The Warm Up with Shearwater

When we heard our friend Christian Mader from Brass Bed, one of our earliest guests on The Warm Up, had joined up with former Okkervil River alum Jonathan  Meiberg in Shearwater, we knew we had to reach out and ask them to stop by Ardent before their gig with St Vincent at Minglewood Hall tonight.

It turns out most of the band are fans of Big Star and were excited to get to stop in and spend some time chatting with studio manager Jody Stephens. We also were thrilled to get to take the guys to Stax and share a little bit of Memphis’ musical heritage with them.

Shearwater will be on tour with St. Vincent for another week and decided to play their own version of one of her songs while they were here. Check out their rendition of “Cheerleader” along with two other cuts off their new SubPop album, Animal Joy. We also talked about their recording process and what their plans are for the rest of the summer. Catch them on tour in a town near you!

Shearwater is a band from Austin, TX. Their new album, Animal Joy, was released February 14, 2012 in the USA and February 27th in the UK/EU. The band will be touring throughout 2012.