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Okkervil River - The Stand InsTim Karan on 1/15/09 @ 2:54 PM
If you enjoyed Okkervil River's sailing-themed 2007 disc, The Stage Names, then this year's follow-up is a must-listen. Many of the songs on The Stand Ins are drawn from the same writing and recording sessions as Names, echoing the somber yet hopeful musical mood and integrating many of the same storylines lyrically. The pair of albums don't feel at all like a gimmick, but more like a labor of love that gives each of frontman Will Sheff's characters (Shannon Wilsey in particular on "Starry Stairs") the appropriate amount of time to shine.
Musically, not much has changed on The Stand Ins. The band still combine catchy melodies with indie-rock staples like Wurlitzer, Casio piano, Mellotron and banjo. But it's the band's attention to details (using sleigh bells on "Calling And Not Calling My Ex," about a particularly memorable Christmas Eve) that set them apart from the general Pitchfork pack. Paired with electric guitar (the solo on "Blue Tulip" would've been primed for an episode of American Dreams) and Sheff's rich, smooth-yet-almost-breaking vocal delivery, Names is textured and engaging. "Lost Coastlines," which returns to the sailing theme, features Sheff dueting with bandmate Jonathan Meiburg. Meiburg has since left Okkervil to pursue Shearwater-his other project with Sheff-full-time. Knowing he won't be around to fill out the low register on tour is perhaps the album's only downside. (JAGJAGUWAR) Rachel Lux
ROCKS LIKE:
Okkervil River's The Stage Names
Conor Oberst's Conor Oberst
The Honorary Title's Scream And Light Up The Sky
IN-STORE SESSION WITH FRONTMAN WILL SHEFF
You've said The Stand Ins is a continuation of last year's The Stage Names. Did you know you were going to do a sequel from the very beginning?
Basically, when I realized there were far too many characters and stories I wanted to fit onto one traditional-length album. I started to go, "Well, this can go there, and that can go there, and these will all sort of just exist separately but also speak to each other." So then you have a song like on The Stage Names where you see the Shannon Wilsey character as a young girl, and then on The Stand Ins, you get her as old as she's ever going to get, because she dies young and you get to see her at the end of her life. So there were a lot of those things that were intentionally on there.
Did the songs from The Stage Names recording sessions that made it on this album change any between when you recorded them initially and now?
A song like "Lost Coastlines" we rehearsed for [The Stage Names] and we were all ready to record. But we made some pretty definite changes on it. One of them was that Jonathan [Meiburg, vocals/piano] and I were doing it as a duet, and we switched out parts, so he did the low part, and I did the high part. That was kind of a fun and surprising thing. People aren't used to hearing Jonathan's low range, because he's very angelic, floating up there among the clouds.
Do you find you write in bursts, or is writing an "always" process for you?
I tend to write in bursts. That's a thing that touring has kind of done; it's made it so I have to write in bursts because the time I have to write is very limited. Performing is creative in a way, but it's just not writing or recording-those are my favorite things to do. So the default thing to do is sort of make a date with your muse, as it were, and go off and do a whole bunch of writing at one time. I think that's why it's very germane to keeping the songs all together and all united and feel like they're all sort of breathing the same air.
Do you think the next album will further these storylines?
I know that it will sound and feel different, and that's really all that I know just yet. And honestly, I think we're going to wait a long time before that record comes out. We've been kind of pushing ourselves to the limits of our endurance as a band for about five or six years without very much of a break. I think now is the time for a break, so people can miss us. [RL]
Official Website: http://www.jagjaguwar.com
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