For those of you paying attention, Shearwater has been touring with a lot of badass women as of late. After finishing tours with Sharon Van Etten and Julie Doiron, Shearwater is now (and has been) on tour with St. Vincent. Misra had the honor of releasing four Shearwater titles total. The label recently reissued Winged Life LP, which you can purchase here.

Dig some of these dates:

Shearwater

Watch R. Ring Skateboarding Video/Devo Cover

Verbiage pulled from ESPN:

When 1031 Skateboards owner-pro Kristian Svitak began archiving all his video parts on YouTube, one part in particular kept getting flagged and removed.

Svitak’s part in the now-defunct 88 Footwear’s “Destroy Everything Now” video (2004) was removed by Warner Brothers. The song he used was Devo’s “Mr. DNA.”

Dealing with music rights on YouTube is a constant challenge. Videos are taken down and accounts are shut down every day because of copyright infringement. “Destroy Everything Now” was just one of many skate videos created during an era that predated YouTube itself, back before obtaining music rights was common practice in skateboarding.

Svitak, a musician himself, has been drumming in San Diego-based band The Heartaches for more than a decade. He decided to skirt the copyright issue, by recording a cover of “Mr. DNA,” and redubbing the video part. He enlisted the musical talents of Kelley Deal (formerly of The Breeders) and Mike Montgomery (who currently plays in R.Ring, alongside Deal), and together the three recorded the cover.

“I first met Kelley in the mid ’90s,” says Svitak, “She used to have this really great band called The Kelley Deal 6000. I saw they were coming to town, so being a Breeders fan, I went to the show. I ended up lurking around after the show and got to talk to her. Fast forward many years later, we finally starting doing some projects together.” They went into Cincinnati, Ohio’s Candy Land studio as a three piece, and recorded.

Deal admits to some trepidation about the cover song. “Devo are great, but so idiosyncratic! I thought it was going to require some crazy musical gymnastics to make it sound just so,” she explains. “But really, when I think about Devo, the idea of us covering their song with ‘enthusiasm’ and ‘spunk’ versus ‘technical know-how’ makes all sorts of sense.”

It was a happy coincidence that Svitak had moved from California back to his home state of Ohio in 2011. Once there, he reunited with Deal, and the opportunity to record presented itself. “I had been going down to Dayton quite a bit just to play with her and Mike Montgomery — nothing serious, just having fun playing music,” he says.

Technically, Svitak still runs the risk of getting flagged, or even having his YouTube channel shut down. But even though it’s not strictly-speaking “legal,” cover songs on YouTube are generally more tolerated.

The cover song was released by Phratry Records, and is available — legally — through Deal’s web site kelleydeal.net. The 88 part, as well as Svitak’s other video parts, is currently available here on the 1031 Skateboards YouTube channel.

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Heyo, as previously mentioned, R. Ring is on tour right now. Note that the Huntington, WV date with Shovels & Rope on 5/18 was just added and it’s FREE.

R. Ring

R. Ring – a new band featuring The Breeders’ Kelley Deal & Ampline’s Mike Montgomery – performed a secret set at the Texas State Capitol during SXSW. They played alongside Misra acts Water Liars, The Black Swans, and Southeast Engine. It was a wonderful time. Check it out here. The name of this song is “Fall Out & Fire.” Stay tuned for news from R. Ring and Misra.

Water Liars will play Secret Stages Music Festival in Birmingham, AL with Lambchop and more on Saturday, May 12. You can purchase tickets to the event here.

They will also be playing in Jackson, TN at Downtown Tavern with Cheyenne Medders on Thursday, May 9. If you’re anywhere near these parts, you don’t want to miss these shows. This band is so good!

Dig this beautiful R. Ring tour happening here in May:

R. Ring

Southeast Engine are playing more Ohio shows:

Saturday, May 4
@ Central Venue – Grand Opening Show!
29 E. Carpenter St.
Athens, OH
10 pm
with Scubadog

Thursday, May 18
@ Nelsonville Music Festival Kickoff
Hocking College – Robins Crossing
Nelsonville, OH
Starts at 6 pm

Friday, May 25
@ MOTR Pub
Cincinnati, OH
9 pm
with The Donkeys

Saturday, May 26
@ Canal St. Tavern
Dayton, OH
10 pm
with Smug Brothers

Tiny Mix Tapes did a wonderful little feature on Water Liars recently. Here are great pieces from The Blue Indian, Creative Loafing (Charlotte), and the Jackson Free Press. After recentl shows with The Mountain Goats and J.C. Brooks & The Uptown Sound, the band will continue to tour, so be on the lookout!

The Black Swans and Southeast Engine were both featured on Paste Magazine’s “10 Ohio Bands You Should Listen to Now.” Water Liars recently made the revered site’s “10 Missouri Bands You Should Listen to Now” as well. Thanks so much for all the love, Paste!

On July 17, 2012, The Black Swans and Misra will release Occasion For Song. The album deals with the death of founding member and violinist Noel Sayre. Noel died tragically in a swimming accident in Portsmouth, Ohio – July of 2008. You can read the full bio for the record here.

The swimming pool where the accident occurred is featured on the album’s cover. The song ”Portsmouth, Ohio” chronicles the day of Noel’s death and is available here (with lyrics/available for embedding).

You can pre-order Occasion For Song here for a limited-time, lower cost. Price will raise upon release.

Here are some accolades for The Black Swans’ Don’t Blame the Stars (Misra; 2011)

• MOJO - 4/5 Stars: “Stars offers dreamlike quality, undercut by the melancholy violin of founding member Noel Sayre, who tragically died during the album’s recording. The band will address the loss on their next album, but this is a more than fitting epitaph.”
• Pitchfork ”A gorgeous sounding record.”
• Paste - 8.4: “A terrific album… eerily prescient.”
• PopMatters - 8: “The moments of peace, of coming to terms with horrible things, come when he (frontman Jerry DeCicca) turns to music.”

(photo: Jarred Gastreich)

Our little Water Liars babies played a show with The Mountain Goats this past Saturday. Show reviews were done by Ryan Wasoba of Riverfront Times and Julie Dill of I Went to a Show. Jarred Gastreich took some great photos for KDHX. The band is out on the road for a short run right now. They play with J.C. Brooks & The Uptown Sound (Bloodshot Records – our sister label) tonight in Lexington, KY at Cosmic Charlie’s. Go!