John Vanderslice

Infobox musical artist
Name = John Vanderslice

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Background = solo_singer
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Born = birth date and age|1967|5|22,
Gainesville, Florida, nowrap|United States
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Years_active = 1999–present
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Associated_acts = mk Ultra
URL = [http://www.johnvanderslice.com/ www.johnvanderslice.com]
Notable_instruments =

John Vanderslice (born May 22, 1967 in Gainesville, Florida) is an American musician, formerly of mk Ultra but now performing with his own band.

Biography

After mk Ultra broke up in 1999, Vanderslice began building a solo career. In 2000, he gained national media attentionFact|date=January 2008 over his single "Bill Gates Must Die" after concocting an elaborate hoax in which Microsoft supposedly threatened legal action over trademark violations (the disc had a similar etching to a Windows installation disc).

Subsequent albums, "Time Travel is Lonely", "Life and Death of an American Fourtracker", "Cellar Door", "Pixel Revolt" and "Emerald City" have gained critical acclaim for their melodic quality and sophisticated narrative lyrical content. Vanderslice has spent much of the last few years on tour across North America, Europe, and Japan.

Vanderslice also founded a recording studio in 1997 called [http://www.tinytelephone.com/ Tiny Telephone] . Located in the Mission District of San Francisco, Tiny Telephone has carved out a niche as the last all-analog recording studio in the Bay Area, and has a policy of setting recording rates under market prices.Fact|date=May 2007 Bands who have used Vanderslice's studio include Beulah, Death Cab for Cutie, Okkervil River and Spoon.

Vanderslice is a proponent of using analog instruments and recording equipment to produce a richer, more raw sound which he has sometimes called "sloppy hi-fi". [cite news | url = http://www.popmatters.com/music/interviews/vanderslice-john-051014.shtml | title = Make It Beautiful and Trash It: An Interview with John Vanderslice | author = Justin Cober-Lake | work = PopMatters | date = 2005-10-14 | accessdate = 2008-01-08 ] He has collaborated closely with Scott Solter in the production of his recent albums, with "Pixel Revolt" being notably shaped by Solter.

Vanderslice was a contributing producer on the Spoon album, "Gimme Fiction", and has collaborated and toured with The Mountain Goats. He also produced The Mountain Goats' albums "Heretic Pride" and "We Shall All Be Healed". He is influenced by film and is a fan of David Lynch, whose work is referenced in his song "Promising Actress". His declared musical influences are diverse, ranging from Neutral Milk Hotel to Public Enemy. He has incorporated the poetry of William Blake, Percy Shelley and Robert Lowell into his music. In addition, Vanderslice is an avid photography hobbyist.

Several songs on the album "Pixel Revolt" referenced the September 11, 2001 attacks and the subsequent global political situation. Vanderslice's most recent album, "Emerald City", is named after the nickname of the fortified Green Zone in Baghdad. "I was so beaten down after the 2000 election and after 9/11 and then the invasion of Iraq, Afghanistan," said Vanderslice. "I was so depleted as a person after all that stuff happened, that I had to write my way out of it. I really had to write political songs because for me it is a way of making sense and processing what is going on." [ [http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/John_Vanderslice_plays_New_York_City:_Wikinews_interview Interview with John Vanderslice] , David Shankbone, "Wikinews", September 27, 2007.]

Discography

*"Mass Suicide Occult Figurines" (2000)
*"Time Travel Is Lonely" (2001)
*"Life and Death of an American Fourtracker" (2002)
*"Cellar Door" (2004)
**"" (2004)
*"Pixel Revolt" (2005)
**"" (2006)
**"Scott Solter Remixes Pixel Revolt in Analog" (2007) [http://www.johnvanderslice.com/remix/]
*"Emerald City" (2007)

ee also

*

External links

* [http://www.johnvanderslice.com JohnVanderslice.com]
* [http://tinytelephone.com/ TinyTelephone.com]
* [http://www.npr.org/programs/asc/archives/asc55/ All Songs Considered Episode 55 (24 February 2004)]
* [http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/01/26/DDGCDAVFFK1.DTL&type=music "San Francisco Chronicle" article (26 January 2005)]
* [http://www.maximumfun.org/blog/2006/05/podcast-digital-and-analog.html Audio interview] on public radio program The Sound of Young America
* [http://www.popmatters.com/music/interviews/vanderslice-john-051014.shtml "Make It Beautiful and Trash It", "PopMatters" interview (10/2005)]
* [http://mobilemanboston.org/2007/04/21/17/ Mobile Man Boston] , hosting live recordings of Boston area performances
* [http://www.archive.org/search.php?query=creator:"John%20Vanderslice" John Vanderslice collection] at the Internet Archive's live music archive
* [http://www.themerlinshow.com/ep/004-interview-john-vanderslice "The Merlin Show 004 John Vanderslice Interview"] The Merlin Show with Merlin Mann - February 2007
* [http://www.thewheelsstillinspin.com/2007/08/john-vanderslic.html Short story review of "Emerald City"] at The Wheel's Still In Spin
* [http://threeimaginarygirls.com/band/johnvanderslice JV reviews and features at Three Imaginary Girls]
* [http://www.largeheartedboy.com/blog/archive/2005/05/note_books_john.html Note Books essay at Largehearted Boy]
* [http://scheduletwo.com/video/john_vanderslice set of live John Vanderslice videos at scheduletwo.com]

References