"Whale Music?? What kind of name is Whale Music?" they cried, fearing that the Rheostatics' third album would head straight for the lowly Sound Effects and Field Recording section of music outlets everywhere. Some even worried that Etobicoke's sound ambassadors would be mistaken for environmental crusaders, while others merely turned to each other and whispered: "Whale Music? Gee, dumb title." But Whale Music it is, folks, and here's why. First of all, you may or may not have noticed that this is a pretty wet record: it's quiet underwater; rain, rain rain; they dragged the bottom of the lake; just rivers that channel the rain; beer; standing so long in the snow I'm sore. Seconly, there's a very fine novel called Whale Music writen by Torontarian Paul Quarrington about an obese rock star who lies in bed dreaming about writing music for whales, not unlike certain members of the Rheostatics. Thirdly, since our last record was called Melville, and since many a pundit thought that it was a tip of the hat to old Herman's Moby-Dick, we thought we'd really try to confuse you this time. And lastly: Hell, there's a painting of a whale on the cover! If that doesn't convince you that Whale Music was the best choice, let it be noted that we were also thinking of calling it either Maple Serum, or Giant R. or Crow's Nest, or Only Beginning. Feel free to adopt any of these should you have misgivings about the whale.
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