I love the name of this band.
I like to think of whales out there
freelancing, as opposed to the other
whales out there working for the man
or some corporate interest. It’s funny.
In so far as whales have jobs to do,
you know, other than living as whales,
I’d much rather champion the freelancers.
It’s been such a long time since I spun
this record, so going in I have a vague but
positive recollection. I find it necessary
to do some detective work. I find out that
this 2012 album, Diluvia, which means
“it’s pouring” in Spanish, is the band’s
second and last record. No dramatic
breakup, just a gentle dissolution over
a few years to the point now of being
inactive. I did learn, sadly, that their guitar
player killed himself about ten years
after this album was made. I had no idea
about this before this afternoon.
It’s a beautiful record. Full of varied
instrumentation, some banjo, guitar,
strings, keyboard pads and warbles,
interesting rhythmic grooves beyond
typical rock beats, sometimes almost tribal,
and lots and lots of singing.
The lead vocals are shared between two
principal singers, Judah Dadone
and Doris Cellar, who both sound pretty
much like angels, although, Judah has
a kind of Kermit thing going on, which
as it turns out, is all right by me. Between
the main melody and the background vocals,
which are often lush and layered, the singing
is probably the most notable thing about
this music, and while they’re not spitting
out a ton of hooks, lyrically, with some level
of study one might be able to sing along,
and I think you will want to. I like this
experience so much I go back into my
digital library to listen to their first album.
I’m sad that these cats are no longer
making music. I hope they still are,
and I hope we will hear from them again.
I think Freelance Whales were too good
to simply disappear forever. But if they
do and we never get any more music
from their direction, we are lucky, I think,
to have their debut, Weathervanes, and
Diluvia, their sophomore album,
to keep us good company.
Notes on the vinyl edition: Diluvia, Frenchkiss Records, 2012, black vinyl.
In case you don’t already know: I’m listening to almost everything in my vinyl collection, A to Z, and writing at least one, sometimes two or three long skinny poem-like-things in response for each artist, and on a few occasions, writing a long skinny poem-like-thing in response to more than one artist. As a poet and a student of poetry, I understand that these things look like poems, but they don’t really sound much like poetry, hence, I call them “poem-like-things.” I’ll admit that they’re just long, skinny essays that veer every now and then into the poetic or lyric.
michael jarmer 