I’d been putting off listening to Purple Mountains because I like to deep-dive on bands I’m seeing in concert the week of their show, and I had a couple of those crop up over the past couple of weeks. I finally put it on this morning in the wake of hearing this terrible, terrible news, and boy, howdy, is listening to…

I guess none of us know, and probably never will unless he confided with someone (Dan K.? Cassie?) that ultimately feels it appropriate to share. But to be honest, I didn’t get the same feeling as you. He worked hard on this record. He scrapped a set of recordings with Dan Bejar (which necessarily means they were…

I can’t believe how many of my favorite musicians died by suicide. And they always managed to convey so eloquently the struggle with their demons, in a way that made it seem like music was what helped them win that struggle. Until it didn’t.

Berman was a giant. My generation’s greatest songwriter. What he and Malkmus accomplished in 1998 with American Water is something to be celebrated forever. And, of course, the recent Purple Mountains release cements his legendary status, without a doubt the AOTY. The man wrote about depression better than anyone…

Let me be another person to say goddamnit. I really loved so many SJ songs. At the time I was listening to a lot of them, I had just moved from Tennessee to Louisville and I found his insistence in “Tennessee” that:

I was listening to that song when my friend texted me to tell me the news this afternoon. I had to stop and sit in silence for a long while before finishing the album.

Goddamn. Check out these lyrics from “Nights that Won’t Happen” (itself a play on “Knights in White Satin”) from the Purple Mountains album:

Since people are going to be linking to various songs, I’m going to be the hipster that instead links to a poem (that I hadn’t heard of before he died):

This is fucking devastating. Hands-down one of the best wordsmiths to grace the face of the modern music scene, and while I wish I could borrow his brain for a sec to say something equally witty and profound, I can’t really think of anything beyond that this is fucking devastating.

Punks in the Beerlight has some of the greatest lyrics ever to appear in a rock song. What a loss. 

I’m too sad to think or write coherently. I discovered the Silver Jews in my 30's, after I had thought I'd heard it all. There was so much playfulness and wounded sweetness in those songs. As I laid in bed weeping for my failed marriage and life, David Berman crooned away those humid Kentucky nights. I don't know that…

Thank fucking you!

Wow! Both coasts! How generous!

Anne Hathaway?

Yay! I really enjoyed this show and was bummed that AV Club didn’t cover it, because I had no one to talk to about it. The whole season was great, but my favorite part was the Herbalife parody that was so spot-on that I was genuinely worried that Torres and Fabrega would get sued.

Tati's dress at the wedding was so damn great.

big little payoff

There’s always a sense memory I’ll have from my two summers working at Blockbuster. Specific DVD covers will just warp me right back. Namely, Mean Creek, Open Water, Shaun of the Dead and Hitch. Instant teleportation device.

Meowster Police, you could have saved her. I gave you all the clues.

I’ll take a stab at it. There is one or more F-14s flying for an aerospace  company (no there arent really, but this is a movie so shut it), and it will be used for directing drones. Somebody will steal the Tomcat and drones, hi-jinks ensue.