The Silver Jews’ David Berman Is Currently Accepting Intern Applications

Photo: Yani Yordanova / Redferns / Retna
David Berman, the leader and only permanent member of the Silver Jews, is a candid guy. His dossier might suggest otherwise: A scraggly, lean 41-year-old with a history of drug addiction and a Xanax-assisted attempted suicide, Berman had never toured before playing shows in support of 2005’s Tanglewood Numbers. But in person, he’s warm and garrulous, displaying the same infectious ramshackle energy that powers Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea, the sixth studio album in the nineteen-year history of the Jews, out today on Drag City. Berman sat down with Vulture to talk about Lookout, his father’s Bennigan’s-inspired book collection, and how he met his wife.

Do you feel this is your best album?
I do. And I hesitate to say it, because I’ve heard R.E.M. say it so many times and they’ve always been wrong! Flagrantly wrong. Long before I ever wrote a song, I wondered about that. I would see that over and over again. So, that’s my qualification. I think it is. But I might be under the Stipe-Buck illusion.

Some of the songs on the album are really playful — they could almost be children’s songs. Was that a calculated decision?
Yeah, it’s something that sort of first started on the last album. I never would have done stuff like that before. When you’re sober for the first time, a lot of what they say is that you’re unfrozen at the age when you got frozen. I started pretty much drinking every day when I was 18 or 19. So part of the last couple years have been springtime feelings that I haven’t had in a long time.



The last song on the album, “We Could Be Looking for the Same Thing,” sounds like you and [wife and bassist] Cassie are kind of serenading one another. Is that one based on personal experience?
Specifically I was thinking of my mom and her boyfriend. Older people, when they get together, they don’t care about the romantic aspect, especially after a divorce. It’s a pragmatic decision. So it’s a pragmatic love song. My mom read an interview where I said that, and she said, “I’m so insulted that you said it’s just some pragmatic thing between me and Brian.” And then I sent her the album, and she said, “Well, I just love the last song. Me and Brian listen to it all the time!” [Laughs.]

I read that you were working Cassie into the band slowly out of respect for your fans. I think that’s great, but I have to wonder, does that cause any marital problems?
She was a Silver Jews fan before we met, so to a degree she understands.

Did you guys meet at a show?
No, we met at a party in Louisville. She didn’t tell me [she was a fan] until … well … the next morning, when I woke up in her house, and I looked at her record collection! [Laughs.] And I was like, “I got it made!” She had all the records.

I understand that you have interns now. Is that something you did when you were starting out?
I never did that. I did learn from people, but this is almost like a Meals on Wheels thing, where you’re trying to match people with a car with the hungry person that can’t leave their house. I think it would be cool if there was a program that matched artists of no real success maybe with aspiring artists of no real success. They could help each other.

Were you raised in a religious household?
I wasn’t raised in a religious household, it wasn’t a literary household, it wasn’t an artistic household. My dad didn’t read. The bookshelves were all empty. Eventually he went and got this guy … you know how Bennigan’s, you know how you go into one and they have the old bicycles and the old signs on the wall? So he worked at Bennigan’s, and he actually had the guy who does that for the restaurant come into the house and fill the bookshelves with old books.

Did you ever pick up them up?
They were all mostly Reader’s Digest compendiums.

So how did you end up getting into Judaism?
As a kid growing up I always felt like a Jew. I felt like an outsider. [But] it’s just been in the last few years that I’ve been trying to figure out where I am with it. I’m not Jewish. In a way “silver Jews” has become a category for me of someone who's a fellow traveler of the Jews. Even in the Jewish dream of the messianic era, it’s supposed to be that the nations of the world come to them and acknowledge that the Jewish God is everybody’s God. Well, if that’s ever going to happen, some Gentiles are going to start lining up around Jerusalem. So maybe I’m like the first wave or something. A non-Jew applying for status. —Amos Barshad

Tandu

   
Artist: Tandu

   Genre(s): 
Trance: Psychedelic
   

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Discography:


   
 Multimoods

   Year: 1997   
Tracks: 8

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John Lennon

Demons Of Guillotine

   
Artist: Demons Of Guillotine

   Genre(s): 
Metal: Death,Black
   

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Discography:


   
 Beastiary

   Year: 2004   
Tracks: 11

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R. Kelly jurors begin deliberating

Harlem Hustlers

   
Artist: Harlem Hustlers

   Genre(s): 
Other
   

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Discography:


   
 Love is the Answer

   Year: 2004   
Tracks: 2

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Dr Phil visits Spears during hospital stay

Pop singer Britney Spears has reportedly received a visit from television therapist Dr Phil McGraw.
Spears reportedly received the visit during her stay at Cedars-Sinai Medical Centre in Los Angeles, where she was admitted following a custody dispute over her two young children at her home.
Spears was taken to the hospital for evaluation after police officers observed her to be under the influence of an unknown substance. She was discharged on Saturday.
According to People magazine, Dr Phil McGraw visited the singer and her family during her stay in hospital.
Sam Lufti, a friend of the singer, said: "I witnessed Dr Phil being incredibly influential in helping the family unite. His meeting with Britney has certainly made a positive impact instilling seeds of encouragement and reality within her."
He also said: "In the near future it is likely that more information may be shared with the public with the hopes of better understanding a situation as serious as this."
A Los Angeles Superior Court judge has now ordered Spears' children to be placed in the sole care of her ex-husband Kevin Federline, suspending the pop star's visitation rights until "further order of the court".
A hearing has been set for 14 January which will determine how the custody battle will proceed.

Heath Ledger Acting Scholarship Established

A Heath Ledger Scholarship is being launched to help aspiring Australian actors follow in the late star's footsteps.
Australians in Film has established a fund, which it will present each year to a young up-and-coming performer with aspirations of Hollywood stardom.
Aussie Ledger died in January, aged just 28, after accidentally overdosing on prescription drugs at his New York apartment.
The organisation, founded in 2001 to support Australians in the movie and TV industries, has also announced actresses Abbie Cornish and Mia Wasikowska will be honoured at its fourth annual breakthrough awards at a Beverly Hills, California ceremony on 5 June.

Cameron's 8 Simple Rules to the Big Screen

'The Devil Wears Prada' producer Wendy Finerman is bringing W Bruce Cameron's book '8 Simple Rules for Marrying My Daughter' to the big screen.
Cameron's '8 Simple Rules for Marrying My Daughter' is the sequel to his bestseller-turned-hit TV series.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Cameron is adapting his semi-autobiographical novel into a comedy with co-writer Cathryn Michon, author of the 'Grrl Genius Guide' book series.
The film will offer wry commentary in the same vein as his 2001 book '8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter', the basis of ABC's eponymous series starring the late John Ritter.
The plot will revolve around a divorced dad juggling a younger girlfriend and two daughters who both get engaged at the same time.
The book's subtitle, 'And Other Reasonable Advice from the Father of the Bride (Not That Anyone Is Paying Attention)' provides a clue to the central theme.

Bo Diddley, guitarist who inspired the Beatles and the Stones, dies aged 79

Bo Diddley, the pioneering electric guitarist who was playing rock'n'roll when white America was still calling it jungle music and without whom there might never have been Elvis Presley, the Beatles or the Rolling Stones, has died at the age of 79.

Famous for his square, homemade guitar which he plucked with oversize fingers to a relentless syncopated beat, crudely summed up as "bomp ba-bomp bomp bomp bomp", Diddley was one of the giants of popular music.

He died of heart failure at his home in Archer, Florida yesterday, having worked relentlessly, partly out of necessity, partly out of love, almost until the end of his life. He suffered a stroke while touring in Iowa last year followed three months later by a heart attack. His spokeswoman said his ability to speak had been severely affected and he was ordered to rest and rehabilitate at his 76-acre property where he kept his recording studio.

Diddley was a contemporary of both Little Richard and Chuck Berry, though his refusal to compromise with TV executives and court white audiences meant he never enjoyed their level of fame.

In 1955, Diddley became the first black artist to appear on The Ed Sullivan Show but was banned from further appearances after he defied Sullivan's instructions to sing a cover song and instead performed his own hit "Bo Diddley".

Diddley was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, had a star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame, and received a lifetime achievement award in 1999 at the Grammy Awards. In recent years he also played for the elder President Bush and President Clinton.

He released his first and eponymous single in 1955 with "I'm a Man" on the B side. Other major songs included, "Say Man, Who Do You Love?" and "The Mule".

Diddley, real name Otha Ellas Bates, was born into a family of sharecroppers in McComb in southwestern Mississippi, later to become one of the most violent fronts in America's post-war civil rights battles. He never knew his mother and was raised by a cousin. The family swapped the hardship of rural America in the Depression for the equally hostile surroundings of Chicago where at least the factories offered steady work.

There on the South Side he swapped the violin for the guitar and first heard the music of Muddy Waters and the man who was to become his idol, John Lee Hooker.

Diddley recorded more than 20 albums on the legendary Chess label until 1974. By now mired in debt, he was forced to sell the rights to his songs having, he claimed, rarely been paid for his live performances.

It was a decision he bitterly regretted and he remained furious over the record industry's treatment of him. "I am owed. I've never got paid," he used to tell interviewers. "A dude with a pencil is worse than a cat with a machine gun."

In recent years he had harsh words for the direction black music had taken, saying that "gangsta" rap made his blood boil.

"I hate it. I call it rap-crap," Diddley said in a 1996 interview. "I can't seem to get my records played but they'll play all this garbage."

He also had mixed feelings over the way he was treated by other artists. "They copied everything I did, upgraded it, messed it up. It seems to me that nobody can come up with their own thing, they have to put a little bit of Bo Diddley there," he said.

The man who influenced many

Bo Diddley's influence was felt on both sides of the Atlantic. Buddy Holly borrowed the "Bo Diddley beat" for "Not Fade Away", while the Rolling Stones' remake of the same song gave them their first chart single in the US in 1964. The following year, the Yardbirds made the top 20 in the US with their version of "I'm a Man". John Lennon, Bruce Springsteen, Elvis Costello and The Who were also influenced by the guitarist. Diddley once said of other performers: "I don't like to copy anybody. Everybody tries to do what I do, update it. I don't have any idols I copy. They copied everything I did, upgraded it, messed it up. It seems nobody can come up with their own thing, they have to put a little bit of Bo Diddley there."

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ENRICO MACIAS

   
Artist: ENRICO MACIAS

   Genre(s): 
Other
   Folk
   Chanson
   

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Discography:


   
 Best Of The Best (Vol 2)

   Year: 2006   
Tracks: 22


   
 L' Oriental

   Year: 2004   
Tracks: 24


   
 Oranges Ameres

   Year: 2003   
Tracks: 12


   
 Al'OLYMPIA

   Year: 2003   
Tracks: 25


   
 Les Grandes Chansons des Premiere Annees (CD2)

   Year:    
Tracks: 23


   
 Les Grandes Chansons des Premiere Annees (CD1)

   Year:    
Tracks: 23


   
 Hommage Cheikh Raymond (CD2)

   Year:    
Tracks: 11


   
 Hommage Cheikh Raymond (CD1)

   Year:    
Tracks: 11


   
 Enrico Macias 190 chansons trier, CD7

   Year:    
Tracks: 34


   
 Enrico Macias 190 chansons trier, CD6

   Year:    
Tracks: 25


   
 Enrico Macias 190 chansons trier, CD5

   Year:    
Tracks: 25


   
 Enrico Macias 190 chansons trier, CD4

   Year:    
Tracks: 25


   
 Enrico Macias 190 chansons trier, CD3

   Year:    
Tracks: 25


   
 Enrico Macias 190 chansons trier, CD2

   Year:    
Tracks: 25


   
 Discographie Complete

   Year:    
Tracks: 109


   
 15 Grands Succes

   Year:    
Tracks: 22

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Queen Latifah - Latifah Launches Fragrance

Rapper/actress QUEEN LATIFAH has become the latest celebrity to launch her own perfume.

The star is set to release her fragrance next year (09).

She says, "For me, beauty really does start on the inside. It's like a state of mind - a state of love, if you will. So, I see fragrance as just a natural expression of this state of love: Scent expresses a woman's confidence and sensuality. It's how she embraces her body, her mind and her strength."

Lindsay Lohan, Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera and Jennifer Lopez have all launched their own fragrances.

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• Delbert McClinton
• Robert Redford - Redford Tops Celebrity Resorts List
• Tyra Banks - Banks I Was Snubbed Because Im Black And Curvy
• Planet B.E.N

Sharkey, Kevin Energy and CLSM

   
Artist: Sharkey, Kevin Energy and CLSM

   Genre(s): 
Hardcore
   

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Discography:


   
 Live At HTID Event 2 TAPE

   Year: 2004   
Tracks: 2

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Kevin Federline Is Still Daddy Of The Year

While Britney Spears is trying to prove she is a fit mother, her ex-husband Kevin Federline has been awarded Father of the Year for the second this in six months.

Las Vegas club Prive have crowned the dancer-turned-rapper, and the honour will be handed out when K-Fed hosts a party there on 13 June, two days before Father's Day.

He was previously given the top dad title by Details magazine last November.

Federline currently enjoys custody of his two sons with Spears, 2-year old Sean Preston and one year old Jayden James. He also has children from a previous relationship with Shar Jackson.