We told you a couple of months ago about Blue Water White Death, the collaboration between Jamie Stewart and Jonathan Meiburg, frontmen of Xiu Xiu and Shearwater respectively. Since then updates have been in short supply, their website still reads “coming soon.” However Stereogum have just premiered a track from the album called “Song For The Great Jihad” which you can check out below.
MP3: Blue Water White Death – “Song For The Great Jihad”
The description of the album posted in that Stereogum piece reads as follows
“On first listen Blue Water White Death may sound like a pair of reclusive eccentrics making music in a derelict mansion, perilously balancing beauty and horror with the absurd. Soon, it becomes apparent that there are three distinct modes at play – clean, even tones and the nonchalant picking of acoustic guitars that recall life on the open sea, notes and words paced like breaststrokes on the journey to the depths and finally, jarring mysterious noises meshed with vocals that echo the isolated, garbled quantities of the inside of a diver’s mask.”
And you can certainly hear a lot of that in this song.
Graveface will release the self-titled album on October 12th.
Shearwater’s heavenly-voiced singer Jonathan Meiburg and Xiu Xiu’s frontman Jamie Stewart have combined forces to create a new band called Blue Water White Death. Their debut album was produced by John Congleton who has worked with Modest Mouse and Meiburg’s old band Okkervil River in the past.
As with almost everything Meiburg related there is nature involved; the album covers a nasty looking fish (I’m sure you noticed it above) and the band’s name is taken from a 1971 documentary about explorers in Australia looking for sharks.
The album is only 8 tracks, but these are not to be underrated. Firstly, never underestimate these two’s potential to create some of the longest and largest post-rock-esque songs around. Secondly, just look at the song names!
01 This Is the Scrunchyface of My Dreams
02 Song for the Greater Jihad
03 Grunt Tube
04 Nerd Future
05 The End of Sex
06 Death for Christmas
07 Gall
08 Rendering the Juggalos
Any song that references Juggalos is good by me. The self-titled album will be released on October 12th through Graveface.
01. Gray Death
02. Chocolate Makes You Happy
03. Apple for a Brain
04. House Sparrow
05. Hyunhye’s Theme
06. Dear God, I Hate Myself
07. Secret Motel
08. Falkland Rd.
09. The Fabrizio Palumbo Retaliation
10. Cumberland Gap
11. This Too Shall Pass Away (For Freddy)
12. Impossible Feeling
Dear God, I Hate Myself is due out February 23rd via Kill Rock Stars.
