Hailing from Salt Lake City in Utah, The Devil Whale possess a certain disarming sound that makes me want to trek far into the woods, stopping only once I find a suitable clearing of trees — maybe it’s the “aahs” in the chorus or the 60s garage rock-influenced guitar or just the line “I need a vacation before I disappear” that inspires such a mood. In any case, there I will waste away the hours listening to “Barracudas” and the rest of The Devil Whale’s forthcoming sophomore album, Teeth.

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The Devil Whale from Salt Lake City really kind of took me for surprise, with a killer set of gorgeous and unique rock’n’roll. At times reminding me of my favorite parts of Big Star and others times putting their own twist on The Velvet Underground, The Devil Whale is seriously a good band, one to look out for!

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I’m an indie-folk sucker, so I usually get pretty giddy when something from the genre arrives in my email inbox. A lot of it isn’t very good, but sometimes something will arrive that makes listening to endless amounts of bad stuff worthwhile. One of the good things that recently showed up was The Devil Whale (which, if a real animal, would be frightening). The Salt Lake City based The Devil Whale was formally a trio, but recently added a keyboardist and another guitarist to become a fleshed out sound.

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Musically, The Devil Whale can be considered solidly indie for its eclectic nature of unexpected change among soaring melodies, aggressive guitar swings, and start-and-stop direction shifts, but there is a classic pop element filtering through as well. “Any band is going to say it, but we do like the Beatles and the Beach Boys, but I don’t think we overtly rip those bands off,” Jones said. “But the instrumentation of the group is definitely a nod in that school of thought.”

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Rock, folk, harmonies slippin’ in and under classic pop arrangements with the right amount of feedback when needed, Kryptonite via Salt Lake City. Jones’ songs, the band, on record are subdued, well crafted and produced- live, they explode. The band supports Jones’ lead like a rock machine should. There’s something going on in Utah; there would be no surprise to see the ‘Whale’ sign with a respective indie label in the near future and accidentally open for the likes of indie giants while forging their own path to headline. Catch them now; an amazing, live band, great players in control of beautiful pop-folk arrangements that explode with color.

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