When David Berman left music behind ten years ago it came like a punch in the gut for fans who’d come to rely on his off-kilter croon, hard-won wisdom, and backcountry wit. The Silver Jews, the band Berman formed in 1989 with Pavement’s Stephen Malkmus and Bob Nastanovich (though, only Berman would remain as a constant member throughout the group’s tenure) would go on to release a number of now classic indie albums via Drag City in the 90’s, before calling it quits in 2009. Along the way, David Berman would come to represent the epitome of the indie artist–writerly, elusive, and choosing to eschew careerism in service to his ruthless Muse.
When the Jews finally disbanded, though, they seemed to be at the top of their game. Berman had been married for a number of years and his wife Cassie was playing bass and singing in the group. In addition, the Silver Jews were finally touring and fans who’d waited years to see the band play live were overjoyed. The group had released their Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea LP in 2008, and from the outside looking in everything seemed fine.
Or not. In 2009, Berman was finally ready to put the Silver Jews behind him and reveal his “gravest” secret–“worse than suicide, worse than crack addiction”–his father. In a scathing and heartbreaking rebuke, the artist informed fans that his dad was famous for “terrible reasons.” A longtime political operative and lobbyist representing “everyone from the makers of Agent Orange to the Tanning Salon Owners of America,” David told us that his father Richard “attacks animal lovers, ecologists, civil action attorneys, scientists, dieticians, doctors, teachers.”
It was a shame and guilt his poetic soul could no longer endure, and in the letter, he said the desire for justice literally burned inside him. Berman wrote, “This winter I decided that the SJs were too small of a force to ever come close to undoing a millionth of all the harm he has caused. To you and everyone you know.” He closed by saying, “There needs to be something more. I’ll see what that might be.”
In a later missive, he would go on to report that he was pursuing “Screenwriting or Muckraking,” but the thought we might ever hear music from him again seemed like a pipe dream in rose-colored glasses. That is until Bob Nastanovich revealed in December of 2018 that Berman was indeed returning with new music and a new moniker. After more than a year of waiting, this May the musician’s new project Purple Mountains arrived with the 12″ vinyl single “All My Happiness I Gone,” with a video for the track following soon after.
While Berman always feared if he continued making music too long he might accidentally stumble on the answer song to “Shiny Happy People,” with this new cut, he has. This is Berman’s world vision, and it unapologetically finds him with “mounting milage on the dash” and the “double darkness” falling fast. He confesses, “I’m barely hanging on,” and in this video directed by Brent Stewart and Matt Boyd, he sometimes looks like a man with his bags packed. And yet, in the face of it all, the singer tells us that he “keeps stressin’/pressin’ on;” and his gritty endeavor to create music again is truly proof of that.
Look for Purple Mountains’ self-titled debut LP to come out July 12th via Drag City Records.
