Purple Mountains (RIP David Berman, August 2019)

intentional sabotage?

Listening to the promo right now, as it happens.

That's the board where, late one Friday night around the time of Bright Flight, someone posted David's home phone number. I called it, thinking I could just say I was only trying to alert him to its presence if he was irritated about it, but sure enough he picked up and gave no indication of irritation whatsoever but was in fact totally cheery about it and chatted with me, the lowly internet fanboy, for a good ten minutes, wouldn't let me go even, despite the fact there were all kinds of voices and noises in the background on his end from a party at his house that sounded like it was still going strong.

I mean this era was, according to the article, his “crack” phase

Well sure, that is true, but it was also soon after 9/11, which was everyone everywhere's crack and/or some crack variant phase. Besides, I also got to chat with him after the Asheville show in 2006, with all crack and/or crack variants out of his system, and he was still equally cheery.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZKMa-ByLBQ

ok that little thing at the end made me laugh hard

still these videos might be getting a little too real for me

i laughed when he was sweeping something into a dustpan and then looked up at the camera to deliver the back-up vocal

Lol at the Steve McNair action figure.

Kind of a slacker “Ruby (Don’t Take Your Love to Town.”

I didn’t think I would enjoy that but it was great! Stone cold deadpan

not to be all gossip-y but aren't they separated?

The ending is funny, but yeah, not sure how to "take" this particular kind of thing.

I'm struggling to like these two new tracks.

not to be all gossip-y but aren't they separated?

― Jersey Al (Albert R. Broccoli), Tuesday, 11 June 2019 19:57

Yes this was one of the revelations from the WaPo interview that saddened me. Maybe not so clear cut

Vish tackles DCB:

http://kreativekontrol.eone.libsynpro.com/ep-481-david-berman

Thanks Al

Refreshing honesty and openness from David there. Nice to hear an interview free from bullshit

Yeah its great hearing about his process & approach here

The “hundred nights” comment was pretty harrowing

loved the bits about songs as architectural instantiation
and disturbing (?) lack-of-anxiety about musicians coming up behind him

There were a few moments in that interview that straight choked me up. His candor was really touching.

I like Vish, but sometimes I find him to be a bit of a cringey interviewer. This one worked just right.

Al, thanks much for posting that. Hard to describe the feeling of hearing his voice crack and bend under the emotional weight of what he's talking about, hearing him re-realize and re-resist his own storyline fever as he speaks, I guess. Amazing.

This was a particularly interesting revelation to me:

"I think that Silver Jews was a very burdensome band name. It confused people, or I never made it clear what I meant by it. I think it was wasn't really until the end that I realized what the proper definition of a Silver Jew would be outside of the context of my music, which would be a Jew that's not a Jew, really. It's the outsiders to the outsiders. It really sucks when you're Jewish from patrilineal descent because you get the last name but none of the benefits of being Jewish. So, you get the marker, but as you know, in Judaism, your mother has to be Jewish. And my mother converted before I was born, but it never really took. So, there aren't different kinds of Jews - I mean, there are, there's Sephardic and Ashkenazi - but Judaism's Judaism and there aren't secondary Jews. There aren't partial Jews. So, a Silver Jew isn't a Jew at all, really. But it conveys belatedness in and of my interest in Judaism, which came very late in life. But in the end I felt alienated for precisely those reasons, from fully dissolving myself from Judaism."

This is America goddamnit, and I think people should be free to be secondary Jews if they want to, but what the hell do I know.

"commerce is a purgatory"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BamaU09AdGA

^ song of the year, IMO

name change totally threw me off - got pretty excited when i realised there's a new Silver Jews lp out in 2 days! I bet a ton of people are the same and don't realise this is a thing...

It's good! His band (Woods) sounds strong, and he hasn't lost the lyrical magic, imo.

another long, detailed profile, this time in the ringer: https://www.theringer.com/music/2019/7/10/20686306/david-berman-silver-jews-purple-mountains-drag-city

A few weeks ago I noticed the nine photos on the album cover correspond with the themes of the first nine songs on the album, in sequential order. Track ten, about self-acceptance, can be symbolized by all previous tracks/images together. That kind of thoughtful, subtle attention to detail keeps unfolding with every listen.

Perpetua ticked off about him poo-pooing Pearl Jam over on Twitter

who's Pearl Jam?

oh and re: the chorus of Margaritas at the Mall, I guess the lyrics are actually "magenta, orange, and acid green, peacock blue and burgundy," but I actually prefer my initial interpretation of berberine. After all, there's already red representation with magenta, so it just makes sense to get some yellow in there for a more robust sampling of the frozen beverage spectrum.

name change totally threw me off - got pretty excited when i realised there's a new Silver Jews lp out in 2 days! I bet a ton of people are the same and don't realise this is a thing...

There seemed to be surprisingly few people listed as Interested/Going on the Facebook event for this show around here, so yeah, I think this is likely flying past people at the moment.

Perpetua ticked off about him poo-pooing Pearl Jam over on Twitter

followed this guy for years and he never bugged me till the past few months. he thinks he knows all!

who the hell would ever think Berman would like Pearl Jam?

lol pretty dumb that people got up in arms about that quote — it's just him kinda rambling about old legacy artists who keep going and how critics give them a pass a lot of the time.

If critics were harder on the musicians that they love, there would be better songs. But as they grow older and they lose their talent, critics refuse to let them know that and protect them, and they get to the point where they put out music that just isn’t up to the levels where they’ve already been. It must be very strange to live in the world of Willie Nelson or Bruce Springsteen or Pearl Jam. I don’t know what kind of handle they have on their own loss of talent. Obviously Willie Nelson understands that it’s been forty-five years since anyone’s really cared about any song of his, but I feel like I don’t see very much vocational unhappiness. I heard Springsteen was an unhappy person. I don’t know, I haven’t read his biography. But a lot of people in my field should be a lot more unhappy than they are. They go to press with bullshit.

it's a good interview though! https://aquariumdrunkard.com/2019/07/08/david-berman-the-aquarium-drunkard-interview/

Thanks NA
That lying on his back / heroin comment tho

That’s a weird quote — why would any of those artists be unhappy? (Willie Nelson’s awesome, btw)

Others artists enjoy touring and playing music, they don’t hinge their self-worth on critical assessments or album sales, surely he must realize this

I think he realizes that, because no one in their right mind could possibly dislike Willie Nelson regardless of what they know or don't know about anything he's done in the last generation or two. But I get his point all the same. I think he's just trying to be fair about something that no one really needs to be, because that's just the way he is.

https://americansongwriter.com/2019/07/purple-mountains-any-way-you-hear-it/

another interview, I guess he's holding that 3/4 size guitar mentioned in one of the other ones, with the kitsch that decorates his room in the background?

> That’s a weird quote — why would any of those artists be unhappy?

Oh, honey...why assume *anyone* is happy?

xp Interesting piece (he disses Bruce in that one too, lol)

“Whenever a Bruce Springsteen album comes out, you’re always told it’s a return to form; it never is.”

genuine lol

I’ve really loved his recent interviews, whether I think some comments are otm or not. He’s a guy who spends a lot of time in his head and seems to have no qualms about being totally honest about what’s there. Doesn’t seem to come from a place of bitterness or anything.

That’s a great way to put it. Yeah he’s always really engaging to listen to, even when he’s off the mark. Like critics who I often disagree with but enjoy reading anyway, he seems to come by his opinions pretty honestly & with some thought.

This is great. 2019 is turning out pretty good for most of my fave sad lad songwriters. Just need a new Destroyer lp.

Snow Is Falling in Manhattan + Nights That Won't Happen <3

The backing vocals/melodies all across this thing are so nice.