THERE’S something about charging for digital that is so fucking hokey to me. I can’t get into it,” says John Vanderslice. “I tried.” The former leader of the San Francisco cult band MK Ultra has found success with the vivid lyrics and brilliantly constructed rock of his solo work, and with Tiny Telephone, his SF studio where he’s gained fame for recording Death Cab for Cutie, Spoon, the Mountain Goats and others. Vanderslice, who performs at Homestead Lanes on Saturday, says he plans to put his new music up on the web for free, beginning with his upcoming EP. “I’m totally into playing a show on a $15 ticket. I’m fine, it doesn’t bother me. I’m completely fine with charging $350 for someone to use the studio. I’m a capitalist, I’m an econ major. It’s not the money,” he says. “But these are infinite copies. Why would it be 10 dollars for a digital record? The through-put costs are like .0001 cent. It’s ridiculous.”
Then again, Vanderslice is a bit of a contrarian. Despite his geek credentials, he built Tiny Telephone’s rep on his love for analog tape rather than digital gadgetry. He’d rather put out 180-gram vinyl than iTunes exclusives. And his musical forays are unpredictable; for instance, his next album will feature the symphonic backing of the Magik*Magik Orchestra, an interesting change-up, since the “D.I.A.L.O.” single he released in January features one of his most electronic recordings, with a marching, pulsing synth beat that sounds a lot closer to the Kills than ELO. “It’s not a band record with string overdubs. It is a complete and total reworking of songs,” explains Vanderslice. “I wouldn’t say they’re classical arrangements, because they don’t sound in any way tied to a particular style.”
Anyone who saw Vanderslice perform with the group at the Tiny Telephone 10th anniversary show at Great American Music Hall last year knows that the combination elevates Vanderslice’s already complex songs like “Time Travel Is Lonely,” and “Fiend in a Cloud” to something rather epic. In a word, Vanderslice sounds far more cinematic than any rock musician who’s basically at heart a singer/songwriter has a right to be. This impression was only intensified by 2004’s Cellar Door. Besides the Donnie Darko reference, every song on the album was originally meant to be linked to a film. That proved too ambitious, but “Promising Actress” (which isn’t just about Mulholland Drive, it’s almost like a four-minute rock version) and “When It Hits My Blood” (about Requiem for a Dream) are still among the best songs ever written about films.
Saturday, May 22, 8pm
Homestead Lanes, Cupertino
$10
