Silver Jews - Random Rules

The Silver Jews have written two of my favorite albums of all time, American Water and Starlight Walker. Both were co-written with Stephen Malkmus and both were when David Berman (lead singer) was trashed all the time. I'm not a fan of Berman sober and sans Malkmus, but hey, maybe i'm just a 'Joos purist.

David Berman has written 30 of my top 35 favorite lyrics in songs. I think he's hilarious. Some samples:
"when the sun sets on the ghetto all the broken stuff gets cold"
"suburban kids with biblical names"
"on the last day of your life, don't forget to die"
"He can afford anything, he's got dogs that blow on trumpets"

This video gets huge cred because for some inexplicable reason it's just Connery clips from some biblical-looking movie (cue the "you've never seen ___!?!?!??" comments).

I think Bri's term 'charmingly sloppy' applies to the silver jews in songwriting, guitar playing, and singing, but it somehow stays together and keeps me coming back for more, time and time again.