Silver Jews weekend: I'm Getting Back Into Getting Back Into You

Perhaps the peak of clever-clever titles from a band who knew how to do the tricksy wordplay:



[Part of The Silver Jews weekend]

Silver Jews weekend: How Can I Love You If You Won't Lie Down?

Continuing our celebration to mark the graceful retirement of the band:



[Part of Silver Jews weekend]

Silver Jews weekend: Random Rules

Live at the wonderful BlueBird in Denver:



[Part of The Silver Jews weekend]

Silver Jews weekend: Dallas

Live in London - at ULU, to be precise - The Silver Jews play Dallas:



[Part of The Silver Jews weekend]

Silver Jews weekend: How To Rent A Room

Don't call it a bootleg, call it verite: This from a live performance at The Grey Eagle, in Ashville, New Carolina:



[Part of The Silver Jews weekend]

Embed and Breakfast man: The Silver Jews

With The Silver Jews coming to an end, what better time could there be for a look back over their career?

The obvious answer to that question would be "when they were still a going concern", but can we pretend I was being rhetorical?

The band have actually racked up twenty years, which is quite impressive, although they have managed to churn through almost as many members in that time. David Berman is the only member to have carried his bat - which is why his decision to wrap up marks the end.

A band so loved by their fans, it's appropriate to start with a fan-made video, I think. This is from the Bright Flight album, their first major work after Stephen Malkmus decided to focus his extra-Pavement curricular activities on The Jicks:



Buy
Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea
American Water
Bright Flight
American documentary DVD

More Silver Jews online
Official
MySpace
On Drag City Records
Village Voice: The Evolution of The Silver Jews
Last FM
Daytrotter: An appreciation
Wikipedia

Further Silver Jews video action across the weekend
How To Rent A Room - live
Dallas - live
Random Rules - live
How Can I Love You If You Won't Lie Down?
I'm Getting Back Into Getting Back Into You

Silver Jews reach the end

David Berman has made the required hand signals to mark the end of The Silver Jews. Oh, and explained why in a Drag City forum post:

I'm just going to play fifteen songs. My fifteen favorite ones.

A dollar per song. Plus Arnett Hollow. I don't

want to keep you underground for too long. Fall Creek Falls State Park State Lodge is great by the way.

Yes I cancelled the South American shows. I'll have to see the ABC Countries another way.

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?


Cassie is taking it the hardest. She's a fan and a player but she sees how happy i am with the decision.

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.

What, you thought I was going to hang on to the bitter end like Marybeth Hamilton?

I think that "avoiding writing an answer to an REM pop hit" has got to be the best answer to 'why are you ending the band' ever yet conceived, hasn't it?

Silver Jews harp on about tour

The Silver Jews are padding out their time between European Festival dates with some other, standalone gigs - they're even playing the Liverpool Zanzibar, which should be a hell of an event:

Brighton, Concorde 2 - 7
Leeds, City Varieties - 8
Glasgow, ABC - 9
Belfast, Black Box - 10
Dundalk, Spirit Store - 11
Cork, Cyprus Avenue - 14
Galway, Roisin Dubh - 15
Dublin, Whelan's - 16
Explosions In The Sky Vs ATP – 16-18
Hamburg, Fabrik - 20
Berlin, Columbia Club - 21
Frankfurt, Brotfabrik - 22
St. Gallen, Palace Theatre - 23
Paris, Point Ephemere - 25
Manchester, The Dancehouse Theatre - 27
Liverpool, Zanzibar - 28
London, Millennium Dome - 29
Barcelona, Primavera Sound Festival – 29-31