Yesterday the venerable Pitchfork noted that John Vanderslice had released a recent live show for gratis on his website. Since seeing him at Sxsw during the Time Travel is Lonely tour, I’ve been hooked, and his recording output just continues to improve and impress. So today, from his mailing list, I got the word straight from the (pale) horse’s mouth as John writes, “22 songs from our last show of the “I’ve been living in a K-Hole” US tour, encoded in glorious hi-res mp3. Single downloads or one .zip file. One of the reasons I posted the show was to give love to mp3 blogs, who have been incredibly supportive of me, and who remain the best place to learn about new music.” Amen to that. If you’ve heard JV you need this, but if you haven’t, this is a great place to start. John Vanderslice: Live at the Independent November 5, 2005, San Francisco, California. I’ve got it playing on the iPod now, thanks John, and look for your recent release, Pixel Revolt, on my annual best of list.
Also, please honor John’s request: “Please buy Pixel Revolt from an indie retailer this holiday season. These stores help us find an audience, make it easier to tour, and provide key support to our labels. Places like Waterloo, Sea Level, Easy Street, SoundFix, Good Records, Stinkweeds, and Amoeba make the world a brighter place.” I’ll second that emotion, and add my favorite shops: Waterloo Records (Austin), Euclid Records (Saint Louis), Vintage Vinyl (Saint Louis), Reckless Records (Chicago) or Red Eye Records (Sydney AU). Without the indie rekerd store, our music choice would wither away. Hmmm…methinks this is good fodder for my next article, which I’ve been meaning to write anyway.