Vulture Whale Offers New EP For Free

"Bamboo You" not officially available in stores until January 19; to be released on Skybucket.

By Blurt Staff

You want it? You got it: Alabama indie upstarts Vulture Whale have a free digital EP for YOU. Go to the official band site - www.vulturewhale.com - and get clicking. The shit's free, jeez, so how can you pass that up? Meanwhile, the details:

After playing together in Wes McDonald & the Fizz, Lester Nuby (of Verbena), Keelan Parrish, Jake Waitzman, and the band's fearless leader, Wes McDonald, decided to convert the power structure of the group from a monarchy into a true democracy. Legend has it the band settled on its new name after guitarist Nuby dreamed of a vulture sitting on top of a guitar, eating a whale. Out of such fevered visions, Vulture Whale was born. The group hails from Birmingham, Alabama, where in 2007 it released its first self-titled album. So pleased was the band with its debut statement, it decided to release another self-titled album in 2009. "Sugar," a single from the later self-titled album, was featured in an issue of Spin Magazine, and both albums were acclaimed both in America and abroad.

For its current release, an EP entitled "Bamboo You," Vulture Whale has risen like a phoenix from its own ashes and-through a complex ritual involving consumption of Golden Flake potato chips and Vegemite-morphed into the best American band pretending to be a British band influenced by American music since Guided By Voices. The concept for the project is not exactly new: Mick Jagger sang in an American accent on numerous Rolling Stones albums, and The Kinks interpreted Americana on their classic "Muswell Hillbillies" album. On "Bamboo You," Vulture Whale combines its unique brand of eccentric rock with its love of British music. The result is six songs that are among some of the best and most inspired of any in the Vulture Whale catalog. Throughout "Bamboo You," McDonald-whose lyrics are always somehow both humorous and casually profound-sings with a playful, faux British accent that is as entertaining as it is inauthentic. When McDonald sings, "She went on and just stripped me for parts / at least she let me keep my guitar," the combination of redneck philosophy with a quasi-Cockney accent is (surprisingly) nothing short of a revelation.

But despite the role playing and subtle musical allusions to classic rock and Brit pop bands, Vulture Whale's personality shines through, and the band's charm congeals all of its influences into one solid and original artistic offering that is just plain fun to listen to. "Bamboo You" is much greater than the marginally interesting story behind its concept.