October Surprises
In early October we’re going to be playing a pair of festivals – first, Matador’s 21st anniversary bash in Las Vegas, with a few bands you’ve heard of. Vegas seems like an illogical place to do almost anything, but when you figure that flights are relatively cheap from most cities in the US (to [...]
Willie and Waylon and Me
Before we head out to Europe again, we’re going to be playing a special benefit show on July 16th for our beloved Austin NPR station, KUT, in the Austin City Limits studio. Tickets are available here. We’ll be joined by some friends and longtime collaborators for this performance, and we’re going to play [...]
Lhude sing cuccu
We’re easing into the Texas summer after an exhilarating first round of touring in the US and EU. Not that we’re putting ourselves out to pasture – there’s plenty coming up, both Golden Archipelago-related and otherwise.
First off, we’re starting a new European tour in mid-July; we’ll be revisiting some of our favorite [...]
Road Movies
We’re packed and ready to head to the west coast in the morning after a week back home. It’s been good to see friends old and new, and to get a snapshot of northern Europe before the volcano and the eastern US in a gloriously rainy spring. Along the way we’ve done plenty [...]
“Hidden Lakes” Mini-Doc
We released a pair of videos for “Hidden Lakes” yesterday; you can find them here. But we also wanted to post an exclusive version of the video shot at JM’s house, in which he talks about the TGA and some of the travels that inspired it. If you look closely you can catch [...]
Download The Golden Dossier
The physical copies of the Golden Dossier are gone; that’s the bad news. But the good news is that we’re posting an electronic archive of much of it here; you can download a PDF and print a copy for yourself if you like.
“Black Eyes” mp3, Dossier Project, US and EU Tour Dates
We’ve just released a second song from TGA, “Black Eyes.”
TGA pre-order and “Castaways” free mp3
Over at the Matador site, they’ve posted pre-order details for The Golden Archipelago.
The Golden Archipelago
The Golden Archipelago, our third album for Matador, has a release date: February 23rd in the US, and a week earlier (the 15th) in the rest of the world.
Men otemjej rej ilo bein anij
We enjoyed Barcelona and the Primavera festival back in May, along with our dates in the UK and northern Europe, to which we’re returning for a short run in September, including our first show in Leeds with our old friends Clinic.
Redbud Alerts
I just came back from a few days in west Texas to find that the redbud tree in my front yard has decided it’s spring, which means the industry boondoggle known as SXSW is just around the corner. As usual, we’re playing a couple of shows, though keeping it a bit low-key this year as [...]
NPR Tiny Desk Concert (Updated)
We will be playing one of NPR’s Tiny Desk Concerts tomorrow, October 16th, at 4:30PM. This means that we’ll be huddled around Bob Boilen’s desk, playing a few acoustic versions of songs from Rook. It’s good to be on the road in America again, especially since this probably marks the end of this year’s major touring in the USA. The fall colors are beautiful here in the northeast. UPDATED: NPR has this performance archived here.
Robin Woods, MBE
Congratulations go to my dear friend Robin Woods, who is almost single-handedly responsible for my interest in birds (and especially in the odd, charming predator known as the Johnny Rook). On September 10, while SW was playing in Amsterdam, Robin was awarded the honor of an MBE (Member of the British Empire) for his decades of work on behalf of the islands’ wildlife.
KEXP On-air Performance 7/24 1:30PM
Attention nor’westers: If you’re in Seattle (or on the internet anywhere), you can hear us play a scaled-down set live on on KEXP 90.3 at 1:30 PM tomorrow. And then come on down to the show at Nectar Lounge in the evening for the whole shebang.
Update from Johnny Rook
photo by coldengrey
I’m writing from cool, foggy San Francisco, where we’re in the midst of our west coast dates with the lovely and gracious men and women of team Coldplay. In LA at the Forum they housed us in the Lakers’ old locker room – suffice it to say that the natural reverb in [...]
East Coast Tour (June)
We’re packing our last bags tonight for our second round of touring in the USA – this time, headlining on the east coast/midwest (dates on the shows page). We’ll have some more details from the road, but in the meantime we’ve been honored to work with many excellent musicians at the showcases and on the tour with Clinic. A special shout-out is due here to our masked brethren – suffice it so say that you haven’t lived until you’ve crammed a bemused and amiable bunch of Liverpudlians into the back of your pickup truck and driven them to the barbecue joint in Austin.
SW Presents Rook Live May 5th (NYC) & May 29th (Austin)
On Monday, May 5th and Thursday, May 29th, Shearwater will premiere Rook in special concerts at the beautiful Florence Gould Concert Hall at Manhattan’s French Institute and The Parish in Austin, Texas. For both shows, we will be joined by a string quartet, woodwinds, trumpets, and a harpist, and will play our new album in its entirety, along with a set of older songs.
Bill C tour w/ JM and Thor Ends, Sort Of
Bill Callahan’s “Mouth of the South” tour of the southeastern and southwestern US finally came to an end – after a two-week sabbatical – last Saturday with a spur-of-the-moment show at the Mohawk in Austin. As on the rest of the tour, Jonathan opened the evening solo and then, along with Thor, [...]
Rook Recording
It’s all over but the shouting for Shearwater’s new album, Rook. We recorded it in November at the Echo Lab in Argyle, Texas, among barred owls, pet donkeys, coyotes, and the ominous sounds of gas wells being drilled across the railroad tracks; rural north Texas retreats as Dallas approaches.
Kitten Fixes Everything
Improved by a factor of kitten X 5, this is the new Shearwater website. If you find any holes in the boat, or the seats are uncomfortable, please tell us.
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Expect more news, more often, and more coffee to give that half-and-half some flavor.
Kim has a milks in her ear
PURRFECT PITCH?
Hello Matador, hello double album, hello tours
Big news: We are signing to Matador Records.
They’re re-releasing Palo Santo in an expanded, partly re-recorded, fully remastered, breathtakingly repackaged, and just totally superior edition on April 10th. This was our idea, not theirs, and we’re proud to say that this is Palo Santo as we always hoped it would be. It also comes with a bonus disc of outtakes, intakes, demos, and covers. There’s a double-vinyl version,too, which has a special extra track.
sweat with us this summer
The revised and expanded edition of Palo Santo was released last month on CD and what feels like 2 pounds of vinyl. If you’d like to sample some songs from the new version (and compare them to the original demos), go here.
Also, Howard’s flickr page has some lovely / funny photos from the Xiu Xiu / Casiotone tour. Howard wields a mean Holga.
