Pemberton Festival: Shearwater
July 26, 2008
I finally got down to listening to Shearwater for the first time a few weeks ago when I sat down with their new album Rook a few weeks ago, and let me tell you, it was love at first listen. Where have I been all this time!? Rook has a near-flawless rating on Metacritic and all the usual douche reviewer outlets are fawning over it. I had a chance to check out the band's performance on the Lilloet Stage earlier today and it was majestic - dare I say it was my favourite performance of the day?
Things you might not know about Shearwater:
- they're named after a large seabird. Frontman Jonathan Meiburg is a graduate student of ornithology - in other words, he's a hardcore bird enthusiast.
- they're an offshoot of Jonathan's old band Okkervil River. He's now left the band to be with Shearwater full time.
- Jonathan's live vocals are flawless. I mean, FLAWLESS. He has a stunning voice.
- Many people are already hailing Rook one of the best albums they've heard in the last five years. Strong praise...I do encourage you to check it out on the band's MySpace page.
