Those Lavender Whales - “Exist”
I think “Exist” was one of the first Those Lavender Whales songs I ever heard off of Tomahawk of Praise. It was either that or the song “A Loose Interpretation of Something Augustine of Hippo May Have Once Said,” but for this track review’s sake lets just lie and say it was without a doubt “Exist.” My (slightly distorted) memory is from May of 2009. I hadn’t seen Aaron in over a year and we realized we were both going to be in Columbia, but he would only be there for a matter of hours. I was in town visiting (I lived in San Francisco at the time) and he was on his way into town to catch a flight to Alaska (he lived in Nashville at the time). I met he and his mom with a six pack of beer in the driveway of his childhood home at around midnight. We passed back and forth a guitar and played songs we had written since we last saw each other, drank a few beers, then around 3 he left for the airport. One of his shared tunes was a song he had conceived the lyrics to while trying to nap on the seven hour trip from Nashville. And I am pretty sure that song was “Exist.” And what better way to remember a song that begins on the topic of loving and helping one another than paired with a memory of sharing songs and drinks with a best friend you hadn’t seen in a long time in the early hours of the morning. So that is why even if that song wasn’t “Exist,” I will say it was because in a perfect memory it would be. Haziness of my remembering aside, I definitely remember thinking about how great the song was and how cool it would be if Aaron made a full length record instead of a bunch of EPs.
Fast forward two and a half years. Aaron’s “solo project” became a family and the test pressings for Tomahawk of Praise rests on the turntable at the Fork and Spoon headquarters. ”Exist” is the first single from this record. I hope it brings as much pleasure to your ears and heart as it does mine.
Love,
Jordan
