Silver Jews

Guarding conceptual art at New York's Whitney Museum gave David Berman an idea: release something that looked like a proper record, "song titles and everything", but fill it with discordant tapes made at home in Hoboken with Stephen Malkmus and Bob Nastanovich, before those two formed Pavement.

That conceit became Silver Jews, a ramshackle mix of lo-fi indie rock, noise and country carried by Berman's wry, profound lyrics. He was the only constant, from Starlite Walker (1994) through American Water (1998) and Bright Flight (2001), with Cassie Berman joining for the final albums.

For years he avoided playing live, finally touring after Tanglewood Numbers (2005). In 2009 he retired the band with a show 333 feet underground in a Tennessee cavern, explaining, "I always said we would stop before we got bad." He returned with Purple Mountains in July 2019 but died the following month.