Austin Sound

Last month we got a taste of the new Okkervil sound when they debuted the first of their new tunes on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. It was an odd little preview with A.C. Newman and the Roots’ ?uestlove and Damon Bryson helping out on the song “Wake and Be Fine”, which will appear the new Jagjaguwar release I Am Very Far due in May. “Weave Room Blues” is even weirder though - as a non-album B-side, they seem to be feeling the freedom to mess around on the song. Either that, or A.C. Newman’s New Pornographers’ stardom is beginning to rub off. There are no official dates up yet for Okkervil around town, but we do know that they will be here for SXSW, so get your RSVPs on to those parties. Check out “Weave Room Blues” below, and you can already pick up the new 7-incher from the band, Mermaid, now.

Okkervil River has slowly been showcasing some new tunes leading up to the release of their new album, I Am Very Far, which according to Jimmy Fallon here, won’t be out until May 10th. We can, however, look forward to the new Okkervil single, “Mermaid”, which Jagjaguwar will release on Feb. 8. Chances are though that it will be hard to get much better than the band ripping through a song like “Wake and Be Fine” with as much firepower as they did last night on Fallon, bringing not only Roots’ ?uestlove and Damon Bryson to bear in backing, but also for some reason the New Pornographers’ A.C. Newman. “Wake and Be Fine” is a raw and raucous affair with Sheff spouting some serious ferocity atop the strings and brass. Also, in case you missed you missed it last week, Fallon gave over his stage to another local luminary when Iron and Wine debuted some new material on the show from their album coming out later this month. But get your taste of the new Okkervil River sound below:

Stop us if you’ve heard this one before: two rock stars walk into a toy store. There’s not much of a punch line, but this little teaser video for the new Roky Erickson and Okkervil River collaboration is pretty cool. In fact, it’s kind of adorable. The two Austin luminaries take a trip to Toy Joy with a camera in tow and spend awhile rummaging around through all the stuff. It’s a little trippy, and all pretty amusing, with some poignant shots of Roky among the toys looking a little bewildered. Kinda like this guy! In case you don’t know what all this is about, the “Rokkervil” album will be coming out on April 20th on Anti-, titled True Love Cast Out All Evil. More details on that here, but they have released the cover art, which you can see below, along with the track listing. They have a youtube channel up, so hopefully we’ll get more videos of Erickson and Sheff running around hallowed Austin sites - maybe taking a dip in Barton Springs, or having a picnic under the Stevie Ray Vaughan statue, or something. Video and album details below:

Way back in 2008, details began to emerge about both the Black Angels and Okkervil River getting to cull through a slew of archived Roky Erickson material to help produce new albums. We haven’t heard much about the Black Angels’ efforts, but we’ve had the opportunity to see the Angels psych it up with Erickson on stage quite a bit. Today, however, it was announced that Anti- will release the “Rokkervil” effort on April 20th. Titled True Love Cast Out All Evil, - which sounds more Daniel Johnston-y than Roky Erickson, but hey, who are we to judge the merits of crazy vs genius! - the album was produced by Okkervil’s Sheff and will apparently feature long lost Erickson tunes mixed with Erickson’s “home videos and recordings made in the Rusk State Hospital for the Criminally Insane.” Um, fun? Naturally it seems Sheff has gone after the most mentally tortured Erickson material. If you were lucky enough to witness Okkervil’s pairing with Erickson at SXSW 2008, it was pretty awesome, so this is definitely an album you’re going to want to keep a lookout for.

There seems to be a general contention these days between the single and EP. We love that the single is making a comeback, especially in 7″ form as we get from Sunset and the Black below, but we have to continue to take issue with the idea of a three song EP. We’ll let our hangups over the issue of EP vs single slide with Leatherbag and Corto Maltese, though, as both are excellent and welcome offerings that compact their distinctive sounds into great releases. Leatherbag’s Everything I Once Knew encapsulates the range of styles that he has progressed through over the years, while the Corto Maltese’ Answer, Answer proves appropriately more polished than their much acclaimed demo while still retaining their unbridled edge. Okkervil River offers up a new song, “Millionaire,” on their single to The Stand Ins’s, “Pop Lie,” along with an alternate take on the song, and the recent 7″ vinyl releases from Sunset (Loveshines II) and the Black (Little Hits) are must have local singles.

The Austin Bat Cave, the non-profit creative and expository writing center for kids age 6-18, recently announced it’s inaugural workshop for their new semi-regular songwriting series, and they’ve recruited the best for the job! Okkervil River will swing by the ABC headquarters at 1807 W 11th Street on March 1 to help a group of lucky 9th-11th graders hone their songwriting chops. You can sign up your kid, or yourself if you’re a teenager, by emailing austinbatcave@gmail.com and check out the ABC website for more info. After all, it’s never too early to harness the cynicism and delusions of fame through dense clever pop! And hey, the Butthole Surfers recently toured with the Paul Green School of Rock, so maybe they can come in and warp the mind of innocents for the next workshop!

Will Sheff loves to drop a little something extra in our stockings around Christmas time, like last year’s awesome free download EP. This year he’s delivering a little treat in the form of a 7″ split with the Wrens’ Charles Bissell, who has of late been touring with Okkervil River and contributing guitar to the shows. The vinyl will offer Sheff covering the Wrens’ “Ex-Girl Collection” and Bissell offering up a version of Okkervil’s “It Ends With a Fall” from Down the River of Golden Dreams. Look for the limited release on December 9 from Jagjaguwar.

A couple weeks ago, the Chronicle reported that the Black Angels had been given about 60 unreleased Roky Erickson recordings to go through and choose 10 to redo for a new album. Today, the Chronicle announced that Okkervil River will also be giving Roky the re-recording treatment as well. This is great news for all involved, and even more so for the fans!

This past Saturday, Okkervil River delivered an absolutely epic ACL aftershow at Emo’s, which included a cameo by former Okkervil-er Jonathan Meiburg on the incredible “Lost Coastlines” from the freshly released The Stand Ins. The group also just released a video for the song, which you can check out below. In keeping with their meta-theme of fame and media, the video presents the guys tv talking heads, which is both a little awkward and awesome.

Humor me as I get in at least one good metaphor before the real “criticism” kicks in: the Okkervil River “leftover album” concept is a lot like Thanksgiving Dinner. After feasting on any number of delicious Pilgrim-themed foodstuffs, the average American spends a good week and a half eating cold turkey sandwiches every day for lunch because, no, even a solid party of 10 couldn’t finish off that forty-pound turkey. This is colloquially known (at least in my family) as the “leftover principle”; essentially, a tasty turkey yields a tasty week of lunch meat, same as a brilliant album yields equally brilliant leftovers, even they aren’t quite as good as when they were hot out of the oven. To put it even more bluntly, if you liked The Stage Names, you’ll probably like The Stand Ins.