― 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
whoa
― J0hn D., Friday, 23 January 2009 03:46 (fifteen years ago) link
whaaaat???
― ice cr?m, Friday, 23 January 2009 03:59 (fifteen years ago) link
wow
― badg, Friday, 23 January 2009 04:05 (fifteen years ago) link
My life has been riddled with Ibsenism.
― PLODwyn pig more like (get bent), Friday, 23 January 2009 04:08 (fifteen years ago) link
am i crazy or is that second post ten times more wtf than the band breaking up?
― Clay, Friday, 23 January 2009 04:10 (fifteen years ago) link
i kinda prefer it when artists announce they're done, rather than just disappearing
― Cooking From A Stovetop (electricsound), Friday, 23 January 2009 04:10 (fifteen years ago) link
http://www.bermanexposed.org/
yeesh, no wonder db was suicidal.
― PLODwyn pig more like (get bent), Friday, 23 January 2009 04:11 (fifteen years ago) link
"what you have become is a major tool... for corporate america." - from 60 minutes.
― PLODwyn pig more like (get bent), Friday, 23 January 2009 04:12 (fifteen years ago) link
That's nuts. It's kind of strange how he felt the need to confess it "now that the Joos are over." I don't see why he couldn't reveal it before and I don't know why he feels the need to reveal it now.
― Joe Bob 1 Tooth (Hurting 2), Friday, 23 January 2009 04:23 (fifteen years ago) link
hmmm (from an old pitchfork interview)
I've never gotten a grant. Well, that's not true. I had a fellowship to go to graduate school. I never had to pay for tuition while I was there and teaching paid your other living expenses. My father paid for my undergraduate tuition. There's this famous story in my family of when my father took me out to eat when I was 18. I had been too lazy to apply to college so he'd had his secretary apply for me late. To the University of Texas and the University of Virginia (because I romanticized Virginia as a kid).
Well, I got into both (Texas was automatic). The tuition difference was large. UT back then was $350 a semester. Virginia was, what $12,000 a year? My dad likes to make games of things. He told me he wanted me to go to UT so I'd be closer to home and said that if I went to UVA he'd pay my tuition but that would be it until death. And four years of health insurance, I guess. Instead, if I chose Texas he'd pay for that plus give me the difference between the two schools' tuitions to live on. I am frankly amazed I chose Virginia. I don't remember my reasoning.
I worked in the morgue at the UVA hospital all through college to pay my rent. In the 15 years since I've graduated he's loaned me $5,000 two times when I was in trouble. The first one in my 20s, which he kindly absolved, and a second one last year trying to get back on my feet. I still owe him that one and I hope this album will enable me to pay him back because he holds it over my head every single time we get into an argument.
I guess I should add that he did pay for my rehab, which I let him, figuring at the time it was his fucking idea, and what did I care?
― velko, Friday, 23 January 2009 04:37 (fifteen years ago) link
woah. he has a book of drawings out on drag city in a couple of months. i liked the new lp but it'd be real sad if it turned into some morrissey thing where people twanged along in the background while he spat bermanisms.
― schlump, Friday, 23 January 2009 04:40 (fifteen years ago) link