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Shearwater

New Mix: Shearwater, Lily & Madeleine, Eskimeaux, More

Clockwise from top: Eskimeaux, Kevin Morby, Lily & Madeleine, Jonathan Meiburg of Shearwater Courtesy of the artists hide caption

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All Songs Considered

New Mix: Shearwater, Lily & Madeleine, Eskimeaux, More

On this week's show: songs of power, protest and passion, including a cut from Shearwater's "angriest" record, and singer Kevin Morby's fervent if exasperated attempt to make sense of police violence.

New Mix: Shearwater, Lily & Madeleine, Eskimeaux, More

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First Listen: Shearwater, 'Fellow Travelers'

Shearwater's new album, Fellow Travelers, comes out Nov. 26. James Hamilton/Courtesy of the artist hide caption

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First Listen

First Listen: Shearwater, 'Fellow Travelers'

Each of the 10 songs on Fellow Travelers pays tribute to an artist with whom Shearwater has toured. It's fascinating to hear the band function as a skeleton key that opens up the works of Xiu Xiu and Coldplay and St. Vincent alike.

Fellow Travelers

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New Mix: The Beatles, James Blake, Colin Meloy, More

Clockwise from top: The Beatles, James Blake, Colin Meloy, Marisa Anderson Courtesy of the artists hide caption

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All Songs Considered

New Mix: The Beatles, James Blake, Colin Meloy, More

On this week's essential mix we share a rare, previously unreleased cut from The Beatles. We also hear how James Blake was inspired to write this year's amazing "Retrograde," cover tunes from Colin Meloy and Shearwater, a new Bee-Gees styled cut from Broken Bells and more.

New Mix: The Beatles, James Blake, Colin Meloy, More

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New Music: Boards Of Canada, Thundercat, More

Clockwise from upper left: Sharon Van Etten, Boards Of Canada, Thundercat, Natasha Kmeto Courtesy of the artists hide caption

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All Songs Considered

New Music: Boards Of Canada, Thundercat, More

Hear a new song by Boards of Canada on this week's All Songs Considered, along with a Sharon Van Etten-Shearwater duet, the funktacular Thundercat, folk singer Laura Veirs and more.

New Music: Boards Of Canada, A Sharon Van Etten-Shearwater Duet, Thundercat, More

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Studio Sessions

Shearwater: Gone to the Birds, Happily

WNYC Radio

The Austin-based band, led by a part-time ornithologist, gave its new album a surprisingly appropriate title: Rook. Frontman Jonathan Meiburg and company bring their painstaking, beautiful songcraft (and birding obsessions) to WNYC's studios.

Listen Now: Shearwater at WNYC

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Review

Song Of The Day

Shearwater's 'Rooks' a Chiming Pop Charmer

The band's new album is dark and graceful, intermittently rocking, and uniformly excellent, making it an ideal showpiece for a band five albums into its career, yet still largely unknown on a grand scale. Best of all is the sort-of title track "Rooks."

Century Eyes

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SXSW Music Festival

South by Southwest: Best Bets and Big Stories

Part industry trade show, part fan feast, Austin's South by Southwest provides one-stop shopping for those looking for music discovery. Preview the four-day music marathon.

South by Southwest: Best Bets and Big Stories

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Live in Concert

Shearwater In Concert

Led by the breathtaking falsetto of singer Jonathan Meiburg, Shearwater plays dramatic songs that are at once majestic and intimate. The Austin band brings this sonic thrill ride to Washington, D.C., for a full concert, webcast live on NPR.org.

Hear Shearwater in Concert

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2012 Winter Music Preview

Clockwise from top left: Sleigh Bells, Stew, Sharon Van Etten, Jonathan Meiburg of Shearwater. Courtesy of the artists hide caption

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All Songs Considered

2012 Winter Music Preview

We look at some of the music coming out in the first few months of 2012 and play a dozen new songs from musicians including Sleigh Bells, Craig Finn, Shearwater and Sharon Van Etten.

2012 Winter Music Preview

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Shearwater: Grandiose And Delicate

A lovely nature song, Shearwater's "Hidden Lakes" is as graceful and vulnerable as the world it describes. courtesy of the artist hide caption

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Review

Song Of The Day

Shearwater: Grandiose And Delicate

Shearwater makes epic, artful, bracing rock out of unlikely ingredients. The resulting concoctions are known to explode into bellowing catharsis, courtesy of singer Jonathan Meiburg and his crack band. But Shearwater's most blistering moments coexist nicely with the portentously brooding, fearlessly serious likes of "Hidden Lakes," from The Golden Archipelago.

Hidden Lakes

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African Legends, New Music From Shearwater And More

All Songs Considered

African Legends, New Music From Shearwater And More

On this edition of All Songs Considered, we hear Fela Kuti's, Ali Farka Toure and Toumani Diabate, Shearwater, Eluvium, Laura Gibson and Ethan Rose, Richard Skelton, and more.

African Legends, New Music From Shearwater And More

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All Songs Considered

Live Music From Bob Boilen's Desk

If you love seeing live concerts, chances are you've gone to shows where the clinking beer bottles and incessant crowd chatter were louder than the music. After seeing the soft spoken Laura Gibson lose out to a noisy audience during a show in Austin, TX, All Songs Considered host Bob Boilen and Song of the Day editor Stephen Thompson came up with a novel solution: They invited Gibson to play at the NPR Music offices, specifically Bob Boilen's desk, launching what's now called the Tiny Desk Concert series.

Live Music From Bob Boilen's Desk

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World Cafe

Shearwater: Soothing And Dreamlike

XPN

Led by former Okkervil River member Jonathan Meiburg, Shearwater possesses a rich, haunting and musically diverse sound. Last year's Rook is packed with careful, atmospheric arrangements and soothing, dreamlike vocals.

Shearwater in Studio on World Cafe 2/12/09

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