September 2008 (PDF) - Antigravity Magazine

FEATUREMUSIC
In 1993, David Berman and two
guys from Pavement got in a room
together with some instruments
and pressed the record button on
a boom box. What resulted was The
Arizona Record, the first album by the
Silver Jews. The Pavement guys left the
band years ago, but Berman went on to
release six more Silver Jews records,
including this year’s Lookout Mountain,
Lookout Sea, an album that sounds
nothing like The Arizona Record...which
is a good thing. The Silver Jews went on
their first full-fledged tour in 2006 and
they’ve just embarked on their second
tour. They will be playing at One Eyed
Jack’s on Wednesday, September 17.
ANTIGRAVITY sent David Berman
an email with ten questions. Here are
the questions and his responses:
ANTIGRAVITY: You started your last album with the
lyric, “Where’s the plastic bag that holds the liquor,
just in case I feel the need to puke.” This time, you
open the record with the line, “What is not but could
be if. What could appear in the morning mist?” Those
are two very different ways to kick off an album. Do
you think those lyrics set the tone for each record?
David Berman: Yes, that’s true. They also both seem to
take place at parallel 6ams, years apart. Nothing about
sunrise could ever be charming to me anymore.
AG: Three part question: On “My Pillow is the
Threshold,” you’ve got the following lyric: “Life
takes time then time takes life. Now the next
move’s up to me.” That’s pretty deep stuff. Do
you ever write poetry and think, “That’s good,
but wouldn’t fit in the context of a song,” and
then keep it for your poetry? Is everything fair
game for a Silver Jews lyric? What would be off
limits?
DB: I probably wouldn’t say a piece of good writing
wouldn’t fit without going through the fitting first. In
a worn out small perimeter medium like rock music
lyrics you’re wasting everybody’s time if you’re not
trying to bring anything fresh to the table. I preserve
good units that get edited out. I don’t know if they’ll
make it over to poetry as much as lay around a recessed
scrapheap.
Anything has a shot [to be included in a Silver
Jews lyric]. City council minutes; bugspray minutiae;
mistranslations. I try to stay away from out and out
blasphemy, I guess.
AG: You’re about to embark on your second
touring cycle after the release of a new record. Do
you see yourself doing the conventional: record an
album, release it, tour, talk to the press type thing
for a while, or might you switch to something
else?
DB: I guess if I wanted to live through cycles like that
I should have gotten into farming. It seems weird.
So many people like me have their act together; that
instead of dropping dead like nature intended, they’re
coming back alive and releasing new music. The rock
and roll career is starting to look more and more like
competition for tenure.
AG: When was the last time you really sat down
and listened to the Arizona Record?
DB: Summer of 2002.
AG: How about Starlite Walker?
DB: 2003.
AG: Are you excited to play New Orleans? The city
inspired one of your best songs.
DB: I have a whole separate wing of my memory for
time spent in New Orleans.
AG: Have you ever played the song “New Orleans”
live?
DB: Yes. I definitely will make sure to play it in New
Orleans, but not in the cities adjacent to New Orleans,
in order to make it a specifically local event.
AG: How do you pick your set list these days? About
how many songs does the band know?
DB: I guess thirty-five? I cut it down to twenty-five.
Some are just no fun for me to do. Really, there are no
more than fifteen I’m really happy with at one time.
AG: What new song do you look most forward to
playing live?
DB: The first one on the album.
AG: What older song do you look most forward to
playing live?
DB: I like to play a lot of songs off the second album.
“How to Rent a Room.”
AG: What song on the last tour got the biggest
reaction from the crowd? Why do you think that
song got such a positive reaction?
DB: I think it was “Tennessee.” I don’t know why. It
was something they loved in Ireland.
The Silver Jews and James Jackson Toth play One Eyed
Jacks on Wednesday, September 17th. For more info, go
to silverjews.net.
photo by brent stewart
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