Whale of a Dilemma

Help me out, people: Should White Whale be considered a local band?

For those unfamiliar, White Whale came out of Lawrence at the end of last year and spumed right on to Merge Records, playing the label’s showcase at SXSW in March. I was there, and I haven’t seen them play since. Before that, the Whale did a few local shows — CD-releases at the Granada and the Record Bar, but the band never seemed to work very hard at building a local following.

Matt Suggs, leader of Whale, had already released several albums on Merge — both solo and with his band Butterglory — so that’s presumably why Merge harpooned his new project so quickly. Does that alone already disqualify him and White Whale from local status?