Here goes:
GOOD SONG: Animal Life by Shearwater, from their upcoming album "Animal Joy" (due out next month).
A little bit about Shearwater first. The band's frontman, Jonathan Meiburg, is obsessed with birds (like my dad!) so they named the band after the bird. A lot of their music has really interesting natural themes, especially bird themes. They focus a lot on the natural world, but not in an annoying, hyper-obsessed enviro-freak kind of way. I respect them for their fascinating and gorgeous and very well-crafted album covers, inserts, and other stuffs that go along with that. There is real craft going on here, folks, on many levels. Meiburg and bandmate Will Sheff were both members of the band Okkervil River, which is also based out of Austin, TX. Their sound is quite different, though, which you might not automatically have expected. Their fourth, fifth, and sixth albums (which were awesome) entitled "Palo Santo," " Rook," and "The Golden Archipelago" respectively, were a sort of trilogy. This new album is a departure from those.
As for the song: I love Meiburg's voice. And the music builds and swells. I think it would be a good song to run to, if I ever did any running.
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| I know. I don't get the tuxedo either. I like the bird, though. |
The National
Wye Oak (Wye Oak opened for Shearwater)
Midlake
Coldplay (and Shearwater opened for Coldplay)
Over and out,
Anna
P.S. I love this little story about Meiburg coming to D.C.'s Smithsonian Museum:
"I had an amazing experience in D.C.," Meiburg says. "I went into the Natural History Museum and called up a scientist who works there who a paper of his I'd read 15 years ago about specimens of a giant, flightless, extinct bird of prey that he had discovered, basically. And sure enough, he was there, and he came down, and I talked to him about it for about 45 minutes. It was fantastic."
And that was an amazing experience?
"Oh, it was magical," Meiburg says. "I got to see the bones." (from npr.com)
