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March 28, 2024, 09:36:59 PM

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The return of David Berman

Started by holyzombiejesus, May 15, 2019, 09:06:48 PM

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holyzombiejesus

I bloody bloody bloody loved Silver Jews but when DB retired from the muusic scene in order to fight his cunt dad, I presumed we'd heard the last of him. He resurfaced a few years ago singing on an Avalanches song where he sounded like he was about to die but nothing since then, not even any writing. BUT!!! It seems that he's back. Under the name Purple Mountains, he's got a (presumably very limited) EP that seems to have sold out everywhere except for Leeds' Jumbo Records with an LP due in a couple of months.

The song itself is only available on vinyl, no downloads or streaming available although (I'm just copying this all from a post I read on a website) you can hear it on hour 2, 53:50 ish here here. Album features members of Woods and Anna St Louis.

sevendaughters

Haha, it sounds like Silver Jews but with keyboards. Which to me is a plus.

Gregory Torso

I'd prefer another book of his poetry but I'm glad to see he's 'active' again. I remember an interview with Bob Nastanovich where he said David was spending all of his time buying toys from junk shops and making them into massive sculptures.

SteveDave

My friend plays on that record and says D. Berman is "one of the most genuinely nuts people I've
ever worked with or interacted with..."

I tried to find this 12" today but instead bought "McCartney II" and "Muswell Hillbillies"

sevendaughters

I watched that documentary about them playing in Israel and he is quite a singular chap. Not nuts, just he knows himself and pursues his thing. I used to love his blog, Menthol Mountains, turned me onto a lot of good and interesting things.

sevendaughters

Wonderful Life by Black! That's what it reminded me of.

Video out - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XvUBbROsXBw

sevendaughters

the new single 'Darkness & Cold' is great. hell of a chorus. often i prefer the verses in Berman songs. video is very near the knuckle.

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



sevendaughters

He was on Kreative Kontrol this week too.


holyzombiejesus

That Kreative Kontrol interview is great. He really reminds me of Lawrence in places.

PaulTMA

Quote from: holyzombiejesus on June 21, 2019, 12:57:25 PM
That Kreative Kontrol interview is great. He really reminds me of Lawrence in places.

Have never thought of that before.  But his hair and choice of frames are certainly a match.

He and Cassie are separated, he discusses it here: http://kreativekontrol.eone.libsynpro.com/ep-481-david-berman

The saddest part for me was when he talks about the effect the Pitchfork review of the last SJ album had on him.  I always used to have him down as a confident kind of chap but that's obviously completely wrong.

holyzombiejesus

Yeah, I heard that Kreative Kontrol interview this afternoon, it was a really difficult listen in parts. Poor guy.

The songs I've heard from the album sound so great though, is the person you know who plays on the record in Woods? What was about DB that made him think he was nuts? I guess one of the differences between DB and Lawrence is that I think the latter definitely plays up and his angst seems more mired in the cliched 'tortured rock star thing' whereas Berman just seems to be such a fragile tormented man.

SteveDave

He hasn't elaborated on the nuts-ness. He did say that he (Berman) wasn't there when they were overdubbing stuff and it was Jarvis and Jeremy (from Woods) who were doing the majority of the work on it. He'd just pop in every now and again.

I'm really interested to hear this record and see how much of a difference there is between it and "Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea"

He's touring later this year. Fingers crossed for some UK dates.

nugget

Quote from: sevendaughters on June 20, 2019, 05:08:48 PM
He was on Kreative Kontrol this week too.

I never heard of the Kreative Kontrol podcast before but they seem to have a lot of interesting guests, I'm going to enjoy working my way through these.

I'm also stoked about Berman releasing music again, although I listened to All My Happiness is Gone and I'm not sure how I feel about it musically.

lazyhour

I couldn't get into LM,LS when it came out and never returned to it. I adore all his other albums and the new songs sound fantastic to my ears - more in line with Bright Flight and American Water. Looking forward to the album but I'm honestly a bit crushed that DB and Cassie are separated. Haven't the heart to tell my partner - she'll be devastated.

holyzombiejesus

Yeah, I didn't really like LM, LS. Thought Tanglewood Numbers was patchy too. I mean, I like Open Field as much as anyone but no-one buys a Silver Jews record to hear David Berman sing someone else's words. I remember when they first came over to the UK and I was so excited. I went up to Glasgow to see them and whilst it was great to finally see him live, they used horrible keyboard strings on lots of the songs and it sounded a bit shit. Then I saw them again a few years later in Leeds and they did loads of the new records and that was a bit grim too. I hope he does some UK gigs for the album.
I know what you mean about feeling sad about the Cassie thing. Poor poor David. I've been thinking about it all day, even making my wife listen to bits of that interview. I've got a bit obsessed really. In fact, it got to the point where I played the EP so much that my 2 year old boy just muttered 'all my happiness is gone' when he was doing his jigsaw this afternoon.

holyzombiejesus

Nice Jeffrey Lewis cartoon in the latest Mojo.


holyzombiejesus


Gregory Torso

Third me in as being saddened to hear David has split from his wife. I've not been such a huge fan of his music since Tanglewood Numbers but he's always been a huge inspiration to me in terms of writing, vision and all the other little crumbling pieces of a man just trying to get through life via a need to create things and whatever constricted arteries that need to be crawled through to get there. I hope he'll be okay, more than wanting new words from him, I hope he's keeping himself together.

sevendaughters

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BamaU09AdGA - Margaritas at the Mall

I think this is going to be the best Berman release since American Water and maybe as good as that.

Muel 2

All of these tracks have been top tier so far.

The whole endeavour has been worth it purely for the line "The light of my life is going out tonight" already.


sevendaughters


SteveDave

"...when I tried to drown my thoughts in gin, I found my worst ideas know how to swim"

So far this LP is everything you'd want.

sevendaughters

Great album. I think it's the best Berman album to date. If you like the Joos from like 96 onwards but thought they went a bit happy clappy around 05 then this is for you. 'Nights That Won't Happen' is crushing. The country-pop songs that bookend the record are really well done, like, I think they'd work in that world if they were put in front of the right audience.

Guardian gave it 5* and Pitchfork 8.5 too.

holyzombiejesus

Ah, great. My friend is visiting this weekend so I'm probably not going to get chance to listen to this until next Friday but so glad it's as good as people are saying and that the reviews are glowing.

sevendaughters

even though not every song is as good as the 'singles', some are though. and the ones that aren't seem to go down a lot easier than some of the lesser tracks on SJs records (like I don't like Federal Dust at all), and the lyrics are just great all across the board. It's being touted as a ceaseless tour through misery but I think there are some solid laughs that mean the darknesses are balanced and more impactful.

There are a couple of bits of referentiality to SJs records, notably in the very first 5 seconds, and on the one on the track about loving his mum.