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Drag City
October 18, 2005 |
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Silver Jews
Tanglewood Numbers
Filter Grade: 88%
by Pat McGuire
Several years ago while working at a hotel, I was playing a Silver Jews record to an empty lobby when my fellow clerk, Vernetta, stuck her head around the corner and shrieked, "WHAT IN GOD'S HOLY NAME IS THAT BULLSHIT?!? YOU'RE GOING TO GET US FIRED!" While a comment like that was usually reserved for selling weed to the guests (or, at the very least, playing 2 Live Crew), let it suffice to say that this band, much like working at a hotel, isn't for everyone. During his comfortably paced career, head Jew and poet (no really, he has a book) David Berman has surely joined the ranks of "favorite singers who can't sing," churning out his fifth album of what I'll simply call indie-folk rock poems. His unabashed monotone baritone (monitone?) and charmingly wry lyrics will always be the star of his songs, no matter how lusciously layered they become from all-star musician buddies stopping by to chip in. And stop by they do: original Jews Stephen Malkmus and Bob Nastanovich are back, and Will Oldham, members of A Perfect Circle, the Jesus Lizard, and Lambchop--even Berman's wife Cassie contributes the licks to Berman's "hard rock record." It's not exactly that, but there are moments of shreddin' (Malkmus plays on every track) and skin-smackin', while still retaining the Nashville enamor started with Bright Flight. Opener "Punks in the Beerlight" is an instant upbeat classic ("Ain't ya heard the news/Adam and Eve were Jews"), and "The Poor, the Fair, and the Good" and "I'm Getting Back Into Getting Back Into You" twang with the sad-song zingers and tear-in-my-beer truths of Music City, U.S.A. Tanglewood Numbers probably won't win many new fans, but it will make the cult of David grow fonder.
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