Pitchfork

With more raucous rawkers like the Ponys, Times New Viking, and Love of Diagrams now under their wing, seems the good eggs at Matador Records needed something to appeal to label fans' sensitive sides. Alight Shearwater, songwriting vessel for Okkervil River's Jonathan Meiburg and pals, who've signed to the near-impeccable Olé imprint.

While the avian quartet have a new LP tentatively slated for early 2008 release, Matador will reissue last year's excellent Palo Santo in a deluxe, two-disc/double-LP edition, on April 10. The first disc boasts completely re-recorded versions of "La Dame et la Licorne", "Red Sea, Black Sea", "Seventy-Four, Seventy-Five", "Johnny Viola", and "Hail, Mary"-- all apparently more in line with the band's vision than the original recordings.

Disc two, meanwhile, collects a handful of Shearwater's Palo demos, along with several unreleased jams and covers of Skip James' "Special Rider Blues" and Baby Dee's "Lilacs". The latter cover is exclusive to the vinyl version of this release.

Check out the clearer, richer new version of "Red Sea, Black Sea"-- with sparkling chimes, upright bass thick as sap, Jonathan's "fucking disaster!" lash-out quite intact, and a riotous finale-- in mp3 format below.

In directly related news, Austin's Misra Records-- who released the original Palo Santo last May-- have drastically reduced webshop prices on the album for a limited time. This potential future eBay scorcher-- which, as mentioned, features different recordings of almost half the songs on the forthcoming Matador release-- can be yours for a mere four dollars! A fine album in its own right, score a copy here while supplies last.

As previously reported, Shearwater hit the road with Xiu Xiu in late March, with a few SXSW engagements to warm them up.

Palo Santo (Expanded Version):

Disc One:

01 La Dame et la Licorne
02 Red Sea, Black Sea
03 White Waves
04 Palo Santo
05 Seventy-Four, Seventy-Five
06 Nobody
07 Sing, Little Birdie
08 Johnny Viola
09 Failed Queen
10 Hail, Mary
11 Going Is Song

Disc Two:

01 My Only Boy
02 Every Hook, Every Eye
03 Special Rider Blues
04 Sing, Little Birdie (Demo)
05 Palo Santo (Demo)
06 Discontinuities
07 Red Sea, Black Sea (Demo)
08 Failed Queen (Demo)
09 Lilacs *

* vinyl only

Flightplan:

03-15 Austin, TX - Central Presbyterian Church (SXSW)
03-29 Austin, TX - Emo's *#
03-30 Baton Rouge, LA - Red Star Bar *#
03-31 Birmingham, AL - BottleTree Cafe *#
04-01 Murfreesboro, TN - Casa Burrito *#
04-02 Durham, NC - Duke Coffee House *#
04-03 Wilmington, NC - Bella Festa *#
04-04 Washington, DC - Rock & Roll Hotel *#
04-05 Baltimore, MD - Ottobar *#
04-06 Philadelphia, PA - First Unitarian Church *#
04-07 Cambridge, MA - T.T. the Bear's Place *#
04-08 New York, NY - Bowery Ballroom *#

* with Xiu Xiu
# with Casiotone for the Painfully Alone