MUSIC NEWS- Just back from an Australian tour, Okkervil River head home to the USA in the midst of the summer festival season to tape their first Austin City Limits performance (June 18). Also in store for the band this summer are performances at this year's Bonnaroo Festival, Ottawa Bluesfest, Winnepeg Folk Festival, and a number of dates with Wilco (tour itinerary below the break). In...
After finishing up a successful Australian tour, Okkervil River are gearing up for a busy summer. First off is the band's first ever taping for the legendary Austin City Limits concert program on June 18. The band is also still touring behind last year's The Stand Ins, the companion to 2007's The Stage Names. Besides a bunch of dates supporting Wilco, Will Sheff and crew will be at Bonnaro ...
Will Sheff of Okkervil River taught a workshop to a songwriting class at Austin's Bat Cave, a non-profit that teaches offers free writing programs to young students. He also performed my personal favorite OR song, "Our Life Is Not A Movie Or Maybe." Check out those indie kids lovin' it! Jealous.Okkervil River songwriting workshop at Austin Bat Cave from Austin Bat Cave on Vimeo.
We released our review of The Stand Ins earlier today, but we just saw the press release about Okkervil River's current tour. Their goal is to make the national tour "completely carbon neutral" by encouraging fans not to drive to...
Okkervil River's new album titled The Stand Ins is taken literally in the video for their track "Lost Coastlines." You can see what I mean towards the end.
Okkervil River's Pop Lie explores our roles in creating celebrity and deconstructing dreams, with the swirling sugar-rush of synthesizers and irresistible high-energy hook of the single.
Will Sheff and co. continue their depiction of the life and loves of a set of musicians and their adherents and hangers-on, with a lyrical and emotional literacy that feed the head as well as the heart.
[09-19-2008] "Holy shit, I can't believe we're playing the Crystal Ballroom," Will Sheff shouted as his band took the stage before a marginally filled house. Ever since exploding onto the scene with his 2005 breakthrough Black Sheep Boy, Sheff and Okkervil River seem to have no intention of going anywhere but up. Three years, two albums, two EPs, a free cover albums, and countless shows later, ...
Okkervil River released The Stand Ins on September 9th as a follow up to the critically acclaimed and my 3rd favorite album of 2007, The Stage Names.This album was meant to be a 2nd disc of a double disc feature but instead we get a album roughly a year later but this time sans Jonathan [...]
The beauty and world-weary charm Okkervil River hold in abundance emanates from The Stand Ins' finer moments. While it may not be the best thing they've ever done (or even will do), it is assured, ambitious and occasionally transcendent in its appeal - a worthy expansion of its forerunner and standalone joy in itself.
Another chapter of Okkervill River's Stand-Ins Sessions is complete. Zykos fittingly performs the sixth track On Tour with Zykos from the new Okkervil River album The Stand Ins . -------------------------------------------------------- Official Site | MySpace | More MP3s ~~
I've gone ahead and used the occasion of the latest OKKERVIL RIVER release (THE STAND INS; 09.09.08) to cobble together a career-spanning compilation of the Austin band's work -- almost half of which you can download below.In the past, I have written about the band as follows:"I first discovered [these guys] with the ragged epic "The War Criminal Rises and Speaks," and I've been with them ever ...
--- - Nature is important to Okkervil River. Whether they're staring catatonically in their favorite forest or nervously chatting in their outdoor breakfast nook, these folky bros love the earth and plan to keep it in decent shape for awhile, or at least until their contractor finally installs that damn oven and range in the wildflower patch. So in an effort to save the planet, Okkervil River a...
Okkervil River released The Stand Ins on September 9th as a follow up to the critically acclaimed and my 3rd favorite album of 2007, The Stage Names.This album was meant to be a 2nd disc of a double disc feature but instead we get a album roughly a year later but this time sans Jonathan [...]