Not only is John Vanderslice a locally raised jack-of-all-trades, he’s an all around nice guy to boot. It was evident to me on Friday, when we spoke and did the following interview, but JV proved it beyond a shadow of a doubt on Saturday night right before his set at Iota. I arrived a bit after 10 p.m. and the doorman told me the show was sold out. “No problem, ” I said. “I’m on…

The truth is, on the cusp of the 20th and 21st centuries, you’d have been hard-pressed to find many people outside of the 212 area code talking much about a New York City rock “scene.” But when the Strokes emerged in late 2000 to play a pair of dates at the Mercury Lounge and the Bowery Ballroom, it touched off a period during which it often seemed that few could talk about anything else. Coupling…