Jon Bernson (Ray's Vast Basement - San Francisco)
Jerry Decicca ()
Jerry + Jake ()

Monday August 30, 2004
Andyman's Treehouse
show starts at 9:30, $3

Ray's Vast Basement and more

Steve "Afro pop" Slaybaugh speaks the truth, gameday bump.

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The Columbus Alive, Aug. 25:

Basement tapes

As songwriter and singer, Jon Bernson is the voice and mind behind Ray’s Vast Basement. Though the band proper is a four-piece, an additional 16 musicians contributed to the group’s full-length, By a River Burning Blue, self-released last year. But it’s obviously Bernson’s vision that guided the record, resulting not only in a concept album (tales from a remote town called Drakesville), but a concept band.

The Vast Basement moniker is a metaphorical idea; the band is seen as an expansive space where a wide array of ideas and influences are unearthed as part of their aesthetic and “musical fiction.” Indeed, there’s a certain sense of mystery to the record. The songs reveal themselves like dusted-off souvenirs from another time, creaking blends of forlorn folk reminiscent of artists like M. Ward, Richard Buckner and Sparklehorse. Bernson will bring his big ideas to the small (basement-like) room of Andyman’s Treehouse on Monday, August 30.

—Stephen Slaybaugh