American Water

I also went to see the Silver Jews. As Friday’s post indicated, it wasn’t all that exciting, but I knew better than to expect entertainment. After all, I’ve heard the records. What I mean is this: if you’ve heard a Silver Jews record, you know there’s no possible way it could be any good live. They actually were better than I expected.

The show did remind me that American Water (represented with 3 songs in Thursday’s set) remains one of the very few perfect records I own. There are two good reasons for loving it:

1. Dave Berman’s lyrics on the record are better than any of his poetry. I can’t think of another record where the lyrics are so consistently good at mixing tossed-off obscurantism with genuinely affecting images and narrative. 
2. Steve Malkmus’s guitar playing. The guitar players in Berman’s new band both played with too much reverb, and were a bit more polished than the Jews deserve or should want. Indeed, on the older songs they were embarrassingly faithful to Malkmus’s extended country-rock solos. I don’t even think Malkmus could play them that well again. He probably played his tracks in two takes and forgot them soon afterward. But as sloppy as it is, Malkmus’s guitar playing on American Water is wonderfully clean, trebly, and virtually reverb-free. Berman’s new guitar dudes should have copied that sound, too.

It’s true that Dave Berman can’t sing at all. But on American Water, Malkmus (who can’t sing either) is there to back him up. Their meager powers combine to form a kind of arch, scraggly chorus that sustains the record and keeps it from drowning in all its minor chords.

I’m not here to win you  over to the record’s pleasures. If you never loved it, you won’t love it now. But nothing could dent how it sounded for me in 1998. Certainly not seeing Berman try (and fail) to replicate his peculiar skills in front of a live audience.

Here’s some chick belly dancing to my favorite American Water track. Enjoy. Or don’t. Also, take a look at Troy Schulze’s review for the Press, which includes a full set list.