We’ve mentioned it before, but it’s really worth mentioning again: Shearwater is playing at the Bell Tower in Pullman on Friday, April 30th. Check David Dalbey’s poster for the details, or keep on reading.

The show starts at 8 PM and kicks off with Lawrence, Kansas’ Hospital Ships. The band is fronted by one Jordan Geiger, who occasionally plays the trumpet for Shearwater. NPR liked his 2009 LP, Oh, Ramona quite a bit.

Next on the bill: Baltimore, Maryland duo Wye Oak. The band, a pair of multi-instrumentalists named Jenn Wasner and Andy Stack, have two LPs (including 2009′s well-received The Knot) as well as a brand-new EP, My Neighbor, My Creator. Their Americana takes frequent and surprising left turns, and The Knot really is worth your time.

Finally, of course, Shearwater’s thrilling and epic live show. They’re touring in support of their menacing, beautiful new Matador LP, The Golden Archipelago. Few bands care about the album as an art form quite like Jonathan Meiburg and company, and the record’s thoughtful and compelling songs reward digging into the work as a whole. Doubtless you’ve bumped into lead single “Castaways“, a fine song that only improves in its natural surroundings on the LP. The record completes a trilogy of sorts initiated by 2007′s Palo Santo and continued in 2008′s killer Rook. Meiburg tells our friends at the Inlander that the three aren’t linked so much by a shared concept, but more by “an emotional wholeness to the record, to the entire journey.” The detail and care Shearwater put into their records—how the songs relate and flow, how each work relates and flows with other albums—carries over to their grand and eloquent live performances. We are really looking forward to this one.

What’ll the show set you back? $12 if you pay ahead, $15 if you wait till you’re at the Bell Tower door on the night of the show.  Shearwater’s last big tour had them opening ticketmastered arenas for Coldplay, but this go-round, they’re playing smaller venues like Pullman’s Bell Tower (complete with a Beer Garden!) for less than the price of one “convenience” fee.

So’s you know, this’ll be Stereopathic’s last show of the school year (next up, Roadside Graves on Friday, August 6th!) So spread the word! Tweet it and retweet it, and see you there.

Shearwater:

Corridors from 2010′s The Golden Archipelago

The band’s 2006 Daytrotter Session

Wye Oak:

Talking About Money from 2009′s The Knot

The band’s 2009 Daytrotter Session

Then he came to himself, and remembered his father’s generosity to his servants, saying, How many of my father’s servants have enough to eat, and me, I’m here, begging from pigs! And so he returned to his father’s country, determined to repent and beg a place from his father at the servants’ table. And while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and ran to him, his compassion overwhelming him, and he fell on his son’s neck, who was saying, My father, I have sinned against heaven and against you, and I am not worthy to be called your son. But his father brushed off these words, and sent for the servants to fetch the finest clothes in which to drape his son, and called for the calf to be killed and roasted, for, he said, this son of mine was dead, but I have received him again to life! And they began celebrating the wayward’s return.

The older son was in the house and heard the celebration, and went out to see about it. What’s happening here? he asked a servant. The servant told him, Your brother has returned, and your father is overjoyed to see him alive, and he has thrown this party to celebrate your brother’s return. But the older son was angry, and he would not join the celebration, even as his father came in and entreated him. How long have I remained with you, dad, and you never did anything like this for me? I’ve never disobeyed, never run off, always done the right thing, but then this son of yours, who blew half your estate on whores and coke, he comes back from that and you throw him a party! His father looked at him and said, my son, all I had was always yours. But we had to rejoice, for this brother of yours . . . he was dead, and  now he’s alive!

The Deep Dark Woods: All The Money I Had Is Gone (from Winter Hours)

See also, Ron Hansen’s Atticus.

Wikipedia says that he went to Eton College on a scholarship for music, so this doesn’t come entirely out of the blue. Enjoy James Wood finger drumming and then check out his talk at the Harvard bookstore about character in fiction. He’s better at the latter, but charming at both. Video after the jump.

Some free stuff is a minefield with the occasional ripe, delicious strawberry. Behold, one such a thing.

Some free stuff is worth paying money for. This one is high-quality from top to bottom, from the concept to the music to the spectacle of Sufjan singing the hook for Aesop Rock to the dope putdowns at “Night Zombies’” 2-minute mark to the 320 kbps sound quality.

And some free stuff is just a shameless plug for the band that shall be gracing the Nuart tonight. Here’s Horse Feathers, with their fine, fine song, Heathen’s Kiss, from 2008′s fine, fine record, House With No Home.

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Stereopathic: Where does the name Low Red Land come from?

Low Red Land: It comes from a documentary about outlaw country music from the 1970’s, it’s called “Heartworn Highways” and there’s an obscure country artist, called Larry Jon Wilson and he has a song called Ohoopee River Bottomland and the first line of the song is “this low red land has turned to sand”.

*  *  *

They all met at a small liberal arts college in upstate New York. Mark and Ben accompanied poetry readings playing percussion and bass. They met Neil when he began hanging out in Mark’s dorm room and they started playing in bands together. After school, they moved to Boston. When their band, Great American, broke up they moved to San Francisco to start something new and honest.

*  *  *

Stereopathic: What kind of music do you listen to now?

Low Red Land: I think one of the important things is we’re all open to different kinds of music, and there’s something to be said for every kind of music. If people are doing it honestly, there’s good music in every scene.

Stereopathic: What’s it like touring behind Dog’s Hymns?

Low Red Land: We toured so much after putting out our first record, that record was great but it was an artifact from a very specific time period. And I think we were still finding ourselves as a band, learning what we sounded like, all these different things. On Dog’s Hymns we had time to sort of conceptualize it and we recorded it once, the recording didn’t work well, then we toured. Then after that tour we played the songs so much better than we had and we were finally able to have something very specific to that time and us as a band.

*  *  *

The day before they started their tour, they discovered that the gas tank and some other essentials had been stolen out from under their van. Despite that initial setback, the tour of the Inland Northwest is well underway and they will be playing in Moscow on Wednesday, April 1st. They will be playing an acoustic show at 5:00pm at One World Café. At 8:00pm, they’ll cross the street to plug it in at the Nuart and get ready to melt faces with their full-on electric set. Be there.

Nate is a land and music surveyor. He lives in Moscow with his wife and two children. He is not from Moscow, but he likes it here and wants there to be more music of the live variety.