Silver Jews Make Splash With American Water

By Chris Nelson. Originally appeared in Sonicnet.

Indie rock act’s latest album is more upbeat and marks return of Pavement singer/guitarist Steve Malkmus.

There are no lightning bolts for Silver Jews’ singer David Berman; nothing to strike him creatively from out of the blue. There are no indie-rock muses calling with songs unwritten, he said, nor streaks of dumb luck where he stumbles across a series of good tunes. Rather, for this 31-year-old former Texan, songwriting is good old hard work.

While some might describe his band’s well-crafted, occasionally cryptic 12-song album American Water (Drag City) as inspired, Berman himself insisted recently, “I don’t believe in inspiration. ” “It works for a while to feel like, ‘I’m just visited by these songs,’” he continued. “You hear songwriters say that, more than any other type of artist. But I think that may be an explanation of why songwriters have the shortest span of doing good work of almost any other kind of artist. I’m really interested in gaining control of what I’m doing and trying to have control over what I’m doing. “American Water, Silver Jews’ recently released fourth album, marks the return of Pavement singer and guitarist Steve Malkmus to the band’s rotating lineup. It also features the restoration of upbeat sentiments after 1996’s downcast The Nature Bridge. Not that a writer as serious and purposeful as Berman has created an indie-rock party collection. “Random Rules” kicks at the edges of depression like a genuine country song. “If you don’t want me, I promise not to linger,” Berman sings, characteristically just a bit off key. “But before I go I have to ask you dear about the tan line on your ring finger. “Still, on other tracks such as “Blue Arrangements” and “People,” the band - rounded out by Mike Fellows on bass, Tim Barnes on drums and Chris Stroffolino on piano - insinuates playful rhythms and word choices into Berman’s songs. “It’s a lyrical record in the end,” said Malkmus, 30, at the time of its recording. “It’s a record you sing along to. In that way, it’s kind-of country. You expect maybe the next melody, but you don’t know what (Berman is) going to say. There’s a cleverness to (doing) that in a way that’s not hacked or generic. “Berman said the change in mood for American Water reflects, in part, his lack of a steady home base over the past year. Because he spent much of the time traveling or bunking with friends, he said, his songs from the period came out as less personal, less melancholy.

This allows other people’s energy to seep through into the piece, he said. The album’s title mirrors Berman’s offbeat cleverness. “It came from a poster in a veterinarian’s office,” he explained. “I was taking my dog to the vet, and there was a poster with different dog breeds on it, and one of them was ‘American water spaniel.’ Like anything that catches my eye or imagination, its function or meaning was incomplete. That interests me as something to build on. It seemed like two words without an attachment, and now they have a reference, which is the record. So if someone says to me, ‘What is American water?’, I’d say, ‘It’s this record.’ If it was called “American Water Spaniel,” then I’d have to say, ‘It’s a dog.‘“Unfortunately for Silver Jews fans, the band won’t be touring this fall, thanks to an ear injury Berman sustained during a street brawl in Spain while on a press junket for the album. While he recovers, he intends to finish editing “Actual Air,” a new volume of poetry to be published by Open City Press next March. At the same time, he’ll probably continue his songwriting, an ever-evolving pursuit that’s as much the passion of self-discovery as creativity. “I want to write more songs without holes in them,” Berman said. “I tend to leave the holes in, and I still don’t understand why I’m hesitant to fill in the complete narrative. I don’t want to be obtuse or obscure; it’s not that. But when you write a song – as opposed to writing a story – the music is doing a lot of the work that normally plot and characterization and setting would do. I’m sometimes afraid that if I tell the complete story in words, the music will function merely as a pedestal. ”