Whales and Cops - Great Bouncing Icebergs

1. ¡Futuro Futuro!
2. Bosuns o' the Yard
3. Fifty Black Marines
4. Suave Homeless Asshole
5. Bent Cop

All Songs by Whales and Cops

Also recorded by Bill Moriarty & Mark Scott at American Diamond, but mostly by Mr. Cops at the Bubbletape Lounge — Philadelphia’s worst recording facility. The experience is not unlike sawing off your own nuts with a child’s drawing of a knife. No actually that would not have taken as long.

Mr. Nathaniel Cops: Keys, Bees, Bells, Percussion, VX, FX.
Finger Julius Mountain: Drums, Marimba, Keys, Percussion, VX, Rx.
Otzi Bogman: Trumpet, Bass, Flugelhorn, Keys, Percussion, VX, Xx.

Long-snouted Crocodilian Helpmeets:
Stephanie Berliner — flute, keys; Andrew Dick — guitar, keys; Jesse Moynihan — violin; Jeff Hobo Carter — clarinet; Jaram Kim — violin; Dan Scholnik — tabla; . Alex Cordaro — whistleskull; Annie Fredrickson — cello; Scott Churchman — upright bass; Luke Fischbeck — bleeps; Billy Blaise Dufala — baritone sax, flute, clarinet; Ashley Deekus — marimba; Jeanette Berry — xox vox.

XXX VX Steven Dufala, Therese Gustafsson, Michael Wellenreiter, Adam Carrigan, Sochi Lynne Weiner, Jady Dyer, Gilmington Knoxworthy, Caroline Schmidt.

Thanks: Amy E. Henderson, Nicole DelCollo, Keville Clan, Brian Dwyer, Brown Gang, Sarah, Dan Piotrowski, Ben.

Creatures by James Ulmer [jamesulmer.com]

Logo & Fingers by Steven Dufala [dufalabrothers.com]

Layout by Stewart Dean Ebersole [stewart.dean.ebersole@gmail.com]

Mastered by Carl Saff.

All songs written by Whales and Cops, ©2008 Suite Krukity Music [ASCAP]

Two veterans of West Philadelphia’s late, lamented “Softbatch” scene (Squi!, Son Bees, King of Prussia, Oskama Bin Skaden), half-brothers Mr. Nathaniel Cops (keys) and Finger Julius Mountain (drums) were first united by a desire to get the fuck out of Man Man after simultaneously discovering (to their great horror) that they’d been playing with them for years. Whales & Cops began rehearsals at once, cleaving to a vigorous, manly regimen of certain foods and exercises and, significantly, a staunch refusal to hide the light of their Modern music under a bushel of implausible pseudonyms and fake, stupid band names. With the addition of fancy, German-looking multi-instrumentalist Otzi Bogman and usually one other human, Whales and Cops stand poised at the very brink of the Culture itself, beckoning to you.

The Great Bouncing Icebergs EP was recorded at dawn in an abandoned municipal storage facility through special, special microphones; each musician placed at or near the locus of a very red triangle. The songs recount the brother’s entanglement in a sugary web of digital dismemberment, expert panhandling, beard sex and berserk destruction. Legendary grunge producer Butch Vig was never contacted or mentioned once.

Reviews

Philadelphia Weekly
{Doug Wallen, August 2008}

“Pop doesn’t get much more puzzling than on Great Bouncing Icebergs, the long-awaited album by the madcap Philly troupe Whales and Cops. It’s packed with intimate shivers and hulking revelations and everything in between, beeping and blurring while virtuosic players with fake names wrangle vivid new life from their instruments. Maybe that sounds like hyperbole, but this band’s sonic extremes are enough to shock even listeners weaned on years of Man Man”