Inside The Golden Days Of Missing Silver Jews


Photo by Redheadwalking

Bad news, folks — indie rock’s poet laureate, David C. Berman, announced today that he’s calling it quits with the Silver Jews and moving on to greener pastures: “screenwriting or muckracking.”

“If I continue to record I might accidentally write the answer song to ‘Shiny Happy People,'” he wrote, and while nobody wants to see that, last year’s Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea was a great J00s record; arguably their best since their seminal release, 1998’s Malkmus-aided American Water. Berman remains at the top of his game and was just getting comfortable with touring after refusing to do it for years, so all in all, this is quite the loss. I met him after a show on their inaugural tour and he was incredibly charming, even while discussing his dislike of the nickname “Dave,” which yours truly obviously goes by. “We should be free to be Daves and Davids,” he said at the time. D.C., you should be whatever you want. Best of luck.

Silver Jews – “Smith and Jones Forever”: mp3

(Buy Silver Jews albums — all of ’em — on Drag City)