Silver Jews' earliest incarnation was the college band Ectoslavia, formed by future Pavement founders Bob Nastanovich, Stephen Malkmus and frontman David Berman at the University of Virginia in 1989. An exercise in joyous noise, the band disbanded after graduation and the three friends moved to New York to take up various jobs - Nastanovich, a bus driver, and Berman and Malkmus, art museum security guards. Determined to continue the happiness they got from playing with one another, they dubbed themselves the Silver Jews, a reference to the legendary Silver Apples and the tragically blonde Jews that walked New York's streets. Pavement, a band started by Malkmus post-Ectoslavia, pre-New York, at this point began to gain attention. This attention resulted in a record deal and a constant inferiority plague placed upon the 'Joos with Berman totally at the forefront of the group. Misinformed music fans now saw the band as a side-project and, even worse, Berman as being not good enough to play with Pavement, many band members being shared between the two bands. The connection to Malkmus and the now blossoming Pavement was not all negative, however. Drag City, then not the bastion of American folk music it is today, agreed to release the band's debut EPs which has led to a fruitful relationship (the label continues to release the band's records, right up to album number 7 in 2008, ]Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea). The Silver Jews in their later days primarily consisted of David and
1 | New Orleans | Starlite Walker |
2 | Advice to the Graduate | Starlite Walker |
3 | Tide to the Oceans | Starlite Walker |
4 | The Silver Pageant | Starlite Walker |
5 | Living Waters | Starlite Walker |
6 | The Country Diary of a Subway Conductor | Starlite Walker |
7 | Introduction II | Starlite Walker |
8 | Trains Across the Sea | Starlite Walker |
9 | Pan American Blues | Starlite Walker |
10 | The Moon Is the Number 18 | Starlite Walker |
11 | Rebel Jew | Starlite Walker |