John Vanderslice seems to be simultaneously the most successful indie musician in San Francisco today as well as the most respected, and he has a new album coming out tomorrow called Emerald City, available on Barsuk Records. Judging from the full album stream over at Vanderslice’s MySpace page, this CD is a winning follow-up to 2005’s excellent Pixel Revolt.
Vanderslice’s command of layered indie rock/pop sounds strong as ever, with moodier numbers like “Tablespoon of Codeine” nicely complementing several rockier tracks, including “White Dove”, which you can download here.
Lyrically, the new CD has been described as love songs capturing emotionally turbulent episodes rooted in current events both personal and global. On the former front, Vanderslice wrote most of the album in the midst of unsuccessful attempts by his French girlfriend to obtain a visa. On the latter, politics have often informed the artist’s themes; on the new record, even the album’s title is inspired by the troubled state of international affairs.
The official Emerald City tour doesn’t start until September, with its San Francisco stop at The Independent on October 20th, but John has an in-store performance coming up at the San Francisco Amoeba:
Saturday, August 11th
Amoeba Music
2pm, Free
