Bob Nastanovich Talks Silver Jews Return, Pavement Reunion Talks, Heckling Nirvana

Photo from Bob Nastanovich’s Facebook

Last month, Pavement/Silver Jews member Bob Nastanovich revealed that David Berman was back to writing songs and that Silver Jews were practicing new material. On his podcast “Kreative Kontrol”, Pitchfork contributor Vish Khanna talked to Nastanovich, discussing the current status of Silver Jews, recent attempts to reunite Pavement, and the time he and Berman heckled Nirvana in 1990. Listen here and read some excerpts from the interview below.

According to Nastanovich, Berman’s spent a lot of time in Silver Jews drummer Brian Kotzur’s Nashville studio. Apparently, there are 15 songs in the works.

Berman’s recent songwriting was apparently inspired by sculptures he’s been creating. “He goes shopping at thrift stores and Dollar General and he has this keen eye for finding good deals on stuff,” Nastanovich said. “He’ll buy large quantities of toys and brightly colored objects and then he creates a whole unique amusement park by interconnecting these toys and other things that he makes.”

Nastanovich mentioned that while Berman’s definitely working new material, nothing’s set in stone since he’s a “scrapper”. “He can be on the cusp of something really big and really brilliant and just scrap it,” he said. “The reason can be anything and he’s always ready to defend his position.” If he decides to definitively reunite Silver Jews, it’s unclear what the lineup will look like.

He also revealed that in recent months, the members of Pavement pitched Stephen Malkmus on the idea of reuniting this year or next year. “It did not float,” he said. “It was a failed attempt.”

There’s also a story about Berman and Nastanovich seeing Nirvana in New York back in 1990. They heckled the band for fun, which apparently led to Krist Novoselic and Berman insulting each other back-and-forth. (Malkmus was also there—he distanced himself from Berman.)

Kurt Cobain apparently got angry, the band only played about four songs, and they destroyed their equipment. “We were outside drinking our dollar beers, congratulating each other, and literally in droves, people would come by us and tell us how much they hated us.”

Nastanovich also revealed that after they found out Thurston Moore and Kim Gordon’s phone number, Silver Jews recorded their first songs as messages on their answering machine.

Listen to the whole thing here.

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