Shearwater Announce New Digital EP, MP3, Tour Dates

Download: Shearwater - "The Snow Leopard"

Of all the majestic tracks of Shearwater's masterful fifth album, Rook, the one that's most impressive, in terms of song dynamics and building to an unforgettable crescendo, is "The Snow Leopard". One of the closing tracks off of Rook, "Leopard" features a band at its creative peak. So it's fitting, then, that the song is the focal point of a new, digital-only, EP the band plays an releasing in just a few short weeks time. The new EP will include "The Snow Leopard", two covers ("So Bad" by Baby Dee and "Henry Lee", an American traditional), and a whole slew of tracks from radio sessions (including a pair recorded at a certain beloved Minnesotan institution). Check out the tracklisting below:

Shearwater
The Snow Leopard digital EP
(available from all digital stores October 14):

1. The Snow Leopard (album version)
2. So Bad (iTunes bonus track)
3. North Col (vinyl and iTunes bonus track)
4. Henry Lee (live from KUT)
5. Rooks (live from Radio K)
6. I Was A Cloud (live from Radio K)
7. South Col / The Snow Leopard (live from Florence Gould Hall, NYC)

And Tour Dates Via Matablog:

Mon, Oct 13 Chicago IL - Lakeshore Theater - with Hospital Ships
Tue, Oct 14 Cleveland OH - Beachland Tavern - with Hospital Ships
Wed, Oct 15 Washington DC - Kennedy Ctr — Millennium Stage, 7 PM, FREE
Fri, Oct 17 Annandale NY - Bard College
Sun, Oct 19 Boston MA - Cafe 939 at Berklee - with Hospital Ships
Mon, Oct 20 New York NY - Le Poisson Rouge
Fri, Oct 24 Asheville NC - Grey Eagle (stripped-down set)
Sat, Oct 25 Durham NC - Duke Coffee House (stripped-down set)
Sun, Oct 26 Atlanta GA - Drunken Unicorn (stripped-down set)
Fri, Nov 7 Brussels BE - Botanique
Sat, Nov 8 Antwerp BE De Nachten
Sun, Nov 9 Utrecht NL - Tivoli
Mon, Nov 10 Rouen FR - Club 106 - with Silver Mt. Zion
Tue, Nov 11 Paris FR - Le Bataclan with Silver Mt. Zion
Wed, Nov 12 Feyzin FR - L’Epicerie Moderne
Thu, Nov 13 St-Gallen CH - Palace
Fri, Nov 14 Lausanne CH - Le Romandie
Sun, Nov 16 Schorndorf DE - Manufaktur
Mon, Nov 17 Berlin DE - Postbahnhof with Okkervil River
Tue, Nov 18 Dresden DE - Beatpol
Wed, Nov 19 Hamburg DE - Nachtasyl
Thu, Nov 20 Ghent BE - Vooruit
Fri, Nov 21 The Hague NL - Crossing Borders Festival
Sat, Nov 22 London UK - St. Giles in the Fields Church
Sun, Nov 23 Coventry UK - Taylor John’s House
Mon, Nov 24 Brighton UK - Komedia

Rook is out now.
The Snow Leopard is out October 16th.

Shearwater MySpace Page

(Jonathan Graef)
jon@minneapolisfuckingrocks.com

Cross-published on CIMI

New Video: Shearwater - "Leviathan, Bound" (Live at Florence Gould in New York)

Watch the full concert at baeblemusic.com

Thanks to Melissa from Baeble Music for sending me this. It's concert footage of Shearwater performing the stunning "Leviathan, Bound" from their impeccably composed album Rook. Watch it at the top of the post.

(Jonathan Graef)

Live Review: Shearwater, The Mansion, Chicago, IL (6/24/08)

(Shearwater)


Last night, I caught one of most solid triple bills of indie art-rock perhaps ever conceived. Well, maybe that's a bit of hyperbole, but it was a very enjoyable show. Shearwater, Frog Eyes, and Evangelicals all brought their A game to Chicago's The Mansion, a former residence turned into a live venue. The Mansion has been open hardly a year, so I was highly curious about what a show there would be like. The venue consisted of high ceilings and the not-quite 18th century design that would befit an evening of baroque indie-music performed with the focus of a veteran chamber ensemble.




Up first were Evangelicals. On record, (that being their debut The Evening Descends, the band frequently is compared to The Flaming Lips, for merely being psychedelically-inclined and for being from the same town. Live, Evangelicals are more muscular, suggesting a musical universe where Joe Strummer embraced otherworldly soundscapes and Beatles-esque songcraft in his post-Clash, pre-Mescalleros wilderness years. Evangelicals on the whole were tight, energetic, and wonderfully chaotic. This shot, low-quality as it is, should give you a pretty good idea as to what you can expect should you choose to see the quartet live in concert sometime soon.


(Evangelicals)

Download: Frog Eyes - "Idle Songs" (via Stereogum)

If The Howling weren't already the title of a horror film from the 1980s, it could perfectly describe Frog Eyes' set. And I'm not just saying that because dude is rockin' a beard and howls at the rafters whenever he becomes passionately involved in his singing. Throughout their spectacular set, the band had a spellbinding presence that seem to border on supernatural. Their brand of spectral indie-rock haunted and captivated the Mansion audience. The group is playing the Triple Rock on Thursday. If you decide to attend, it surely will be a show that you won't forget. And not because the band turns into wolves and murders the audience, Dethklok-style. Except I mean metaphorically and musically.

Buy tickets for the T-Rock show here. Show is 21+.


(Frog Eyes)

Last up was Shearwater. Jonathan Meisburg's voice was so powerful and piercing that mere amplification could not contain it. As the band adeptly switched instruments to play selections from their last two creative breakthroughs, Palo Santo, and this year's Rook, the amount of focus to detail--in terms of arrangements, song dynamics, and songcraft--was simply astonishing. Precision and control are key words to describe the Shearwater live experience. The group performs with a flexible discipline that allows warmth and heart-rending humanity to creep into songs which are orchestrally impeccable. The band is playing tonight, with The Haves Have It, at the Entry. It is a show you do not want to miss.

Here are more photos:












Shearwater play tonight at the 7th Street Entry. Tickets are $8 for an 18+ Show. Buy them here.

Buy their album here.

Shearwater MySpace Page
Frog Eyes MySpace Page
Evangelicals MySpace Page

(Jonathan Graef)
jon@minneapolisfuckingrocks.com

All photos by Jonathan Graef.

Shearwater Performs Live On Radio K

Austin-based trio (but sometimes quintet in concert) Shearwater's week-old album Rook has been garnering all sorts of positive attention, and rightly so. Their fifth full-length is the best kind of slow-burn listen. Like a fine novel, individual components which seem insignificant or out-of-place patiently revel themselves to be musical revelations, with the result being that the baroque grandeur eventually takes your breath away. You can hear for yourselves as to whether or not that sense of orchestral dynamics holds up in a live setting by heading over to University of Minnesota's Radio K. The band recently stopped by to perform in the Radio K studios. Hear the output of those sessions here.

Rook is out now.

Thanks to Anonymous for the tip!

Shearwater MySpace Page

(Jonathan Graef)

Shearwater - Rook (Plus: Stream The Album In Its Entirety On MySpace)

Shearwater
Rook (Matador 2008)
Grade: A-

Until recently, Jonathan Meiburg did double duty in two of Austin, TX's most notable bands: Okkervil River, the quintet who in 2007 had a breakthrough year creatively and commercially with their fifth release, The Stage Names; and Shearwater, who seemed to be poised for a similar fate with their latest release, Rook. But band members and commercial prospects aren't the only two elements that each group shares. Both Okkervil River and Shearwater's music is filled with immaculately crafted songs which effortlessly radiate with epic melodrama.

Despite the similarities between the two bands, there is an immense difference between how each band takes a hold of their listeners. The Stage Names was, upon immediate listen, a brilliant record whose compelling songcraft was evident from the start. Add tragic, self-reflective lyrics about the comings-and-goings in cinema, music, and pop culture, and you've got yourself an incredibly impressive album.

Rook, on the other hand, is as equally as profound, as a listening experience: it just happens that Rook's greatness takes longer to appreciate. In other words, this record is a grower, and a magnificent one at that. Listening to Rook is akin to hearing the transformation of a duckling turning into a swan.

The fact that Rook takes time to grow on the listener is a bit of a surprise, given that the record starts off with an outstanding array of songs: "On The Death of The Waters", a slow-burn, lullaby played a piano which briefly gives way to the epic textures of post-rock before regressing again; "Rooks", the album's first single, laden with spaghetti-western style horns and paced at a light mid-tempo stomp driven by a sturdy, one-note bass line; and "Leviathan, Bound", a epically minimalist folk-song played on harpischord.

These songs, like most of Rook, are driven by an almost baroque sense of grandeur, even when the instrumentation is kept to just the essentials. However, Rook briefly downshifts to the patient, lilting folk of "Home Life" and "Lost Boys". Initially, I regarded this development as a disappointment, as I thought that the album had lost considerable momentum. Over time, with the help of Stones-esque rocker "Century Eyes" and claustrophobic, atmospheric ballad "The Snow Leopard" (which should remind music fans of Radiohead tracks like "Pyramid Song" and "Sail To The Moon), Rook's modus operandi gradually reveals itself, and the slower, more subdued songs become like transitional chapters in a novel: they may seem inessential at the time, but once you've gone back and re-read the passages, the significance becomes achingly clear.

In sum, Rook is an album of incredible patience, craftsmanship, and discipline. There are enough musical ideas for a double-album worth of material--including the lyrics, which frequently reference birds, and how they, and we, are capable of flights of transcendence--but the ten tracks barely reach the 40-minute mark. Though it may take some time to delve into properly, Rook ultimately rewards the patience of those who put the time and effort into unraveling its delicate, supremely crafted sonic subtleties and lyrical mysteries.

Shearwater MySpace Page

(Jonathan Graef)

High School Cheerleading Squad Does Dance Routine To Shearwater

Download: Shearwater - "Red Sea, Black Sea"


Not even joking. Matablog posted this two days ago, and it's definitely worth watching, as the choreography is as impressive as the song choice is surreal. Which is to say, very. I'm not sure what high school this is--the warrior logo is more than a little generic--but I will say that I've been colored impressed. The song the routine is choreographed to is from Shearwater's last album, Palo Santo, and it's called "Red Sea, Black Sea."

Rook, Shearwater's upcoming album, is available on June 3rd.

(Jonathan Graef)

Shearwater Announce Minneapolis Date

Download: Shearwater - "Rooks"

Those fans of grandiose, melodramatic art-rock with folk touches are in luck. After opening several dates on British rock eccentrics Clinic's tour (including a date at the 7th Street Entry), the band, led by now-former Okkervil River member Jonathan Meiburg, will return to the Entry on June 25th, one day after their Chicago date. This is the second time that Shearwater have played at the entry in as many months. Perhaps Meiburg found a species of bird indigenous to the Entry that considers serious study? I, for one, would be highly amused by the discovery of a black-bellied whistling duck inside the friendly confines of First Ave. They'd have to name it after either Prince or Grant Hart.

Tickets for the 21+ show are $8 and can be bought here. Below you'll find a list of previously announced dates, as well as the new date for Minneapolis on the 25th of June.

May 20 West Hollywood, CA Troubadour *
May 22 Tucson, AZ Solar Culture
May 29 Austin TX The Parish with 8-piece orchestra
June 13-Atlanta Earl
June 14-Chapel Hill Local 506
June 15-Washington DC Black Cat
June 17-Philadelphia Johnny Brenda's
June 19-Brooklyn, NY Music Hall of Williamsburg
June 20-Cambridge, MA T.T. The Bear's Place
June 21-Danbury, CT Heirloom Arts Theatre
June 24-Chicago, IL Mansion
June 25-Minneapolis, MN 7th Street Entry
June 27-Fort Worth, TX Lola's
June 28-Austin, TX Mohawk

The show page at First Ave lists the openers as "Special Guests", but one can perhaps safely assume that the opener will be either Frog Eyes or Evangelicals, both of whom had been previously revealed as tour openers.

As far as Shearwater's more immediate future is concerned, the band will play another one of their Rook shows in their hometown of Austin. On May 29th, the trio will play through Rook in its entirety, and backed by a string quartet, woodwinds, a harpist. Visual projections will also be provided by the team behind Rook's cover art, which so happens to be the image at the top of this post.

Rook is out on June 3rd.

Shearwater MySpace Page

(Jonathan Graef)

Tonight in Minneapolis: Clinic and Shearwater at 7th Street Entry

Clinic
Shearwater
The Entry
8 P.M. Doors
$15

(Jonathan Graef)

Live Review: Shearwater, 6/17/07

Download: Shearwater - "Ella Is The First Rider"
Download: Shearwater - "Red Sea Black Sea"
Download: Shearwater - "Room For Mistakes"
Download: Shearwater - "An Accident"

I first fell in love with Okkervil River when I saw them opening for the Decemberists a couple years back. And, as the river to the ocean goes, Okkervil led me to Will Sheff and Jonathon Meiburg's other band, Shearwater.

Where Okkervil had previously been the more popular Sheff/Meiburg band, this year belongs to Shearwater. They signed to Matador in February, and last year's much-lauded Palo Santo hit shelves in a re-recorded, repackaged, remastered, expanded version in May (For new fans, the extended edition is a good buy because it has bonus material. For those of you who have the album, maybe not so much, though the extended edition on vinyl is pretty sweet).

It's an awesome record, which afforded me an equally awesome chance to check them out on Wednesday night. The show opened up with Minus Story opened up the show. I hadn't heard of them before, but they reminded me a whole lot of Minneapolis' own Aneuretical. It might be the homesickness talking, as I've never been a big Aneuretical fan, but they sounded fantastic. At least until about halfway through the set when they went all soft-rock on me, which totally killed their momentum (Incidentally, the only songs they have up on their myspace are the aforementioned momentum-killers. The Minus Story was in Minneapolis last night (Monday the 25th), but they're well-worth checking out the next time they swing by.

Jamie Stewart of Xiu Xiu fame followed up the set with some of the most confusingly awesome folk music I've heard in a while. I was kind of worried about his set, because I either love Xiu Xiu or hate them, depending on my mood. I'm pleased to report that Stewart's solo set was a head and shoulders above anything he's done with Xiu Xiu. He blended the earnest strummings and lyrical simplicity of Woody Guthrie with intensity not normally heard in folk music. Stewart's brand of folk was vulnerable, quivering and beautiful.

And Shearwater. I just don't know what to say. They were perfect. Honestly, every note was right on time, every instrumental flourish was placed in exactly the right place and Meiberg's operatic, Bauhaus-esque voice reverberated powerfully at exactly the right moments. I had never seen a band that performed so perfectly and put forth such a powerful front before I saw Shearwater. And the best thing about them was that they didn't seem pompous as really artsy, dramatic bands can. Quite the contrary, they were all very animated and clearly having a great time. They're winding down their tour now, but definitely put Shearwater on your list of bands to see.

(April Wright)