Sub Pop Readies A Few Gems For Black Friday

I'll admit, the complete list of Black Friday finds is not standing out as anything very demanding, but then again-like Richard Gere said in An Officer And A Gentleman: "I've got nowhere else to go!"

For reals, what else am I supposed to do when the world is expected to shop and feed this goddamn economy? Do you really think that Todd Totale (Yes, I refer to myself in the third person) is going to hit the shopping malls?

Hells no.

In fact, I believe that my presence is requested at a family function for my in-laws, which means that I simply need to find a record store on Black Friday, and I will use the entire shopping list for Record Store Day's Black Friday list as a reason to be tardy.

One of the items that has caught my eye is the Low/Shearwater split below, especially because I love both bands and love both of the songs they are covering.

Other than that, there's the usual suspects of a few classic rock bands/artists that I'll consider and the debut from Ghost is getting the vinyl treatment this week, so the majority of any purchases on Friday will be impulse buys after I scour the shelves for those titles.

I spy...Missing Person's rare first e.p. behind that Joni Mitchell album. 

See you at the record store!

Here's Sub Pop's spiel on Record Store Day's Black Friday line up:

Sub Pop is once again participating in the frenzied holiday tradition known as Record Store Day’s Black Friday.

On November 29th, Sub Pop will release two limited-edition Black Friday exclusives: Josh Tillman’s score to the forthcoming short film The History of Caves, and a split 7” featuring Low’s popular rendition of Rihanna’s megahit “Stay” and Shearwater’s take on Frank Ocean’s “Novacane.” Please find track listing details for both releases below.

The History of Caves is the directorial debut of photographer and filmmaker Emma Elizabeth Tillman, and it will premiere later this year on Netflix, Amazon, and iTunes. Josh Tillman’s haunting, spare instrumental score spans 10 tracks, all of which are featured on this limited-edition LP. The album is limited to 2,000 copies.

Labelmates Low and Shearwater each contribute arguably-improbable covers of popular songs for their 7” split single. After performing a crowd-favorite live version of Rihanna’s “Stay” at the Pitchfork Music Festival this past July, Low recorded a studio version at Sacred Heart in Duluth, MN. Shearwater recorded their own gauze-wrapped, undulating version of Frank Ocean’s “Novacane” for this single.

The 7” is limited to 3,500 copies. Low’s proceeds will benefit Rock for Kids, while Shearwater’s will benefit the Southern Poverty Law Center. Both releases will also be available digitally.

Josh Tillman The History of Caves Tracklisting:

1. Finish Those Cigarettes & Go to Bed
2. News of the World
3. Alternate Title Score 777
4. Dial Tone
5. I Call It the Demon Tree
6. Of Course I Live With Them
7. Car Chase Theme
8. Dial Tone 2
9. Tender is the Night in Paperback
10. Titles Theme for Boy Voices

Low / Shearwater “Stay” / “Novacane” Tracklisting:

1. Stay (Rihanna cover)
2. Novacane (Frank Ocean cover)

Shearwater Shares Track From New Album 'Fellow Travelers'

Shearwater is getting ready to release an interesting concept album, details in the press release below.

And here's a sample of the goods:



You can now download “Fucked Up Life,” the second single from Shearwater’s Fellow Travelers, a new collection of reinventions and collaborations with artists they’ve toured with over the years, out November 25th in North America and Europe on Sub Pop. “Fucked Up Life” is Shearwater’s rendering of the song written by beloved Denton, TX band (and labelmates) The Baptist Generals, and features additional instrumentation from UK band Clinic.

Shearwater’s Jonathan Meiburg says of “Fucked Up Life”: “I used to watch the Baptist Generals play this song in Austin back in the early 2000s, and it brought me almost to tears every time – the tenderness and fondness of it, the feeling of watching a friend or lover enter a bad place you’ve already been, and knowing there’s no way out but for them to go all the way through. And the helplessness of knowing that your love for someone else isn’t always enough, laced with the hope that they’ll learn to muddle through on their own. It seemed like the perfect way to end the record—with a parting of ways, a journey’s end.

Clinic’s contribution to this song was the biggest surprise of the album, to me. I sent the acoustic guitar track, a scratch vocal, and basic drums over to them via email, and they returned the song festooned with all the trademark Clinic sounds; the bouncy bass and drum machine, the radio-wave synth effects, the overdriven combo organ.”

Shearwater’s Fellow Travelers is now available for preorder via Sub Pop.com and iTunes.

About Shearwater’s Fellow Travelers:
JM: Fellow Travelers wasn’t supposed to be a full-length record, so I’m a little surprised to admit that it’s my favorite Shearwater album so far. Somehow it slipped under the door. It was meant to be a small thing, maybe a home-recorded EP, to release between Animal Joy and the next full-length (for which we’re in the studio right now). But it took on a life of its own. Re-imagining and renovating songs by the bands we’ve traveled with—with assistance from the bands themselves—was like leafing through a scrapbook, and brought back the highs and lows of a decade of touring, from dives in Oklahoma and squats in Slovenia to the Fillmore West, the Bataclán, and the MGM Grand.

 Fellow Travelers Track Listing:
1) “Our Only Sun” – a fragment of the song “Deeper Devastation,” by Jesca Hoop
2) “I Luv the Valley OH!!” – Xiu Xiu
3) “Hurts Like Heaven” – Coldplay
4) “Natural One” – Folk Implosion
5) “Ambiguity” – David Thomas Broughton
6) “Cheerleader” – St. Vincent
7) “Tomorrow” – Clinic
8) “A Wake for the Minotaur” – Shearwater & Sharon Van Etten
9) “Mary is Mary” – Wye Oak
10) “Fucked Up Life” - The Baptist Generals

Shearwater Parts The Waters For Upcoming Covers Album

Here's some late-but-not-breaking news from the Shearwater camp.

Evidently, it's an album of covers and I questioned the need to cover a Coldplay song (who wouldn't?) but then I read the press release again and noted that the cover choices were based on the band's that Shearwater have traveled with or slept with throughout their career.

Actually, I'm not sure about the "slept with" part, but it certainly sounded more juicy than just another collection of cover songs.

I like the Swans reference too, as the drummer who played with Shearwater when I saw them, now pounds the shit out of his drums for the Swans currently so, you know, six degrees of Michael Gira.

Press:

We are pleased to offer details on behalf of Shearwater’s Fellow Travelers, a new collection of reinventions and collaborations, available on CD, LP and digital on November 26th via Sub Pop. The album was produced, mixed, and engineered by Danny Reisch at Good Danny’s and Public Hi-Fi studios in Austin, Texas. You can now listen to the lead-off track, a cover of Xiu Xiu’s “I Luv The Valley OH!!”. Please find a tracklisting below.

Shearwater bandleader Jonathan Meiburg says of “I Luv The Valley OH!!”:

“Xiu Xiu’s deeply anxious song always seemed like it wanted to be a big rock anthem to me, so we decided to go for it and and blow it out. I played a white 3-pickup SG (like Sister Rosetta Tharpe!) through a Marshall stack (like AC/DC!) for the opening guitar riff – not a sound that’s ever appeared on a SW rec before – and Cully Symington whacked the drums with mallets as hard as he could, sounding more like the Swans’ orchestral-percussion approach than a regular drum set. I love how this song – about imploring a partner to take Mifeprex, I’m pretty sure - seems to explode and implode at the same time, a state of ecstatic terror that Jamie’s music often inhabits and that lurks in a lot of my songs, too. (For more info, including a Fellow Travelers track by track breakdown by JM, click here).

About Shearwater’s Fellow Travelers:

JM: Fellow Travelers wasn’t supposed to be a full-length record, so I’m a little surprised to admit that it’s my favorite Shearwater album so far. Somehow it slipped under the door. It was meant to be a small thing, maybe a home-recorded EP, to release between Animal Joy and the next full-length (for which we’re in the studio right now). But it took on a life of its own. Re-imagining and renovating songs by the bands we’ve traveled with—with assistance from the bands themselves—was like leafing through a scrapbook, and brought back the highs and lows of a decade of touring, from dives in Oklahoma and squats in Slovenia to the Fillmore West, the Bataclán, and the MGM Grand...(read more at Sub Pop).

Fellow Travelers Track Listing:

1) “Our Only Sun” – a fragment of the song “Deeper Devastation,” by Jesca Hoop
2) “I Luv the Valley OH!!” – Xiu Xiu
3) “Hurts Like Heaven” – Coldplay
4) “To Be of Use” – Smog
5) “Natural One” – Folk Implosion
6) “Ambiguity” – David Thomas Broughton
7) “Cheerleader” – St. Vincent
8) “Tomorrow” – Clinic
9) “A Wake for the Minotaur” – Shearwater & Sharon Van Etten
10) “Mary is Mary” – Wye Oak
11) “Fucked Up Life” - The Baptist Generals

New Shearwater Album and Tour Dates

I just peed my pants.

There's a new Shearwater album coming out in February of next year.

The press release is below and there's a spiel by Gerard Cosloy afterwards.

I talked to him on the phone once when he was at Homestead Records.

He was a real asshole to me and I've held a gruge ever since.

The following was written by Sub Pop:

Shearwater Announces New Record Animal Joy
Out February 14, 2012 On Sub Pop Records


On February 14, 2012 Shearwater will release their Sub Pop debut Animal Joy. The band will embark on a 13 date North American tour opening for Sharon Van Etten beginning on February 2nd.

See below for a full list of dates and more information on the bands upcoming release.

Shearwater Tour Dates with Sharon Van Etten:

2/10/2012 Philadelphia PA Johnny Brenda's
2/11/2012 Washington DC Black Cat
2/12/2012 Carrboro NC Cat's Cradle
2/14/2012 Columbus OH Wexner Center
2/15/2012 Newport KY The Southgate House
2/16/2012 Chicago IL Lincoln Hall
2/17/2012 Chicago IL Lincoln Hall
2/18/2012 Minneapolis MN Cedar Cultural Centre
2/21/2012 Toronto ON Lee's Palace
2/22/2012 Montreal QC Il Motore
2/23/2012 Boston MA Paradise
2/24/2012 Brooklyn NY Music Hall of Williamsburg
2/25/2012 New York NY Bowery Ballroom


About Shearwater:

It's been suggested—by fans, detractors, even by the band's founder—that Shearwater and whatever we call underground/indie/whatever-rock in this part of the century are not an obvious fit. And that's true. So much of what we hear these days (the lousy stuff, anyway) is willfully insular; Jonathan Meiburg's songs, by contrast, have constantly tackled bigger questions and been propelled by massive musical ambitions.

We're in an era in which minimalism and lower-than-low-tech have come in vogue. By contrast, Shearwater's recordings—the epic “Island Arc” trilogy of Palo Santo, Rook and The Golden Archipelago in particular—have been expansive (some might say bombastic) in a fashion like none of their contemporaries. Meiburg—presumably unfamiliar with the adage, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it"—has opted to ditch an approach that paid huge artistic dividends over his last three Matador albums for a record that seems shockingly direct, immediate and intensely personal. He's no stranger to lush, crafted recordings, but this one sounds like no prior Shearwater incarnation. And please, don't mistake that for a suggestion this is anyone's notion of a traditional, singer-songwriter album. "Immaculate" and "Breaking the Yearlings" are inventive and confident in a manner that would humble most new artists, let alone Shearwater's few veteran peers. "Insolence" is (take your pick) an unsparing bit of self-reflection or an evisceration of someone else; either way, the song covers a staggering amount of sonic territory in the space of six minutes plus. No disrespect whatsoever is intended to Meiburg's sometimes-Austin neighbors Spoon when I call "Believing Makes It Easy" a song that would rank amongst that band's finest had they come up with it instead.

Though it's possibly a wild projection to claim a few years of bouncing through various band lineups, record labels and places of residence have led to a radical reboot, I'm a big believer in citing circumstantial evidence and letting the jury figure it out for themselves. Someone's bound to label this Shearwater's transitional album, but to these ears, it sounds like a thrilling artistic rebirth. Just give 'em the fucking Grammy already!

—Gerard Cosloy, Austin, TX (November 2011)

More about Animal Joy:

Animal Joy was produced and recorded by Danny Reisch in Austin, Texas, and mixed by Peter Katis (The National, Interpol, Jonsi, Frightened Rabbit) in Bridgeport, Connecticut; sessions took place through most of 2011. The album was mastered by Greg Calbi in NYC.

Principal players were Jonathan Meiburg (vocals, guitar, and piano), Kimberly Burke (upright and electric bass) and Thor Harris (drums)—all members of Shearwater since 1999—along with guest performers Andy Stack (of Wye Oak) on guitar, keyboard, and saxophone, Scott Brackett on keyboards, Cully Symington on additional drums, Sam Lipman on clarinet, and Elaine Barber on harp. No strings or glockenspiels were touched during the making of this album.

Shearwater Signs To Sub Pop

This just came in my inbox a few days ago: Shearwater have moved from Matador to Sub Pop. The good news is that their future material will get the benefit of the decent distribution-as they did when they jumped from Misra to Matador-which is awesome because Shearwater are definately a band worth seeking out.

From the press release:

"One of the most original and acclaimed bands of recent years, Shearwater, have recently entered into a recording agreement with Sub Pop Records of Seattle, WA.

This is news worth sharing.

While they're not saying much about the record yet, singer Jonathan Meiburg suggests that it's going to be quite different from the band's past releases. "We're having trouble taming this one," he says, “but luckily, we don't really want to." Expect a new album from the band in early 2012.

The band signaled a change in direction from their most recent releases, the trilogy of mysterious, thematically-linked albums they're now calling The Island Arc (The Golden Archipelago from 2010, the 2008 release Rook, and 2006's Palo Santo) with a final, sold-out, three-hour epic performance in their hometown of Austin earlier this year. A set of recordings from that show are now available on the Shearwater bandcamp page.

Drummer Thor Harris, in the meantime, has been busy smashing tubular bells with hammers in Michael Gira's reformed Swans, and is set to release a new instrumental album and book of drawings, A Post-Apocalyptic Tale of Friendship, through Austin's Monofonus Press. And bassist Kimberly Burke's new play, "Miss Tibet," will have a reading at Playwrights Foundation in San Francisco on May 16 & 17.

Meiburg's been active, too--besides the loved/loathed Blue Water White Death collaboration with Xiu Xiu's Jamie Stewart late last year, he played keyboards on Bill Callahan's new Apocalypse, added guest vocals to Okkervil River's upcoming I Am Very Far, and performed two new, long, iridescent songs, "Hymn to the Valences" and "The Moth and the Milky Way" at the Whitney Museum of American Art with Andy Stack of Wye Oak. Studio recordings of these songs, inspired by the psychedelic natural scenes of painter Charles Burchfield, are available on Shearwater's bandcamp this week (and, next year, on vinyl as part of Graveface Records' subscription-only singles collection)."

Shearwater and Wye Oak at Gardner Lounge

I don’t know if I’m sensing the pretention of Grinnell University before I even get there or if it’s just something that actually happens, but the feeling overtakes me and I automatically get me guard up every time I’ve been there.
It’s the entire “You spoiled little rich kids” feeling and yes, I’ve used the quote from Eddie & the Cruisers quote before, but that’s what I feel like saying each and every time I make my way on to their campus.
It’s their college-no question about it-and it’s a fine institution. I’d just like an acknowledgement of our state in some fashion-not just the clear-cutting that takes place when bright minds from around the world stop over to take advantage of the higher learning and then leave our fare state as soon as the diploma is in hand. I’m not suggesting that they stay here. I’m only wishing that they’d take a little bit of our state with them after they leave.
Shouldn’t that be part of the learning process too?
In the short amount of time that Wye Oak was here, I was flattered by lead vocalist Jenn Gardner’s words about Iowa. She’s from Baltimore, Maryland-a city that I actually want to visit some day-and I know so very little about that community. Here’s what I know: I know that the Baltimore Ravens are merely my Cleveland Browns in some hideous relocation that was an embarrassment to the NFL; I don’t recognize the current incarnation of the Cleveland Browns as they too are an embarrassment to the NFL. I also love the show The Wire which was based in Baltimore and it depicts the city into two very different areas: the refurbished East side and the volatile West side in which murder victims are placed in abandoned buildings, covered in lye, and left to decompose.
I’m sure that there’s more to Baltimore and I’m leaving out a huge part of the city, but until I get there, that’s as much as I can tell you.
Oh, and they have cheese steaks or crab cakes, I can’t remember which ones.
Wye Oak doesn’t sound like a Baltimore band, given those totally inaccurate perceptions, but I’m sure living there is a lot more challenging than it is here in Iowa-which is why I’m very prideful and appreciative of my state.
“I think if I lived here, I could become a better person.” Gardner said, in her heartfelt words about Iowa.
It’s true, the lack of everyday craziness can make you a better person. The less time you spend commuting does give you more time to spend with the kids, reading, listening to music, whatever. The dim and unimaginative call the state “boring,” and for a time growing up-in high school at least-it can come across that way. But as you get older, you realize it really isn’t. And you appreciate things more like a Shearwater/Wye Oak concert.
Which is why I was startled that so few attended the show. I didn’t expect a huge gathering, but I at least expected more than the three dozen that showed up last Wednesday. The last show at Grinnell that I saw was Spoon, and even that was nowhere near being sold out-but at least a couple hundred people showed up.
Even then, however, I felt that the cold ambivalence of snobbery was afoot in the crowd. Groups of people ignoring the music and gathering in a circle to talk and share wine. I mean, isn’t that something you could do in your dorm room? If this music is only a cursory part of your life, why not do others who regard it as important with the service of staying home?
They were there at the Shearwater/Wye Oak show-less so, but still there-dressing up as women to draw attention to themselves when the stage was full of way talented musicians that deserved better.
I’m exaggerating somewhat as the show was as intimate as you could imagine, but the point is that it fed into my perception of Grinnell and the students who attend there. These are the future? Our brightest? Our blue-blooded sons and daughters who will take their established names into another cycle of privileged? Weren’t they afforded the manners that is supposedly an intricate part of such wealthy upbringing?
And if not, couldn’t they use their time in our state to learn some of it? From, yes, those simpleton farmers and small-town folk who take their sweet time driving, eating, and getting to the point?
Maybe that’s the reason the show was so sparsely attended: both bands are notoriously meticulous in their execution that to witness it would be like playing a game of Risk with some farmer who thinks small talk is a discussion on future grain markets.
Whatever the case, all I can tell you was that my perception of Shearwater and Wye Oak was completely spot-on from what I’ve read and hear of each band.
And my perception of Grinnell College has not changed after the show either, and until I see otherwise, I don’t hold the students there in the high regard that they obviously hold themselves.

A full review of the show without the commentary of the university can be found at Glorious Noise. (link will follow when review is posted)

Shearwater - Rook

If I coyly hinted that Shearwater’s last album, the great Palo Santo, sounded an awful lot like a lost Talk Talk album, then let me make it abundantly clear that the new Shearwater album sounds even more like a lost Talk Talk album.
Two points addressing this: Talk Talk’s leader Mark Hollis was an unheralded performer that straddled brilliance on a few occasions. He was also a slow creator, spending as much as three years in between Talk Talk albums and a full seven years before releasing his own solo album. The point here is that Shearwater Jonathan Meiburg should not be chastised for wanting to pursue Talk Talk’s lead, as that band left only a handful of clues to begin with and the time is ripe for further examination and Shearwater’s precise explorations, particularly considering that Mark Hollis is all but retired from music anyway.
The other point is that Talk Talk used similar strategies with their own creative muse, Roxy Music, and you don’t hear anyone bitching about that now. Ironically, at the time you did (Spirit Of Eden received its share of negative reviews initially and then built a more positive reassessment over the passing years) and so it’s extremely shortsighted to dismiss Shearwater based upon their incredible close-to-the-vest recreation of Mr. Hollis’ opus.
This long-winded preface wouldn’t be necessary if Rook, Shearwater’s fifth and most reasoned album to date wasn’t so damn good. The truth is, I probably enjoyed Palo Santo a little bit more for its accidental beauty, but Rook is no slouch. It’s intentionally positioned and it’s very apparent that Meiburg has spent the last two years carefully creating what should go down as his crowning achievement.
His winged themes abound on this appropriately titled album, and part of the success has a lot to do with the removal of the reverb and other treatment that hid Shearwater’s previous outings. Such shenanigans are unnecessary, really, as Rook is permeated with a wide catalog of instruments like harps, glockenspiel, vibraphone, dulcimer, and an occasional brass section.
All of them add to the album’s inherent sense of melodrama, which itself if complimented to Meiburg’s increasing growth as a vocalist. What was once curiously underneath the mix is now center stage, showing how he’s now channeling the aforementioned Mark Hollis with a touch of Jeff Buckley sweetness around the edges.
Ironically, the album’s only suffering point may be another problem that its apparent inspiration had: the lack of a single. Rook is an album that requires a complete listen as just one focal point merely diminishes the album’s strength as a whole. For a mere half-hour, the listener is blessed with a beautiful artistic event and to narrow that down to a simple four minute section would undermine its overall impact.
That’s important to remember when seeking this record out: give it time. Because when you set aside the appropriate amount of attention it deserves, it will lift you like no other record will this year.
Even when Rook is flying right next to its obvious influences.
This review originally appeared in Glorious Noise

Shearwater - Palo Santo

Foreword: The review below is for Shearwater's Palo Santo release on Austin's Misra Records. Since it's wsa originally released last year, Shearwater have signed with Matador Records. For the band's first effort for Matador, they have re-released Palo Santo in an expanded edition that includes newly recorded tracks and some of the existing tracks from the album being re-recorded. The original release of Palo Santo is pretty awesome, so I'm going to assume that the expanded/remixed edition on Matador is equal to or better than the one issued on Misra last year.

In 1988, I was the Program Director for a college radio station at a public university. We received tons of promotional material, cds, vinyl, and nifty little promotional items designed to get you to listen to the releases that record companies sent. This was critical in many occasions as the ratio between “shit” and “shinola” was weighted heavily in the favor of the excrement.
I imagine the same is true today.
The station received an oddly shaped package one day and inside the box, labeled “Spirit Of Eden,” was Talk Talk’s release of the same name, underneath a bright green Granny Smith apple. I only knew Talk Talk from their previous minor hits like “It’s My Life” and “Life’s What You Make It,” so my appreciation of the band wasn’t in full bloom thanks to the image that a notable video music channel created for my behalf. In other words, I wasn’t real excited about a new Talk Talk album, but thanks to that clever promotional material, I took Spirit Of Eden home and witnessed a transformation in my opinion of the band like no other. Ambient, meticulously produced and full of sound structures that would make the most avant-garde band envious, Spirit Of Eden is Talk Talk’s crowing achievement and an experience that is deserving of more praise than it typically receives.
I bring up this album because you may have overlooked it, the same way that I overlooked Shearwater’s Palo Santo when it was released last year. And while 19 years may have passed since Spirit Of Eden’s release, it seems more responsible of me to bring you up to speed on an album that’s been available for less than 12 months. Since it carries a lot of the same expansive arrangements and divine atmospheres, I want to make sure you don’t wait a few decades before discovering it.
When Okkervil River’s Jonathan Meiburg and Will Robinson Sheff started Shearwater, it was a disposable side-project. But thanks to Meiburg asserting control over the name and the songwriting credits, he’s achieved the ambition that was only hinted on in the previous Shearwater releases.
The music ebbs and flows throughout the disc with carefully placed reverb, antiquated string instruments and the occasional bits of shortwave radio noise. It’s all strategically arranged and it brings Shearwater’s most notable instrument, Meiburg’s falsetto, to the forefront. Occasionally drawing from equal parts Jeff Buckley and John Cale, Meiburg’s narcotic wails combine wonderfully with the moody backdrop to create a beautifully captivating album.
On “Hail Mary,” Meiburg ups things a little bit with a cathartic bit of aggressive delivery and atonal feedback. It’s a nice manner in which he keeps things interesting, but truth be told, the most powerful moments throughout the album are the ones barely heard.
Palo Santo is so unlike other releases currently available, there’s a good chance that it’s gone quietly unnoticed. And given the financial limitations of any independent label, there’s an even greater chance that there’s not enough clever promotional efforts to get people’s attention to what Shearwater have done with this stunning achievement.
Consider this review, then, your own Granny Smith apple.

This review originally appeared in Glorious Noise.