Austin based Shearwater is back in the studio recording their follow-up to 2012’s excellent Animal Joy, but along the way they thought they’d have a little fun recording some covers of bands that they have toured with over the past ten years.
What was supposed to be a small project turned into a full-length album called Fellow Travelers, due to be released next week on Sub Pop Records. This seems to be a theme with founding member, Jonathan Meiburg, as Shearwater itself was only supposed to be a one-off collaboration between himself and his former Okkervil River bandmate, Will Sheff, but has turned into a full time band with more than a dozen albums and EPs.
The concept of Fellow Travelers is an interesting one, but Meiburg wasn’t just going to simply do straightforward covers of the songs. He invited the artists whose songs he was covering to play on the album as well. But he had one condition; they couldn’t play on their own song. The result is a unique collaboration of re-imagined songs that works as a whole and fits perfectly in the Shearwater catalog. Check out the video for “I Luv The Valley OH!”, originally by Xiu Xiu, with added sounds by David Thomas Broughton, whose song “Ambiguity” is also covered on the album.
Animal Joy was one of my favorite albums of 2012, and I think Fellow Travelers will be at the top of my list for this year too. It will be released on November 26th, but the entire album is streaming now on NPR and on CBC in Canada. You can pre-order it through Sup Pop or on iTunes, and it should be streaming on Spotify soon. Shearwater will be touring this album in North America and Europe, so follow the band on Facebook and Twitter for tour dates and news about their upcoming album.