al
― calstars, Monday, 22 January 2018 01:53 (six years ago) link
How long can a world go on under such a subtle God?How long can a world go on with no word from God?
― longtime caller, first time listener (man alive), Thursday, 8 August 2019 14:32 (four years ago) link
Life finds a limit at the edge of our bodies
― longtime caller, first time listener (man alive), Thursday, 8 August 2019 14:35 (four years ago) link
day after day up on this beautiful stagewe've been playing tambourine for minimum wage
― del griffith, Thursday, 8 August 2019 15:59 (four years ago) link
But nothing can change the fact that we used to share a bed
― flappy bird, Thursday, 8 August 2019 17:09 (four years ago) link
Still wearin' last night's mascaraNow that her pet was gone for sureShe was shiverin' so hardIt looked like there were two of her
― ☮ (peace, man), Thursday, 8 August 2019 17:13 (four years ago) link
moments can be monuments to youIf your life is interesting and trueIt's just the same for a man or a girlThe meaning of the world lies outside the world
― jakey mo collier (voodoo chili), Thursday, 8 August 2019 17:38 (four years ago) link
the alleys are the footnotes of the avenues
― J. Sam, Friday, 9 August 2019 13:26 (four years ago) link
holding up their trousers with extension cords
― jakey mo collier (voodoo chili), Friday, 9 August 2019 14:11 (four years ago) link
I suspect we could be losing now. Please guard my bed.
― Mule, Friday, 9 August 2019 14:17 (four years ago) link
instead of time there will be latenessand let forever be delayed
― J. Sam, Friday, 9 August 2019 16:46 (four 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
― 60... 90... 120 Minute IPA (morrisp), Friday, 9 August 2019 19:47 (four years ago) link
:)
― dell (del), Friday, 9 August 2019 19:48 (four years ago) link
this happy hour has got us by the balls
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Monday, 12 August 2019 19:33 (four years ago) link
Songs build little rooms in timeAnd housed within the song’s designIs the ghost the host has left behindTo greet and sweep the guest insideStoke the fire and sing his lines
― tylerw, Monday, 12 August 2019 19:34 (four years ago) link
his brother who was missing the part of the brain that let's you make out with your pillow
― chr1sb3singer, Monday, 12 August 2019 19:45 (four years ago) link
I passed an abandoned drive-inWith ivy growing over the screenIt was like I caught Hollywood sleeping-Asleep without the dreams
― Heez, Monday, 12 August 2019 19:55 (four years ago) link
if your dreams are your body telling you it's confusedthen I've got a dream I think you could use
― del griffith, Monday, 12 August 2019 19:59 (four years ago) link
All this new technologywill eventually give us new feelingsthat will never completely displace the old onesleaving everyone feeling quite nervousand split in two.
― chr1sb3singer, Monday, 12 August 2019 20:04 (four years ago) link
no one should have two livesnow you know my middle names are wrong and righthoney we've got two lives to give tonight
― del griffith, Monday, 12 August 2019 20:08 (four years ago) link
When you feel that first ice cold twist in the windWill you hang a lamp at the end of the lane?
― ☮ (peace, man), Monday, 12 August 2019 22:54 (four years ago) link
Holding hands, starlit walksMaking plans, silly talkAll I see are couples in the streetI always had a hunchI would crumble in the crunchYeah, maybe I'm the only one for me
― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 12 August 2019 22:58 (four years ago) link
^That one was co-written with Dan Auerbach, so I'm not sure how much of it was him and how much of it was DCB. A great song regardless!
― Auld Drink of Misery (zchyrs), Tuesday, 13 August 2019 16:03 (four years ago) link
it was from an aborted attempt at auerbach to produce the record, he must have contributed enough to the chord progression or arrangement to get a credit, but if auerbach could write lyrics like that i'd imagine he'd have done it at least once before in his life
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Tuesday, 13 August 2019 16:08 (four years ago) link
hahah fair enough, I'm actually pretty unfamiliar with his stuff, never been a Black Keys fan, etc.
― Auld Drink of Misery (zchyrs), Tuesday, 13 August 2019 16:14 (four years ago) link
We’re off to the land of club soda unbridledWe’re off to the land of hot middle-aged women
― J. Sam, Wednesday, 14 August 2019 13:24 (four years ago) link