Requiem for Whale Tooth — One of Toronto's Best Live Acts Calls It Quits

Sad news on the Toronto indie music front this week, as one of our favourite bands in the city has announced they've called it quits. It's been an awfully long time since we heard anything from the indie rockers in Whale Tooth, so it doesn't come as a complete surprise. But it's a damned shame nonetheless: yet another depressing reminder that the universe moves inevitably toward the chaos of entropy, that all good things must come to an end, and that we're all doomed to grow older and eventually die.

Drummer Sep Noroozi posted an update to Facebook on Monday explaining it all:

"Whale Tooth has been over for quite some time now. It was a beautiful ride (nod to Dewey Cox) and we can't thank you enough for being the most important part of it... Sorry for leaving you guys hanging for so long. That must have been annoying. Better late than never? No hard feelings? Thanks again from the bottom of our big-ass hearts. We still love you."
 
The members of the now-former band have already started exploring new projects. Frontwoman Elise LeGrow — whose frontwomaning with Whale Tooth was some of the best frontwomaning a city full of amazing frontwomaning had to offer — will carry on with her successful (and much jazzier) solo career. The lady can sing. Nozorri has a Bandcamp page full of his "weird melancholy stylings" and says guitarist Norm Maschke is up to something too.

Oh, but it was a hell of a time while it lasted, Whale Tooth. As LeGrow sings in "Growing Pains": "I remember when we were young and we found ourselves living reckless with abandon — felt like time stood still."


Here are some of our favourite Whale Tooth memories, starting with their free download of "Marlboro Beach Bonanza" from their self-titled EP (which you can stream the entirety of here).

MP3: "Marlboro Beach Bonanza" by Whale Tooth


Here's "The Visitor" from their set at the Young Lions Music Club/Humble Empire Live In Bellwoods festival during the summer of 2011:




Here's the video that first turned us on to Whale Tooth. "Big City Lover" from the Verge's rooftop party in 2010:




Here's the official video for "Wolves" off their one (and now sadly only) full-length, Search Party:




Here's the official video for "Hiberation Song" from all the way back in 2009:

Here's "Growing Pains" from the Live Near Bellwoods festival in 2012:

And here's a bunch of our photos from over the years, starting with shots from Live in Bellwoods in 2011 by Melanie Baresic:

At Sneaky Dee's during NXNE 2011 by Adam Bunch:

 

And at Lee's Palace during CMW 2012 by Adam Bunch:

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Adam Bunch is the Editor-in-Chief of the Little Red Umbrella and the creator of the Toronto Dreams Project. You can read his posts here, follow him on Twitter here, or email him at adam@littleredumbrella.com.