East for the Winter, New Sounds in Tow

We’re prepping now for our upcoming East Coast tour with Damien Jurado. It’s taking us to some places we haven’t been in years, some that are entirely new (and long overdue).

It’s also been long enough since the release of The Golden Archipelago that we’re taking first steps toward new recordings. I cranked up my amp and spent a few hours making a big racket with Thor a few days ago. Felt great. Thor appeared just the other day in the New York Times for his recent tour with Michael Gira’s reactivated SWANS – a tour he left for one day to do our Matador @ 21 fest performance, volleying from Toronto to Las Vegas to Detroit in under 24 hours.

On the tour, we’ll have copies of our wild instrumental record, Shearwater Is Enron, for sale – it’s also available on this site in the store. SIE was a great way to blow off some steam after the more buttoned-down TGA sessions. It’s weird, playful, and beautiful, and includes fragments of the all-improv “Enron” set we played in Albuquerque back in April. It was recorded by our friend Rob Halverson and lovingly sorted, edited, and mixed by Kevin; Thor did the cover.

We’ll also have the few remaining copies of the Golden Dossier with us; a handful are available through the store while the very limited supply lasts.

Lastly, Blue Water White Death, my blitz-collaboration with Jamie Stewart of Xiu Xiu, was released on October 12th and greeted with bewilderment, dismay, and, occasionally, rapture. There’s a video Jamie made here which features strange landscapes, koans floating in space, and some extreme close-ups which may or may not be safe for work. You can order it online through Graveface Records. (JM).