Pants on Fire

Riff Raff supposes it shouldn't trust a band named after CIA mind-control experiments. But MK Ultra singer/guitarist John Vanderslice is such an affable fellow. Last week he sent us a friendly note saying that the local experimental pop band recently bought a 16-track recording deck from the Beach Boy genius/recluse Brian Wilson himself. The letter said Vanderslice came across a little ad in the back of Pro-Audio Marketplace, a tiny advertiser, placed by "Brian" selling a vintage 16-track recorder. At $2,900, it was a steal -- the perfect centerpiece for a new studio Vanderslice has in the works, and well worth a road trip to Los Angeles. According to the letter, Vanderslice drove the MK Ultra tour van to SoCal earlier this month. "A grizzled, heavily drugged Wilson answered the door, brought us out back to a work shed and showed us the deck," Vanderslice wrote. Wilson told Vanderslice he'd heard of the band, but Vanderslice said it was probably the government program of the same name that sounded familiar. The band left it at that and rolled the 850-pound machine into their van. There was such a pervasive tone of aw-shucks wonder in the narrative that we thought we'd temporarily suspend disbelief. Riff Raff gave Vanderslice a call -- it was a heartwarming little story, but he left out a few details. So what was Wilson like, we wanted to know. "He was completely out of it -- not exactly slurring his words, but not lucid." Vanderslice threw in some more stuff about the 29-year-old tape deck, and said he was just so shocked to see the Beach Boy that he didn't really have much to say. Right before Riff Raff hung up, we remembered some stories about the MK Ultra boys. Just over a year ago the band cooked up a hoax to accompany their record titled Original Motion Picture Soundtrack, supposedly a score for an independent film by director Tommy Borgnine, who had died just after his controversial work wowed watchers at the Sundance Film Festival. Remembering the Borgnine canard, we asked Vanderslice whether the story was legit. "Oh, sure, it's all true," he assured us. And so we left it at that and hung up. Five minutes later our phone rang. "Hey, this is John and I feel pretty bad." Go ahead and tell us, John. "Well, some of that stuff I told you is kind of an embellishment." What parts were true, then? "Well, the 16-track did belong to the Beach Boys, but we didn't get it from Wilson." John, why come clean now? "I was just excited about giving you some gossip, but I didn't want to get you in trouble with your editors." Nothing screws up a good prank like a conscience. (Jeff Stark)