WHALE... The Band

Wow, that's a helluva clip.

Always loved this band. Thanks to Mike Judge for introducing me... I had the same instant crush on Cia that Beavis did.

The first album is ok, but All Disco Dance... is an album I still spin to this day.

I also have an ep called Pay For Me that has a very inspired cover of Darling Nikki. Definitely worth tracking down.

Wish I'd seen them live!

I very much enjoyed the minimalist breast shaking in that.

i love the pay for me EP. even more than the disco album. so great.

I knew Cia had done stuff before Whale, but I don't think I realized how long it was before Whale. Downloading her first album with Ubangi Oh No, I'm Pregnant right now, and it's from 1983. If she was 20 then (which apparently she was), that would mean she was already 32 when "Hobo Humpin' Slobo Babe" came out and that kind of twists my melon. It's probably the braces, but she looks younger.

Anyway, off to listen to some Ubangi. Can't find the second album anywhere, nor can I find the Thereisno Orchestra album from 1986. I don't know if they're rare or if people just haven't digitized them, but there's not even anything on soulseek.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJ_GDaEA7G0

Okay, I am now officially way into this band...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HsRf2Np5eNM

BEST BAND EVER

This band is MADE FOR THIS WEATHER.

I saw them once, opening up for Tricky I believe. I fully expected it to be shite but it turned out to be great. Much better than Tricky actually.

― everything, Wednesday, July 20, 2005 8:12 PM (7 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Ditto. Tricky was done before he started. People were actually walking out on him (myself included).

Whale had what seemed like 40 people on stage, and their set was perfectly crafted; everyone knew "Hobo Humpin'" would close the set, but man, the place fucking exploded when they played it.

This group is my shit. We Care in my all-time top 10 albums.

just found all disco .. in the cheap bins.

hope it lives up to the promises of this thread

a friend in college blew out our stereo speakers cranking Hobo Humpin Slobo Babe at a house party one night. totally worth it.

Ubangi seems to have regrouped for one(?) show in 2014.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-HeCT2ZA1Po

Funny what pops up on Youtube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20JyGJBInLw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDO4Xwz_eyU

I was just thinking about this band yesterday -- glad to know they have their own thread. That first album was a corker.

I was also going thru these videos recently (inspired by another thread on here), and looked up what the band members have been up to lately (though I guess this thread sort of covers it).

One of my favorite little details about this band is how their PR materials apparently included a made-up backstory about a precursor band called "Southern Whale Cult," complete with fake album names; their AllMusic entry continues to include this disinfo to this day: https://www.allmusic.com/artist/whale-mn0000818229/biography

all 8+ mins of 'i'll do ya' really really loud cures so many ills for me is it dadrock

xp surely that's a play on Southern Death Cult turning into The Cult.

I'm actually afraid to listen to this album again because it can't be as good as I remember it.

I listened to it recently for the first time in years. It's as good as I remember it.

xp surely that's a play on Southern Death Cult turning into The Cult.

Yeah -- according to Wikipedia: "This was later admitted to have been a joke; the band had copied a presentation by the Cult and simply changed the name of the band in the text."

Is there a possibility
You can check out my fertility?

luv this band

That supercool blond bewigged rapper who guested on Four Big Speakers (and another track or two on the album) has gone through a lot of changes!

http://www.dazeddigital.com/artsandculture/article/34929/1/touka-voodoo-the-human-hybrid-tattoos-gender

found a decent-ish copy of We Care today and despite a few rot induced black spots, my cd rip seems to have sorted them out (cd player in the car didn't, hence i spotted them en route back from the charity shop session).
bloody hell, how insanely fantastic is this album.
i have had their second album for years and enjoyed it as and when, but nothing prepared me for the 8+ minute of 'i'll do ya' on their debut.
basically, this is the best use of a pound coin in a very long time.

I am surprised that album holds up at all! (Used to love it back in the day)

Both albums are still pretty good, it's true.

Tricky's presence on the debut was quite welcome.

until i scoured the credits (and subsequently this thread), i had no idea re the Tricky involvement with this band.

Saw them on tour together back in the 90s.

Just wrote this 25th anniversary commemoration of We Care. Enjoy!

https://rockandrollglobe.com/rock/alternative-rock/the-guy-with-the-best-nads-gets-his-armpit-licked-whales-we-care-celebrates-25-years/

really enjoyed that.
cheers for the heads up sir.

awesome article

Oh wow! Excellent, thanks!

Thanks for posting! I would just quibble with your evaluation of "I'm Cold" –

A worthy tune on its own, but no listener is going pay much attention this deep into the album.

– I sure did, at the time; I thought it was transfixing and very effective (it's one of rock's many great "car crash songs").

Also, nice job pointing out the risible boner in Chris Molanphy's CMJ New Music Monthly review (also interesting to compare with his review of the Garbage album, in the same issue).

I love "I'm Cold" but it's a really long CD.

thanks for reading, everyone!

Found a video of them performing "Don't Dream it's Over" on Swedish TV in the style of Jesu (before Jesu). Was not expecting that and would live to hear it in better quality.

That article is a real service to humanity Nate. Thank you.

Wonderful piece, Nate. I remember seeing the “Hobo Humpin’” video in early ‘94, then not finding the CD single until six months later, THEN not finding the album until six months after that. Worth the wait, and I was surprised at how consistent the record was.

Isn’t Rock and Roll Globe owned/founded by Ken Kurson? The same Ken Kurson who proved too toxic for a position with the Trump administration?

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/26/business/ken-kurson-jared-kushner.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsmelORwPRI

One of my offerings for our current singles round-up, in a 90s issue of clemenza's printzine, Radio On:

"We Care," Whale: Yes they do. Thus the casual whomp of a sky-size tailfin, the headphones within headphones crittersystems making a beat for and between Cia Berg's chuckles, chortles, guffaws and giggles of whispered gossip, riddles, confessions, put-downs, put-ons and other confidences. Not non-stop; this really is a band. But she's got this kind of parody of the cosmic rock waif goin' on, re Janis/Anissette/Patti/Tori and a lot more-including her own evident tendencies. So there's also some protective rock caricature at work (the immortal "Hobo Humpin' Slobo Babe," for instance). Some bad stuff has happened to her, but she doesn't want to be too straight about it or too twisted. There's the incredibly clean-chopping "I Miss Me," and there's this other thing, which I've suppressed memory of the title of, so I won't get up now and go dial up that track "only"-it's so long and so stoning, in terms of sympathy and exasperation and sheer stonery (eventually like riding in a caravan on the motorway where Cliff Burton [and Metallica, basically] died, listening to the Beatles sing, "Picture yourself in a boat on the river," over and over, while clouds and smoke and deflating balloons imprinted with Edvard Munch's "The Scream" blow past your windscreen). Yes, they're Swedish. (8.0)