Freelance Whales Head West With Foals and the Naked and Famous -- Road Report

New York-based indie quintet Freelance Whales are on the road this spring with Foals and the Naked and Famous for a North American tour. The band has been gracious enough to document their travels for Spinner in a series of video and written Road Reports. Read the first installment, written by drummer Jake Hyman, below and check back soon for more touring missives from Freelance Whales.

When Jonathan Chanin (or just Jono, as most know him), a filmmaker and one of my best and most-longtime friends, accepted the invitation to join our spring tour as our videographer, I thought it would be a good excuse to bring a 6-foot-tall piece of home with me on the road. Turns out, Jono is also rather adept at making us look way more interesting than we actually are.

We've never had a tour start like this -- the furthest west we've had to drive was to Chicago to begin our first-ever tour with Fanfarlo in November of 2009. What at first felt like nothing more than an excuse to drive thousands of miles to eat at the glorious Bozeman Montana Community Food Co-op has morphed into a full-fledged tour with Foals, one of the best live bands out there, and the Naked and Famous, who put on an electronic rock clinic every night.

Jono has already amassed dozens of hours of footage of van rides and meals and showers and shows. This episode, our first in a series about the tour, chronicles the aforementioned road trip and subsequent arrival in Bellingham, Wash. With Coachella looming and the biggest venues we've ever played dominating this tour, we should have plenty to show you in the coming weeks.

Watch Freelance Whales' Road Report

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