Sept 15th, 2009 The new album comes out today! It's self-titled, that's why we keep just saying the new album. For the time being, it'll be featured in the New and Noteworthy section of iTunes under Alternative! You can purchase physical copies through Amazon for now, and within the next few days, we'll have links up on our myspace page and website. We also have it on vinyl, which we'll be selling online soon! Thanks for all your support, guys. Can't wait for tour!!! Sept 1, 2009 We're getting ready for our fall tour right now! Some highlights are The Chicago Country Music Festival, a Paste Magazine in-studio performance, a Daytrotter Session, The Drunken Unicorn in Atlanta, The Casbah in San Diego, and Hotel Cafe in Hollywood!August 14, 2009 While we're in Seattle for the August 14 show, we'll be recording a performance at KEXP studios for the station's "Swingin' Doors" show. The broadcast will take place on Thursday, August 20 at 8pm.August 10, 2009 Our new epk is up! Be sure to check it out!July 17, 2009 We've revamped our website. Take a peek at the Or, the Whale Official Website.July 8, 2009 Starting now, our re-designed MySpace page will be featuring new songs from our sophomore album, which will be hitting stores on September 15th. Be sure to grab a copy!May 28, 2009 Congrats to our man, Tim, who is now endorsed by the Rains Steel Guitar Co.May 22, 2009 Live this morning on CW6's San Diego Living!May 20, 2009 Kickin' off the May tour at the Silverlake Lounge in LA and then off to the Viper Room.April 17, 2009 Opening for Tea Leaf Green at the historic Fillmore in San Francisco.April 6, 2009 CMJ Blast Staff Blog names us its "Ourstage Pick".
“Voices everywhere, caught again in the devil’s snare,” belts lead vocalist and guitarist Alex Robins of San Francisco-based Or, the Whale on the second song of the band’s newest album. The song, “Datura,” is a rollicking ode to the hallucinogenic properties of jimson weed, but could just as easily be a description of the band itself. The soaring vocal harmonies and Neil Young-inspired guitar riffs found on Or, the Whale’s self-titled sophomore album yield a fiendishly potent listening experience, which may even provoke your own hallucinations.On the heels of 2007’s Light Poles and Pines (which featured the band’s debut single “Call and Response” and helped earn them a 2008 Hollywood Music Award for Best Americana/Roots Artist as well as a coveted spot on Radio & Records Top 100 Americana Artists of 2008), Or, the Whale cannot so easily be pinned down. Tracks like “Black Rabbit,” which features a gale-force chorus above electric feedback and pounding drums, play out as if in an effort to prove just how hard the band can rock. At other times, as on “Never Coming Out”—a paranoid and agoraphobic rail ride that explodes into a final a capella starburst—Or, the Whale showcases their ability to present a reflective, stripped-down arrangement (no small feat for a band with seven members). Likewise, the creeping “Keep Me Up” shows how Led Zeppelin’s “No Quarter” might sound if re-imagined through the mournful wail of pedal steel.Like any good San Francisco band, Or, the Whale partially owes its inception to the online bulletin board service Craigslist; at one point, Robins and Matt Sartain (guitar and vocals) posted an ad titled “Wanna Form a Sweet Country Rock Band?” and recruited fellow vocalist Lindsay Garfield from a listing she had written looking for a guitar player. From there, the three set about enlisting bandmates Julie Ann Thomasson on keyboards and vocals, Justin Fantl on bass, Jesse Hunt on drums, and later Tim Marcus on pedal steel guitar.Four years later, after a live appearance on Good Morning America, attention in USA Today, Paste, Magnet, and Billboard magazines, sold-out engagements on both coasts, and shows with the likes of Fleet Foxes, Devil Makes Three, The Dodos, and Two Gallants, Or, The Whale has grown into something that is neither country nor rock, but exists somewhere in the space between the two.And “space” is certainly the new name of the game for this band. After recording Light Poles and Pines in a single extended weekend, the band made sure to take their time with their new effort, meticulously arranging each song to allow room for each instrument to contribute in the most effective way possible. The result is an album with more complexity and shape, not to mention diversity and emotional impact.Relax and enjoy the trip; Or, the Whale is a band that will rock you, make you dance, and maybe even inspire you to contribute to their amazing vocal pyrotechnics—voices everywhere, indeed.
I AM GOING TO BUY SO MUCH OR THE WHALE SCHWAG THIS SHOW. LET ME KNOW IF YOU NEED HELP RUNNING MERCH. I WILL BE HERE A LITTLE EARLY HOPEFULLY WITH A SMALL TREAT FOR ALL OF YOU IN CASE YOU ARE HUNGRY OR THIRSTY (I WONT BRING ALCOCHOL) ANYWAY you have no idea how transformative your music is and how much it has helped me. I plan on spending a lot of money on those shirts and hoodies. i will invite the appropriate people indeed! FOR THOSE ABOUT TO ROCK-WE WELL , WILL CALL N RSPONSE YOU Be there or be lame. tHIS IS THE COOLEST ALT COUNTRY ROCK BAND SINCE EMERSON LAKE AND PALMER CHECK THEM OUT AND SEE THEM ON THE GROUND LEVEL. TOO BAD YOU I KNOW YOU WON'T HAVEM Y SIZE! I'M ALMOST THERE THOUGH ALEX! LOVE YOU ALL YOU GUYS ARE THE B EST YOUR MUSIC HAS LITERALLY HELPED ME THROUGH THE HARDEST DAYS OF MY LIFE MORE ON THIS LATER.
Hey, not sure how often you all check this, but just wanted to say that I'm so excited to see you tomorrow and you are totally welcome to crash at my apartment, all of you! We have tons of room. I'll cook you breakfast too.
darn it, I was sick for your last Seattle show and now you're not coming back! any weekend you feel like it...by all means hit the Tractor Tavern again!