Okkervil River

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 live with all over again. In the summertime, I like to sleep naked. My gra... MORE

Okkervil River albums have so much personality, the songs themselves become characters: players, people in the guise of animals or gods (and who can tell the difference sometimes?). And like watching a melodrama, we are witness to emotions that heave and plummet with frightening force. The songs can be drunken youth: the rotund boots on their feet knocking wildly on every surface. Or they can be villainous and smart, full of smiles and wishing-you-well up to the second they t... MORE

Catch a live webcast of Okkervil River playing at the Paradiso in Amsterdam this Saturday, February 9th. Okkervil River
8:00 PM (local time)
09-02-2008
Paradiso, Amsterdam
Fabchannel.com webcast:
http://www.fabchannel.com/okkervil_river... MORE

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 The Program which Matt refers to is really a “personal listening plan.” H... MORE

Kinda obsessive with linking between song and picture. I could not see any correlation between this song and picture at all. just like it.

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 is how I'm just mashing my paws against my keyboard and letting my Firef... MORE

Been awhile since I posted anything, but that's because I've been busy compiling interesting tidbits from around the net on the Duck & Cover blog. There was Okkervil River giving away a free album of covers, 50 Cent boldy announcing that P2P file sharing doesn't actually hurt artists afterall, and the newly introduced Duck & Cover mix tape: we think it's really neat.
All this yumminess put together without Google Ads staring blankly from the sidebar. Because we do... MORE

Okkervil River are channeling hip-hop and releasing their own lo-fi mixtape -- for FREE via their Web site. The Golden Opportunities mixtape is a compilation of live cover tracks recorded on tour between 2006-2007. Joni Mitchell's "The Blonde In The Bleachers," Serge Gainsbourg's "I Came Here To Say I'm Going Away" and John Cale's "Antartica Starts Here" are among the cover songs on the nine-track mixtape, with the exception of one new original holiday song, "Listening To O... MORE

Okkervil River
The Stage Names (Jagjaguwar)

...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. Despite the blood she was smiling happily. It was fake blood. Pretty realistic... MORE

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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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 to this band... what a gift... (the rest of the album is pretty da... MORE

Rating: 9 It's friday...the ol' office chair manages to press against my spine in so many terrible ways... the crisp fall air bounces off the office window, unable to penetrate through, and i'm left to breath the stale, sterile, modulated oxygen pumping from the office vents... it's time for a little emotion. A little angst. Cue up Okkervil River... If you've never heard Will Sheff dig into his vocal cords with a set of wicked spurs - please, do yourself ... MORE

Published first at Harp Online (http://www.harpmagazine.com) Okkervil River and Damien Jurado Live in Northampton
Pearl Street
Northampton, MA USA
September 26, 2007
by 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. Anyone coming to their live show expecting the gentle, emotiona... MORE