Okkervil River broke away from the crowded indie rock pack with 2005's superb Black Sheep Boy, a ragged but ornate barroom romp that drank its way to the top of countless year-end lists by finding that thin vein that separates triumph and desperation and hammering as many nails into it as they could in under 50 minutes. Fans used to Will Sheff's visceral, lo-fi caterwauls may be disappointed in the bruised and elegant Stage Names upon first listen, but further spins reveal BSB as more of a stepping-stone than a peak. "It's just a life story/so there's no climax," from the rousing opener "Our Life Is Not a Movie or Maybe" sets the tone, and its floor tom gallop and volatile whoops sound like an unholy combination of My Aim Is True-era Elvis Costello and Transformer-era Lou Reed spilling out of an old player piano. Sheff has proven himself again and again to be a gifted wordsmith, and Stage Names features some of his finest parlor room romanticisms and slacker-poet observations to date. "Plus Ones," a studied rumination on some of popular music's most beloved numerically titled tracks ("96 Tears," "99 Luftballons," "Eight Miles High," "TVC 15," "7 Chinese Brothers," "50 Ways to Leave Your Lover" etc.) adds an unnecessary integer ("Not everyone's keen on lighting candle 17/The party's done/The cake's all gone/The plates are clean"), cleverly illuminating pop culture's insatiable thirst for sequels and remakes. It's a trick that could easily turn trite in less capable hands, but one of the band's many strengths is its ability to mirror Sheff with arrangements that match the earnestness, wickedness and occasional pomp of the lyrics. Those talents are used most effectively on two of the record's other highlights, the soft and broken "Girl in Port" and the alternately heartbreaking and hysterical "John Allyn Smith Sails," the latter of which chronicles the suicide of poet John Berryman and manages to integrate the Beach Boys' "Sloop John B" so seamlessly that you'd swear it had never existed before. It's not all winsome allads about backstage passes and gutter bound writers though, as Sheff and company open up the full sneer on "Unless It's Kicks," "You Can't Hold the Hand of a Rock and Roll Man" and "A Hand to Take Hold of the Scene," making Stage Names less of a metaphor for the cinematic lives we wish we could have and more of a reminder that it's us who make the films. [The first 5,000 copies of Stage Names (the "deluxe" edition) came with a bonus disc featuring all of Sheff's demos for the record.]
Published first at Harp Online (http://www.harpmagazine.com)Okkervil River and Damien Jurado Live in NorthamptonPearl StreetNorthampton, MA USASeptember 26, 2007by Jennifer Kelly Okkervil River, the Austin-based band fronted by Will Sheff, switched things up dramatically with this year’s The Stage Names, splicing big beats and a pop exuberance into their hyper literate, hyper sensitive sound. A.
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This band sounds alot like morrisy and the smiths the only diference i here is morrisy is a little bit (MORBID) LOL. K.J.Y. (MEKO) LATER PS SMITHS HANG THE BLOODY D.J.
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I'm a little behind the mob on this, but if you have not heard Okkervil River's new album The Stage Names yet, what are you waiting for? It's fantastic. Here's a bit from my rushed and not altogether satisfactory review, up today at Dusted:"There's a moment about two minutes into "Our Life Is Not a Movie Or Maybe," the first song on The Stage Names where the band quite simply slips its bonds....
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I woke up this morning to find that Pitchforkgave Okkervil River's new album 8.7 out of 10, and put it in its "Best New Music" section.Simply put: I have no idea what sort of logic the reviewer utilized, nor do I know what hallucinogenic drugs he was employing when listening to this album. Either the drugs and the logic distorted our views by about 180 degrees or we listened to two completely...
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To this day I don't know who my father is. I was told once when I was about 18. My feeling is, the male roll models in my life were my grandfather and my Uncle Bob. That was enough. My mom got married in the mid 80's to the man I now call dad. He is very much like my Uncle Bob, only older and less athletic. In a purely Freudian sense, my mom actually married her brother and I got my uncle to l...
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An alphabetical list of great music I found through my fellow Moggers.
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Happy Friday!Just stopping by to share a song off of the new Okkevil River album. Good stuff I have to say...hope you like it.
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Okkervil River is definitely a band that is on my top ten list of 2007. Lead singer Wil Sheff is far better than good. He does a pretty good job of making me want to stop making music. Their 2007 release The Stage Names [Jagjaguwar], has garnered and demanded my full attention since it's release in October.[Pause: Ugh, Jameson has a hangover right now, can you tell. What's not very apparent...
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I'm a little behind the mob on this, but if you have not heard Okkervil River's new album The Stage Names yet, what are you waiting for? It's fantastic. Here's a bit from my rushed and not altogether satisfactory review, up today at Dusted:"There's a moment about two minutes into "Our Life Is Not a Movie Or Maybe," the first song on The Stage Names where the band quite simply slips its bonds....
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aka, 'Despite being completely and utterly burnt out and floating by in a haze that barely resembles my former self, I still find it amazing that I can listen to this one particular song and take away from it sorrow, joy, and bewilderment.'From http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/record_review/44665-the-stage-namesFittingly, The Stage Names ends with "John Allyn Smith Sails", a document of fa...
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Kinda obsessive with linking between song and picture. I could not see any correlation between this song and picture at all. just like it.
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I am very late posting thanks to my Secret Santa, matt cleveland. I have a reason, I hope justifiable.Throughout the year, I noticed that Matt was promoting a program. I thought that he, like many other Moggers, was promoting his own radio show or podcast. I am always short on time and I usually don’t follow those links from anyone’s posts. Well, this was certainly my loss. It turns out that
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Published first at Harp Online (http://www.harpmagazine.com)Okkervil River and Damien Jurado Live in NorthamptonPearl StreetNorthampton, MA USASeptember 26, 2007by Jennifer Kelly Okkervil River, the Austin-based band fronted by Will Sheff, switched things up dramatically with this year’s The Stage Names, splicing big beats and a pop exuberance into their hyper literate, hyper sensitive sound. A.
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As I type these words, I'm listening to a song from the new Okkervil River album... it's getting to me... again. The song is "Savannah Smiles" and I must have listened to it 15-20 times and it's held its emotional impact every time.Whatever mystical ingredients (lyrics, tune, voice, choice of instruments) that equal that kind of impact in a song are here in spades.A friend of mine turned me on ...
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I saw this video for the first time earlier in the week and could have sworn it was my friend Caitlyn as the girl in the video...well it is her and here's the video...a great song that will be in your heads for hours...oh and wave to Travis the drummer in the video...he's also a friend and sometime bartender of mine...
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Great Interview with Okkervil River at http://www.daytrotter.com/article/1068/forcing-them-to-talk-all-of-them-scene-stealing-what-comes-of-it
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Okkervil River is awesome because of the singers talent for raw poetic song writing. I love the pure emotion that is always present in their music. This is one of my favorite tracks from The Stage Names, Hope you likey. Enjoy
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...I was an extra on a movie set yesterday.So if you you recall my recent musings about Sunday mornings, which I was typing out on my laptop while drinking some spiced chai tea in a cafe/foodcourt, I was just finishing up enjoying the morning (as campus was becoming more and more busy) when I was approached by a tall guy accompanied by a bloody-armed and faced girl wearing a tattered shirt. De...
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 "The Stage Names")
