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usic Thread

not gonna post david berman lyrics and poems all day, that's sad

but he was a great writer and another terrific musician gone too soon
 
Imagining Defeat

She woke me up at dawn,
her suitcase like a little brown dog at her heels.

I sat up and looked out the window
at the snow falling in the stand of blackjack trees.

A bus ticket in her hand.

Then she brought something black up to her mouth,
a plum I thought, but it was an asthma inhaler.

I reached under the bed for my menthols
and she asked if I ever thought of cancer.

Yes, I said, but always as a tree way up ahead
in the distance where it doesn’t matter

And I suppose a dead soul must look back at that tree,
so far behind his wagon where it also doesn’t matter.

except as a memory of rest or water.

Though to believe any of that, I thought,
you have to accept the premise

that she woke me up at all.

I've been carrying around my copy of Actual Air today like it is some sort of security blanket. I'm really affected by this news.
 
and if the apocalypse turns out
to be a world-wide nervous breakdown
if our five billion minds collapse at once
well I’d call that a surprise ending
 
I'd forgotten I had bought Purple Mountains tix in DC next week. They're just gonna play DB's music for sadboys who want to come hang out at the venue. Will probably pass on that.
 
I've been listening to The Natural Bridge a lot lately. Doesn't have the Pavement guys on it, and some people really like Tanglewood Numbers because it does (and it is good). The debut (Starlite Walker) and American Water are probably their most highly regarded.
 
Natural Bridge and American Water were great starting points for me. It's a vibe, for sure. I think I read in some remembrance yesterday though that struck me, was -- paraphrasing -- that it just sounds like music that had to be. It's not flashy or anything, but he has a way, and they are all solid records.

I love the new one and was going to see him in Asheville next week. I wasn't super into the Joos, but this has been bumming me out more than it should for some reason.
 
Tool is like Phish stopped taking their antidepressants.

Actually a lot of Phish and Tool parallels now that I think abt it, one being their fans are insufferable.

New Tool:
 
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"People need celebration in their life. It's part of what it means to be human. We need magic and bliss and power, myth, and celebration in our lives. And music is a good way to encapsulate a lot of it." - Jerry Garcia (August 1st, 1942 - August 9th, 1995)


jerry_garcia.jpeg
 
The first Jews song I heard was back in 1995:



My High-school band, named Slacker, was a lo-fi, acoustic guitars in the basement, Pavement and early Sebadoh inspired crew. We wrote a lot of our own songs, and covered a few too, including "Rebel Jew." My band-mate was two years older than me had discovered the Jews thru Pavement. He gave me a cassette tape with Starlight Walker and other obscure songs on it. A year later I was in Tower Records and randomly checked to see if they had the Jews in stock and they had the Natural Bridge which I didn't even know had come out, so I bought it. I really started to love the band at that point. There are hints of the lyrical greatness to come on Starlight Walker (Advice to the Graduate, New Orleans, Trains Across the Sea) But the Natural Bridge is where it really became obvious Berman was an extremely talented lyricist. I'd say that American Water is the pinnacle of their amazingness, but Tanglewood Numbers has some really good songs songs too. I may be exaggerating because of the recency of his death, but I can't think of a single songwriter that has meant more to me over the years. Bill Callahan is up there, Malkmus probably, but Berman had the exceptional capacity to make me laugh and think at the same time, and his songs still offer new insights and ideas years after I first heard them.
 
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The cover of Actual Air is the Concourse, an Atlanta office complex. Does anyone know why?

I don't know for sure, but I always took it as not related to specific buildings or place but the juxtaposition of corporate America overlooking the last remnants of wildness, a meadow edged by forest. I think Berman also had a long running theme in his writing of finding some thing beautiful in the midst of modern ugliness.

9781890447045.jpg
 
Rayland Baxter just dropped an EP of Mac Miller cover songs and it is great. Here is his version of 2009:


Some background on Mac Miller's impact on Rayland:
 
Jimmy Page got/ripped off his arrangement of Black Mountain Side from Bert. This is good semi-late Bert with some haunting vocals from Anne Briggs, who, if you're into the whole pastoral British witchy vaguely psych-folk thing like I am, has a great album called The Time Has Come.

 
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