Biography
The roots of Shipping News reach back to 1996, when former Rodan members Jeff Mueller and Jason Noble began creating material for the NPR program This American Life. That collaboration prompted them to launch an entirely new project. Drummer Kyle Crabtree joined in 1997, rounding out the lineup. Taking their name from an E. Annie Proulx novel, the group issued its debut album, Save Everything, in summer 1997. A split EP with Metroshifter followed in May 1998. Their second full-length release, Very Soon, and in Pleasant Company, appeared in 2001 after being composed over two and a half years and tracked in Kentucky and Pennsylvania. Between fall 2001 and fall 2002 the band put out three EPs—RMSN EP 1: Carrier, RMSN EP 2: Sickening Bridge, and RMSN EP 3: Variegated—then compiled them the next year with three fresh tracks as Three-Four. Flies the Fields arrived in 2005. Jason Noble received a synovial sarcoma diagnosis in 2009, yet Shipping News still completed and released One Less Heartless to Fear in 2010. Noble died on August 4, 2012, at age 40.
Albums
