Those were my initial impressions of Vanderslice before a week prior to today.
Vanderslice is a music enthusiast to say the very least. From the get go, before downloading, YouTube and Facebook, he had the whole internet sharing thing down. He was one of the first music bloggers, MP3 bloggers. Pushing boundaries, releasing material of other artists that hadn't even reached record store shelves yet.
I got to show about half an hour into Vanderslice's set. I was absolutely surprised by how few people there were at the show. You'd think with how frequently he tours and hits up Toronto, his fan base would be a bit bigger. Nope, that was not the case. Vanderslice said in an interview that his growing fan base has increased because of his extensive touring and whisperings in the blogosphere. Nod.
It was only Vanderslice and a drummer on stage, nothing absolutely outstanding, but they made good with the very minimal hands they had on board. I was very impressed by how the drummer was able to keep an entire percussion sound going, bass lines included with some kind of keyboard to his right. The sound was a little lacking up they managed to recreate shaky versions of the album recordings.
About five songs in he announced this was the last song he'd play on stage and with the point of a finger to the crowd he announced he'd play the rest on the floor. Showcases a few notable tunes off of Emerald City, both he and the drummer played "Time To Go" and "White Dove" with some serious earnest energy. They played two or three more with a boom box (with mega bass) to accompany. Apparently, the recordings were of The Magik*Magik Orchestra, also the band t-shirt that Vanderslice was wearing.
He played a great plugged-in stage version of "Kookaburra." He very sweetly introduced the tune by claiming that he and the drummer had practiced the tune for like ten hours to get it to sound good with just two players. It sounded perfect.
recorded:
Vanderslice's passion and love for music really oozes out in his sincerity towards both music and the industry. He doesn't seem to be one to get caught in all the mess of record labels and mega tours. I really urge you to check out interviews with Vanderslice, they're really insightful bits.
Here are a few quotes I dwindled out of various interviews:
"post plastic disc phase"
Vanderslice on the controversy and happenings of the blog age:
"the thing that matters about mp3 blogs is that not only are you reading are you reading a recommendation from a credible, and completely passionate person, but the music is right there, the link is right there. when you read something in old media, how many reviews are they running of bands you've never heard of. YEah Maybe it's robert cristau, maybe tjat means something to you. It's not like these these magazines are just packed to brim with writers that are even on your radar. If you go to big hearted boy or brookyln vegan, it's only identifiable aesthetic and you over time, a lot of these blogs are very well written. You read gorilla vs bear, these guys are very interesting people and you start to figure out what they're into, what they're not into, you adjust. For me, it's just MP3 blogs, we're gonna send the record out to magazines, but I don't think that's very important."
"Print ads are for the industry to talk to itself, it's for the ego of the artist"
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