John Vanderslice
Emerald City
MUSIC REVIEWED BY BOB JONES

Emerald City - Barsuk Records

Sometimes a certain amount of paranoia or temporary madness from an artist may make for beautiful but disturbing art. This may be the case for Gainesville native John Vanderslice's new record, Emerald City. In it he weaves both real stories of 9/11 and accounts of imagined terrorist attacks. In real life, Vanderslice is going through the red tape of getting his Parisian girlfriend into the states, without much luck so far, so the tightening of National Security may fuel his obsession. On first listen, "White Dove" is the song that really caught my ear, but it's no hymn to peace: "Don't come around here no more/It's not about mercy/ It's not about tears anymore." The lyrics of the first tune, "Kookaburra" (a bird whose call mimics maniacal human laughter), tell of the fictional white-on-white of vaporized dust that fills the air as the Chrysler building disappears, after the Capitol Dome has already vanished. In "Tablespoon of Codeine," Vanderslice references the theory that 9/11 was faked, with demolition and remote-controlled planes, first introduced in the intriguing but unverified Internet-blockbuster movie Loose Change. The acoustic guitar dominates this record but it has some overdrive, in some places with a full-on rock band, added to give the acoustic guitar distortion. Sonicly, it sounds a bit like Neutral Milk Hotel's Aeroplane Over The Sea (the seminal record about an Anne Frank obsession.) Vanderslice has made a powerful record that may bring out both the record geek and the conspiracy theorist in you. ¦