i have often felt like Steven Malkmus squandered the last few pavement albums chasing the kind of songs that seemed to flow from david berman so easily, and if he had pulled it off it would have been like three albums of The Farmers Hotel. He is also super talented and a very underrated guitar player. His music skill and sensibility and good taste as a back up vocalist brought so much to those early sj records. i woke up wanting to share this song with my mastadon friends and found this clip. I'm really moved by it and liked reads your comment.

​@@egattignolo Pavement is one of my all time favorite bands, and while I can see where you're coming from, I would only argue that Terror Twilight is the one were Malkmus tries to pull from Berman's book. Berman had a way of writing that can simply not be reproduced easily, and while I enjoy Malkmus's writing it doesnt have the same melancholy that made Berman's style so unique. Just the line "I'm gonna shine out in the wild kindness" is open to so much interpretation. Its bittersweet, melancholic yet hopeful, and I think that's what makes it so compelling: To shine in a world brimming with kindness that's somehow still uncaring and wild.

yes

I've always thought it's about family ties and growing old and ending up alone or in a home. The four dogs represent said family because dogs are loyal.

It's one of his saddest songs, it's to my ears about depression, the line about the coroner is on the nose, and haunting, but the loveliest lines about the desperatation are: Every leaf in a compact mirror hits a target that we can't see / Grass grows in the ice box / the year ends in the next room / it is autumn and my camouflage is dying. Oddly, I always feel less alone with Berman songs in the world. Somehow his experience of things, his way of seeing has always been a reassurance. Sure wish I'd emailed him and told him so.

It’s about the wild kindness

Taco Mayo Wholatta Box! Thanks for the in-depth explaination.

I think what’s great about silver Jews is that the lyrics are vague enough you can interpret the songs to be what you want. I listened to a lot of their songs during January of this year when I was in a bad place mentally, and now I forever associate their songs to that time.

on a classic nitrogen afternoon