When Austin Jenckes was just a teenager, his father committed suicide. Naturally, it was a tragedy that has shaped the Washington State songwriter’s life and informed his music. But the loss also turned Jenckes into a passionate proponent of mental health awareness. On December 2nd, he’ll host a benefit concert in Nashville to support the cause.
“My dad died when I was 16. He struggled with depression; he took his own life. He was everything that I looked at as what was cool,” says Jenckes. “When he died, I...
“My dad died when I was 16. He struggled with depression; he took his own life. He was everything that I looked at as what was cool,” says Jenckes. “When he died, I...
- 11/26/2019
- by Joseph Hudak
- Rollingstone.com
On Sunday, indie-rock fans were pleasantly shocked to see that the Tennessee Titans had posted a video message honoring David Berman, of the Silver Jews and Purple Mountains, who died earlier this year. “Nashville (and the world) will always love David Berman,” the message on the Nissan Stadium jumbotron read.
Berman, who moved from Charlottesville, Virginia to Nashville around the same time Nashville got its NFL franchise, was a Titans fan who sometimes put football into his songs and writing, like this 2016 poem honoring Darius Van Arman, founder of the Charlottesville indie label Jagjaguwar,...
Berman, who moved from Charlottesville, Virginia to Nashville around the same time Nashville got its NFL franchise, was a Titans fan who sometimes put football into his songs and writing, like this 2016 poem honoring Darius Van Arman, founder of the Charlottesville indie label Jagjaguwar,...
- 11/13/2019
- by Jon Dolan
- Rollingstone.com
Animal Collective members Avey Tare and Geologist pay tribute to late Purple Mountains singer David Berman with a cover of Silver Jews’ “Ballad of Reverend War Character.” Proceeds from the downloads of their rendition via Bandcamp will be donated to MusiCares and Music Health Alliance.
“A few weeks ago we planned on seeing Purple Mountains together,” the band members said in a statement; Berman died by suicide on the eve of his first tour in years. “Instead we spent the night listening to David’s records and talking about how...
“A few weeks ago we planned on seeing Purple Mountains together,” the band members said in a statement; Berman died by suicide on the eve of his first tour in years. “Instead we spent the night listening to David’s records and talking about how...
- 8/30/2019
- by Daniel Kreps
- Rollingstone.com
First Aid Kit paid tribute to the late David Berman with a gut-wrenching cover of Silver Jews’ “Random Rules.” The Swedish folk duo also released an original song “Strange Beauty” in honor of Berman, who died by suicide at the age of 52 earlier this month.
Singer Klara Söderberg takes the lead on “Random Rules,” gently laying her vocals down over aching guitar. “So if you don’t want me I promise not to linger/But before I go I gotta ask you dear about the tan line on your ring finger.
Singer Klara Söderberg takes the lead on “Random Rules,” gently laying her vocals down over aching guitar. “So if you don’t want me I promise not to linger/But before I go I gotta ask you dear about the tan line on your ring finger.
- 8/22/2019
- by Angie Martoccio
- Rollingstone.com
David Berman once wrote that Paul Simon got it all wrong — there’s really only two ways to leave your lover. “You can up and leave, Steve. Or you can go to your grave, Dave.” Berman spent much of his existence leaving his lives behind, pulling up stakes and starting a new life somewhere else, until the horrible news of his death yesterday at 52. He was beloved for his Silver Jews albums and his 1999 classic book of poetry, Actual Air. He had just returned to release an excellent new album under the name Purple Mountains.
- 8/8/2019
- by Rob Sheffield
- Rollingstone.com
David Berman, the singer-songwriter best known for leading the long-running band Silver Jews, died Wednesday at the age of 52. Drag City, the Chicago record label that has released all of the group’s albums dating back to 1994’s Starlite Walker, confirmed the musician’s death. The label did not immediately reveal the cause of death.
“We couldn’t be more sorry to tell you this. David Berman passed away earlier today,” the label wrote in a statement. “A great friend and one of the most inspiring individuals we’ve ever known is gone.
“We couldn’t be more sorry to tell you this. David Berman passed away earlier today,” the label wrote in a statement. “A great friend and one of the most inspiring individuals we’ve ever known is gone.
- 8/7/2019
- by Hank Shteamer
- Rollingstone.com
Welcome back, David Berman, a literary indie-rock great who’s been gone way too long. Berman’s debut with his new band Purple Mountains is his first release since retiring his beloved band the Silver Jews eleven years ago. When the SJs first appeared in the early Nineties, they first struck people as a sideband for Berman’s Charlottesville, Va buddy Stephen Malkmus, who played guitar and added vocals to Berman’s songs. But as the band kept releasing records it became clear the real story was Berman’s insane...
- 7/15/2019
- by Jon Dolan
- Rollingstone.com
Okay, so this one is a little bit old and some of you diehard Harmony Korine or Gaspar Noe fans have probably already seen this. But for those of you who haven't, and especially if you're impatiently awaiting Korine's "Spring Breakers" and/or whatever Noe's next feature will be, this will surely tide you over. Back in 2010, these two filmmaking friends took part in the German series "Durch die Nacht mit..." ("Into The Night") which essentially pairs up two artists, and basically rolls film. Thank God to whoever determined that Korine and Noe should hang out, because the results are pretty great. The pair spent the day goofing in Nashville, where they go a gun range, visit a junkyard, attend a screening of Korine's "Trash Humpers," go have some chicken and talk about all manner of topics. Oh yeah, there's also a random cameo by David Berman of The Silver Jews.
- 1/18/2013
- by Kevin Jagernauth
- The Playlist
The history of movie stars becoming rock stars is just as unfortunate as the history of rock stars becoming movie stars, as anyone who's heard Bruce Willis' blues-rock or Steven Seagal's country record can attest to. But just as Justin Timberlake has become one of the rare figures to bridge the divide from the recording world, stars Scarlett Johansson and Zooey Deschanel have found some success collaborating with established artists like Dave Sitek and M. Ward in recent years. And it looks like one more actress is hoping to follow in their footsteps, in the shape of "Scott Pilgrim vs. the World" star Mary Elizabeth Winstead.
Winstead's already been having a pretty good few months; she's soon to star in "Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter," and she won enormous acclaim for her leading role in Sundance indie "Smashed," which Sony Pictures Classics will release in the hopes of an...
Winstead's already been having a pretty good few months; she's soon to star in "Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter," and she won enormous acclaim for her leading role in Sundance indie "Smashed," which Sony Pictures Classics will release in the hopes of an...
- 5/23/2012
- by Oliver Lyttelton
- The Playlist
Michael Tully began his career with a flurry, getting selected for Filmmaker‘s 25 New Faces of Independent Film in 2006 on the back of his debut feature Cocaine Angel, and then following it up the next year with Silver Jew, a documentary about Silver Jews frontman David Berman. In the years since, Tully has stayed active, shooting Mary Bronstein’s Yeast, acting in a handful of movies by fellow Generation Diy peers, including Aaron Katz’s Quiet City and Ry Russo-Young’s You Won’t Miss Me, and editing the indie film website Hammer to Nail. But, in terms of new films, he has kept his head below the parapet.
Now, however, he’s back with his second narrative feature, Septien, a fantastically idiosyncratic tale in which he plays the lead role of Cornelius Rawlings, an athletically-gifted prodigal son who after an unexplained 18 year absence returns to the family farm where his two brothers,...
Now, however, he’s back with his second narrative feature, Septien, a fantastically idiosyncratic tale in which he plays the lead role of Cornelius Rawlings, an athletically-gifted prodigal son who after an unexplained 18 year absence returns to the family farm where his two brothers,...
- 1/22/2011
- by Nick Dawson
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
Well, this is an exciting week for links! I’ve stumbled upon or have been directed to several new sources from which to pull from. Is the underground film blogging boom not far away? This is one of the longer links posts I’ve done.
First up isn’t exactly an underground film site per se. It’s Catherine Grant’s phenomenal Film Studies for Free who puts up encyclopedia-sized links posts that make my weekly compilations seem sad and pathetic by comparison. Semi-underground related, Grant recently posted up 12 videos from a David Lynch symposium that took place back in ’09 at the Tate Modern. Add this site to your RSS reader. I did. Making Light of It has recommended a resurrected blog that I’ve never seen before: Watermelon Rinds by Ekrem Serdar. In his most recent post, Serdar tries to gather some thoughts and ideas on Robert Breer and Keewatin Dewdney.
First up isn’t exactly an underground film site per se. It’s Catherine Grant’s phenomenal Film Studies for Free who puts up encyclopedia-sized links posts that make my weekly compilations seem sad and pathetic by comparison. Semi-underground related, Grant recently posted up 12 videos from a David Lynch symposium that took place back in ’09 at the Tate Modern. Add this site to your RSS reader. I did. Making Light of It has recommended a resurrected blog that I’ve never seen before: Watermelon Rinds by Ekrem Serdar. In his most recent post, Serdar tries to gather some thoughts and ideas on Robert Breer and Keewatin Dewdney.
- 8/15/2010
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
Nashville locals Tim Chad & Sherry make beat-heavy love songs that might remind you of Beck or Ween when they turned on the groove. Previously members of Silver Jews and Lambchop, Tim Chad & Sherry are not their real names, and I guess they like it that way.
The band's really the creation of songwriter and drummer Brian Kotzur, who was the Silver Jews drummer. If you're the rare bird who saw Harmony Korine's last film, the wild geriatric romp "Trash Humpers," you may recognize Kotzur, who played "Buddy."
Their new record, "Baby We Can Work It Out," is out now on Cleft. Here's their lusty album teaser:
Download: Tim Chad & Sherry's "The Love I Make" from "Baby We Can Work It Out"...
The band's really the creation of songwriter and drummer Brian Kotzur, who was the Silver Jews drummer. If you're the rare bird who saw Harmony Korine's last film, the wild geriatric romp "Trash Humpers," you may recognize Kotzur, who played "Buddy."
Their new record, "Baby We Can Work It Out," is out now on Cleft. Here's their lusty album teaser:
Download: Tim Chad & Sherry's "The Love I Make" from "Baby We Can Work It Out"...
- 7/20/2010
- by Brandon Kim
- ifc.com
Hometown: Berkeley, Calif.
Band Members: Josiah Wolf (drums), Yoni Wolf (vocals, keyboards), Doug McDiarmid (guitar)
Album: Eskimo Snow
For Fans Of: Silver Jews, Lambchop, Beck
Yoni Wolf has long been a remarkably prolific artist, his discography as Why? littered with dozens of split singles, EPs, limited edition CD-r’s, collaborations and albums with and without a backing band. But he didn't really find peace with that moniker until 2008's Alopecia. Continuing his gradual drift from experimental hip-hop to a deconstructed and highly personalized brand of indie rock, it was an album of angry observations and smoldering paranoia, a singularly engrossing exploration of sex, death, and self-effacing jokes. Still, in keeping with his prodigious creative pace, Wolf wasn’t content to create just one album with his now solidified outfit, which consists of his brother Josiah and longtime friend Doug McDiarmid. Even while recording Alopecia, he was readying its morning-after follow-up,...
Band Members: Josiah Wolf (drums), Yoni Wolf (vocals, keyboards), Doug McDiarmid (guitar)
Album: Eskimo Snow
For Fans Of: Silver Jews, Lambchop, Beck
Yoni Wolf has long been a remarkably prolific artist, his discography as Why? littered with dozens of split singles, EPs, limited edition CD-r’s, collaborations and albums with and without a backing band. But he didn't really find peace with that moniker until 2008's Alopecia. Continuing his gradual drift from experimental hip-hop to a deconstructed and highly personalized brand of indie rock, it was an album of angry observations and smoldering paranoia, a singularly engrossing exploration of sex, death, and self-effacing jokes. Still, in keeping with his prodigious creative pace, Wolf wasn’t content to create just one album with his now solidified outfit, which consists of his brother Josiah and longtime friend Doug McDiarmid. Even while recording Alopecia, he was readying its morning-after follow-up,...
- 9/21/2009
- Pastemagazine.com
To celebrate the deluxe reissue of their woefully underrated 1997 album Brighten the Corners, Pavement and their label Matador Records hosted a contest wherein the winner received a shopping spree at Ikea with help from a member of the band. Why Ikea? Because Brighten the Corners has a tune called “Date w/ Ikea.” New York resident Jenny Bergen was the winner (she reasoned that she needed the shopping spree to furnish her just-an-air-mattress studio apartment that she shares with an elderly woman), and former Pavement percussionist Bob Nastanovich accompanied her to a local Ikea to look for mattresses and eat Swedish meatballs.
Brighten Your Corners: A Date W/ Ikea - Pavement
Nastanovich has had a fascinating post-rock-and-roll career. While he recorded and toured with Silver Jews as recently as 2005, he has immersed himself in thoroughbred horse racing, working as a chart caller, representing jockeys and breeding the beasts himself. Is that...
Brighten Your Corners: A Date W/ Ikea - Pavement
Nastanovich has had a fascinating post-rock-and-roll career. While he recorded and toured with Silver Jews as recently as 2005, he has immersed himself in thoroughbred horse racing, working as a chart caller, representing jockeys and breeding the beasts himself. Is that...
- 6/10/2009
- by Kyle Anderson
- MTV Newsroom
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