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John Vanderslice
I can never quite explain what John Vanderslice's "sound" is like to someone. Yes, it's indie rock, but when compared to the easy two-word subgenres that are thrown about these days, Vanderslice's music is like a square peg trying to fit into a dozen round holes.
So what can you expect? First off, top-notch songwriting with the requisite catchy hooks, memorable melodies, and touching lyrics. The songs are overflowing with strange, organic, non-traditional, unexpected effects, off-kilter song structures, and passages that are never grounded in conventional ways. You expect him to zig and he zags; instead of a left turn and then a right turn, he'll make a few U-turns, get on the highway, and take a shortcut down an alleyway or two. His songs encompass huge, complicated landscapes of sound, encompassing continents at a time; after all, he counts off "1, 2, 3, 5" in the horn-filled, joyous anthem like "Keep the Dream Alive."
As a master of the studio (apt because he also owns and runs Tiny Telephone studios in San Francisco), he creates tiny masterpieces of richly detailed pop songs but done only as he can do them. Each one is distinctive and stamped with his unique signature, visible a mile away. His albums are filled with storms of fascinating sounds, concentrated on oddball subject matter like speed labs, lost rabbits, time travel, family hierarchies, bird hunting, and more. Listeners are drawn into his fantastical, cinematical, warped realities, filled with mysterious sounds, spooky chimes, scattered voices and crashes, yet completely deliberate and as polished as ever, from the hip-hop-influenced "Me and My 424" or the gorgeous, lush "From Out Here" or the driving, throbbing rocker "Speed Lab."
Vanderslice's work is often epic and grandiose without trying to be explicitly difficult, sneaking gears and locks into otherwise accessible rock songs. For me, John Vanderslice scratches an itch I barely even knew existed.
John Vanderslice - Pale Horse
John Vanderslice - Me And My 424
John Vanderslice - From Out Here
John Vanderslice - Speed Lab
John Vanderslice - Big Band Stars
John Vanderslice - Dear Sarah Shu
John Vanderslice - Keep The Dream Alive
John Vanderslice's official site. Buy Pixel Revolt from iTunes Music Store or Amazon. He plays Thursday, March 16 at 8:00 p.m. at The Parish.
Shadows tags:johnvanderslice.
Posted by Queen of the Front Row at 03.07.06 at 2:41 AM
Comments
Tonite live in Brussels! With Death Cab! Yey!
Posted by: tag at 03.07.06 at 7:28 AM
He's tip-top, that's what he is. Good website too. Pity I missed him here in Denmark. Thanks for the above.
Posted by: Species 8472 at 03.07.06 at 7:59 AM
"John Vanderslice scratches an itch I barely even knew existed."
That's beautifully put, and exactly sums up how I've felt about jv since first hearing him several years ago. A truly unique talent. Well done for spreading him around.
Posted by: Lodestone at 03.07.06 at 1:40 PM
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