Purple Mountains (RIP David Berman, August 2019)

Any interest in measures to overcome vote-splitting?

tbh I'm expecting ppl to gravitate towards "Nights" even without strategery

I think Snow vs Margaritas

I nominated and voted for “Snow.”

I'll certainly vote for "Nights That Won't Happen" either way. Happy to add a further crowd-pleaser...

this is gonna be the ultimate vote splitter. my vote went to 'happiness'

i think it'll get one or two songs on the countdown regardless

just voted for all of em!

Snow will definitely be high on my ballot. Margaritas will be on there somewhere too.

'Snow' seems popular. I'll make that my second PM vote then!

See if you recognize the former ilxor as MC:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vHTXXzdbf6s

The surviving members perform:

Secret Knowledge of Back Roads (Pavement version)
Buckingham Rabbit
Advice to the Graduate
Random Rules
Welcome To The House of the Bats*
Trains Across the Sea

*post-song banter refers to SM wanting Bob to reprise the monologue that Bob did as his first performance on a Pavement record ("Sue Me Jack") in a tribute to his good friends Slint's then-newly-released Spiderland. The monologue lyrics iirc refer to Bob's mom finding a Frederic Remington painting on the cheap somehow. Yes, I know deep Pavement trivia in case you were wondering.

I can't decipher the "Sue Me Jack" monologue, but are you referring to the monologue on "Welcome to the House of the Bats"?

Thanks for sharing that video, btw. And yes, I recognize D. Wolk (I worked w/him a million years ago)

SM asked Bob to do a monologue referencing Remington (i.e. the "Sue Me Jack" bit) during the Bats coda, I'm just providing some trivial background on it.

Cool, I just got to that part in the video (and sorry if I sounded confused -- I was referring to the fact that the Remington monologue can be heard very clearing in the original recording of "House of the Bats"; I didn't realize that the "Sue Me Jack" bit had the same subject, as it's buried so deep in the mix.)

I attended the Portland thing. Was hoping Stephen and Bob would say a bit more about David, but there wasn't much. Ever-guarded Stephen - as you might guess - said basically nothing. Bob had an emotional moment you can watch in the 22nd minute of that video up there.

That pretty much sums the two of them up.

Their relationship and the way it benefitted both of them in Pavement really fascinates me.

That performance was rough.

They didn't practice. The songs are super old and they haven't played them in years. What they did is exactly what I expected (and wanted).

it was great — sounded like early joos.

Another Titans tribute:

https://www.instagram.com/p/B7ZWAIMF3Tr/?igshid=1ns9wfh71uam4

Mentioned it in another thread, but I’d like to hear Pet Shop Boys do “Margaritas at the Mall.”

His passing has received more mention from a professional football team than from the Grammys

goes without saying but the grammys have virtually nothing to do with people who make music

it's like an internal company end of year teambuilding award show that is for some reason televised and watched by millions of people

No mention of Scott Walker, Bushwick Bill, or Mark Hollis on the Grammy memorial segment (and they misspelled Ric Ocasek's name)

Not that any of those people would give a shit, but fans of those people (like me) definitely did

yeah that irked the fuck outta me

the grammies sucks ass and are run by scumbags, wouldn't want them to sully DCB's name by mentioning him

"the grammies sucks ass and are..."

god i am illiterate

"the grammies sucks ass" sounds better and rings truer.

It is one award show.

"Purple Mountains is..." would also work fine.

the more appropriate test of industry integrity will be seeing whether or not DCB gets his three second salute within the obit montage at this November's 54th Annual CMA Awards.

or wait, I guess it's just The CMAs. or maybe just CMA. it's definitely not CMA's, that I know for sure.

actually I think the apostrophe is acceptable in that case, lol

I dunno if we're doing Chicago or APA style but to me it seems more intuitive to use the apostrophe like "Dierk's Bentley was not welcome at the CMAs so the CMA's valet requested he arrive in a muddy pickup truck instead."

long interview from 2018:

https://believermag.com/an-interview-with-david-berman/

That piece is a) brilliant and ii) costing me a bloody fortune (it's FULL of reading recommendations). Along with everything else about Berman, he was a nexus for so much interesting stuff. I wish someone could/would aggregate all of his recommendations.

That interview sure doesn’t make the album (or any of its songs) sound like they were intended as a “suicide note.”

I read https://www.amazon.com/Fourth-Turning-American-Prophecy-Rendezvous/dp/0767900464 [The Fourth Turning: An American Prophecy—What the Cycles of History Tell Us about America’s Next Rendezvous with Destiny] in the nineties.

It really influenced my picture of what 2020 would look like, and 25 years later it looks to me like it’s still on course.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strauss%E2%80%93Howe_generational_theory

It makes a really incredible claim, that four generational

types go round and round every hundred years. That one of these types shows up every 80 years: glorious rev —-> American revolution —-> Civil War —-> Depression —-> WWII —-> today (these are all roughly 80 years apart). In conjunction with a major crisis/meltdown to rebuild society on new terms. So generation Z, in this case, grow up in chaos and develop the characteristics that the WWII generation had—the world conquering abilities. The children of the WWII generation—the silent generation, the baby boomers—grew up coddled in the new regime, and started to tear it down, initiating another meltdown. Any serious person would laugh at this book. Take a look.

nooooooooo david!

it's a great interview, btw (still reading). this just jumped out to me because nooooo

btw the vinyl is back in stock at Drag City for $22 so you don't have to go to scumbag eBay vultures, free shipping even!

It's available again in the UK, too - a bunch of places have it. Norman Records have it's for £20.

how well known would he have been without the pavement connection? i think he may have been virtually unknown

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/a/af/Slidingdoors.jpg/220px-Slidingdoors.jpg

*look of consternation*

how well known would he have been without the pavement connection? i think he may have been virtually unknown

― otm into winter (rip van wanko), Tuesday, February 4, 2020 9:52 AM (twenty-six minutes ago)

This feels anachronistic to me. Around 1991, both bands had been operating in parallel. David, Steve & Bob were roommates in Jersey City goofing around as the Silver Jews while "Pavement" existed as a cross-country project with Steve's friend Scott in Stockton, basically recording when Steve would come home to visit on holidays/occasions. At the time, Pavement had a few obscure singles/EPs that had been primarily zine-worthy, maybe until SPIN hyped up Perfect Sound Forever is when the real buzz (or the Weddoes cover?).

The fact that David was roommates with 2 members of Pavement was simply circumstance as Bob, David & Steve had been playing music together at UVA a few years prior as Ectoslavia (with James McNew & Rob Chamberlain).

David is/was probably as famous as any other Drag City artist not named Pavement. So if you think Royal Trux, Will Oldham, Bill Callahan are "virtually unknown" then maybe you are on to something. But Pavement/Malkmus made the jump from Drag City to Matador at a particularly opportune time, which was a huge factor in the reason for their popularity.

(I'm on a long boring call, apologies if that doesn't make a ton of sense)

why does this matter again? not asking you, Jersey Al, just wondering.

he stopped being virtually unknown 20+ years ago, had a critically acclaimed career that attracted a non-negligible (and passionate) fan base and now he's dead.

it seems particularly silly to try to determine whether he *really* deserved it all or not.

xp

it does make sense, and was interesting to read. you should write the longform pavement story/bio that i'm not sure exists yet

i thought SJ/DB were more popular than bill callahan, but as i compare YT view counts (not exactly definitive, i know) I seem to be wrong

xp: Oh I agree, which is why I stated that the OP's sentiment came from an anachronistic POV.

my question really has nothing to do with Berman's work or value at all

in a subjective sense