Sufjan Stevens

Stevens released this song just after Carrie & Lowell and it was originally intended to be a tour-only 7", but was later distributed online by Asthmatic Kitty in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the exploding whale incident.

Like many songs on Carrie & Lowell, this song has references to Oregon. The Exploding Whale Incident was a famous “epic fail” incident that happened in Florence, Oregon in 1970, when a dead sperm whale washed up on a beach. It began to smell horrible so the Highway Department took it upon themselves to solve the problem by attempting to disintegrate the whale carcass with dynamite.