Disc of the day
Heaven 17 - Penthouse And Pavement
From Sheffield, synth pop and funk to stick it to Thatcher. Currently being played live!
Features Disc of the day
Silver Jews
The Natural Bridge
(Domino, 1996)
Pavement pal breaks free of their tutelage, delivers psyche-shattered alt.gagfest.
Poet-eccentric David Berman did himself few favours when he invited Pavement’s Steve Malkmus and Bob Nastanovich to aid him on his 1994 LP debut. Although the trio’s collaborations pre-date the latter’s rise to indie prominence (they were classmates at the University Of Virginia; Slanted & Enchanted was named after a Berman cartoon), it was hard not to see Starlite Walker as a Pavement side project, and its off-the-peg sound seemed to swamp Berman’s individuality. And yet, like a man doing the same thing twice and hoping for a different result, Berman welcomed the Pavement pair back to early sessions for The Natural Bridge, sessions later scrapped as the Virginian groped towards something more uniquely “him”.
The unlikely heroes of Berman’s breakthrough turned out to be Peyton Pinkerton and Matt Hunter of Massachusetts band New Radiant Storm King, whose spacy, delicately strange alterna-country environments give Berman a roomier canvas. Berman responds with greater clarity and confidence, his conversationally related, endlessly droll reflections more funny-peculiar than ever. “The Latin teacher always smelled like piss,” he recalls. “We saw B.B. King on General Hospital,” he declares*. “Our record just went aluminum,” he snickers, not inaptly, on the brilliant Dallas. The future held tough times for Berman; in 2003, he would attempt suicide with a cocktail (it’s always a “cocktail”) of crack, alcohol and Xanax, and though currently back on a track of sorts he is arguably yet to better The Natural Bridge. Meanwhile, New Radiant Storm King soldier on, with a new record, Drinking In The Moonlight, due in October.
* I used to think this was stroke of surreal or deranged genius, but subsequent research (ie. I Googled it, yesterday) suggests that Berman may have been telling the truth. Which is, in a weird way (since it makes BB King being on General Hospital no less surreal, or deranged), a disappointment.
Danny Eccleston
Posted by Danny_Eccleston at 6:00 AM GMT 12/08/2008
Further Listening
Silver Jews – American Water (Domino, 1998)
Vic Chesnutt – Is The Actor Happy? (New West, 1995)
New Radiant Storm King – Hurricane Necklace (Grass, 1996)
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Heaven 17 - Penthouse And Pavement
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