Музыка и песни Shearwater / Shearwater

Artist: Shearwater Label: Sub Pop (Cargo Records)

"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. It was meant to be a small thing to release between "Animal Joy" and the next full-length. But it took on a life of its own. Re-imagining and renovating songs by the bands we've toured with was like leafing through a scrapbook, and brought back the highs and lows of a decade of touring. Touring is an expression of faith - in yourself, in your friends, in the hope that the world has a place for you. In that spirit, I invited all the bands we covered to play on "Fellow Travelers", with the caveat that you couldn't play on your own song. Almost everyone rose to the bait: Chris from THE BAPTIST GENERALS turned CLINIC's "Tomorrow" into a stomping incantation, while CLINIC infected THE GENERALS' "Fucked Up Life" with drum machines, radio signals, and combo organ. I added recordings I made of birds and waves in the Falklands to DAVID THOMAS BROUGHTON's "Ambiguity," and he sent us a tape he made of sparrows, bulbuls, and the clanking shovels of highway workers in Pyongyang, North Korea, which we spliced into our rock-anthem version of XIU XIU's "I Luv the Valley OH!!" And Jenn from WYE OAK, who, like us, had also toured with LOU B, added vocals to "Natural One." LEON TROTSKY, who gave the words "fellow travelers" their political aura, once wrote that "a protest against reality, either conscious or unconscious, active or passive, optimistic or pessimistic, always forms part of a really creative piece of work." Listening back, I get a feeling of common effort, of common purpose, among all of our different musical paths; we've all tried to defy or transform reality in small ways with our music, and to prove it with our performing lives. - Jonathan Meiburg, NYC, March 201 Style: Independent

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. In an era in which minimalism and lower-than-low-tech have come in vogue. SHEARWATER's recordings-the epic "Island Arc" trilogy of Palo Santo, Rook and The Golden Archipelago in particular-have been in contrast 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. "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. Style: Independent

Shearwater is the band of Jonathan Meiburg, keyboarder of the Indie-Folk-rocker Okkervil River. On their 2nd longplayer Rook they present an intense sound, which meanders between Americana, Folk and Prog-Rock and reminiscents sometimes to John Cale and Ta Style: Indie Rock

"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 st Record Label: Sub Pop Style: Independent

Shearwater is the band of Jonathan Meiburg, keyboarder of the Indie-Folk-rocker Okkervil River. On their 2nd longplayer Rook they present an intense sound, which meanders between Americana, Folk and Prog-Rock and reminiscents sometimes to John Cale and Ta Style: Indie Rock

Style: Indie Pop