Not really even tangentially related, but I just wanted to share.
David C. Berman, leader of Silver Jews and then Purple Mountains, will have been gone five years come August. Dude’s melancholy would have been really turnt had he made it to COVID.
Five years younger than Albini, and the two probably could have made their own Magnolia Electric Company if they had ever chosen to work together. Given Berman’s longtime relationship with Chicago’s Drag City Records, I’m surprised they didn’t.
That said, the latter day Berman work is lush, beautiful, and appropriately foregrounds that baritone and especially those lyrics. Earlier Berman is lower-fidelity but just as powerful.
I wish Silver Jews had a better band name. Maybe the stuff can all be remembered under the name Purple Mountains, because both were all just DCB (who, incidentally, was a proud silver-bearded Jew at the time of his suicide).
My 15-year-old son mostly listens to SoundCloud rap, but he and his friends have recently discovered Nick Drake. (I remember first hearing Joni Mitchell’s Blue, between Pavement and Guided by Voices and Built to Spill listens, and just being completely floored.) At some point I think a whole bunch of kids from GenZ/Alpha generation will discover DCB.
I’ve been on a weeklong DCB kick. (I thought I’d resurrect a post-suicide thread, but that must’ve been Rant Board material.) It’s always one of the best weeks of the year.
He had so many fine moments, so many beautiful lyrical turns, but the most famous is “In 1984, I was hospitalized for approaching perfection.”
I’m pretty sure I played both “Buckingham Rabbit” and “Smith and Jones Forever” while taking summer Rock Show slots.
But this is “Random Rules”, DCB’s most iconic moment.
It’s a great song.
Take care of your friends. Be kind to your neighbors. Smile at strangers. The world is a scary place for a whole lot of people.
(The DCB thread from the time of his death has been lost with the Rant Board archives.)