Pitchfork: Silver Jews To Release Singles Comp; David Berman Hits Poetry Circuit In March

Silver Jews To Release Singles Comp; David Berman Hits Poetry Circuit In March
Picks up 18 more delegates than Kucinich without even running

[Updated Wednesday, February 4th, 2004 04:00:00 Pitchfork Central Time]

Ashford Tucker and Will Bryant report:
Well-respected in the rock world for his collaborations with Stephen Malkmus and for being the principal Silver Jew, David Berman's poems have earned him similar marks from high and lowbrows alike. Pop-culture poopsmiths Spin and Entertainment Weekly, longtime bastion of respectability The New Yorker, American poet laureate Billy Collins, and Pulitzer-winning poet James Tate all gave Berman big Top Gun style high-fives and quotable niceties to stick in his press kit for his 1999 poetry collection, Actual Air.

According to Drag City's website, Berman will offer three springtime poetry readings-- one in March at the Empty Bottle in Chicago, and two others in South Carolina and Arkansas in April. The appearances coincide ever so nonchalantly with Drag City's 2003 release of a limited "deluxe hardcover" edition of Actual Air.

Berman's record label, Drag City, and his publisher, Open City, come together on March 25th to present the Chicago reading as a featured event in the annual Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP) Conference and Book Fair. Drag City reports that supporting acts, "possibly" of the musical variety, will be announced upon confirmation.

Along with his April reading in Charleston, SC, Berman will reportedly offer an afternoon in-classroom Q&A; session for College of Charleston students. While this might sound like the right party to crash for the aging jobless elitist in ringer tee (like yourself), be advised to stay home. Berman reportedly keeps his two hats, songs and poems, on different racks. A third appearance, in Little Rock, AR around the end of April, was just announced:

03-25 Chicago, IL - Empty Bottle
04-16 Charleston, SC - College of Charleston
04-25 Little Rock, AR - TBA
04-26 Little Rock, AR - TBA

In other indie-rock-cum-written-word news, Berman also appears alongside Colin Meloy, Britt Daniel, Tim Rutili, and Jason Molina in the January issue of The Minus Times, a semi-annual literary magazine (Drag City-published, autonomously edited) that's played home to the likes of Dave Eggers, Will Oldham, and Chan Marshall in issues past. Berman also contributes a new poem to each issue of McSweeney's monthly The Believer.

Drag City remains tight lipped, offering only vagaries-- no release date, no title-- regarding the long-delayed Silver Jews lo-fi/early years release that was mentioned in passing (promised) on their website back when Jesus was a boy. The scuttlebutt is that it will include all of the Silver Jews' out-of-print debut, The Arizona Record, as well as assorted singles and compilation tracks (cleaning house much in the same way that Drag City's forthcoming Hole of Burning Alms does for Papa M) and possibly some otherwise unreleased recordings.