The Muse In Music » John Vanderslice

The recording of White Wilderness had to be a unique experience for Vanderslice. Taking only three days to record a full length album with the 19-piece Magik*Magik Orchestra is a far cry from the process that most bands go through in order to record a release. The change and spontaneity of the album so far seems like it will be a welcome change and the orchestra is a very nice addition.

“Sea Salt” is the opening track from the forth coming album and starts out like most Vanderslice tracks with some strumming guitar and a few twinkles from a piano but is soon joined by some lush and sporadic string lines. The song progresses and is soon joined by sounding brass for a short lived climax that makes it sound like the action sequence back track to a James Bond movie. No complaints here on that front.

John Vanderslice – “Sea Salt”

Yours Truly has also filmed a bit of a documentary/trailer about the making of White Wilderness which you can watch below.

Top Ten Anticipated Albums for 2011

Patrick — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 15:58:25 +0000

The Cave Singers – No Witch (2/22 Jagjaguwar)

Welcome Joy was a much underestimated and under appreciated album in 2009. Let’s hope that 2011 gets The Cave Singers the recognition that they deserve. Listen to the first single, “Swim Club”, here.

The Decemberists – The King Is Dead (1/18 Capitol)

Some indie rock snobs might think that The Decemberists sold out with The Crane Wife and subsequently jumped the shark with The Hazards of Love but just hold tight, something tells me that they’re going to return to old times with The King Is Dead. Listen to “Down By The Water” here.

Iron and Wine – Kiss Each Other Clean (1/25 Warner Bros.)

Iron and Wine will either send me over the moon or break my heart with this one. We’ve heard “Walking Far From Home”, which incorporates more electronics than we’re used to hearing out of Sam Beam but maybe that will be a good turn to take.

DeVotchKa – 100 Lovers (2/15 ANTI)

Three years is a long time to wait for a follow up to an album. Luckily this Colorado crew seem like they’re going to make it worth the wait. Listen to “Contrabanda” here.

John Vanderslice – White Wilderness (1/25 Dead Oceans)

John Vanderslice took a new approach to his next album. Instead of spending weeks and months in the studio, he spent a grand total of 3 days with Minna Choi and her Magik*Magik Orchestra. Get a little taste here.

Cold War Kids – Mine Is Yours (1/24)

It seems that most of the time these “most anticipated album” end up no where on the end of the year top ten lists. But something tells me that Mine Is Yours will be a contender next year. Listen to the first two singles here and here.

The Rural Alberta Advantage – Departing (3/1 Paper Bag Records)

The Rural Alberta Advantage took the indie forum by storm in 2009 and have continued their upward progress ever since then. Hometowns made its way onto a number of top ten lists that year and put on one hell of a tour.

Bright Eyes – The People’s Key (2/15 Dangerbird)

Supposedly this is going to be Conor O’Berst’s retirement release. My assumption is that he’s not retiring but just moving beyond Bright Eyes and onto bigger things.

The Mars Volta – TBD

This one has been spinning around the rumor mill lately. In a few different interviews Rodriguez-Lopez has mentioned that the follow up album to Octahedron has been put on hold because he felt that it was “boring”. So we’ll see.

Fleet Foxes – TBD

Fleet Foxes were on the list last year as well. Initially the thought was that the new album would come out in the second half of 2010 but with just a few weeks left in the year, something tells me that’s not going to happen. So we’ll hold onto hope for 2011.

The Mountain Goats – All Eternals Deck (3/29 Merge)

The Mountain Goats are probably one of the most consistent bands in indie rock. They just keep on cranking out great album after great album.

New Free John Vanderslice EP!

Patrick — Wed, 15 Sep 2010 19:16:41 +0000

In Sufjan Stevens style, John Vanderslice has released a new EP out of the clear blue sky. There isn’t much news out there about the record other than it features Ian Bjornstad, Carla Kihlstedt, Daniel Hart (St. Vincent), Matthias Bossi, George Ban-Weiss, Ben Goldberg (who plays the clarinet on “Penthouse Window”) and Jim Eno from Spoon produced, engineered and played drums on “Lay Down”.

I’ve just barely pressed play on the first track so you’ll have to form an opinion for yourself.

Green Grow The Rushes can be downloaded here.

01. Thule Fog
02. I’ll Never Live Up To You
03. Pony Express
04. Streetlights
05. Lay Down
06. Penthouse Windows

The Morning Benders – "Excuses" Live

Patrick — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 21:17:00 +0000

by Patrick
There’s nothing quite like the energy a video can obtain by gathering together a group of magnificent musicians to record a song (just look at “We Are The World”). The Morning Benders has just this in mind when they recruited a group of local San Fran friends to help out on the opening track of their upcoming release Big Echo. The video for “Excuses” brings in John Vanderslice, Chris Owens of Girls, Gram LeBron of former Rogue Wave and current Port O’Brien fame, The Mumlers and a hoard of other musicians on strings and vocals. The video is absolutely fantastic, although I haven’t heard the actual recorded track, I can only hope that it matches the sound from this video to some degree.

Look below the video to download another track from Big Echo, “Promises”.

The Morning Benders – “Promises”

Big Echo is out March 9th on Rough Trade Records.

John Vanderslice.

Fred — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 17:57:42 +0000

That’s who We Are The Willows reminds me of. John Vanderslice. I’m specifically talking Cellar Door-era John Vanderslice (download They Won’t Let Me Run and Pale Horse for a sampling). And I’m talking specifically “Yellow Dress” and “A Funeral Dressed as a Birthday” (stream both here). Diehards on both sides of the aisle will cry foul, but we’re used to that. The textures that reach from the page, the subtle and potent post-productions, they’re unmistakable.

I’d originally said “a lo-fi Sigur Ros, and yes that is intended as the soaring complement it appears to be.” But I submit that John Vanderslice is a much more seaworthy comparison. And while A Collection of Sounds and Something Like the Plague will not make our top ten list, it surpasses nearly all of the albums ranked on the lists we’ve perused so far. And “Yellow Dress” is absolutely a top ten track.

The key differences are the vocals. John Vanderslice projects a street smart and mournful voice. Peter Miller, a book smart and fragile one. Oh, and Mr. Vanderslice needs to release a new album. Just sayin’.

John Vanderslice Limited Edition 7"

Patrick — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 20:02:17 +0000

Dead Oceans just announced that John Vanderslice will be releasing a limited edition 7″ single to the Romanian Names track “Too Much Time” on October 6th. The single will feature the track “Too Much Time”, obviously, as well as b-side “Moon Rocks”. This is definitely an item that any true JV fan should posses.

Those of you that pre-order will also receive an instant download of both tracks.

John Vanderslice – “Too Much Time” (alternate version)

John Vanderslice w/ Majik*Majik Orchestra

Patrick — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 20:17:02 +0000

Last month Dead Oceans released the first video of John Vanderslice performing “Too Much Time” off of his latest release Romanian Names with the Majik*Majik Orchestra at the San Fransisco Conservatory.Today they released a second video of “Forest Knolls” which is one of the better songs on the album.

And as an added bonus head over to The Trip Wire to see an intimate performance of “Fetal Horses” on The Backyard in Brooklyn.

Amazon's Indie Cred

Patrick — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 14:55:11 +0000

Amazon is pushing the indie market pretty hard these days. First they came out with their top 100 indie bands of all time and the proverbial feces hit the fan. Now they have 50 editor picked albums that are on sale for $5.00 digital download and let me tell you there are some great indie artists on this list. This isn’t like going to Wal-Mart and shuffling through the Bargain Bin, these are some truly great finds.

El Grupo Nuevo de Omar Rodrigues Lopez – Cryptomnesia
Bon Iver – For Emma, Forever Ago
Deer Tick – War Elephant
John Vanderslice – Romanian Names
Dan Deacon – Bromst
Bishop Allen – Grrr…
Antony and The Johnsons – The Crying Light
Other Lives – Other Live
Jeff Buckley & Gary Lucas – Songs To No One

If you’ve been waiting for the perfect time to pick up these albums then the time has arrived.

(props to my sister for feeding me this link)

Some of my favorite John Vanderslice tracks…

Fred — Tue, 12 May 2009 19:01:00 +0000

…are Pale Horse, They Won’t Let Me Run, or pretty much anything from his Cellar Door LP. The track “White Plains” is easily one of my top 25 favorite tracks of all time.

…a cover of Radiohead’s “Karma Police,” from Stereogum Presents…OKX: A Tribute to OK Computer. While you’re there, check out Vampire Weekend’s cover of “Exit Music (For a Film).”

…or even Kookaburra from his Emerald City LP.

So while I’d love to say that Romanian Names stands among his best work, in time I think we’ll find it’s far too commonplace for that.