Whip, The

***"The real story is the fact that the WHIP were a waaaay too short-lived band that formed a couple years after KARP had broken up, and a little after the TIGHT BROS FROM WAY BACK WHEN (JARED's post-Karp band) had basically called it quits after recording and touring hard for several years in the late '90s/early '00s. The year was 2002 and SCOTT (JERNIGAN, Karp's drummer) was in a Seattle band called THE BRONZE, and he and Jared began playing with JOE PRESTON (THRONES, MELVINS, etc. etc). My friend Rick (now an academic librarian in Eugene, OR) heard this was happening, and nearly dropped his Cocteau Twins cassette. Such a pairing of everything we loved about music, coming together in one band. We'd spent serious time loving everything Thrones had done, and clearly, Karp was essentially the best rock band ever. With Joe's amazing riffs and playing, Jared's and Scott's insanely sync'd up rhythm section and Jared singing, this pretty much sounded like it was gonna be the perfect band. So, sight unseen Rick told 'em we'd pay for a recording session if they'd let Wantage do the 7". And lo, the Freelance Liaison/Sheep and Goat Judgement 7" was born. The band toured the west coast, and northwest a fair amount in their short life, and we were all set to release a 5-song Tour EP (a la the Red Fang tour EP, and the Big Business Tour EPs etc.) but on June 10, 2003, Scott was killed in a boat accident, and the Whip ended. The feeling of loss, even for those of us who didn't personally know Scott was beyond palpable. 
I got to see them just once, at the Vera Project in Seattle in 2002, and my enduring memory of that set was just how good it sounded. They had that rare band chemistry that just makes it sound like what they're doing was very easy, natural and right. I'm really excited, 17 years later, to close out the project and do justice to the great tracks that this band left behind. The 11 songs on the album combine the first JUSTIN TROSPER recordings, the later EP recording that Joe Preston did, and some strong live recordings by MIKE ZIEGLER. The LP will come with an insert with photos and liner notes."