New Shearwater album, The National’s Matt Berninger Talks to NY blogs, Pitchfork switches scores

Rook is due June 3. Palo Santo holds up a lot better than sister band Okkervil River’s latest; here’s hoping these guys are just hitting their stride.

Shearwater – “Rooks”: mp3

Gothamist interviewed my dude Matt Berninger, the baritone-voiced singer behind my #4 album of 2007. And so did NY Mag’s Vulture. The National have a new live EP out but it’s exclusively on Rhapsody, which means I will be exclusively downloading it illegally.

It seems like this happens every week but it still bums me out: Pitchfork gave Beach House‘s sophomore snooze-fest a BNM-worthy 8.5, while the Acorn‘s Glory Hope Mountain — last year’s most adventurous folk record — got a damned-with-faint-praise 6.9. The other day, Hayden’s absolutely tremendous In Field & Town earned a paltry 5.1. Don’t believe everything you read, folks (unless you read it here).