I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: JOHN VANDERSLICE-Tiny Desk Concert #29 (October 7, 2009).

I only know about John Vanderslice from NPR.  He’s an artist that Bob and Robin have talked about him forever.  They play a song of each of his new albums, so I know quite a few of his tracks from over the years (he has put out ten albums since 2000).  And yet I have never seen his name anywhere else.  I’m fascinated by this, because he must have a following or he wouldn’t still be recording.  Turns out Vanderslice created a recording studio called Tiny Telephone where many big name alternative bands have recorded.  He also recently finished a Kickstarter campaign to create his own label which was hugely successful.

Most of his songs I find are nto that memorable at first.  But after two or three listens, all of their amazing features come out and the songs become wonderful–full of unexpected layers and instrumentation.

The Tiny Desk Concert contains four songs from his then recent album Romanian Names.  his band consists of two acoustic guitars, a bass guitar, a flute and saxophone (often playing in a way that sounds very un-sax-like) and a drummer who is playing a Surdo drum–the kind usually used in parades.  It is a deep resonating drum (especially when he gives it a good loud whack).

The four songs are diverse (within the confines of the band, of course) and passionate.  Vanderslice’s voice is pleasant, but it’s the way he uses it around the melodies (and especially the big minor chords that really sets his stuff apart) that makes these songs sound great.  Like the way the “still wide-eyed, you” section builds in “Romanian Names.”  The saxophone playing what sounds like a guitar solo is very very cool in the second song, “Forest Knolls.”  “Too Much Time” is a more upbeat song (it’s neat to see the cool percussion he gets out of one drum).  The final song “Sunken Union Boat” makes good use of the flute.  It’s a great set and makes me think that Romanian Names would be a good place to start with his studio albums.

[READ: January 5, 2014] “Fed”

Antrim’s story is a personal reflection.  He talks about the breakdown he had a couple of years ago.  He also talks about suicide (see, food stories always seem to be about something else).

The doctors were worried about him when he left for home–being older and by himself seemed like a dangerous way for him to live at the moment.  This was especially true as he was having trouble with coordination, which mean that cooking was out of the question.  This made things even worse because Antrim loved to cook. 

He took his medication at night and only really felt hungry then, so at around three in the morning he would order from the all night diner.   He would order the same thing every night and they soon got used to him calling.  Although they never met, they formed a weird kind of bond–and he wonders what they must have thought of him.

He spends some of the essay musing on depression and lack of appetite–how there were food remains littering his place.  But, even if he wasn’t eating, he knew, at least, that he was fed.

He says that his fog has lifted and he is in a better place and he wonders whether he should meet the people who cared for him remotely all that time.