Consolation in the stardust of a bong.
Silver Jews' Tanglewood Numbers won a whole bunch of awards in my head this past year--including best lay-out, best album-opening lines ("Where's the paper bag that holds the liquor?/Just in case I feel the need to puke"), best random lines that popped in my head while I was working ("Andre was a young black Santa Claus", "His sister was like the heat coming off the back of an old TV", "Get a load of this fucking view, its the best in the west!"), etc., and it made my best of 2006 list even though it came out in 2005--that's how goddamn good it is! I could really go on and on about it, but I already did. Here's the review I wrote like a year ago for the forthcoming debut issue of The Chuds Present:

"I always figured a band called 'Silver Jews' would be terrible but then I saw that thing in Vice with those pictures of Dave Berman and Harmony Korine harassing an anti-immigration rally with a sign that said 'You are the bottom-feeders of American life so we're going to replace you with cool Mexicans' and 'Go back to Pussy-stan' and I had to re-assess things. So yeah, I'm a newbie when it comes to Berman and his Silver Jews stuff, and I have zero insight into how this compares to the rest of his shit. Has he always done low-key, later-Pavement-sounding stuff, but with a plain-spoken Southern baritone guy doing vocals instead of a smart-alecky nerdnik? Because this shit is good. It actually reminds me of being in Newark around NewarkFest time (beginning of June) for some reason, which might seem incredibly insulting if you think about the dread of seeing former high school classmates you had specific plans to avoid at all costs forever, who will undoubtedly recognize you and try to catch up with you. I guess I'm just picturing the nice weather and the wealth of human absurdity that a three-day carnival/celebration in a small rural town in upstate New York can bring out of the slowly rotting woodwork, in the most explicit, undiluted ways possible. It can be hilarious and off-putting and maybe even deeply depressing, usually at the same time or in very quick succession. All of which roughly translates to a great time, and this album is the soundtrack I'd prefer to have blasting as I'm laughing and wincing my way through it."

Silver Jews - "Punks in the Beerlight"
Silver Jews - "Sometimes a Pony Gets Depressed"
Silver Jews - "Sleeping is the Only Love"

Song of the day is Sunn 0))) and Boris and Jesse Sykes' "The Sinking Belle (Blue Sheep)" even though its kind of cheesy. Runner-up is Owls' "We Are the Owls" even though its not the best Owls song.