LITANY FOR THE WHALE

By MetalGeorge

Litany For The Whale. Remember the name, because this Californian quartet is determined and bound to make a severe impression in the not-so distant future, if their debut EP, Dolores, is anything to go by, anyway.

“So far we have gotten a pretty incredible response from critics and general listeners alike,” enthuses the band’s guitarist and frontman, Michael Conrad. “…which is great considering we don’t have a long list of notable bands that we have been in before. It seems like—with the glut of internet bands—the only way to get someone to notice you is to have been in something to earn so cred from before music became such a clusterfuck. Honestly, we have a hard time taking major magazine reviews seriously, because we know that we aren’t the kind of band that write music for the general populace. We never gear our sound to fit into any of the neat little genres they like to label bands with, and honestly we hate most of the bands that find themselves featured in mainstream periodicals. So while their kind words have been nice, we have to take it for what it is, maybe the thing that they like about us is an element of our sound that reminds them of the trash they are really into…”

“I dunno,” he continues, “maybe we’re jaded, but everything seems to be about money or stripping the soul away from heavy music and creating a product that will sound dated in six months. We’ve played so many different kinds of shows, and gotten so many kinds of reactions we rarely know what to expect… sometimes there’s a lot of headbanging, sometimes it looks like everyone there is a yellow belt in karate and they’re there to show off their shitty moves, sometimes people will huddle in the corner with their fingers in their ears. We honestly don’t care if people love it or hate it… but we do enjoy seeing our music do something to the audience.”

Said music is a sharp sonic attack; an amalgamation of crusty riff goodness and discordant atmospherics which is anything BUT commonplace or traditional. Dolores, as a result, is a breath of fresh air or a scene so inundated with the fetid stench of regurgitated ideas.

“We’ve never written anything we thought was weird,” answers Michael when hard-pressed to nail down a Litany For The Whale “sound”. “We actually see ourselves as a really simple band. I think that a lot of people have a hard time putting their finger on our influences because we have so many. People at magazines have the tough job of telling people why or why not a band is worth checking out, so quite often they get caught playing the comparisons game. We are flattered by some of the comparisons we have gotten to other bands, but there is a lot more to our musical education than whatever the genre focus of a particular periodical is. As far as sticking out from the pack, yeah, we’re very proud to stand out from the teeming multitudes of tweener imitation acts, and the washed up and tired ‘shoulda hung it up in ‘98’ types.”

“Heavy, dark, simple,” adds Conrad, hammering his point home. “We‘ve been called metal, hardcore, punk, rock and roll, whatever, all of these terms have been watered down by mediocrity, so it is hard for us. If someone says ‘you guys are metal/hardcore’ do we take that as a compliment or an insult? Depending on your timeline, that could be a huge compliment, or a huge insult. We know that generally the people that enjoy us like a variety of types of music, hopefully we fit into the pocket where the heavy meets the meaningful. When we go, we would like to be remembered as a band that wasn’t just making a bunch of noise to fit a style, we are doing it because we have to… the world has given us no other option.”

Indeed, it seems as if the band’s varied backgrounds have come together in all the right places with regards to Litany, particularly when it comes to that raw, determined focus which is so readily apparent within the band’s absolutely rabid, unfettered energy.

Michael tends to agree, admitting that, “There are certain commonalities among us, but those are mainly when we are talking about politics, lifestyle, philosophy, and the like. Musically, we all have different backgrounds, and yeah, that can certainly take some of the blame for whatever eclectic mix you might hear on a Litany record. We all know what Litany needs to sound like; there are unspoken rules, obviously no one will show up with an upbeat swing number, but within the band we all know that pushing ourselves to try new things is the key to keeping what we do fresh and worthwhile for us, and hopefully worth returning to for a listener or audience member.”

“The initial goal was to shake up our little community, since then we have been raising the bar, the goal currently stands at doing our best to continue to make genuine music, honest music, and to take it to the biggest audience we can, on our terms. Litany for the Whale was actually formed when I moved to California from Boston. When I showed up I was so disappointed in the local music scene. Living in Santa Rosa, we’re so close to the homeland of Neurosis, Sleep, and High on Fire…yet our city had little to offer at that time for heavy music. I was lucky enough to encourage a couple well know local musicians into joining me in creating something different, we haven’t looked back since.”

Luckily for us, the band will be crisscrossing the U$ of A in support of Dolores (which was released on vinyl via Molsook and Perpetual Motion Machine and on CD/digitally by Teenage Disco Bloodbath Records); something which Litany For The Whale intends to make a habit as the buzz ‘round the EP inevitably grows in the underground.

“Oh yeah,” says Michael, “we plan on recording material for a full length, and a few other projects then hitting the road again hard before too long. I’ve seen footage of Nirvana playing the same song at different shows, and love them or hate them, I was so impressed with how in one setting the song sounded wild and violent, and yet at another show, it sounded like a straight pop song. I think a lot of bands will try to play the song exactly the same way every time. In Litany for the Whale, we enjoy building the set to fit the mood of the room, or often we will try to push the mood into another direction. If we are playing a show with a couple mild bands we will bring the thunder. If we are playing with a bunch of death metal bands we will focus on our more introspective songs. We like being the black sheep, it is what we always have been, and it is where we belong.”

When comparing gigs, the perpetual “black sheep” have plenty of horror stories to share with Maniacs’ readers as a send-off, as Conrad laughingly explains…

“California is a great place, but we have found that we generally have some of the laziest crowds! We really enjoy the reaction we get on the road, because audiences in different areas will always throw you something new, whether it’s wild enthusiasm, participation, or good conversation after the show. The worst show we have ever played was very early in Litany’s life, however. We played a pro wrestling event, thinking it would be a funny experience. What we didn’t count on was playing to an auditorium of drunk, pissed off, ignorant Nu Metal fans. To make a long story short, we got banned from that venue, broke several of our instruments, and agreed that maybe novelty events are a bad idea for a band that takes itself seriously, almost to a fault.”