Silver Jews' David Berman Calls It Quits | Pitchfork
Silver Jews' David Berman Calls It Quits
"I've got to move on. Can't be like all the careerists doncha know."
Silver Jews' David Berman Calls It Quits
Photo by Francis Chung
Yesterday evening, a post appeared on the Drag City message board titled "Silver Jews End-Lead Singer Bids his Well-Wishers Adieu". In it, someone purporting to be Silver Jews main man David Berman wrote that the band's January 31 performance at McMinnville, Tennessee's Cumberland Caverns (to be broadcast on Nashville's famed WSM radio station), will be their last.
UPDATE: Drag City has confirmed that Berman did in fact author these posts.
He wrote, "I guess I am moving over to another category. Screenwriting or Muckraking. I've got to move on. Can't be like all the careerists doncha know. I'm forty two and I know what to do. I'm a writer, see?" Then, "I always said we would stop before we got bad. If I continue to record I might accidentally write the answer song to 'Shiny Happy People'."
In a second message board post, this one titled "My Father, My Attack Dog", this same "DCB" wrote a scathing indictment of Richard Berman, the behind-the-scenes Washington, D.C. right-wing puppetmaster who, he says, also happens to be his father. "My father is a despicable man. My father is a sort of human molestor. An exploiter. A scoundrel. A world historical motherfucking son of a bitch. (sorry grandma)"
We haven't confirmed that Berman himself actually wrote this, or if it's just an imposter. But whoever it is, he or she certainly has adapted Berman's trademark wit.
* Video: Silver Jews: Juan's Basement [Pitchfork.tv]
Posted by Amy Phillips on Fri, Jan 23, 2009 at 10:45am