The Late, Great Silver Jews

By Chris Nelson. Originally appeared in Unknown.

Silver Jews leader/poet David Berman understands that there’s a risk in naming his upcoming album of pensive, literate, country-tinged rock The Late, Great Silver Jews. Still, he doesn’t want fans to think that he’s hanging up his guns just yet. In fact, he wouldn’t have chosen the title if he didn’t think that the Jews - including recently returned guitarist Steve Malkmus of lo-fi alt-rockers Pavement - still had a few more records up their sleeves. “It’s only good if it’s, like, the third record of five,” Berman said Thursday, phoning from Brooklyn, N.Y.’s Rare Book Room studio. There, he and his collaborators were wrapping up 22 straight days of rehearsal and recording for the album, the Jews’ fourth. “I guess there’s a certain amount of ‘Well, no one else is gonna to say it, so we’re gonna say it,’ ” Berman said of the album title. “We’re gonna canonize ourselves. We’re not gonna wait around for anyone else to say we’re great. It’s a little funny, it’s a little sad, it’s a little arrogant. ” The album, due out this fall on Chicago’s Drag City label, marks the homecoming of Malkmus to the Jews clan. Fans will recall that for 1996’s The Natural Bridge album, songwriter Berman amicably parted company with collaborators Malkmus and drummer Bob Nastanovich, also of Pavement, in favor of working with the New Radiant Storm Kings’ guitarist Matt Hunter and bassist Peyton Pinkerton. Now both Berman and Malkmus describe their reignited collaboration as a mutually beneficial venture between best friends. “I wanted a really professional-sounding band, and Steve (Malkmus) is a really good guitarist,” the 30-year-old Berman said. “The leads he’s playing on this record are to me the best things he’s ever done, by far. Very soulful. He’s not doing the anti-solos he does with Pavement. They’re very beautiful, very talky. ” “The songs are pretty traditional arrangements and tunings, and I’m just playing along with it,” Malkmus said humbly on a break from the studio. “Pavement songs call for something different. If you played a traditional solo in a Pavement song, it would stick out. But in these songs, there’s totally room for it. It’s fun to do it tasteful and straight-up, without sounding too much like new country. ” That said, Malkmus explained that three or four “really heartbreaking country numbers” form the backbone of the 11-song album. He and Berman have developed a symbiotic creativity, he added, whereby Malkmus brings musical and recording experience to Berman’s songwriting expertise. “It’s a lyrical record in the end,” the 30-year-old Malkmus said. “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 do that in a way that’s not hacked or generic. ” During a brief pause in conversation, the delicate sound of ringing guitar from a song called “Self-Ignition” escaped through a studio door. Berman described the song as a future B-side, explaining that the band had run through the track too quickly for it to make the final cut for the album. “We’ve never sounded tight like this,” Berman said. “There’s hard-rocking songs where we’ve never had that level of intensity before. They’re really charged songs. ” In addition to Malkmus, Berman also recruited Mike Fellows (ex-Rites of Spring, ex-Royal Trux bass), Tim Barnes (drums) and Chris Stroffolino (piano, keyboards) to help out with the disc, which he intends to issue on Oct. 14. That would be two years to the day after the release of The Natural Bridge, which came exactly two years after 1994’s acclaimed Starlite Walker album. Berman added that he hopes the Silver Jews will set out for a rare tour of the U.S. and Europe following the release of the new recording. Work on the Silver Jews album has precluded Berman from editing his forthcoming collection of poetry - tentatively titled “Governors On Sominex” - which he hopes to have out on Open City Press by Christmas. Despite the fact that the book has languished on the back-burner, Berman has said that he’s happy to push through the recording process. “I never worked this hard in my fucking life,” he said. “It’s really gratifying, because I’m such a lazy lay-about at home, just reading, lying around. So I’ve had something to do everyday. It’s good. It’s labor. ” Among the songs to be included on The Late, Great Silver Jews are: “Buckingham Rabbit,” “Random Rules,” “Police Conversation, 1783,” “The Wild Kindness,” “Blue Arrangements,” “Like Like, The The The Death,” “People,” “Send In The Clouds,” “Smith And Jones Forever! ” and “Honk If You’re Lonely Tonight. ”