Vacilando – While They Were Dancing

Vacilando, the project of Portland-based musician and singer/songwriter John Shepski, is preparing for its debut release, While They Were Dancing. True to the meaning of the Spanish word Shepski and his cohorts borrowed for the name of their band, Vacilando’s music is all over the musical map, never settling in the territory of a single genre or subgenre. This wandering sound is referred to by Vacilando as bummercore and bleak Midwestern soundscapes. While those are fitting descriptions to the six songs on While They Were Dancing, there is an undeniable old meets new quality to this music, and as such there are recognizable elements of indie rock, alternative, folk, and country throughout. But this is also the kind of music to which one needn’t assign such classifications, as the style is unimportant next to the fact that it is just plain old good music.      

On the recording of While They Were Dancing, Shepski is joined by Juniana Lanning (ambient sounds, percussion, and vocals), Chad Lanning (bass, bass synth), Jason Montgomery (pedal steel), and Sharon Cannon (violin). All of them talented artists whose efforts clearly aided in making the compositions on this recording even better.

While They Were Dancing opens with “Down All Day,” one of my personal favorites on the EP, which is a slow burner of a song that never quite fully explodes, yet the listener doesn’t feel cheated by this because it is unexpected and proves far from formulaic. “Everyone She Talks About” is a subtle track with clear channel shimmering guitar, pedal steel, simple percussion, samples, and soft vocals. “Circles,” probably the most radio friendly song on the record, has a ’90s feel to it. “The Ocean, While You Sleep,” another of my favorite tracks and easily the most beautiful and expressive song in this collection, starts out sparse and atmospheric, bends to the point of breaking, crashes with distortion and harder hitting percussion, and then pulls back, finally ending as it began. “Tennessee Waltz” proves the most rootsy of the lot, a  jangle and strum song with a slow punctuating beat, and powerful vocals. And “Sleep,” the closer, is vocal driven and has something of the sad barroom song about it.      

As far as Vacilando’s music is concerned, the roads upon which it moves have been heavily traveled throughout the years, yet not in such a vehicle as theirs. And I look forward to seeing where it ends up next.

In Spanish there is a word for which I can’t find a counterword in English. It is the verb vacilar, present participle vacilando. It does not mean vacillating at all. If one is vacilando, he is going somewhere, but does not greatly care whether or not he gets there, although he has direction.  – John Steinbeck, fromTravels With Charley: In Search of America, 1962  

While They Were Dancing by Vacilando is available in download format now and will be available on vinyl and CD on August 21, 2015 from Fluff & Gravy Records.