Who are The Whitinos?

Brian Annett – Bass guitar

Shawn Clark – Guitar

Gil Polanco – Drums/vocals

The Whitinos formed in the spring of 1992 in Bloomington, Minnesota.  Gil was stationed at the Naval Reserve Center and met Shawn while moonlighting at a Stanley Steemer. 

Shawn and his friend Brian had been working in a band and needed a drummer.  They stopped by Gil’s place to jam and decided to keep playing together.  They had a keyboard player and a vocalist for a while but the keyboard guy was too young to play bars and the singer never did learn more than half a verse to any one song.

Gil eventually left Minnesota but the band stayed in touch and went to California for some performances and recording of their original songs.  They later went to Texas in 1996 after getting noticed by a rep from H-Town Records.  The deal fell through and after a few shows in San Antonio (White Rabbit, Crazy Horse, Red Hot & Blues, and Carlsbad Tavern), Shawn and Brian returned to Minnesota while Gil stayed in Texas.

The boys still work on their music and completed work on an EP last year.  They’ll be completing the recording of a full-length CD in March 2006.

Their formula for songwriting is simple.  Shawn and Brian will usually compose and record the music and give it to Gil to add the lyrics.  Once that’s done they get together just play.

That’s The Whitinos in a nut shell.  For a more detailed history of the band, click here.