Berman Untangles New Silver Jews Album
by Jonathan Cohen for Billboard.com, July 07, 2005
Breaking the longest musical silence of his decade-plus
career, David Berman has reactivated his Silver Jews project for its
fifth studio album, "Tanglewood Numbers." Due Oct. 18 via Drag City,
the 10-track set boasts the return of longtime collaborators/former
Pavement members Stephen Malkmus and Bob Nastanovich, who took a
breather from the Jews' 2001 album, "Bright Flight."
"For the first time, I really am happy with the record
in the sense that I will listen to it without it being a painful
experience," Berman tells Billboard.com from his Nashville hometown.
"In my mind, this is a hard rock record. The last one was more of a
vocal record. With my limited voice, my reaction to displaying it is
that it's necessary to put it right out front and not to hide it. But
on this record, it's a rock record, so I thought the voice would become
more of an instrument."
"Tanglewood Blues" will hardly earn comparisons to Black Sabbath or
Ozzy Osbourne (of whom Berman confesses a recent obsession, along with
Johnny Paycheck), it does feature a handful of more propulsive tracks
than usual, including opener "Punks in the Beerlight" and the frothy,
lyrically beguiling "Sometimes a Pony Gets Depressed."
What it mostly offers up is another helping of
literate, country-tinged rockers ("Animal Shapes," "K-Hole") and
maudlin ballads ("The Farmer's Hotel," the first three minutes of
"There Is a Place"). A major new contributor is Berman's wife Cassie,
who offers effective vocal counterpoint on a number of cuts and
inspired the artist to fill "20 of those little yellow legal pads" with
ideas.
Malkmus plays guitar on every song, while other
contributions were turned in by Drag City labelmate Will Oldham, former
A Perfect Circle/Papa M member Paz Lenchantin, former Jesus Lizard
guitarist Duane Denison and keyboardist Tony Crow.
But "Tanglewood Blues" nearly got the better of
Berman, who wrestled control of the project from engineer Mark Nevers
just as it was ready to be mixed, following a dispute over its musical
direction. At one point, Berman says Nevers even threatened to throw
the master tapes into the Cumberland River. Cooler heads eventually
prevailed (Nevers and Berman remained friends), and the mix was
completed by Joe Funderburk, a Nashville veteran of albums by the Judds
and Glen Campbell.
"He's just a really, really peculiar fellow," Berman
says of Funderburk. "His house has goat skulls on the walls. I was
really frightened to go there and do things. I didn't know Joe and I
didn't want to hang out in a haunted house all day. But it turned out
great."
In fact, Berman is so pleased with the finished
product that the notoriously stage-shy artist seems more likely than
ever to support it with live shows at some point in 2006. Estimating
that he's performed "about 12" times in his career, Berman
acknowledges, "My attitude about performance is more mercenary now.
"Before, it was something I really felt couldn't be
successful and shouldn't be done," he continues. "I wasn't in the
business of peddling music and going out and selling myself. I want to
go make a record and then return to my own life. But it has gotten the
point where I can't afford to just make money off records. I'm so far
in debt from hospital bills over the last few years and just not
working, that I can't afford to be so protective of my art anymore. I
refused to be an entertainer, but I guess I'm open to the idea of
seeing if I can be an entertainer."
But Berman points out that touring could also offer
the added benefit of extra time spent with his wife. "I was thinking,
why not have Cassie's voice be the second voice instead of Malkmus'
voice? I can't be sure that if I ever want to play live that Malkmus
can even be there, but I know Cassie can," he says. "If I want to play
some shows in 2006, bringing my wife is like the best idea in the
world."
Also on the horizon for Berman: the follow-up to his
1999 novel "Actual Air" ("I need a six-month stretch where I say, 'just
this' [before beginning work on it]," he offers) and a collection of
early, previously unreleased Silver Jews material.
"I have hundreds of tapes of me, Bob and [Malkmus],
but I've been real reluctant to go through them," he admits. "Each one
is 45 minutes long and we would just kind of let the thing run and make
up songs for that night. It's like the Library of Congress."
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