Silver Jews: Classic or dud

Anyone has seen the documentary about his tour in Israel?

Yeah it’s on YouTube!

https://youtu.be/K5fb3vD4uYU

lol oops it's already there a couple of posts back

Probably where I saw it in the first place

I liked Lookout Mountain/Lookout Sea well enough to give it an Hon Mention on my 10th Annual Nashville Scene Poll ballot ("an EP's-worth, anyway," of the good stuff, but that's what I think about most albums I like). Don't know what he thinks now, but on Rolling Country 2008, leading Scene scribe Edd Hurt went from
Meanwhile, the new Silver Jews Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea is as lugubrious as before but with a, you have to admit it, real sense of humor and some real interesting textures. The thing is, I could as easily hear these particular words, even "Aloysius, Bluegrass Drummer" done over some improvised drone or big punk chords as well as over the country-whatever he's cobbled together here.
to
I think I was wrong about Silver Jews' record; the guy or whoever made the thing did some real interesting music, the old Velvet Underground vibe, and I guess Berman actually did try to match words to music and write "country songs," and he strikes me as one of those guys for whom everything be funny and nothing is, you know. Anyway, some cool sounds on Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea.

re "the old Velvet Underground vibe," I think Edd might agree with me that "Pale Blue Eyes" is a country classick. Here's still hoping for a Willie Nelson & Lee Ann Womack duet---if she declined, LeAnn Rimes 'ud jump on it, I feel sure---c'mon Willie, time's a-wastin'!

The SJ song "Honk if You're Lonely" always struck me as kind of a country cousin to VU's "After Hours."

Yeah---somebody told me they thought of the Silos as countryside of the VU too---of course there are obvious Velvets like "Lonesome Cowboy Bill," "Train Comin' Round The Bend," some stuff on the live double-LP Paul Nelson put together from the 1969 Texas shows, like the slow "Sweet Jane" with lyrics that didn't make the Loaded version (and Cowboy Junkies' medicated dream dirge)

since her dad, a local barber, had been beaten to death/she had become a vocal martyr in the vegan press

Think this was mentioned on another thread, but there was a bit of news in a recent Malkmus interview:

I heard that there's a new Silver Jews record that's in the works, and that you may have made an appearance on it up in Canada. That is not verified, but we did some demos up there. And there are songs that are good songs, but they have not been laid to tape as I know it. Unless it's happening right now.

Would you go back up to play on it? It's not going to be in Canada if it happens, and I don't know. It depends on what the situation is. If it's really going to happen or not. There's potential. The songs exist. They're awesome. They've been vetted through multiple rewrites, and I think that almost all the lines have been put through Google to make sure no one's said them before in any way, shape, or form. (Laughs)

Oh, Google Purity! I remember that. Yeah, it's happening. It's happening in Silver Jews world. We're filthy that way, it's not going to happen with our record. So I think...I'm hoping. All I can say is I'm hoping. I'm not talking much about it. I've been told to just keep it on the down low, whatever's happening. I know there are songs, and they are good. I've heard them.

http://gothamist.com/2018/05/22/stephen_malkmus_interview_sparkle.php

Cana-daaaaahhhhhh

The rumor I heard a while back from some random dude on a Facebook group was that he was recording with Dan Bejar, so now that recording in Canada has been confirmed I don't feel quite as bad about spreading it.

That’s a very beardy combo.

i don't know if this has been posted anywhere else but this seems to be the main Silver Jews thread:

https://variety.com/2019/music/news/david-berman-dead-dies-silver-jews-1203296128/

David Berman, a singer-songwriter who formed the 1990s indie group Silver Jews as well as creating poetry and cartoons, has died, according to music label Drag City. He was 52. Musician Joe Pernice tweeted that he died by suicide.

FUCK this sucks!

RIP

Purple Mountains

we've been talking about it on the purple mountains thread

i don't know Purple Mountains at all, lol. was a HUGE Silver Jews fan however

anyways carry on...

it was his new project that just released an album that is well worth checking out for any silver jews fan

really like the purple mountains record

People ask people to watch their scotch

They’re playing SJ at the bar !

Yr third drink will lead you astray

Amateur hour over here

A Pavement ad from back when they were called Jivement and sounded like bees pic.twitter.com/a7vPdIfKzU

— Matthew Perpetua (@perpetua) February 9, 2021

"Cokehead Quentin Compsons," that's some good stuff.

More Berman ephemera over here: https://doomandgloomfromthetomb.tumblr.com/post/642202376899624960/david-berman-stephen-malkmus-bob-nastanovich

P3rp3tu@ didn't realize it was DCB until it was explained to him in the comments which is uh... par for the course.

he hates berman, right? questionable.

I think so, he just also has some really baffling (trying not to say "wrong") opinions for a guy who has been writing about music for as long as he has.

singing by: Meg Baird Bill MacKay Cory Hanson Cassie Berman David Pajo David Grubbs Matt Kinsey Haley Fohr Emmett Kelly Todd Rittmann Alasdiar Roberts Matt Sweeney George Xylouris Azita Youssefi Sean O’Hagan Ben Chasny Elisa Ambrogio Bill Callahanhttps://t.co/x6hEaBuc1k

— will oldham (@signifyingwolf) February 19, 2021

Wonderful.

<3

That’s an intense one to listen to in the middle of winter.

Holding up the trousers with extension cords

The drums March along like an iv drip like a muffler dragged down the strip !!!

I saw the river playing in the valley
Rushing round a bend and skipping stones
I saw the meadow wobble In the moonlight
I’ve come to get my girl and take her home

The doorbell plays a bar of Stephen Foster

xp That part always gets me.

I still try to write lyrics as I’ve done for 20 years now and it’s mostly cause this dude keeps me hungry

I had never seen the TV clip in this Instagram post… fairly bizarre

lmao

holy fuck

what a piece of work.

Here's the original story that instagram account stole: https://www.brooklynvegan.com/micheal-sheen-sang-silver-jews-how-can-i-love-you-if-you-wont-lie-down-on-last-nights-the-good-fight/

Check out what Lana’s listening to

seems many of the top recording artists of the day are only now discovering the late, great Silver Jews

Just discovered the band Silver Jews. Fantastic songs! RIP David Berman.

— John Hinckley (@JohnHinckley20) May 4, 2023

Thanks to my gf for putting on a car playlist recently that had a couple Purple Mountains tracks on it. It made me realize that enough time has passed for this record to be fun again <³

I also revisited it a few weeks ago (for the first time in forever), and – as good as the album is – it felt to me like it’s not “meant” to be listened to as anything other than a tragic document. Just incredibly sad stuff (a few songs in particular)…

Night Society is one of the best instrumental tracks ever.
They are also referenced in a song by the band Why?

it is indeed.

did it also have a life as a Pavement jam that never turned into a song? i seem to vaguely recall that ... maybe someone else can confirm.

SJ w/ SM is my favorite SJ, but also DCB was smart to move away from SM when he did.

When was that? SM played on every other SJ album (as in, played on one then skipped the next)…