No. 81: Freelance Whales

A friend of mine told me a few months ago about a couple of bands he liked, Owl City and Freelance Whales.  The first one, Owl City, upon first listen made me think of the soundtrack to the O.C.  This was not a good thing.  Sure there were some songs on the O.C. that were good and the show gave attention to a new indie sound emerging through groups like Death Cab for Cutie and Sufjan Stevens.  The thing was Ben Gibbard and Sufjan were original, and bands like Owl City and now Freelance Whales seem to be just rehashing what someone else already came up with.  I know a lot of indie groups these days can be accused of that, but Freelance Whales are definitely a poor man's Death Cab.  The music is not bad, and this Claptrapper always enjoys orcherstral rock mixed in with banjos and triumphant choruses, but after listening to the Freelance Whales debut 'Weathervanes' for about a week now, I find myself bored.

I see several bands coming out with this sound and capitalizing on the now cool indie scene that came out of the 00's.  I just don't buy it.  Look for a lot of faux indie rockers surrounding the stage at Lolla this year because I hear the Freelance Whales are gaining a ton of interest.  I can see the commercial appeal and again want to reiterate that the actual music is not that bad, its just the unoriginality of it that irks me.  Think of Pearl Jam and how they gave birth to bands like Creed.  Its exactly what Death Cab is going to do to the new decade.

Freelance Whales Website