John Vanderslice's Hoax...does *anybody* remember this?

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Here he goes againBy Jim Harrington Special to The Examiner

It's not hard to understand how John Vanderslice was once able to deceive the country with perhaps the greatest media hoax in indie-rock history....
http://www.examiner.com/ex_files/default.jsp?story=X0502VANDERw

― Lord Custos Epsilon (Lord Custos Epsilon), Sunday, 1 June 2003 18:03 (twenty-one years ago) link

Yes - saaw him on Tech TV at the time. He's a friend of mine, and me & my wife were like: "Wait - is that John V.?"

― J0hn Darn1elle (J0hn Darn1elle), Sunday, 1 June 2003 19:14 (twenty-one years ago) link

i remember reading about this.

― mitch lastnamewithheld (mitchlnw), Sunday, 1 June 2003 19:58 (twenty-one years ago) link

i remember it. it was sort of a dumb hoax though. actually, it sort of pisses me off how he had to fake a reaction that he couldn't really produce himself. lame!

― King Kobra (King Kobra), Sunday, 1 June 2003 21:27 (twenty-one years ago) link

I'm curious about Vanderslice's work now, but at the time it kind of turned me off finding out more about him. My best friend loves his stuff though.

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Sunday, 1 June 2003 21:32 (twenty-one years ago) link

His songs are very, very good

― roger adultery (roger adultery), Sunday, 1 June 2003 22:55 (twenty-one years ago) link

I met him when he opened for j0hn in Chicago and told him the story of how I worked in UPS in SF when Mass Suicide Occult Figurines came out and we shipped the boxes of it and all my coworkers thought there were actual occult figurines in the boxes coz thats what the label said and we were all quite puzzled.

― Sterling Clover (s_clover), Sunday, 1 June 2003 23:43 (twenty-one years ago) link

I think John's songs are completely great, and that Time Travel Is Lonely is a flat-out masterpiece; the record I just finished recording had John & his longtime engineer Scott Solter producing. The whole "hoax" thing, yeah, my feeling was it wasn't over-the-top enough, although I kinda liked that he was claiming M-soft had filed for injunction even though they actually hadn't.

― J0hn Darn1elle (J0hn Darn1elle), Sunday, 1 June 2003 23:54 (twenty-one years ago) link

Don't forget about John's other instance of creative storytelling, in which his former band's album Original Motion Picture Soundtrack was supposed to be an actual soundtrack to a movie produced by Ernest Borgnine's son, and how John bought the 16-track deck used to record the album directly from Brian Wilson.

― Nick Mirov (nick), Monday, 2 June 2003 00:24 (twenty-one years ago) link

Time Travel Is Lonely is a flat-out masterpiece

Yep.

I was just thinking about this hoax yesterday-- so, that's weird-- and wondering if, perhaps, JV wasn't so much interested in actually creating a controversy (and scoring publicity) but instead just working a bit of post-modern performance art, fit for the age of celebrity: how does one, whose existence wouldn't normally cross paths with the richest man on earth (for example), avail himself to such a person?

― Vek (vek), Monday, 2 June 2003 03:35 (twenty-one years ago) link

'Greatest hoax'? What about HeWhoCannotBeNamed?

― dave q, Monday, 2 June 2003 09:25 (twenty-one years ago) link

I'd name him if you told me of whom you speak.

― Lord Custos Epsilon (Lord Custos Epsilon), Monday, 2 June 2003 13:39 (twenty-one years ago) link

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