Pitchfork

Photo by Kathryn Yu

In an interview with Pitchfork news in late March, Shearwater frontman and Okkervil River keyboardist Jonathan Meiburg spoke of his commitment to Will Sheff's ramshackle crew. "I was just working on [Okkervil River music] last week," he told us, though he also added that "they and I agree that I'd be an idiot if I passed up a bunch of Shearwater stuff to do more Okkervil touring with them."

Meiburg's no idiot, and with Matador's June 3 release of the new Shearwater album Rook and the band's current tour coming hard and fast, he's opted to step down from Okkervil entirely to focus all his energies on Shearwater. Yesterday, Shearwater's publicist released the following statement:

Jonathan Meiburg, frontman for Shearwater, has announced that he is leaving Okkervil River to focus exclusively on Shearwater. Meiburg says the split is "completely amicable," and that Shearwater has grown to the point that it excludes his further participation in Okkervil. "This is just a logical extension of the way things have been going since Palo Santo," Meiburg adds. "Shearwater's increasingly demanding schedule has meant that I've performed with Okkervil less and less over the past two years, and with Rook coming out in June, we all felt that it would be best if I completely disengaged from Okkervil rather than stretch myself too thin."

Shearwater and Okkervil have a number of tour dates with quite a few fine bands scheduled over the coming months. Okkervil just announced a bunch of November dates in the UK-- now that's long-term planning.

Shearwater:

05-13 Minneapolis, MN - 7th St Entry *
05-14 Fargo, ND - Aquarium %
05-16 Seattle, WA - Neumos *
05-17 Vancouver, British Columbia - Richard's on Richards *
05-18 Portland, OR - Doug Fir Lounge *
05-19 San Francisco, CA - The Independent *
05-20 West Hollywood, CA - The Troubadour *
05-29 Austin, TX - The Parish (performing Rook)
06-13 Atlanta, GA - Earl
06-14 Chapel Hill, NC - Local 506
06-15 Washington, DC - Black Cat +
06-17 Philadelphia, PA - Johnny Brenda's ^
06-19 Brooklyn, NY - Music Hall of Williamsburg #
06-21 Danbury, CT - Heirloom Arts Theatre #
06-22 Montreal, Quebec - Lambi #
06-24 Chicago, IL - The Mansion #
06-27 Fort Worth, TX - Lola's
06-28 Austin, TX - Mohawk

* with Clinic
% with Heavenly States, Poison Control Center
+ with Cryptacize
^ with Centro-Matic
# with Frog Eyes, Evangelicals

Okkervil:

05-15 Brighton, England - The Great Escape
05-17 Minehead, England - Butlins Holiday Centre (Explosions in the Sky ATP)
05-20 London, England - Borderline
05-24 George, WA - The Gorge (Sasquatch!)
05-29-31 Barcelona, Spain - Parc del Fórum (Primavera Sound)
06-26-28 Calgary, Alberta - Sled Island Festival
07-28 Bristol, England - Trinity Arts Centre
07-19 Steventon, England - Truck Festival
07-20 Suffolk, England - Latitude Festival
08-01-03 Chicago, IL - Lollapalooza
08-07 Oslo, Norway - Øya Festival #
08-08 Gothenburg, Sweden - Way Out West Fstival
08-09 Haldern, Germany - Haldern Pop Festival
09-26-28 Austin, TX - Zilker Park (Austin City Limits Music Festival)
11-05 Norwich, England - Waterfront
11-06 Manchester, England - Academy
11-07 Dublin, Ireland - Academy
11-09 Glasgow, Scotland - Oran Mor
11-10 Wolverhampton, England - Wulfrun
11-11 London, England - Shepherd's Bush Empire
11-12 Brighton, England - Concorde 2

# with Roky Erickson