Yet another recommends that I initially wrote off as not liking, and on repeat listening it grew on me and kept growing until I found myself listening to it all the time. This is a Mike Ward recommends, but it was recommended to me about 6 months ago by brother Eric when I joined emusic.com.
Okkervil River is often tagged indie folk, and it was the overly folky elements that needed some time to grow on me. They come to us from Austin, Texas which by many accounts is the biggest music town in the country, so it isn't a bad place for a band to be coming from. Part of what bothered me initially with this record was that a lot of the songs sounded very much the same, with really similar chord progressions. On repeat listenings the subtle differences in the songs began to emerge and I realized how well it worked together as a whole album, with an album sound. Stage Names was my introduction to the band, and although I really enjoy it I haven't checked out any of their other albums. I think the next one for me is going to be the most recent album The Stand Ins, and I'll take it from there. For anyone looking for late night driving music, Stage Names is an album to buy.
I was amazed to find out that the official release of Stage Names contains only 9 tracks, and ends with John Allyn Smith Sails, a great song that ends with an acoustic blowout of Sloop John B. The emusic download that I got has 10 tracks and ends with a song called Love To A Monster. Upon further investigation it seems that this is an emusic.com special track tagged on the end of the album. The problem for all of you is that this is my favorite track on the album! I've included it here for those of you who have the album but not the track, and also for those of you who want to hear what Okkervil River sounds like, because this is a good example. I like how this guy sounds like he's really struggling to sing, and at any given moment the next line just won't come out. Pretty good. Once again, you can't post mp3's to blogspot, so I had to make an iMovie. I included some monster pictures for your enjoyment:
2 comments:
I still think Black Sheep Boy is their best record - you should def check that one out before the Stand Ins.
i just put it on my emusic saved for later list. also, do you check your blog still? it doesnt seem to have been updated for some time, so I'll post this hear. in reference to scat man, you need to look no further than this for the scatting of your life.
http://www.shooby.com/mp3/index.html
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