Whales writes moody songs that are pretty; pretty songs that are loud; and loud songs that move. Instead of floating off into the ether Whales opts to reassemble it on strength of tectonic songcraft and absolution of noise and melody. Some passages linger lovingly while others mushroom into an explosive climax, and the rest just rock balls. No conceit. No bullshit. Serve the song. — RSMurphy
The 1st Annual Monkey Problems Exposition was held on Friday, October 29th at Quenchers Saloon in Chicago, IL featuring never-to-be-seen-ever performances from bands you know and love.
Come and explore the dark side of primate behavior while viewing sets from The Columbines, Cinnamon Von Peacocke and Emission Control, Maigin Blank & The Monkey Butlers, Conrad Bain, and Red Denizen.
Whales performs live as the second day of the PRF Auktoberfyst 2011 moves into full speed with a soaring performance from the Grand Ballroom of Klas Restaurant in Cicero, IL on Friday, September 30th, 2011. Joining Whales on keys is the mysterious maestro, Matte.
For more info on Whales, please visit Whales Bandcamp.
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This piece originally appeared in DocAwk’s own blog, Martian Dance Invasion!.
Gothamist: “It just seems from my perspective that there aren’t many bands that are making dark or ugly music anymore.”
Steve Albini: “Well, it sort of depends on the idiom really. There’s a lot of sort of grungy metal and punk stuff where every single band is trying to make aggressive music.”
Gothamist: “Yeah, I guess I’m referring more to the…”
Steve Albini: “Bands that play at the clubs you go to.”
Steve Albini is at his quotable best in this interview over at The Gothamist blog, in which he shares his always smirk-inducing opinions on New York City, the asinine Odd Future dustup (“It was a message board thread about Odd Future and I happened to have an anecdote about them so I share my anecdote and what passes for Journalism these days is repeating things that other people link to you on Twitter so that’s what it boils down to”), and his interactions with mainstream popular music:
I’m an exceptionally lucky man in that I’ve never heard a note of Lady Gaga’s music and you could sit her on my lap and I wouldn’t recognize her. I know that she’s a cultural force at the moment but I’m quite satisfied in having dodged that one. It’s like a truck drove by spraying shit from a nozzle over the entire neighborhood and I happened to be under an awning. You know?
Saturday, September 10th, 2011 we took to the empty west loop streets of Chicago for an evening of music, drinking, and dive bar revelry. Underneath the turn of the elevated loop train tracks lies a bar that time has seemed to have forgotten about, Cal’s Bar. On the ticket was the first, and possibly last performance of Gay Name, a group made up of members of The Columbines and Empire State Troopers. Next up was your friend and mine, Jimmy Two Hands, followed by The Heavy Bombers and Whales, who featured guest keyboardist Matt!
Bradley R. Weissenberger of the rock band .22 hosted an all PRF radio show this passed Saturday, August 13th, 2011 on 106.7 WRHC Radio Harbor Country in Grand Haven, MI from 9 to 11 PM. In addition, the show was streamed live on their website through out the digital land.
While the broadcast, with all it’s wacky comedy bits, and controversial topics of conversation was not saved, Mr. Weissenberger was kind enough to replicate the playlist on this PRF Radio Hour on Bandcamp page. Click through to enjoy a stream of great music.