Been hanging out in my apartment all day/night winding down from an intense week of architecturing. This mainly entailed sleeping in until noon followed by 4 hours of Masters coverage, a trip to Wendy’s, and some spacing out to Dave Berman tunes. While American Water gets quite a bit of love due to the Malkmus contribution, I’ve always thought The Natural Bridge was where Berman was most at home. The simple, deliberate, acoustic numbers really put the lyrics at the center and give the album a somber, yet an incredibly haunting feel. I mean:
“All houses dream in blueprints… our houses dream so hard… outside you can see my shoe prints… I’ve been dreaming in your yard…”
Doesn’t get much better than that. Nay. It can’t get better than that.
Way back when, the Jews came out of the gate with a ragged performance of “Pet Politics” at the final stop of their debut tour. By some happy unlikelihood, this happened in Ann Arbor, and Natty B has held a special place in my heart ever since.
That’s still one of my most memorable shows ever.