Freelance Whales: Weathervanes

    Well it is high time I posted about the Freelance Whales, a group I find myself constantly returning to listen to. I guess you could call them electro-pop, folktronic, or multi-instrumental, because they use a variety of uncommon sound creators, though uncommon is hardly true anymore in the indie scene; like banjo, glockenspiel, xylophone, waterphone, harmonium and synthesizers. They employ solely acoustic guitars, their melodies are light and youthful with an ambient etherealness underlying, while a few of the tracks are specifically fillers of harmonium or synthesizer chords and some banjo. They have been compared to Sufjan Stevens, Death Cab for Cutie--with obviously a lot more bells and whistles--, Arcade Fire, Ben Gibbard (other solo work beyond DCfC) and as Nick and Norah-core (referring to the film Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist). I also think the lead singer sounds like the group fun. (yes it is written as fun.), especially the song "Kilojoules".
    One review, on NPR.org, calls Weathervanes "incredibly infectious, jubilant music", and I wholeheartedly agree with that. In fact, I'd argue that the venues the Freelance Whales are found playing at have led to that type of sound. The Brooklyn group that came together out of an ad on Craigslist often plays on street corners and in subway stations in New York City, which has made them quite a "buzz band" apparently (yes I'm adding to it), receiving a lot of blog notice and anticipation leading up to this their first release in April of 2010.
    The story behind the album is sort of dreamlike, apparently about a boy who has romantic fantasies involving a ghost girl who haunts his family's home. The story is also somehow linked to one of the members, Judah Dadone, and how he almost drowned in the Sea of Galilea and growing up living in Jerusalem. The girl, supposedly is of the typical Manic Pixie Dream Girl archetype. To explain from a film standpoint and quote, Manic Pixie Dream Girl is: "that bubbly, shallow cinematic creature that exists solely in the fevered imaginations of sensitive writer-directors to teach broodingly soulful young men to embrace life and its infinite mysteries and adventures." Some female characters that have been described as fitting that role are: Kirsten Dunst (for whom the term was coined by film critic Nathan Rabin for her role in Elizabethtown), Katherine Hepburn (perhaps the earliest example in Bringing Up Baby), Zooey Deschanel (in many roles) and Natalie Portman (in Garden State). 
    For your listening pleasure, I have uploaded "Broken Horse" to the MixPod player. If that is not enough, though, the entire album put out on Frenchkiss/Mom + Pop Records can actually be heard here: http://www.freelancewhales.com/weathervanes/index.php.