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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.
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Okkervil River
The Stand Ins
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AMG Review of The Stand Ins
James Christopher Monger
All Music GuideOkkervil River's 2007 almost-masterpiece Stage Names presented a vivid dissection of the "Silver Screen," both literally and metaphorically as filtered through the crowded, cerebral library of bandleader (and one-time film student) Will Sheff. 2008's Stand Ins doesn't just complement Stage Names (which was originally conceived as a two-disc package), it completes it. Opening with the first of three mini-instrumentals that sound like a mash-up of Bill Frisell's Nashville and Radiohead's Kid A, Stand Ins revisits many of the central themes (loneliness, failure, hero worship, and broken love) that bounced around the set of Stage Names. Songs like "Lost Coastlines" (a duet with former member and current Shearwater main man Jonathan Meiburg), with its Motown bassline, copious "la, la, la's," and "Old West" horn section, "Blue Tulip" with its slow-burn build and explosive finale, and "Singer Songwriter" with its lament that "This thing you once did might have dazzled the kids/but the kids once grown up are going to walk away" are all instant Okkervil classics, but it's the nearly six-minute closer that seals the deal. Like "John Allyn Smith Sails," Stage Names' ode to doomed poet John Berryman, "Bruce Wayne Campbell Interviewed on the Roof of the Chelsea Hotel, 1979," a tribute to gay glam rock icon Jobriath, who was adored and then devoured by the press in the mid-'70s before dying of AIDS in 1983 a poor lounge act, presents its subject as tragic, misunderstood, and buried beneath the weight of his accomplishments. It's a subject that suits Sheff's writing style well, flowing out like an Americana version of something off of Scott Walker's self-penned fourth album. Stand Ins glows a little less bright than its predecessor, but it shines nonetheless. There may be nothing as immediately satisfying as "Our Life Is Not a Movie or Maybe," "Plus Ones," or "Girl in Port," but it offers a more streamlined ride than Stage Names, wasting very little time trying to squeeze every last bit of scarlet pulp from the blood orange.
Okkervil River - The Stand Ins
Review: Okkervil River - The Stand Ins
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Will Sheff leads his group through the sequel to The Stage Names and goes out of his way to dismantle the very idea of hero worship.
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Okkervil River - The Stand Ins Review
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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 [...]
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Okkervil River
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--- - - MUSIC REVIEWS- Okkervil River
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Okkervil River :: The Stand Ins
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As some famous poet once said, distance has a way of making love understandable. Here we are in September of 2008, and Okkervil River's The Stage Names, a record that was at first loved and then capsized by the digital wake of 2007, has floated to the surface unharmed. The Stage Names made [...]
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New Music: Okkervil River: "Lost Coastlines" [MP3/Stream]
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Photo by Steve Gullick The shore may appear familiar, but the waters run deep on "Lost Coastlines ", the lead single from Okkervil River 's upcoming The Stand Ins (you can check out the video trailer for the release here ). If the new record is the second part of a double album begun with last year's great Black Sheep Boy follow-up The Stage Names , it's possibly significant that th...
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Calling And Not Calling My Ex
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Here we have a contender for my favorite song title of the year. The song itself is pretty amazing too. Okkervil River's songsmith Will Sheff has an uncanny knack for being able to take a situation that ALL of us have been in and turn it into a hooky 4 minute piece of music. You really have to be in awe of people who can turn angst into infectious music.Okkervil River - 'Calling And Not Callin...
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Okkervil River - The Stand Ins
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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.
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OKKERVIL RIVER
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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 ...
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Okkervil River :: The Stand Ins
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As some famous poet once said, distance has a way of making love understandable. Here we are in September of 2008, and Okkervil River's The Stage Names, a record that was at first loved and then capsized by the digital wake of 2007, has floated to the surface unharmed. The Stage Names made [...]
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Okkervil River: “Pop Lie”
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Man, I'm bummed that I missed Okkervil River at Lollaplooza. Their new record The Stand-Ins is another great album in their history of great albums. But, I wasn't feeling too well, so what can you do? MP3: Okkervil River - Pop Lie "Pop Lie" doesn't have the best lyrics of an Okkervil River song, but it deserves [...]~~
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Bon Iver Covers Okkervil River
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Another one from The Stand Ins Sessions. Chapter Four brings us Justin Vernon, wearing a shirt with sleeves for the first time all summer, applying the upper reaches of his internet-famous falsetto to Okkervil River's "Blue Tulip." Like the others we've posted (Carl Newman's "Lost Coastlines" with Will Sheff, and David Vandervelde's "Singer Songwriter," if you're keeping score), it comes sans ...
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Okkervil River: The Stand-Ins (2008)
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--- - |- New WaxIt's hard to believe that Okkervil River's last album was released more than a year ago, but surely fans welcome the news of new material with open and anxious arms. The band's newest release is entitled The Stand-Ins, and while I wouldn't quite put it on par with the cinematic grandeur of The Stage Names, it serves as a worthy companion piece. I say companion piece because the...
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Okk. River posts vids of A.C Newman, David Vandervelde, Jack Ladder covering OR's new songs
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In preperation for the release of Okkervil River's new album The Stand Ins, the band has been releasing a series of brand new videos of artists and friends covering the new songs off of the album, which is due on Sept 9th. Get it? STAND INS!One of the selections here, "Lost Coastlines", is quickly becoming one of my top track of "the Ocho", right along with "Singer Songwriter". Will sat down a...
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Up the Okkervil River!
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Thanks to Okkervil River, I'm now totally convinced that David Letterman's talent booking team includes at least one MOGger - or someone with the impeccable, eclectic and adventurous tastes of a MOGger. (Okay, poebegone. You're right. It's definitely a stealth MOGger.)"The Late Show," Dave's weeknight chat-fest on CBS, seldom fails to present the latest and greatest in musical acts - from the f...
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Okkervil River... Lost Coastlines... la la la la live
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Now I cant stop ..la la la ... la la la la la...
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New Okkervil River Video "Lost Coastlines"
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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.
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A little further on up Okkervil River's coastlines
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Thanks to Mike's wonderful post showcasing Okkervil River's appearance on The Late Show with David Letterman, I've now been Re-EMCD'd into listening to even more from Will Sheff and Co. Now, mind you, all Mike had to do was plant the seed, you see, because The Stand Ins definitely had it's place on my best of 2008 list already. Its just that sometimes EMCD's [that's Evil Music Crack Dealers, ...
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Lost Coastlines
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The music must never stop in Will Sheff's head...and we are all better off for it. There is a new Okkervil River album slated for release this September, and 'The Stand Ins' seems to pick up RIGHT were 'The Stage Names' left off. There isn't a better place to take off from...in my humble opinion(I loved that record).
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New! Stream Okkervil River's "Lost Coastlines" from "The Stand Ins"
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New Okkervil River track off the upcoming The Stand Ins, due Sept. 9.
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Okkervil River - Acoustic in Norway
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Thanks to the Norweigan Broadcasting Company (aka NBC but with better Olympic coverage) has brought what seems to be this impromtu performance by Okkervil River's Will Sheff and friends.
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Calling And Not Calling My Ex
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Here we have a contender for my favorite song title of the year. The song itself is pretty amazing too. Okkervil River's songsmith Will Sheff has an uncanny knack for being able to take a situation that ALL of us have been in and turn it into a hooky 4 minute piece of music. You really have to be in awe of people who can turn angst into infectious music.Okkervil River - 'Calling And Not Callin...
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 "The Stand Ins")
