Said The Whale

Said the Whale, Little Mountain
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INDIE POP

There's no blubber on this third Whale album of savvy, stylistically shape-shifting indie-pop. Acclaimed in Canada, the Vancouver quintet could find new fans here with Mountain's rootsy sound, elastic enough to stretch from dance and rock to brassy cabaret and folk-pop. Lending warmth are blended harmonies and a nuanced use of electronics, distortion and horns. — Edna Gundersen - USA Today

Vancouver’s Said the Whale has always specialized in organic-sounding folk and breezy pop rock, but this latest tune just might be the band’s most intricate yet. Recent EP title track “New Brighton” contains the usual chiming guitars and honeyed melodies we expect from Said the Whale, but there are also some prog-tinged scale-ups and -downs, and one hell of a dissonant chord right around the one-minute mark. Adding to the song’s off-kilter charm is the fact that the lyrics are apparently sung from the perspective of a microbialite in BC’s Pavillion Lake.

Of course, there’s also a killer, harmony-laden chorus hook. Duh.

- Chipped Hip - http://www.chippedhip.com

"This short album exhibits a multifaceted catchiness that is not fully appreciated on the first listen. Containing only four tracks, each song on the New Brighton EP will somehow weave its way into your cerebral cortex, only to randomly burst out at the most inopportune time. Yes, this is the kind of album whose hooks just start blurting out of your mouth inadvertently."

- Nick Senior, decoymusic.com - DecoyMusic.com

"New Brighton sticks with the rest of Said the Whale's hallmarks – the savvy mix of indie and folk rock, soaring harmonies and quirky, observational lyrics... Their songwriting, which was already top-notch, has improved, creating a tight quartet of indie pop gems."

- Ian Gormely, Exclaim.ca - exclaim.ca

Music and geography have always enjoyed something of a bountiful relationship. The planet we inhabit provides endless highways for touring musicians to ply their craft, but there’s so much more. Those endless highways eventually give way to lush scenery, bustling metropolis and quaint small towns all the same. Every piece of Earth musicians trek across provides a seemingly endless supply of inspiration, so much so that one can’t help but imagine music without geography. After all, could Neil Young’s Harvest exist without rural Ontario? Or could Gaslight Anthem’s The ’59 Sound sound nearly as authentic without the blue-collar grit of New Jersey? Probably not. And Vancouver’s Said the Whale would probably agree.

Islands Disappear, the band’s second full-length, is as much a study in the blatant effects geography has on a young rock and roll outfit as it is an enlightening and overtly charming blend of pop-rock pageantry. The 13 tracks on Islands Disappear practically leap from the speakers with a vibrancy that one would expect from a band still safely in the prime of their youth. Yet the authenticity which Islands Disappear attains is another matter. Said The Whale demonstrate with razor-sharp efficiency that they are not just a band that dreams of far-away landscapes. They are a band that has been there and lived to tell the tales. And they still sound hungry for more.

Five tracks make allusion to Said the Whale’s native Canada, including the delicate acoustic shuffle of “B.C. Orienteering.” “You should never travel alone / just one false step and you might not make it home,” croons lead singer Tyler Bancroft in a steadfast warble. True enough, the forests of British Columbia are nothing to take on half-assed, but Bancroft and the rest of the band guide listeners with genuine poise.

Calling Islands Disappear a labour of love might be close, but it’s not entirely true. The evocative landscapes Islands Disappear call to mind could only mean that Said the Whale inhale an indisputable respect for the world around them. And when they exhale, a pitch-perfect pop record like Islands Disappear is what happens. It’s a record that isn’t just a companion on road trips. It is a necessity to understanding the beauty of the world around us.

“Camillo (The Magician)”, the record’s single, is as catchy a track as one could ever expect to hear. Rousing, chunky hooks swirl amidst a tale of a magician who has captivated the band with the knowledge of the world that is at the heart of Said the Whale ethos. They might be a young act, but how refreshing it is to hear a band that has an unquenchable thirst for life. “Emerald Lake, AB” picks up where “Camillo” leaves off, and doesn’t miss a step. Patient, afternoon-ready rock gives way to a rousing, building chorus where Bancroft’s croon gives way to a howl. “What a fine life we are livin’”, proclaims Bancroft, and as guitars, horns and drums crash together, it becomes hard to argue.

Yet as immediate and blatant the charm of Islands Disappear, there are layers to the band’s sound which beg for exploration. “Gentleman” could fill the void so many Belle and Sebastian fans are probably feeling. Bancroft bares his soul and eschews the notion of being a “too cool for school” rock star, while “A Cold Night Close to the End” coos with heartfelt campfire vibes, revealing another truth about Said the Whale: they’re a bunch of romantics.

Islands Disappear is indeed a record full of truths. Said the Whale prove that the relationship between music and geography is indispensable. The record proves that this Vancouver act loves that relationship and are helpless to the effects it has on their character and sound. For listeners who find no fault in sing-a-long pop-rock, Islands Disappear is a record that many will be helpless against as well.

By Joshua Kloke - PopMatters.com

Vancouver is home to plenty of musical acts, but there are few who fit the description “local band” quite as well as Said the Whale. Anyone who heard the group’s excellent 2008 CD, Howe Sounds/Taking Abalonia, discovered that it was packed with as many West Coast references as indelible melodies. Said the Whale’s two singer-songwriters, Tyler Bancroft and Ben Worcester, have used their craft to explore their individual relationships with the southern coast of British Columbia, with a particular emphasis on the flora and fauna. Enjoying summer’s last gasp on the sidewalk seating of Mount Pleasant’s Gene coffee shop, Bancroft says that he and Worcester didn’t set out to be troubadours of the B.C. landscape: “I don’t think it’s anything we’ve ever consciously done, to write about our environment, but it just kind of seems to be the theme that recurs, that we’ll write about our surroundings and geography.”

“Well,” Worcester reflects, “I generally find that we write about our experience. And I don’t go out to see shows on a regular basis. I don’t go to clubs, I don’t go downtown, and I don’t go do things. Everyone says, ‘What do you want to do tonight?’ I want to go sit at the beach, or I want to go on an adventure—go hiking somewhere, do something fun and get out. And that’s the experience that I live for, so that’s what I write about. That’s what affects my life, and that’s what I see as the best part about living here; the best quality of life is all the surrounding stuff, and I’m not really into the city life. Some people write about their experience going out to a bar and meeting somebody, and some people write about their experience looking at the city from afar.”

“I’d love to be able to write about meeting someone!” the terminally single Bancroft interjects, to which his bandmate replies, “Yeah, what’s that like?”

“We have to write songs about girls and love!” Bancroft concludes.

In fact, Bancroft has done a pretty decent job of writing a personal ad in musical form with “Gentleman”, a track from Said the Whale’s new Islands Disappear album, although he does undercut his own efforts somewhat by declaring himself “a stupid, boring gentleman”.

Elsewhere, though, the just-released album returns to familiar—which is to say, local—themes. On “B.C. Orienteering”, Worcester extols the delights, and enumerates the dangers of, wandering in the woods, while on “Black Day in December”, he offers a lament for the 10,000 or so trees that blew down in Stanley Park during the devastating windstorm of 2006. “The first wind blowing in/Left Stanley’s soldiers felled and broken,” he sings on the latter number, the title of which is a nod to Gordon Lightfoot’s “Black Day in July”.

“Stanley Park is of such significance in this city,” says Worcester, whose sister Robyn manages the Stanley Park Ecology Society’s conservation programs. “It’s a huge amount of forest right in the middle of the city, and people take it for granted. Driving through is just a part of life; you go over the Lions Gate Bridge, but you don’t actually see the amazing park that surrounds it, and how big it truly is.”

Of course, the windstorm didn’t just knock a few trees down. There was also a human cost, a fact that Worcester and Bancroft discovered firsthand. “The morning after the big wind and the big storm, Tyler and I went to Stanley Park with our friend Vanessa [Heins] to take photos,” Worcester recalls. “We were walking along the path, and we didn’t know what the extent of it was. It wasn’t in the papers yet; it had literally just happened. And we saw maybe 20 to 50 homeless guys emptying out their bags and sitting on the path instead of in the forest in their trees where they hide and live. You know, there’s always a number, hundreds of people, living in Stanley Park all the time. It’s this whole other world of homeless people who have found a home in the forest.… And someone was actually killed in it.”

Occasionally grim subject matter aside, Islands Disappear is a joyful listen. Released by the Hamilton, Ontario–based Hidden Pony label, the new album is just as much a tuneful gem as its predecessor, but it bears a more consistent sound, even as the songs range from the campfire folk of “A Cold Night Close to the End” to the baited-hook power pop of “Camilo (The Magician)” and the indie-rock drama of “Out on the Shield”. Bancroft and Worcester take turns singing lead, and each is an impressive guitarist in his own right. The pair are given able backing by drummer Spencer Schoening, bassist Peter Carruthers, and keyboardist Jaycelyn Brown.

“One thing that I’m really excited about this record for is that it’s the first time we’ve made a record with a full lineup set, whereas the first record, the first half of it was just Ben and I in a studio just kind of seeing what happened, and the second half of the record was various different members,” Bancroft says. “Now finally we’ve got a set lineup. We all recorded together, we a - Georgia Straight

Last year's Howe Sounds/Taking Abalonia was a long-player, but it was technically a re-released EP with some extra songs tacked on. That more or less makes Islands Disappear Said The Whale's debut full-length, and it's a clear statement about where the B.C. five-piece are headed.

Islands Disappear's strength lies in its deliberate restraint. We all know Said The Whale have what it takes to make a raucous pop album, but they've instead opted for substance over flare. That chosen direction has them drifting toward New Pornographers territory — crafting songs that start simply, change direction, then gradually mutate into singalong choruses.

They've been compared to The Decemberists in the past, and yes, a few tracks here are also reminiscent of the material on that band's Castaways And Cutouts. The similarities lie mainly in Islands Disappear's nautical and coastal moods and lyrics.

The addition of a single member rarely plays a crucial role in a band's success, but in this case, it would seem new keyboardist Jaycelyn Brown was the missing piece of the Said The Whale puzzle. Her backup singing is an integral part of this album's most memorable tracks.

There isn't a bad song in this bunch. Said The Whale have gone and made a career-defining album much sooner, I'd say, than anyone expected them to. - Chart Attack

I've been a fan of indie music from the Great White North for awhile now. Something about Canadian rock applies to life in Erie, Pa. Whether it be the punk-folk rock of the Weakerthans (Canada's answer to R.E.M.), the Tragically Hip or everyone's favorite Quebecers, Arcade Fire, I enjoy many of the popular Canadian rock bands. I've also stumbled upon a fair amount of music that maybe several of you haven't heard, so without further ado ...

My Pop Five Canadian Artists You Should Be Listening To:

1. Said the Whale -- Recommended if you like: Eels, The Shins
Favorite lyric: "I got love handles, but I cannot handle love"

2. Hey Rosetta! -- RIYL: The New Pornographers, Arcade Fire --
Sounds like operatic rock. I like to think they have hints of Pearl Jam in their sound.

3. Wintersleep -- RIYL: Local Natives, The National
I saw them open for the Tragically Hip and they had a "sonic, numbing"-type feel to them. Really enjoy listening to them on rainy days.

4. city and colour -- RIYL: Dashboard Confessional, Neil Young , Alexisonfire (although he sounds nothing like them, he is a member of the band)
Favorite song: Against the Grain



5. Andy Shauf -- RIYL: Elliott Smith, Joshua Radin
Favorite lyric: "Smaller details, nervousness tells little secrets, like high school crushes on a blank stare"
Absolutely, hands down a must have is Andy's album Darker Days. I dare you to take a listen and tell me this kid is just barely in his 20's. Great music if you're making a mix tape for a new crush. - USA Today

If The Killers and Badly Drawn Boy were to have a love child, it’d be Said The Whale.

Remember when “alternative” music used to be a real trendy word? Well, that really is the best way to describe this band.

Hailing from lovely Vancouver, Canada, Said The Whale makes delightfully quirky music. It’s infectious!

Check out the wonderful This Winter I Retire below. Then CLICK HERE to listen to some other tunes from Said The Whale. - PerezHilton.com

To tell you the truth, I’ve kind of ignored most of the Whale bands that just entered into popularity. After Noah and the Whale caught my ear, I just couldn’t bring myself to listen to Or the Whale or Said the Whale. Well after hearing Said the Whale this weekend I have one thing to say — whoops! “Camilo the Magician” is fantastic! It’s like you distilled the dancey college rock records of 2004 and mixed them with the catchy indie pop records of 2010. Great mix. The best part, though, is this darling video. Kinda reminds me of the “Made for each other” salsa commercials of like a year ago, but it’s not much of a bother. It’s still adorable. - You Ain't No Picasso

"I wouldn't go as far as saying Said the Whale are the best unsigned band in Canada...but Taking Abalonia certainly suggests that they're not too far off from that label, either." - iheartmusic.net

Said the Whale’s salty-tongued pop sensibilities craft a wide-eyed debut full of awe for the city that bandmates Tyler Bancroft and Ben Worcester call home. Like a pair of young Decemberists untainted by years of woe, Bancroft and Worcester’s lyrics are at once whimsical and macabre, painting a quirky, open-air portrait of Vancouver’s shorelines and graying skies. Grassy guitars and well-placed “la la” outros make for an infectious first record. - StreetHawk Magazine

“Taking Abalonia” is a marvelous musical concoction made up of equal parts honesty, passion, hard work, with just a dash of faith. - YouThink Magazine

CBC Radio 3 Top 30 - #10
National College Radio - #48 - CBC/College Radio

VANCOUVER — Said the Whale played to packed houses in the Maritimes on its current cross-Canada tour.

That might be unremarkable except that this two-and-a-half-year-old indie band from Vancouver barely had its new CD on store shelves in Canada’s eastern-most provinces and so might have expected to find few fans there.

It was welcomed by many though thanks to online avenues like MySpace, Facebook, YouTube and Canadian musicians’ ace-in-the-hole CBC Radio 3 that has let them bypass big budget promotions and overcome not having a major music company producing their music.

“The east coast is a really good example of how great the Internet is,” said Tyler Bancroft, who with Ben Worcester writes the songs with both fronting the five-person band on guitar and vocals. “Because of the Internet people were able to find our music.

“We showed up and instantly there was a whole ton of people there.”The Vancouver band is among Canadian artists showcased on CBC’s Radio 3, the public broadcaster’s service that is on the web, podcasts and on Sirius satellite radio. Radio 3 recently relaunched its web site giving music fans greater participation.

“In the traditional radio sense, increasing programming is the best way to grow audience, but for us to provide better tools and features for music fans is the best way to grow our audience,” said Steve Pratt, Director of CBC Radio 3 and CBC Radio Digital Programming. “They can share stuff, they can create a personalized music experience rather than having people at CBC making the choice on their behalf and the more powerful followers can build up a following of their own.”

It’s a shift that gives music fans their own profiles on Radio 3, adding their voices to a community where artists create their own pages and upload music.

While such sites as MySpace give artists an online home, Radio 3 gives Canadian artists a radio audience – albeit not a traditional one – for music that would have to fight an uphill battle to be heard on regular airwaves. As Pratt told attendees at a recent Cool Twitter conference in Vancouver, of the 30,000 songs released in Canada every year, 250 get radio time.

“Our podcasts have a lot of people listening every week, the same with Sirius and Internet radio,” said Pratt. “If you sign up with Radio 3 we can put you out to 100,000 people in a week in a way that MySpace can’t."

CBC Radio 3 has more than 90,000 music fans as members, more than 19,000 Canadian artists with pages on the site and more than 86,000 music tracks uploaded to the site by artists.

It’s all part of a leveling of the playing field for music makers and performers.

It has a downside though.

“Literally anyone with a microphone can go into a computer and put a song on the Internet,” said Bancroft, who works on a tug boat when he’s not touring. “It is a double-edged sword for sure.

“It makes it hard for anyone to stand out.”

On the plus side, artists can achieve success that may not be measured in millions but is enough to sustain their music without leaving them starving.

“It used to be you were a superstar or you were a nobody,” said Vancouver’s Dan Mangan, whose latest album Nice, Nice, Very Nice was recently released. “The Internet has opened up this entire middle class, there are fewer super stars and there is more room in the middle for people who aren’t necessarily rich or famous but they are able to make a living, have a mortgage, raise some kids.”

Many Canadian musicians are learning to be masters of social media.

Kelowna’s Andrew Huculiak from We Are The City, a band that was chosen for the inaugural PEAK Performance Project band camp held earlier this year to provide intensive training in the music business, said his band has stepped up its use of social media.

“We’ve become really proactive with the online stuff in the last four months since we were at the PEAK Performance boot camp,” he said. “We learned from that there are a lot of different Internet sites you can use to connect directly to the fans – Twitter, MySpace, YouTube, Facebook.

“Using those sites fans can have an instant relationship with the band. It’s not like you observe from a distance any more.

“You can talk with the band while they’re on the road, you can see videos of them. It’s a lot more work for the band members individually to keep on the online radar.

“But the reward they get depends on how much work they put into it.”

Edo Van Breemen is in the band Brasstronaut and also runs Unfamiliar Records with a partner. As a small independent label, he said his company is able to take advantage of the potential to “seed blogs and social networking sites with our bands’ music.”

“People kind of treat illegal downloading like modern radio in a sense,” he said. “They will download an album off a torrent or whatever for free. If they are into the music they are more likely to see a show.

“That’s really where bands are making money these days. In some - Vancouver Sun-Gillian Shaw

I’m pretty positive that I wrote a post sometimes back on Vancouver’s Said The Whale, around the time they released the Talking Abalonia EP in 2007. Unfortunately, I don’t have any documented proof of it in my archives, because it was one of the ill-fated posts that was zapped by Blogger prior to moving QBiM to its new home last year. Even more unfortunate is that I don’t remember just what I had to say about the band, so I hope I don;t repeat myself too much in this post (although if I did, who would know it? All those rabid QBiM fans who memorize my posts and try to one-up each other quoting from them?)

I get the sense that most any review you read of Said The Whale’s music will sound like a repeat: honest-to-goodness straight ahead indie-pop of a fine pedigree, seasoned with salty tales of the sea and a flair for the melodramatic at times. You could call them the coastal opposite of Two Hours Traffic. Their new album, Islands Disappear is out in the shops now, and has been given the seal of approval by none other than George Stroumboulopoulos himself, so there you go.

The band are in Edmonton tonight, with shows in Lethbridge tomorrow, Canmore on Sunday, and Kelowna on Monday. Our Albertan and B.C. friends looking for a good time need look no further than the band’s Myspace site for all the particulars. - Quickbeforeitmelts

MATTHEW STEFANSON
Arts Writer

Said the Whale’s sophomore album, Islands Disappear, is a mix of sea shanty and rock anthem that should be pleasant for old and new fans alike.
Said the Whale's Islands Disappears
The record is a diversion from their previous album, Howe Sounds/Taking Abalonia, in terms of both sound and theme. Whether or not this is a good thing is up to interpretation.

The sophomore curse is a big concern for musicians, especially ones whose fan base is populated by the extremely transient and fickle Internet community, so it was brave of the band to experiment as much as they did. Their previous album was full of whimsical lyrics, charming innocence and truly touching love songs. Their latest album, however, sounds more like an oral history of the band, their hometown of Vancouver and their country.

Songs like “Out on the Shield” roughly outline the history of Canadian settlement. “We never meant to stay here,” reads the opening line. “We were here for the gold.”

Despite their foray into history, the band has maintained their devotion to crafting delightful and occasionally touching songs, like the very sweet lullaby, “Goodnight Moon” which I’m sure will be lulling children to sleep in many an indie household this year.

Their ability to compose driving rock songs has remained intact as well. They can craft a hook as well as they ever have. Where they have changed, however, is in the major influences of their music. Howe Sounds/Taking Abalonia was a pretty textbook rock album — an exemplary one maybe, but still fairly formulaic. In Islands Disappear they mix in strains of more traditional Gaelic sounds. An errant mandolin can be heard under the vocals in a few of the songs on the album and it works to great effect.

The album is very different from the band’s first recording and most of the changes serve to make it a deeper experience. The real curse of the sophomore album is that people are surprised and scared by any change. But upon a second or third listen, it becomes clear that Islands Disappear is just as great an album as Said the Whale’s first release.
- The Sheaf.com

Is it the 44th week of 2009 already? God that's depressing. But you know what isn't depressing in any way, shape, or form? This hilarious, hilarious, phone message... oh, and Said the Whale's Islands Disappear.

From the dramatic intro "Dear Elkhorn" I thought I might be in for another band similar to my new favourites the Wilderness of Manitoba, or one of last year's best blog bands, Fleet Foxes, which would've been a good thing, but it was not to be. Instead, Said the Whale progress through the rest of their album with an almost choral power-poppy sort of sound that is reminiscent of stuff like the New Pornographers' Twin Cinema, Band of Horse's Funeral, or even the latest poppier album from the Tokyo Police Club, Elephant Shell.

To a certain extent I'm surprised that I like Islands Disappear as much as I do. With no disrespekt to the band, I just haven't had much of a taste for the poppy sort of bands as they always seem like they're "on"... c'mon, nobody is that happy all the time. Said the Whale is a happy, poppy sort of band, but there are moments on the album that are quieter and show that they're not just churning pop songs, they have feelings (as a band) too. I think the outdoors/wilderness/travelling theme of the album helps in this respect, for whatever reason, their real (or potentially fictional) trip across Canada makes me feel like the quieter, more introspective moments come from honest experience and reflection rather than seeing the latest Michael Moore movie or reading the latest Naomi Klien book.

I think the albums biggest strength though is it's diversity (much like the New Pornographers at their best), their ability to pound out a really, really, catchy song like "Camilo (the Magician" (which may well be the best "pop" song of the year), but they balance that off with some softer songs "Dear Elkhorn" "Islands Disappear" etc. and sometimes, somehow, they manage to do both at the same time "Emerald Lake, AB".

It'd a little disingenous - although probably not unexpected - for me to suggest that this is one of the best pop albums of the year, particularly since "Santa" sent me this album roughly a week ago. That said, Islands Disappear was one of the most pleasant surprises of the year, and is the kind of album that makes me glad that I decided to start a (mostly) music blog. You really ought to go out and buy this album. - Burgeoning Metropolis