Silver Jews to make me very happy by releasing comp of early stuff

[Chet]

tanglewood numbers is fucking brilliant, bar the farmers hotel which is maybe the only silver jews song i ever skip.



anyway

in 27 years, i've drunk 50,000 beers
and they just wash against me,
like the sea into a pier

[sashwap]

i consider american water almost as much malkmus' album as berman's. malk co-wrote two songs, contributes a lot of great guitar, and sings some nice backing vocals/harmonies. plus "night society" would just not be the same without him, even though he's not given writing credit. and that solo in "the wild kindness" is one of my favorites things he's ever done. it just seems like a lot of the weight of that album fell on malkmus, like he enabled it to exist and be as good as it is. i am DEFINITELY biased though. i'd rather hear an american water with no berman on it! hah!

but yeah, tanglewood is not faring so well right now. i just had to shut it off, but i put on bright flight and it's sounding good. real good! i always remember how sad it is, but i tend to forget how beautiful. except for the crap instrumental and the cover song.

really really happy with early times.

[davy]

I love Bright Flight, and "I Remember Me" is maybe the saddest song I've ever heard. If I've heard that song -- what, maybe 50 times in my life? -- it's choked me up 30 times.

Shit, I can't even get through Punks in the Beerlight anymore. I'm throwing on a New Radiant Storm King record.

[reebty]

The Natural Bridge was the last one I heard of the three Jews' albums that existed at the time and I was uncomfortable with the lack of Malkmus at first. I get the sense of a bunch of guys having fun on Starlite Walker and American Water, even though the songs go to some dark places at times. Bridge is more of a half hour with Berman sort of thing, which is great, but not what I wanted from Silver Jews at the time. But American Water is my favourite. "Federal Dust" to "People" to "Blue Arrangements" is a great run - those songs, like the one that might be my next favourite, "Send in The Clouds", start out great and then go off in another direction three quarters of the way through and in my opinion take it to another level. I'm sure it's no coincidence that Malkmus co-wrote two of those and is vocally prominent on a third.

[reebty]

I never realised there was a double meaning to that robot line, and I was going out of my mind for the last couple of hours trying to figure it out. I was about to ask for an explanation, but it just hit me...I think. Not a double entendre, but a sort of bleak prognostication? Am I barking up the right tree?

[sashwap]

I never realised there was a double meaning to that robot line, and I was going out of my mind for the last couple of hours trying to figure it out. I was about to ask for an explanation, but it just hit me...I think. Not a double entendre, but a sort of bleak prognostication? Am I barking up the right tree?

like humans are going to be enslaved by robots, someday.

right? that's the "double" meaning?

[sashwap]

But American Water is my favourite. "Federal Dust" to "People" to "Blue Arrangements" is a great run - those songs, like the one that might be my next favourite, "Send in The Clouds", start out great and then go off in another direction three quarters of the way through and in my opinion take it to another level. I'm sure it's no coincidence that Malkmus co-wrote two of those and is vocally prominent on a third.

right-on!

[davy]

I don't know, I like American Water, but it's also kind of silly, and I blame Malkmus for that. What's always drawn me to the Jews is that weird confederate darkness in their music, and I'm not just referring to the lyrics, but that creaky southern gothic atmosphere Berman exudes. The Natural Bridge is by far the most thorough exploration of that side of their sound, and it helps that it also contains some of his best lyrics and catchiest songs. Malkmus would've made jokes and funny sounds with his guitar and in the end would've ruined that record completely.

And yeah, the "enslavement by robots" angle is what occurred to me the other day. I'd always just taken that line at face value. It's probably immediately obvious to everybody, but it was a light bulb moment for me.

[davy]

And The Natural Bridge sounds nothing like Bright Flight, really, at least in the context of Silver Jews albums.

I should elaborate on this. Bright Flight is a true country record in the Nashville tradition. The Natural Bridge is still very much an indie rock record, albeit one with some twangy bits. I feel like American Water was the end of the indie era for the Silver Jews, and at the time, I believed that Bright Flight was the beginning of his country phase. He should've stuck with it. I think one reason Tanglewood Numbers sounds so awkward is that he was trying to go back to a sound he'd already abandoned once, and there was nothing really to come back to.

[Chet]

i DO NOT agree. y'all need to stop saying bad things about tanglewood numbers.

i think it was berman's shot at making a straight up immediate rock record, which i don't think is at all similar to his earlier works. AW had a more of an AM radio rock thing going on. lyrically it is gold too:

I had this friend his name was Marc with a "c".
His sister was like the heat coming off the back of an old TV.
Their folks were slain in their Reed Boiling Springs home.
It was the worst of the Lord, some of the worst of the Lord.


i'd have been much happier if the joos ended with tanglewood numbers than lookout mountain... which is as close to a mediocre record that berman ever put out.

[edison]

I'm with you on Tanglewood Numbers being mostly great ("Punks In The Beerlight" was a chillingly great moment the one time I saw them live), but I also really like Lookout Mountain a whole lot. Bright Light's the weakest as far as I'm concerned, though still about half of it if not more is excellent.