John Vanderslice – Time
Travel is Lonely
Barsuk, 2001 (2009 Reissue)
Acquired: Love Garden, Used, 2015
Price: $10
Jenny got me $40 in Love Garden gift certificates for my
birthday and for me, the gift isn’t the records I get, but getting to spend two
blissful, allergy attack laden (the mix of dust and adorable cats brings out
the worst of my allergies but so worth it) hours flipping through vinyl. Since
leaving Half Price Books, I’ve quit buying records. I was beyond thrilled to go in and buy
whatever the hell I wanted and make the most of my $40. First off, I found a
few safe picks that I would grab in case Jenny and Rosie got done early with
their thrifting. After that, I buried myself in the alt-rock vinyl and when I
looked up, I’d snagged a few must haves. One was this reissue of Time Travel is Lonely, a huge album from
my high school years. Transitioning from listening to nothing but punk rock to
a world that was changed by Neutral Milk Hotel’s In the Aeroplane Over the Sea was the greatest musical time of my
life. Everything was new and exciting and I approached it all without
prejudice. I’d discovered JV through the Mountain Goats and fell in love with
his gorgeously photographed tour diaries. I saw him play at the Bottleneck on
the Cellar Door tour. He played for
pretty much no one and the young openers, the then relative unknowns Okkervil
River, played for an even smaller chunk of the crowd. In addition to Time Travel is Lonely’s title track, I
particularly latched onto his sonic interpretation of Robert Lowell’s “The Old
Flame” (here “My Old Flame”). The consummate producer and engineer, JV’s albums
are fun just to hear the man delight in crafting sonic landscapes.
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