Purple Mountains (RIP David Berman, August 2019)

Regardless though, once I got to know Silver Jews, I thought (and still think) them >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Pavement

(him)

There are hundreds of bands that were offshoots and side projects of better known indie bands whose albums currently languish in dollar bins worldwide. If SJ was ever considered a Pavement "side project," it transcended this, by my estimation, around the time of The Natural Bridge and became its own thing with its own distinct fanbase. To claim SJ might have been "virtually unknown" is incorrect. When I think of virtually unknown bands that feature members of relatively well-loved Drag City and Matador acts, I think of Pale Horse Riders, Drinks, Dan'l Boone, The Sundowners, New Bums, Nervous Cop, Preston School of Industry, etc.

fwiw idgaf about Pavement but I'm a longtime Silver Jews fan, and I can't imagine I'm the only person who fits this description

Hey Paul, totally off-topic – how did you like that Fiery Furnaces album you ordered on eBay?

My "favorite" Silver Jews/Pavement related obscure band:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WId0rLAItJo

They played CBs a few times. Nobody remembers them. This video has 568 views in 9 years, probably a dozen from me.

vox/guitar is UVA roommate/best-friend of DCB who was also a former member of Ectoslavia... and Mark Ibold replaced him as bass player of Pavement after a few gigs. Also a Swans & Live Skull connection.

(^this is the definition of virtually unknown imho)

Hey Paul, totally off-topic – how did you like that Fiery Furnaces album you ordered on eBay?

― dad genes (morrisp), Tuesday, February 4, 2020 2:17 PM (seventeen minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

I loved it, actually, and it made me want to go back to the others I neglected. Meant to thank you for the tip! "Drive to Dallas" and "Charmagne Champagne" are top shelf FF, and I laughed out loud every time the "Take Me Round Again" chorus repeated ("listen, Lester!"). Dunno why I ever stopped paying attention to this band when they were around, especially since I was crazy about their first few albums, and have also enjoyed all of Eleanor's solo stuff.

Sorry for the derail!

Great, glad to hear it! (and the derail is my fault, lol)

If SJ was ever considered a Pavement "side project," it transcended this, by my estimation, around the time of The Natural Bridge and became its own thing with its own distinct fanbase.

Pavement was a Silver Jews side project

that's a false myth:

first pavement recording: jan 1989, released july 1989
first silver jews recordings: 1991, released may 1992

i know nothing, but recording dates don't necessarily prove that one thing existed before the other. they just mean that one sloppy unheard band decided to record something before the other

Wikipedia says they were formed at roughly the same time, fwiw, both in 1989

Pavement was not a side project of the Silver Jews. Like I said upthread, they were operating in parallel. One was some drunk roommates living room "recordings", and one was a cross-country project that would record on the occasional holiday break.

Al -- thx for posting that Sugartime single. I love the riff... the vocals are SO in that '80s NYC zone, they sound like Das Damen or any number of other bands.

As far as the Sliding Doors game, if Berman had stayed only a poet, he probably would be at the fame level of Matthew Zapruder or Dean Young.

Thx @morrisp,

Both David & Rob were huge Cure/Echo fans, you never heard it in David's voice but I hear a lot of goth/crossover in Rob's. I have a pic of them looking pretty gothy somewhere, it was sent to me around the time of David's passing.

This is a good one (Rob & David):

https://www.instagram.com/p/B2srCfuDSFp/

This IG account was their other roommate at the time, she has a bunch of old pics of Rob & David:

https://www.instagram.com/p/B2stEsKjxWl/

https://www.instagram.com/p/B2sLR-AD2YK/
https://www.instagram.com/p/B1Scu5bDdMe/
https://www.instagram.com/p/B1SbE0rDlA8/

Re: the 2nd pic (with the cig) -- looks like Malkmus borrowed that shirt at one point (or vice-versa).

Good eye, the first pic was taken ~86, the Starlite Walker pix ~8 years later.

i had that exact shirt around 9th grade lol. surprised i didn't make the connection before

https://i.imgur.com/PE32eVG.jpg

https://uvamagazine.org/articles/testing_grounds_for_indie_greatness

https://youtu.be/nsjQ3Gblzys?t=177

Weeeiiiird. I've never been able to get into Avalanches, but I guess it's cool to see them pay tribute to David.

i'm sure this is in this thread elsewhere, but

https://youtu.be/7XTrz0yvxe0

Oh, I didn't know they had worked together.

i'm sure this is in this thread elsewhere, but

https://youtu.be/7XTrz0yvxe0🕸

i've listened to this album far more than any other over the past 8 months.

good album. one year. miss him.

<3

It doesn’t seem like a year but here we are. On 8/7/19 the world lost one of the greats. I was lucky to call him a friend & a mentor; he was that & more for so many. Tried to think of a way to mark the date w/o focusing on the awful end. Here’s my idea. Tomorrow at @tresgatosjp. pic.twitter.com/VIYESE6T7l

— Ryan H. Walsh (@JahHills) August 6, 2020

From someone's private collection:

"Dime Map Of The Reef"
https://i.imgur.com/ah2mX4l.jpg

And housed within the song's design
Is the ghost the host has left behind
To greet and sweep the guest inside
Stoke the fire and sing his lines

that's a very nice image. but somehow i find self-referential lyrics still very heavy especially when they anticipate the disappearance of the songwriter. there is something coquettish about it. on the other hand there is also something very resolute about it. but of course i would have preferred him to be inconsistent, i.e. to write that song and not do it.

I don't take those lines as self-referential, or anticipating his suicide, necessarily. It's just a lovely way of saying that something of the songwriter lies within every song, forever. Taken with the lines before it, and the overall theme of the song, for me it evokes how a great piece of music can make you feel less alone, warm, comforted, human.

Yeah, I agree with that. There’s of course added poignancy following his death, but the lines stand out for me first and foremost because his songs are really like that, they are places you can go and experience the sensibilities, wit and intellect of a really special songwriter.

I find PM to be quite a hopeful record for the most part tbh

I dunno. Songs 1, 2, 3 and 8 are pretty devastating.

of all the songs on the snow is falling in manhattan is the least grim to me and the most pretty and kind

I agree

I also thought the new record seemed hopeful, then and now. Obviously presenting super heavy stuff, but in a way that felt like ripping off a band aid rather than diving into the abyss or w/e. Ending it with "Stoyline Fever" and "Maybe I'm the Only One For Me" seemed like a big statement to me, a powerful combination of songs that seems to have something to say about how with some work you may discover that you're bigger than your problems. I couldnt really get on board when after his death people started parsing the lyrics for any reference to absence, exit, or finality as saying that the record felt like a suicide note, I just didn't see it. (Also I feel like if David Berman actually sat down and wanted to do a Blackstar-style album about his own impending death, it would be like 100x more scary and intense than PM.)

That being said I've barely been able to listen to it since his passing, aside from "Snow" which I'm more & more convinced is the best thing he ever did.

^all OTM

That's a take I would like to believe in even if I'm not sure. Definitely OTM about "Snow", however.

I don't find the album that depressing, there's a lot of funny stuff

depressing is never depressing because it's ~relatable~

I still have trouble listening to it (or any Silver Jews, to be honest). i'll dig back in at some point, but for now it feels rough.

"Nights That Won't Happen" does feel a bit morbid now, I admit.

very much so. i think the album is full of really sad, poignant observations on life, much like his other albums. squint a little bit and you can see hints of the darkness to come, both on PM and the earlier SJ albums, but you can also see him coming to grips with what it would mean to push on. it's all of those things, throughout his work.