You’ve been living in Portland now for a while. Will you stay? What keeps you here?
Yeah, we like it here. It’s one of those places that’s an alternative to Los Angeles and New York, choices that are the “main” ones if you want to live a cultured lifestyle or something, and be around smart, liberal people. I’m in Los Angeles all the time, though, so I guess I should move there! It’s an alternative to that, it’s a little smarter than Austin right now, kind of a comparable place.

Have you made any lasting friends or connections here?
There’s a good scene here, good people. There’s the music people who are really nice—Sleater-Kinney and those guys, people relatively my age who are cool. Janet’s great, that generation of people, the Elliott Smith-era crowd, I know a lot of them. Dots-area (an eccentric café in south Portland), and the softball crowd I keep in touch with. That’s all I need, really! [laughs] Not to mention stuff you can go drive out to, to check out with the kid. Again, there are some bad things about it. It’s isolated up here, it’s far away from most places, and in talking with younger people, I hear it’s hard to leave. There’s a sort of vortex you get sucked into where you wake up one day, you’re 35 and still working in a coffee shop or something and you’re a little worried about that. [laughs]

You’ve just described half the musicians in town.
There are people who’ve left who will say, “I wasn’t challenged enough” or “I was too slack when I was living there,” but that hasn’t been a problem for me, really. I can see it in people’s eyes. There’s more and more young people coming here.

Young bands. Lots of ‘em. Soon we’ll be the next Montreal.
I like that band Get Hustle. They’re cool live. I haven’t heard their records, though. Willamette Week has this “best new bands” thing that just came out and they’re in it.

So I hear the Silver Jews are back on? I read that you and David Berman are working on new material and some of the Pavement guys are involved, too.
Yeah, we went down to Nashville in January and hung out for a week to work on his new album. I haven’t gotten the CD yet. A lot of people played on it, and it’s like one of those records from the ’70s you see where there’s like 40 people on the credits. One guy with 40 people per track.

Like a Steely Dan album!
Yeah. Lots of Drag City people and friends from Nashville. I have a hard time knowing what it’s going to sound like now. I was just there for the basic tracks and guitar, but I really don’t think I’m going to be kept on. There’s a lot of people on there.

We could always start some great “Pavement reunites” rumors and get you guys solidly on the “Pixies-minting-cash” bandwagon.
They’re doing four shows here, apparently—four shows in two days. There’s an early show where they only do rarities and b-sides. I don’t know if you have to pay twice, though. [laughs] Or if it’s like you pay and then leave, then come back. If I only get to go to the rarities and b-sides, that should probably cost less, don’t you think? Seriously, we’ve never considered it. We talk all the time in e-mail but it’s never come up. I e-mail with Bob (Nastanovich) the most, just because he’s in this fantasy basketball league with me. I get to see his incredible strategizing daily.

You’ve just touched on MAGNET’s dirty little secret; there’s a bunch of us in a fantasy hoops league together.
Bob’s brilliant at this. This one’s a five-category thing, and he’s got this lock on it; it’s gonna come down to me and him, and he’s got a lock on assists and steals and I’ve got a lock on rebounds. It kinda comes down to points, and Corey Maggette’s too hot lately. He’s got Stevie Franchise and LeBron. Bob kept hassling people with trades the whole year. I’d get these garbage trades, and I was the commissioner and I had to accept them all—they’re all fair. Maybe Tim Duncan will come back before the playoffs and I’ll have this little chance to win it. It’s been fun. We’re doing baseball next.